The Christian family nurtures love and understanding in our homes

published on 11/21/23 6:20 AM

Photo: BTA

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the twelve great Christian feasts celebrated by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches on November 21.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks it especially solemnly as the Day of Christian Family and Youth, which is why it is one of the most revered winter family holidays in our country. On this day, families go to mass together to celebrate the entry of the three-year-old Mary, the future Mother of God, into the temple and to fulfil their spiritual obligations to their children.

According to the teachings of Christ, the family is compared to the Church, as its miniature, noted Father Bozhidar Marinov of the Metropolitan Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Christ in an interview with Radio Bulgaria.

The Presentation of the Holy Mother – the feast of Virgin Mary

But when hope for a better world often gives way to uncertainty, what are the challenges facing the Christian family today?

"There are many views of family life, but the Christian family has as its model God's plan for man, says Father Bozidar. God's love for the members of the Church is like the love between spouses, and the Apostle Paul calls marriage a great mystery. A family is Christian to the extent that it approaches or fits into this plan of God, which means that the two spouses become one flesh. The Bible says: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

"This is the Christian view of marriage. It is based on the understanding that a man and a woman are to be seen as one entity, as one union on all levels, so that they feel complete in relation to each other. That is why, when we celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation, we say at the end that from now on the newlyweds are already one person, one flesh. It is important to remember and to know that "what is planted now will be harvested years from now".

In the Orthodox tradition, parents have the difficult task of educating their children in the family, teaching them right from wrong, but also introducing them to Christian values:

"As children of Adam and Eve, we are all leavened in our blood with sinful infatuation, but our blood is leavened with the blood of Christ in Holy Communion," Father Bozhidar points out.

"We call it the day of Christian Family and Youth, because in the person of St. Joachim and St. Anne and their daughter, the Virgin Mary, we see the ideal of a family that has all the moral virtues and that gives itself completely to the will of God. Prayer, humility, obedience, this is the Christian family. It is the unity of two spouses who are one, together with their children, and all of them are one in Christ".

In the parish of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Christ, the priests pay special attention to young people and young families, without neglecting the elderly. For more than six years, since the church opened, there has been a Sunday school for children. "We work constantly with their parents and with the young people of the parish," says Father Bozhidar. According to him, when a family is brought up in the spirit of the Orthodox Church, its life becomes more peaceful, more structured and more orderly. Family members learn to fast, to live according to the Church calendar, according to the Church holidays, and their lives become orderly.

Every Sunday the temple is full of children taking communion.

"This is life in its fullness," says Father Bozidar, "as soon as two young people get married, we tell them during the celebration of Holy Matrimony itself, to come to the temple the very next Sunday to receive communion together and to prepare themselves, to learn to live in the Church.

It is not without reason that in ancient times both marriage and baptism were part of the Holy Mass, so that when two young people got married or when a child was born, it could be christened. In this way, the Christian Church recognises the child as its own, as part of its community, and the spouses and the child become acquainted with this ecclesial community. This is very important to us, and so when we baptise a child we always say - come, take the child to Mass at the first opportunity, First Communion, and then come every Sunday thereafter. And thank God, every Sunday our church is full of young people and children taking communion."

Photos: vazdvijenie.bg, Darina Grigorova, BTA

Translated and posted by Elizabeth Radkova

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