His Eminence the Archbishop of Cetinje, the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Today, November 10, Ioannikije served the Holy Bishop's Liturgy in the Church of the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Košice with the concelebration of His Eminence the Archbishop of Michalovo-Košice Mr. George and the clergy of the Eparchy of Mihalovsko-Košice of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
Before the start of the Holy Liturgy, the Metropolitan hand-made three new readers of this temple: Jonathan, Jaroslav and Toma.
After the intercessory prayer, the cradle and the celebration cake were blessed on the occasion of the feast of St. John the Merciful, which this holy temple celebrates as its second glory.
With the words of the archpastor's sermon, His Holiness Bishop Georgije addressed the gathering, who welcomed His Holiness Metropolitan Ioanniki and, in memory of this visit and joint prayer to the Lord, presented a panagia as a gift.
The Most Reverend Metropolitan thanked for the love, stressing that today he served the Holy Liturgy with great joy in this new temple, where he saw a large number of believers praying to God and partaking in the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
"Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world to feed us with Heavenly bread, to give us his love, his life, to give us himself. He, carrying out the plan of salvation, spread his arms on the cross to embrace the whole world with his love and willingly offered his sacrifice for all of us, for our sake and for our salvation. He gave us the Holy Secrets to feed on the Heavenly Bread and to live a new life. From the earthly bread, which we feed on every day, we live this physical, earthly, temporary life of ours. And when we feed on the Heavenly Bread, we feed in order to live an eternal life, in order to become partakers of the Kingdom of Heaven", said Bishop Joanikije.
In such a way, the Metropolitan taught the gathered, we sanctify our souls and thoughts, our hearts, our will and our whole being and draw and receive Divine love and place it in our heart.
"That's why, when our hearts are filled with Divine love, we love each other and in every brother, neighbor, we recognize our dearest and closest. In fact, the closer we are to God, the closer we are to each other," said the Archbishop of Cetinje, recalling that this is why the Lord summarized all the Old Testament commandments of God and his entire Gospel in two commandments, which are actually one commandment of love: Love the Lord your God with all with your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Being filled with God's love at the Holy Service of God, those Heavenly treasures and Divine life that we receive in ourselves should be witnessed in our daily life. May our hearts be wide, so that, as the Metropolitan emphasized, we can always place our loved ones in them, and that we can overcome all mutual misunderstandings in the family, community, and society with God's help.
"Your Eminence, dear Bishop Georgije, thank you for your love and hospitality and invitation, and thank you for this prayer fellowship that you have made possible for us here today. We are one of the ancient times, first of all as Slavic peoples, of one blood and one language, but that is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that we are a people of one Orthodox faith, which we received from the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius. And throughout our history we were together, we Orthodox, even though various forces of this world divided us and pushed us away from each other, but we still stayed together. Above all, we are united by one and the same faith and St. Cyril and Methodius, but also all the saints from the Serbian lands and all the saints from the blessed Slovak land."
According to him, it is for these reasons that it is a great joy when we are together, especially as we renew some of our old ties, from Saints Cyril and Methodius, but also newer ties that arose after the Second World War when Serbian archbishops, many of whom are among the saints , preached the Gospel and were archpastors and shepherds in the blessed Slovak land to help the Slovak brothers.
"We bring you blessings from Montenegro, blessings from Saint Vasilij Ostroh the Miracle Worker, that he may help you all! "Blessings of the great representative and great helper, whom our dear Bishop wants to build a new temple in his Diocese," said the Metropolitan, wishing that God's work would be finished as soon as possible and that a new monastery would be founded in this blessed land.
Congratulating from the bottom of his heart the glory of this holy family, Saint John the Merciful, the Archbishop of Cetinje emphasized that he is very happy that young and old, and children, all pray to God together and receive communion from the same cup and are fed with God's love and God's life.
"We wish you to progress daily in your spiritual life, and we also wish you happiness and joy and every progress and God's blessing in your families, in your homes and in your offspring, God willing!" Cheers to many and mild summers! Dear Bishop, thank you for your love, you came to Montenegro many times, you came even when it was most difficult for us, when we had a lot of problems and difficulties, thank you for everything, for your fraternal support and love", he said. Archbishop of Cetinje Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Mr. Joanikije and Archbishop Georgi of Mihalovsko-Košice presented a gift - an archbishop's staff.
Vesna Devic
Photo: Željko Drašković