Belgrade, October 28, 2022
Photo: spc.rs
The fundamental need of the world is not to cultivate some special wisdom on a human level, or intelligence, but rather the world needs prayer and saints who pray, says the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the feast of St. Petka (Paraskeva) yesterday at the church named in her honor in Belgrade.
Following the Gospel, the Patriarch offered a homily on both the Gospel reading and the example of St. Petka, who is one of the most beloved saints throughout the Balkans.
“We celebrate St. Petka and when we turn to her with sincere faith, since she has freedom before God, God meets her and helps us all with her prayers,” His Holiness preached. He continued:
When we celebrate the saints of God, in addition to praying to them, we should look into our souls and see how we understand the saints of God and holiness in general. We often think that saints are some kind of supermen, as if they’re a kind of supreme being, as if they’re not one of us. The best possible example is St. Petka, but also many other saints. She came from a rich family, but she knew that the meaning of her life couldn’t be anything of this world—neither the environment in which she lived, nor the wealth she had, nor the fame and position she could achieve through so much wealth. She believed that the meaning of life … can only be found in God, in Christ.
“St. Petka chose the way of Christ. She turned her whole life into a prayer,” the Patriarch said in honor of the day’s great saint.
Addressing the Gospel reading of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, His Holiness preached:
This is the oil that we must constantly have, to add it to the lamp of faith, to live the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, to live according to the rules of that Kingdom of Heaven here and now, and that is nothing else than the commandments of Christ.
At the end of the Liturgy, Pat. Porfirije led the rite of slava, with a procession around the church.
The Serbian primate preached again at the end of the service, calling on the faithful to actively live the Orthodox life and not be content to simply be culturally Orthodox:
The most important thing of all is that we hear the word of Christ, the word of the Gospel, as St. Petka heard, and that is that we’re all called to be holy. This is already given to us by the fact that we are Orthodox Christians, that we are in the Church, that we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ. In order for what was given to us in the Church to become active and visible, to become our heritage, we must be open-hearted and live by the values of the Gospel, living in our families first by the Orthodox faith and the Gospel of Christ.
And what the world needs first and foremost is prayer and holy men and women, like St. Petka, who are immersed in prayer:
I am overjoyed today that we are here in the church dedicated to St. Petka, that she has gathered us, knowing that she always protects us like the Holy Mother of God. I am overjoyed to see your joyful faces and your prayers that you offer for yourself, for your loved ones, for our entire nation, but also for the entire world. The world needs prayer... The world doesn’t need some special wisdom and intelligence—the world needs prayer. The world needs saints, as St. Nikolai said.
“May God grant that we all walk the path of holiness together with St. Petka … so that this life would be only a foretaste of what awaits us in eternity, where we’ll all be gathered around our one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” the Patriarch concluded.
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