Kiril Fidanski - Student of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology

Visit to the “Sacred Heart of Jesus” of the Catholic Church in Skopje and the church “St. Panteleimon” in Veles

“…the one who does not love his brother, he lives in death.”
(Jov.3,14)

A group of 50 people on 15 December visited two religious buildings: the one of the Catholic Church dedicated to the Jesus’ love to the world and the one of the Macedonian Orthodox Church dedicated to St. Panteleimon the Healer in Veles.

The group consisted of students from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Skopje, along with the dean Prof. D-r Ratomir Grozdanoski, a few professors, the personnel and other employees (thirty-three of them), eight participants from the Evangelical-Methodist Church in Macedonia, together with the pastor Mr. Mihail Cekov and nine participants from the Catholic Church.

Gathered from all around our native and bible Macedonia, ignoring the differences but vigorous in love, we started our trip with the visit of the Catholic Church in Skopje. We were welcomed by Monsignor Antun Cerimotic, who, after wishing us a warm welcome, told a short history of the construction of this cathedral building. We learned that this church was firstly out of the city, but later it was moved to the boulevard Marshal Tito. It was designed by Slavko Gjuric and Blagoja Mickovski and its form is of inscribed cross. Apart from the exclusive beauty it possesses, it is also very practical and its biggest pride is Mother Theresa who used to visit it and was inspired in it for missionary. We could already feel the Christmas atmosphere in it. It was decorated with Christmas decorations, with a tall Christmas tree in the middle and many decorations around it, symbolizing the presence of Jesus Christ himself and the presents given to him by the Wise Men when he was born and in the left corner of the church the cave was presented in which Jesus Christ was born and in him He, a small baby, next to him his Mother and Joseph, and around them the Wise Men and pastors who first made a bow to the newborn God man. The realistic display of the Christmas truth, which enables the thoughts to be transferred in the time two thousand and eight years ago, when it actually happened. It all moved us so much that we could not resist not taking a few photos to keep this moment…

We continued our trip to the church ‘St. Panteleimon the Healer” in Veles. Founded in XX century in the times of Turkish reign, when there were about eleven thousand inhabitants in Veles, this church is a precious pearl and mark for its nation. It is certain that constructors are the group of Andreja Damov and iconography and wall-painting mostly belong to Georgi Zografski and his group. The whole church is made of wood in order to be protected from earthquakes, and the exterior is covered with mortar. It is in form of basilica and in the upper part it is divided in two parts with special altar, one dedicated to Saint Mina and the other to the Holy Martyr Dimitrij Solunski – mirotocivi. No matter how hard a man can try to describe this extraordinary beauty, he would stay speechless. Looking at his perfection we all whooped in ourselves with the words from the psalm: “How big you are God; no word can describe Your beauty”.

Apart from the fact that the church provokes admiration with its picturesque frescoes, we cannot but mention its high acoustics. It is due to the fact that in each of the pillars there is a pot built-in. In order to experience it, we, the students of the Faculty of Theology, together with the dean, the church singing professor and the priests who serve the church, sang the anthem of Saint Panteleimon. Thus, the visitors from the Catholic and Evangelical-Methodist Church did not become familiar only with the construction of the church, but also heard a performance of an orthodox religious song, which due to the church’s acoustics, resounded as a tender flower scent, gently touching our hearts.

As a crown to this visit, the experience to be more unforgettable was the fact that the hosts prepared lunch in the parochial premises and the Right Reverend episcope of the Povardarie Eparchy, g. Agatangel was present, greeted us and gave a short didactic word. His generous hospitality was felt by everyone. He stayed with us for the lunch, answered the questions asked by the interested participants, he was interested in how we all contribute to advancement of inter-religious cooperation in Macedonia and told us his own experience in this field, which can serve as a good example to all of us. In the end he blessed us all and gave us a sample of the monthly magazine of the Povardarie Eparchy.

Already friends and with happy hearts, in the end we sang all together, first a religious song: orthodox, catholic, evangelical-Methodist and then some original, Macedonian, that can make every Macedonian happy.

 

We, the people, have been created by God and only in him can we find the highest beatitude that our heart longs for. Nothing else besides God can make our soul happy! Between the loudest pleasures of life and the biggest achievements in the world, an ineradicable internal hunger for justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rome.14,17) tortures our soul and does not give peace!

That blessed hunger is the hunger for God. But man could never satiate from the god’s feast if he did not obey tend god’s commandments completely and it is right through the secret of Holy Trinity that Christianity taught humanity not only to peacefully respect God, but love him, too. A new idea has been revealed through it; that God is love – the highest, perfect Love and inexhaustible Source of love. The highest example of sacred love – goodwill of Father God to sacrifice His Only Son for redemption of humanity, voluntarily suffering of the God’s Son for our redemption and coming down of the Holy Spirit for our consecration, delight human soul, resulting in thankful, crossed love to God, whom Christians start to learn as Father of the whole humankind.

 

The role of the rabbi in Judaism

     

The Faculty of Orthodox Theology, as an active member of the Inter-religious program that is being implemented in Macedonia, has good cooperation with other churches and religious communities. For that purpose various visits and lectures are held by other religious institutions being a guest and generously hosting guests. One such cooperation was the lecture at our Faculty of Orthodox Theology by Rabbi Avi Kosma from the Jewish community in Macedonia. At this lecture the students became familiar with rabbis’ day and commitments in the Jewish community.

At the beginning of the lecture, Rabbi Avi Cosma mentioned that in the Jewish community there is no difference between the obligations of authorities and servants. Thus, for example, a Hebrew has the same obligations as a bank clerk. But let’s see how it looks like! A Hebrew starts the day with a morning prayer but before that he has to wash his hands. After that he gets dressed in a tzitzit. For this thing the Jewish call upon the words written by Moses in his law (4. Moses.15,37-41). Tzitzit is like a shirt with fringes of blue thread at the bottom. Every rabbi has to wear it every day and it serves to remind them of god’s commandments when they come across a temptation. Then he puts on the prayer shawl and says a blessing, that is, the prayer projected for the beginning of the prayer. The shawl is used to serve as a sign that it is time for a prayer and it is used always, except during the holidays. Talking about the prayer, it should be mentioned that in the Jewish community there are three different daily prayers: morning, afternoon and evening. As the day is considered to last for twelve hours, the periods for each prayer last for three hours. The first period starts from seven o’clock in the morning and lasts until ten or eleven in the morning, the second one starts at twelve o’clock at noon until the occurrence of the noon star; and the third period starts with the beginning of the noon star until midnight.

Calling upon the words from 5. Moses. 6,4-9, the Jewish make a vow with God twice: once in the evening when they go to bed and the other in the morning when they get up. Also, calling upon these words, each Jewish over the age of 13 is obliged to wear phylacteries which is actually prayer belt and it is tied around the arm and head. Phylactery is a box made of skin of an animal which ruminates and has divided hoof. The basic four commandments that God has given to the Jewish people are written in the box.

When a Jewish finishes the prayer, he takes off the phylacteries, tzitzit and prayer shawl, but in the opposite order. Apart from this, another obligation of each Jewish is to have medusa on every door at home (a sign that God commands to be put over the door in their houses).

When the lecture finished, there were questions asked by the listeners and in order to continue this cooperation, a new lecture was arranged with the Jewish Community of Skopje as a host.

The Macedonian Jewish Community has about three hundred believers and the Jewish country is a country which during the World War II lost most of the believers. That figure is 98%.

 

(lecture by Avi Cosma at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology)