His Holiness Serbian Patriarch kyr Porfirije presided on 14 September 2025, in the Church of Saint Sava on Vračar, over the Divine Liturgy and a prayer service on the occasion of the beginning of the new school year.
 
After the reading of the Gospel passage, Patriarch Porfirije emphasized that the main theme for each of us, and at the same time the central theme of the Gospel, is the Kingdom of Heaven:
 
– Our Lord, in various ways and images, presents the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. Here He portrays it as a wedding, and of course this is no accident, because the Kingdom of Heaven is fullness, joy, and glory, while a wedding is an event in which everyone rejoices, when all who participate in the wedding forget about inconveniences, troubles, difficulties, and temptations that befall them in daily life, even forgetting mutual misunderstandings. People of different classes, different social status, education, or wealth gather together, not holding grudges and forgiving each other if there have been disagreements, because they all come to the wedding to rejoice in the event taking place. They all come to share in the joy of the host, in the joy of those entering into marital union. They come to establish a genuine relationship, communication with one another, all through the bridegroom, the one entering into marriage.
 
His Holiness the Patriarch stressed that through this very image the Lord not only presents the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven, but also clearly tells us that the only certainty is the wedding, that is, the Kingdom of God; that the Lord is the King and Ruler, yet He rules with love, and that is why He invites all to the wedding, that is, He invites all to the knowledge of the truth, to become participants in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.
 
– However, we well know that there are many who respond to this call, but there are also those who reject it, seeking various excuses, just as in today’s parable: one is occupied with his business, excusing himself with the purchase of a field; another with the purchase of oxen; still another with various other tasks, while some even acted brutally toward those who came to deliver the king’s invitation. They killed them, humiliated them, cast them away. So, all are invited, but not all respond. Making excuses is nothing other than a sign of concern only for one’s individual, private, personal needs, and not paying attention to the needs of one’s neighbor and his invitation to communion and fellowship – emphasized the Patriarch, explaining further:
 
– Many reject God’s call because they see themselves as the measure and criterion of everything that exists and happens, they see themselves as criterion of life and existence. They see their own judgment as the only one, the first, the initial, the most important and decisive, rejecting the fact that the Kingdom of God exists, that the wedding exists, that we are invited to it, and that in that wedding entirely different standards, parameters, and measures prevail from those that each of us individually and in an individualistic way sets as the rule and goal of life. Since no one will be able to escape the call, and no one will be able, within that call, to avoid the encounter with the One who calls – that is, His embrace and His love – many who do respond, however weak, powerless, sinful, and flawed they may be, will rejoice in that embrace, that encounter, and that communion with the One who calls into the Kingdom of God, into the nuptial embrace. But even those who made excuses, that is, who decided that their individual, self-serving rule, benefit, and interest were more important than community, they too will not be able to avoid the embrace of love – the firm embrace of love which, for them, will become eternal suffering, that is, eternal torment. That embrace will not be pleasing to them, for they did not desire it.
 
– In this parable it is clear that we are all invited, and that it depends solely on us whether we will become participants in communion with God and with our neighbors, communion of love, and thereby participants in the fullness, beauty, joy, and perfection of the eternal Kingdom of God. By such a choice, not only will we here and now be able to sense and taste it, but we will participate in it with our whole being, for for those who have the eyes of faith open, the boundary between heaven and earth does not exist – concluded His Holiness Porfirije.
 
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At the end of the Holy Liturgy, prayers were offered for the beginning of the new school year.
 
– May Holy Communion and prayer be for health and salvation. We prayed for a successful beginning of the new school year, but not only for the beginning, but for its entire course and duration. I congratulate all who have enrolled in the first grades, whether of elementary, secondary, or higher education, but also all others, wishing above all that this school year, like every year, be first and foremost a year in which we learn goodness, in which we learn beauty, in which we learn virtue, in which we learn to respect one another, in which we learn mercy, in which we learn every virtue. This I wish for all pupils, but likewise I wish it for those who teach – teachers, instructors, and professors – said Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, and he emphasized:
 
– All of this is not only possible, but is in fact the most important and principal task: that we possess virtue and goodness, that we learn to be better than ourselves each day, to be the best we can be – that is the meaning of life. Without that meaning as the prerequisite for acquiring all other knowledge and skills, even if we achieve the greatest success in skills and learning, they will most probably and most often first bring harm to ourselves, and therefore will not bring good to our neighbor either. Thus, above all – peace! Let us learn it and acquire it in every school. Love! Let us bear witness to it at every moment and in every school. Let us learn each day and in every school to see in the presence of our neighbor the presence of God before us and within us. That is what we pray for and what we wish with all our hearts for all children, but also for all of us, so that knowledge, information, and all that we learn and acquire may be used for salvation, first and above all for each of us individually, and then for all people. May the beginning of the new school year be blessed, and may you all be blessed!