Jerusalem, April 1, 2025
Photo: spc.rs
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia arrived in the Holy Land yesterday morning for a pilgrimage to the many holy sites there.
The Serbian primate and his entourage were hosted at the Jerusalem Patriarch by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos and other local hierarchs, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Pat. Porfirije will visit sites such as the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem, the Monastery of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he will celebrate the Presanctified Liturgy with Pat. Theophilos.
In his welcoming address, the Jerusalem Patriarch said to his brother primate:
Your Holiness, we live in difficult times in which almost the entire universe, and the Holy Land in particular, is being tested by various crises, unrest, wars, and different moral and ethical challenges. Pray, Your Holiness, that God, Who reconciles all people through His suffering on the Cross, may direct our steps to every good deed… [and] that this our brotherly meeting at this place of reconciliation for all may be for the glory of God and for the encouragement and promotion of reconciliation in Christ of all our Orthodox brethren.
The Serbian Patriarch said in turn:
Every Christian, and especially a priest and bishop, when coming to the Holy Land is overcome with the feeling that, like the prodigal son, he is returning to the Father’s house, because wherever we are spiritually, from the depths of our soul, we feel that here is our home, here is our homeland and our origin, here is the source and foundation of every Christian. This is because it is precisely here that the Church of Christ was established and that here is the truth and reality of the Church as the Body of Christ. It’s important that we keep this truth in mind, just as the church hymnographer expressed this truth with the words: “Rejoice, Holy Zion, mother of all Churches!”…
Our ascetic struggle is to accept every person as our brother. We especially feel this truth here, in this holy, martyred, and suffering Jerusalem Patriarchate, which has been martyred from apostolic times until today.
After the ceremonial reception, Pat. Theophilos hosted a formal lunch at the Patriarchate.
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