Belgrade, January 14, 2025
Photo: spc.rs
The primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church feasted with the less fortunate in Belgrade on January 7, in honor of the great feast of the Nativity of Christ.
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije visited the Religious Charitable Care Facility, where he ate with the homeless and beneficiaries of the Church’s soup kitchen, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The Patriarch preached to his flock gathered there:
Christmas is a wonderful holiday. Christmas is a day when we should concentrate on the event we celebrate. Imagine what kind of Divine love this is and Who our God is, when He became one of us and from His very birth accepted to be rejected, to be persecuted, to suffer, in order to participate in everything that we go through as humans, so that by participating in this He could lead us to a plane where there is neither pain, nor fear, nor sighing, nor crying, nor sadness, but only joy.
Therefore, it’s very important that no matter how difficult it is for us, no matter how great the trials, no matter how much effort is needed to do something and no matter how many troubles we need to endure, it’s important that we never leave God, that we never leave Christ, that we don’t forget Him and that we try to make Him the most important to us. If Christ is most important to us, believe me, and if we persevere in this attitude and decision sooner or later, if we endure and persist, beauty and joy will come that we never suspected or imagined could exist, which no one can take away from us and can’t be placed in any categories, parameters, or measures of this world.
“Know that if God is first in our life, then everything else will fall into place,” the Patriarch concluded.
And later that week, in Grocka, outside Belgrade, the Patriarch consecrated the sixth house for treating those suffering from psychoactive substance addiction. The center is a joint project between the Archdiocese of Belgrade and the Land of the Living Community, which was founded more than 20 years ago by Pat. Porfirije, then the abbot of the Holy Archangels Monastery in Kovilj.
Photo: spc.rs
Through life in a therapeutic community in the spirit of a simple Christian family, under the spiritual care of priests and the supervision of top experts from various medical and scientific fields, 6,000 young men and women have been treated over the past two decades. During these years, through the Patriarch’s personal engagement, dozens of young people found employment and started families after leaving the community.
After the consecration, His Holiness said:
We’re blessed because we’ve consecrated a house intended to be a refuge for those who suffer from psychoactive substance addiction. This is nothing unusual for our Church in general, because mercy and philanthropy are in the nature of the Church and reveal the mystery of Christmas; the mystery of God’s love for man. Therefore, the Church as the Body of Christ exists, lives and moves precisely within the framework of the mystery of love within the framework of peace. For this reason, philanthropy as a Divine attribute is, conditionally speaking, also an attribute of the Church. We’re therefore called to have an open heart, to have an open soul wherever there’s need, trouble, wherever someone has some difficulty, and to rush to help everyone and be with them, especially when they need support, because we all need each other.
The Patriarch also spoke of other missions undertaken by the Serbian Church:
-
A soup kitchen serving over 2,000 meals daily to those who can’t afford basic meals
-
Special assistance programs for large families with multiple children
-
Scholarship program for talented and hardworking children from large families, with 100 scholarships being distributed
-
Public bathroom facilities for those without access to basic hygiene
-
Clothing distribution and laundry services for those in need
-
Free health center offering specialist medical services
-
Free legal counseling service
-
Planned future project: daycare center for children with autism
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!