Synaxarion: Great and Holy Saturday

Of all the days the Holy and Great Forty Day Fast is the most distinguished, but more than the Holy Forty Day Fast the Holy and Great Passion Week is exalted, and more than the days of Holy Week Great and Holy Saturday is the most exalted. This week is called great not because these days or hours are more exalted but because the great, portentous and extraordinary deeds of our Savior were accomplished during this week, but especially on this day.

The Holy Flame: the Greatness of the Miracle, and the Helplessness of the Skeptics

Why do atheists and skeptics want to destroy faith?

During the long history of Christianity, there has never been a single miracle that skeptics and atheists have not tried to disprove. They have used and still use every possible means in this bat­tle. Even St. John Chrysostom talked about those [the chief priests and Pharisees] who denied the miracle of the Resurrection, saying, “But note, I pray thee, their plotting, how ridiculous it is. They [the chief priests and Pharisees] say, ‘Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, “After three days I will rise again”’ (Matthew 27:63). Yet if He were a deceiver, and boastfully spoke falsehood, why are ye afraid, and why do ye rush about, and make such a com­motion? They reply, ‘We are afraid that the disciples might steal Him away, and deceive the multitude.’ And yet it has been proved [in the previous paragraph of his homily] that this could in no way happen. Malice, however, is a thing obstinate and shameless, and attempts to do what is foolish” (The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. Matthew. Homily LXXXIX 2).

Patriarchal Pascha Encyclical

The Serbian Orthodox Church
to her spiritual children at Pascha, 2015

+IRINEJ

By the Grace of God

Orthodox Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch, with all the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church to all the clergy, monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy Church: grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, with the joyous Paschal greeting:
 

Christ is Risen!

“Though Thou didst descend into the grave, O Immortal One, yet didst Thou destroy the power of Hades, and didst arise as victor, O Christ God, calling to the myrrh-bearing women, rejoice, and giving peace unto Thine Apostles, O Thou Who dost grant resurrection to the fallen.”

(Paschal Kontakion)

     This song of immortality, our dear spiritual children, we sing ceaselessly during these days of our celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, which occurred, as the ancient seers of God's mysteries witnessed, on the same day of the week on which God created in the beginning - out of nothing - heaven and earth.
     On that same day, according to those same mystery-perceivers, the Lord delivered His chosen people from Egyptian slavery; hence, we call it Pascha – that is, the passing-over from slavery into freedom in the Lord through the Red Sea.

Great and Holy Friday

On Great and Holy Friday, Christ died on the Cross. He gave up His spirit with the words: “It is finished” (John 19:30). These words are better understood when rendered: “It is consummated.” He had accomplished the work for which His heavenly Father had sent Him into the world. He became a man in the fullest sense of the word. He accepted the baptism of repentance from John in the Jordan River. He assumed the whole human condition, experiencing all its alienation, agony, and suffering, concluding with the lowly death on the Cross. He perfectly fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Transfer of the Holy Fire from Jerusalem to Belgrade

The schedule of the following events regarding the Holy Fire:

·        welcome ceremony of the Holy Fire on 11 April 2015 at 7:30 PM at the Belgrade airport Nikola Tesla, where the press conference will be held,

·        the solemn welcome at the Saint Sava Cathedral in the Vracar District on 11 April 2015 at 11:00 PM, as well as the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy officiated by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej in Saint Sava Memorial Cathedral at midnight on 11 April 2015.

More information about this joyous event of the transfer of the Holy Fire from the Jerusalem’s Sepulcher church of the Resurrection of Christ to the Serbian capital you can get also by social networks:

The Holy Fire GOOGLE+          The Holy Fire FACEBOOK

as well as on the special page on our website: http://www.spc.rs/BlagodatniOganj

Annunciation at the Cathedral church in Belgrade

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch served today, on 7 April 2015, on the feast day of the Annunciation, the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the Cathedral church of HolyArchangel  Michael in Belgrade.

The Patriarch was concelebrated by the clergy of the Cathedral church. Patriarch Irinej congratulated the feast-day to the congregation.