Patriarch urges believers to pray for peace

BELGRADE - Patriarch Irinej and bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church wished all believers who celebrate the biggest Christian holiday, Easter, according to the Julian calendar that it may bring them faith, hope, love and eternal life.

In his Easter message, the Serbian Patriarch urged the faithful to pray that "peace may return to everywhere where it has been expelled from; first of all, to our hearts and into our homes."

He urged the faithful to pray for their brothers and sisters in Kosovo-Metohija who celebrated "the victory of good over evil and of life over death" together with them on Easter.

The Patriarch said that "the true freedom of man is only the one freedom that frees him from the tyranny of transience and death."

Pointing to man's eternal responsibility for conception and procreation, he urged for preservation of the sanctity of marriage, which was "the foundation of a sublime, healthy and virtuous Christian family."

The Patriarch and the bishops called on the believers from all continents to show unity and harmony in protecting the unity of the Holy Church of Christ.