His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Joanikije, celebrated the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy today at the Church of St. Elijah in Zagora. The Metropolitan was concelebrated by Archpriest - Stavrophor Nemanja Krivokapić - the abbot of the Kotor - Tivat diocese, Archpriest Justin (Mrenović) - abbot of the Podlastva monastery, Archpriest Nenad Kalem and Hierodeacon Sionije (Zorić).

After the end of the liturgy and the procession around the church, His Eminence addressed the faithful with a sermon.

He pointed out that Christ had conquered death, risen from the dead, and appeared to the disciples and apostles for forty days, but in such a way that they could not recognize him at first, until later, when he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and when he broke the bread. Then the disciples recognized him as the Christ. He also appeared to Mary Magdalene and gave them all his peace, and then he disappeared before their eyes.

"However, all this testifies that He conquered the laws of nature. Of course, He appeared as a creator and lawgiver, but who is above the law, above nature, and that He lived a new life – a Divine life with His human nature. He, therefore, conquered the laws of nature. He conquered death first of all. That was the most important thing. However, on the feast of the Ascension of Christ, a miraculous and incredible feast that took place before the eyes of the holy apostles, He ascended to heaven, as He had said that He would depart from them and that it was better for Him to depart so that they might receive the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, so that they might be clothed with the Power from on high, so that the promise of our heavenly Father might be fulfilled in them, who promised to send them the Holy Spirit and fill them with all truth and remind them of all that the Lord did and was doing, and reveal to them the meaning of what He did and was doing and Overcoming the force of earthly gravity, He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father. He returned to where He came from, but with His human nature. He raised our human nature to heaven and glorified it, giving it its divine and human dignity. When it is said that He sat down at the right hand of the Father, it is not said in some spatial sense on the right hand, but that He honored human nature with the greatest glory. Our human nature in Christ Jesus has been raised up to heaven and our hope is heavenly and our aspiration is towards the Kingdom of Heaven, towards the eternal, imperishable, incorruptible kingdom.” - taught Metropolitan Joannikije. Metropolitan Joannikije instructed the faithful to elevate themselves with the Spirit, to refine themselves, to overcome earthly weaknesses, flaws and divisions, to develop harmony and love, as God's love, mercy, justice and truth would reign in everyone, because as he stated, this is the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth – when we have peace in our souls, joy from God and the joy of meeting and loving one another, because this is the content of the Holy Gospel that the Lord preached and the content of our Orthodox faith.

"And all that the Lord did, what He said, what He revealed to us, we have all this in the holy services when we meet in the temple of God and glorify the name of God, we unite with God, we unite with one another in the love of God, we unite with Christ the Lord through the holy mysteries by partaking of the holy mysteries of Christ, feeding on heavenly bread in order to live a new life, because from earthly bread we have this temporary earthly life, and when we feed on the Chalice of the Lord, from the Cup of the Lord, on heavenly bread, on the holy mysteries of Christ, we begin to live a new life, a divine life, we are sanctified, we are reborn, we are spiritually elevated and we overcome our human weaknesses and our human flaws. May the Lord grant that there be among us as much brotherly love and harmony as possible. You have done a lot of that here. I see that you are ready to do a lot more for these churches and for other churches in this region, but also for this place – to decorate it to resemble the paradise of God, as in fact every temple of God is an image of the paradise of the Lord, because in it we have a heavenly feeling, we have a heavenly state, we reach it. I would not be long, but I just want to thank all of you and your parish priest Father Jovan for your efforts in the renovation of these churches, which you have renovated and decorated so beautifully, honorably, virtuously and above all professionally, and for trying to do everything you can,” the Metropolitan stated.

He emphasized that it was a great blessing for the clergy and the faithful that they worked on the renovation of the churches and wished everyone health and salvation, emphasizing that it was nice that they also restored the old custom of the procession.

His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, His Eminence Joanikije, concluded his speech with the lesson that we should not be proud and exclusive, that it is not terrible even if we make a mistake if we are aware of our mistake, if we have good intentions and work with all our hearts with brotherly love to do good deeds for ourselves, our neighbors and the souls of our ancestors.

Lana Ostojić