Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch’s Christmas message - preserve the faith

The Serbian Orthodox Church marks time based on the Julian calendar which means that Christmas eve is on January 6. \

“To all our spiritual children, our suffering Serb people at home and abroad, we, their spiritual shepherds wish for our good thoughts and feelings to be plentiful and permanent in us and for our entire lives to be in God and with all the saints,” the Patriarch said in the message to the faithful. He called the faithful to do everything to give surplus to the people who have nothing and need help.

Irinej said that “we all need calm and the awareness that we are associates of God”. He said that no one should take part in a world of evil, passion and sin. “As Christians we have pledged ourselves to Heavenly order, not an order without God’s heavens and despite the heavens,” he said.

“We must not forget our Old Serbia (Kosovo)… We should treat that holy ground as something that is insperable for our national being,” he said, adding that “the blood of the Serb martyrs testifies to that”. The Patriarch said that “the martyrs of Kosovo, Jasenovac and Gradina (WW 2 death camps in Croatia) and all other martrys should be mentioned on this Christmas day”.

The Church said that Patriarch Irinej will be serving Christmas mass at the Saint Sava Temple in Belgrade on Tuesday at 09:00 am. Yule logs will be lit in front of the St Sava church at 04:00 on Christmas eve as part of a service by the Patriarch.