Page 860 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Patriarch Pavle visiting Los Angeles, 1994
Pavle as a boy, a student, and a bishop
ed to be there. He asked the unfortunate father: “What do you want from our saint?”—“i have come neither to your saint nor to our saint,” replied the albanian, “but to God’s saint. and as he is God’s saint, he is both yours and ours. For if the saint thought the way i and you think, neither you nor i would come to him.” The youth remained silent, and the albanian came up to me to ask blessing for the child...
it is evident that not only albanians are to blame for this situation in Kosovo. They were supported and incited not only by the republics of the former joint state, Yugosla- via, but also by the outside world. But what i found the most regrettable was the complicity of the politicians from our people.
Orthodox Church always appeals for peace and justice among men, reminding its member that we were not asked before our birth whether we wanted to be born in this or that nation, in this or that religion, in this or that religion. But it does depend on us whether we shall act as righteous men or not, and we are responsible before God for all our deeds.”
Procession around the Dečani Monastery, 1964
i shall tell you the true story of an event which hap- pened in Kosovo eighty years ago.
in 1979 i ordained a young priest in Uroševac in Koso- vo. When the laying on of hands and the Liturgy were over, we met in the church hall for a moment of rest and talk. Someone mentioned the words of Christ: “He that endureth to the end will be saved." an old man said in connection with that: “i remember the Turkish rule. Ours was a large joint family household with more than sixty members. The times were grim. The albanians abducted a girl, we over- took them and retrieved the girl. They killed first one and then another member of our family. We avenged the mur- ders. But hardly a week passed when an oppressor and his suite quartered themselves on us. We had to treat them as guests and to feed and tend their horses. What we pre- pared for our family was eaten by others. Our family elders went to the priest and said: Father, we are on the verge of killing all the people in the house, including ourselves, to stop once for all these torments Or shall we flee to some place in Serbia? But, then, how are we going to feed sixty
Procession around the Dečani Monastery on the occasion of changing the vestments of the Holy King, 1964, with Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren.
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