As the winter is getting closer and the Christian world anticipates the Nativity of Christ, the Orthodox Church honors the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin. Its celebration started in 715. Willing to learn more about it, we visited the Sofia Seminary where we talked to priest Bozhidar Marinov:

“The Presentation of the Blessed Virginis a feast that recalls how three-year old Mary was handed over to God in the Temple. Her parents, the holy and righteous ancestors Joachim and Anna, were childless for a long time. In their prayers they asked God to give them a child and vowed the child would be returned to God. So, at age three the girl was sent to the Temple of Jerusalem. The story goes how little Mary ran across the temple heading to the spot where only priests had the right to trod and finally climbed the fifteen steps that separated the holy place from its holiest point known as the Holy of Holies. It was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where only the High Priest had the right to enter. When Mary entered the Holy of Holies everybody was surprised but no one dared to stop her. The hearts of everybody though quivered as it was the time when people were looking forward to the Nativity of the Messiah. They knew an old prophecy that a woman would be born who would live a righteous and sinless life and would be worthy giving birth to the Messiah. So, the church celebrates the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin as a feast synonymous to the expectations of humanity for the Nativity of the Messiah.”

On this great day the church also honors the Christian family. Unlike other denominations, in Orthodox Christianity marriage is not simply an agreement including the obligations and responsibilities of the sides. It is seen as something like a miniature church subordinated to the larger Christian church. Today families are reunited, as their members travel from far and wide. The church teaches Christians that the Christian family is a union aimed at the preservation of the Christian line, and the striving for love and wellbeing is its key meaning. According to statistics however, fewer marriages are concluded in Bulgaria - three in 1000 people, and divorces are twice as many. This troubles priests who have urged society to be more responsible in caring for children and to make sure they are brought up with Christian values at hand.

“In the recent years there is hardly a single family that has fully reunited. The Christian family is a family in which the man and woman are blessed in the sacrament of marriage to have children of their own. The Christian family should from this point dedicate its life to self-perfection and to cultivating piety required by every Christian. When the mother and father together with child go to church every Sunday and learn together to transform the service into their own life, they are on their way achieving real harmony. Unfortunately, many people are estranged from the church, and consequently from their families. Therefore we appeal to all to bring children up with Christian values and we urge families to go to church so as to have the basis to live fulfilling lives.”

One step in this direction has to do with the efforts of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to introduce Christianity as a mandatory subject in schools:

“There is a discussion in Bulgaria to have a subject 'Religion' which is worlds apart from what we mean and it is Orthodox Christian instruction. Religion is a subject that acquaints pupils with all major religions across the world like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism etc. I think that Bulgaria as an Orthodox Christian country should give more attention to our traditional faith.”

English Daniela Konstantinova