His Eminence the Bishop of Buenos Aires and South-Central America and administrator of the Metropolitanate of Zagreb-Ljubljana Mr. On the feast of the Ascension, on Thursday, June 13, 2024, Kirilo served the Holy Bishop's Liturgy at the Church of the Ascension in Grahovac, on the occasion of celebrating the glory of the temple and commemorating 166 years since the famous battle on Grahovac.

The clergy and monks of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and the Diocese of Budimlja-Nikšić also served with the prayerful participation of many faithful people.

With the words of the liturgical sermon, the Most Reverend Bishop Kirilo congratulated the gathered on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord and the temple glory.

"We are in the place where the glory of God was manifested and precisely on this great feast of the Ascension of the Lord back in 1858, when Christ, for who knows how many times, in human history, fulfilled that promise that He will always be with us, even though He ascends to heaven, He is always with us. Christ and His power were with those heroes, military leaders, soldiers who defended the freedom of Montenegro here and built another stone, we can say one of the most important, into its independence and freedom, physical, but also spiritual, which is much more important. "They defended the faith here against the Ottoman Empire, which at that time was oppressing almost the entire Balkans," said Bishop Kirilo.

He added that the feast of the Ascension of the Lord does not stand out in particular in the salvation plan of our Savior.

"We are very fond of the holidays of the Nativity of Christ, the Resurrection of Christ, when He was born from the dead and came back from the dead again and showed us that He is stronger than the greatest disease from which our nature suffers. However, all holidays within Christ's system of salvation should be seen as a whole, and especially this holiday in which He ascended to heaven, our people call it Savior's Day, and call it correctly, because that is when our Savior rested from his works, but, of course, "God did not finish his plan of salvation for fallen man, but Christ promised his disciples that he would send them another comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will be and stay with them until the end of the age," said the Bishop, stating that this is very important.

"In fact, it was said in the Holy Scriptures that if He did not go, because the disciples asked Him with sorrow why He had to go from them. Only when they believed that He really is the Savior, when they discovered in Him the great wealth of their salvation, He left. Why did He have to go, the Savior Himself told His disciples: Because the Holy Spirit could not come to them, if He did not go. We need to understand that the Savior is sending us a very important message that it is harder in God the Father, that is why He returns to God the Father. He departed from His Father, came down among us, was born among us, even descended to hell, returned to the living, resurrected from the dead, but He returns to God the Father. Why? Because He is an obedient Son, He is not like the son of God before Satan, the devil who deviated from his father and will not return to his father, but wants to build his own Kingdom, his own Church, his own fantasy and lie, but An obedient son returns to his Father and speaks to us, revealing the secret that it is harder in the Father, it is harder in God, it is not harder on earth, that we must tie our heart and our life to heaven, and not tie ourselves to the things of this world," the Bishop taught. Cyril.

According to his words, Christ is, in liturgical terms, and the Liturgy is not something abstract but, indeed, a real life event, which describes the history of the human race from beginning to end, therefore, Christ, as the eternal High Priest, performed his high priestly walk from the Father to us and he returned to that altar that Njegoš also describes in "The Light of the Microcosm".

"He is talking about His victorious walk with which He overthrew the false altars and false gods of this world and with that act of His, as they say in the Kondak of this holiday, He united the earthly with the heavenly; as our God-wise Patriarch says, He opened the highway now, already, towards heaven, He drove our created nature transfigured and sanctified at the right hand of the majesty of God. It is no longer a one-way road where someone just comes to us from heaven, but now it is also possible to ascend to heaven, because it is possible for us to be our Savior with his salvation system.

That this is the truth of everything that the Savior said, what he showed, demonstrated in front of his disciples, in front of a small number of chosen people, was shown to us by many people throughout the history of mankind from many generations who lived their lives on earth as angels. Saints of God who showed that it is really possible to be an earthly man, but also a heavenly angel. We sing this in the troparies of many venerables who, having lived here like this, moved to the Kingdom of Heaven and there is no judgment on them, but they reign with Christ until the fullness of time is fulfilled, and then together with all of us they will receive the fullness of the promised Kingdom, put on into his body again and receive the fullness of the promised Kingdom", said the Most Reverend Bishop.

He said that the Kingdom of Heaven is already among us, Christ is constantly among us and the Holy Spirit, as Christ promised his disciples.

"Whoever listens to my commandments, who carries them out, we will come, we will live in him and we will create a family in him." Who are we? The Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, because the grace of the divinity is always triune, it is not individual. The Holy Trinity always has one will, one desire and one action, so that the Holy Spirit only brings what is Christ's, no less and no more; He brings to us through the Holy Secrets of the Church, especially, but the Holy Spirit breathes where he wants, he brings us that home system of salvation. However, man is a free being just as the angels are free, and some of them freely chose to be good, obedient to God, and some chose to be evil, deceivers, liars.

It is the same among people, it is up to us to choose but also to make an effort, a feat to receive, to say like the Blessed Virgin Who is pictured on the icon of this holiday in the central part of the disciples of Christ, because She is a symbol of the Church of God, a symbol and a realistic presentation of it, therefore, the Holy Spirit brings what is Christ's and one should freely say: Behold Your servant, as the Mother of God said, every Christian soul should say: Behold the servant of God, may it be done to me according to Your word. This is the goal of our life, as the great ascetic Saint Seraphim of Sarovski said that the goal of the Christian life is to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, which we all received at Holy Baptism and anointing, but it should be constantly multiplied by good deeds, a good life until the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ ", said Bishop Kirilo.

He said that we should be zealous for justice and truth, for freedom, to protect our weak neighbors so that no one would destroy their souls, converting them to another religion or ensnaring their minds with the false values ​​of this world, the new world order, values ​​that are not in accordance with with biblical, evangelical revelation.

"Our people knew how to defend that freedom with weapons, but especially to defend the presence of Christ among us. Gorski vijenc, our biblical book, ends with abbot Stefan giving communion to the people of the Holy Mysteries, and with that Njegoš shows that they were not defending anything but the presence of Christ among us, they were defending their weakness so that the occupiers would not lead them to another religion and thereby execute them, no only their body, but also their soul, and there is no greater love than to lay down one's soul for one's neighbor, to protect one's neighbor from injustice, from untruth.

Our people knew how to protect and today they know how to protect freedom, truth, and religion not only with physical weapons, but above all with spiritual tools, fasting, prayer and magnificent liturgies that put an end to an ungodly system, which this nation wanted to lead into false values , some other paths that were not planted in the tradition of our ancestors, our famous heroes from Grahovac, let's mention, among them the priest Đura Kusovac, who died there, and others, who showed here how good it is for freedom and faith, and for the cross of Chasni mrjeti and lay down your life. And in peace we should, with fasting, prayers, good works, our harmony, togetherness, gathered around Christ, not around the false values ​​of this world, even if it was called the new world order and false democracy, but gathered around Christ, our only salvation, because it is stronger ours in heaven, in the Holy Trinity, is not on earth, even though God did not leave us on earth, but He promised and He fulfills His promise that He is always among us", said His Holiness Bishop Kirilo.

The ceremony was attended by: Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Montenegro Vladislav Maslenikov, State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Innovation Dragan Bojović, Presidents of the Municipality and Municipal Assembly, Marko Kovačević and Nemanja Vuković, President of the Municipality of Plužine Slobodan Delić and representatives of Herzegovina and municipalities in Montenegro It's burning.

The assembled were addressed by: the president of Nikšić Municipality, Marko Kovačević, the competent parish priest, Archpriest-Stavrofor Petar Krgović, the president of the Native Association "Stara Herzegovina" Nikola Daković, as well as the ambassador of Russia, Vladislav Maslenikov.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 166th anniversary of the Battle of Grahova, the commemoration of which was organized by: the Eparchy of Budimljan-Niššić, the Parish of Grahov and the Native Association "Stara Herzegovina", addresses were given by: archpriest Miajlo Backović, Dr. Pavle Kondić, MA Obrad Samardžić. In the rich cultural and artistic program, led by: Nikolina Kovačević and Maja Mršulja, the following participated: Singing Society "Grbalj", fiddlers Nikola Krivokapić and Goran Vuković, KUD "Piva", Singing Society "Banjani", poet Ranko Mićanović, fiddler Jelena Miljanic.

Source: Diocese of Budimljansko-Nikšićka