It has already become a tradition for the youth groups of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania to organize an active week in cooperation with the youth group from the OCMC (Christian Orthodox Missionary Center) led by deacon Stephan Ritsithis year in cooperation with the Office of the Orthodox Church Youth in Tirana.
Six young people and students from the US and Canada, learned about and closely experienced the restoration of the Orthodox Church in Albania after the persecution it underwent. They were introduced to every aspect of restoration, such as the construction of churches, monasteries, the Nazareth complex, the Soup Kitchen, the Annunciation Clinic, the schools, the kindergartens, the Logos University College and the House of the Elderly. All this miracle, which is incredible to the human eyes, is made possible by God under the care and guidance of our beloved Archbishop, His Beatitude Anastasios.
Another important part of the program of the week was the connection with other young people of our church and the organization of various activities together through which the youth experienced the universality of the Orthodox Church.
On Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy at the “Resurrection of Christ” Cathedral in Tirana, the youth groups attended a discussion led by Fr. HarallambGjoka on “There is no Justification to Justifying”, whoconveyed to the young people the messages of the Third Week of the Triode: to prepare for the start of the Great Lent with humility and repentance. After the meeting, the youth from Albania had the opportunity to get introduced and meet with the group from the OCMC.
The whole week was programmed to contain social, entertaining, spiritual and cultural activities. On Tuesday, the young people dined together and shared their journey experiences of their faith, as well as the challenges they face. On Thursday the young people gathered at the Artificial Lake Hills in Tirana for socializing with each other and sailing in the lake.
On Friday, March 8, 2019, the youth groups from Tirana and Gjinari met with friends from USA and Canada, (40 young people altogether) to conduct another special program in Gjinar, Elbasan. The day began with prayers for the blessing of this activity, then a visit followed to the Ascension Church, in Gjinar and after that the youth met with another local youth group fromGjinari area.
Deacon Stephan Ritsi gave a short speech on “Everything that belongs to Godmust be given back to Him,” in which he emphasized that “all this world has been given to us … but it is given as a responsibility in fact. And that God created the world, not as a gift to be destroyed, but as a means of communion with our Creator…Here’s the world … I see what I did and that’s good. Take care of it. Give it back to Me and live in communion with Me.”
“Yes, the world is given to us, deacon Stephanos stated. We have the freedom to do what we want, but not the selfish freedom to destroy it, we must use our freedom to create, care, and administer our planet with the reason and wisdom that God gave us.
In the Book of Genesis we see what happens when a man denies God. Adam declined his responsibility and proclaimed: ‘Earth is Mine and all that is in it … It was given to ME for my pleasure … to master it … and to fulfill the wishes of Mine.’
But there is a problem here. Who are we? We are made of dust into which we will return. When we remove God from this bond, when we decide to become ‘a god of the creation’, we condemn ourselves and the world.
Nowadays, when we violate and destroy this world for our comfort and luxury … we follow Adam’s path and repeat the same phrase: ‘The earth is Mine and all that is in it.’ We do not accept our responsibility to accept God’s gifts to us and to use them with the reason God gave us, and create a beautiful and orderly world, which is always proclaimed to God.
When we put ourselves in place of God, there are unpleasant consequences, and we see in our modern world how nature revenges. Let us look at the consequences of our works. Nature reminds us once again that we are not God”, Deacon Stephanos ended.
Afterwards, in the second part of the program, the youth groups set off toward the burnt forest area, where they planted 200 pine trees.
This initiative of the Orthodox youth was also supported by the EcovolisGroup and the Municipality representatives who joined the youth as well.
Our common active work transformed the lifeless forest into a nice green area where the young samplings glowed out. Even the sun and the sky were brighteron that day.
After planting 200 pines, the young people had a meal together and celebrated for this blessed day and the special opportunity they were given to care for nature.
A final visit to the historic church of Shelcan closed the program of the day.
On Saturday, March 9, 2019, ninety young people from the youth groups of the Diocese of Tirana, Elbasan and the University College “Logos” gathered at the holy monastery of St. John the Vladimir where the youth have offered various services for its maintenance and decoration for more than five years.
The program of this day began with the Divine Liturgy for the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, who are a motivational example to all young people, as the Metropolitan of Elbasan, His Grace Andon pointed out in his sermon for the participants: “Let’s support and encourage each other on our journey to God, in order to be strong to the end,” he said.
After the breakfast and the qualitative time the young people spent with each other, Dr. JorgoKeselopoulos, a lecturer at Logos University College talked about our Common Journey towards Resurrection during which we should be all one.
In his speech he emphasized that, “The way in which we Christians become followers of Christ’s disciples is by sharing the love we have among us, as well as towards the others. Let’s look again at the words of our Lord, and how the love for God is put into action, he said: “In love, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)
Thus keeping the commandments of God and, above all, preserving the commandment of love is an indication of our true love for God. We cannot love Him if we do not keep His commandments, otherwise it would be a false act, a hypocrite and pharisaic one. So no word is needed, but lots of work.
The words of our Lord end in this way, he stressed:“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world,and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power ofyour name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one…My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one,Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me”
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am,and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world…
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made youknown to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:11, 20-26)
“The sentence of our Lord ‘… to be one’, which is the theme of this meeting, was also the beloved prayer of St. Porphyrios. I will conclude with the words of the saint concerning this verse: ‘This is required in our lives: love, worship of Christ, and love for our neighbors, and to be all one in Christ, in heaven and in the eternal life.The love for our brother cultivates our love for God. We are happy if we love all people in a mystic way. So we will feel that they all love us. No one can reach God unless their love passes from people first. Because ‘If you do not loveyour brother whom you can see, how can you love God whom you cannot see?’
And to love means to sacrifice for all with selflessness and without requiring anything in reward. Here comes the pleasure of man. Love that seekssome reward is selfish, not pure, untrue, and corrupted.
Saint Porphyrios in his writingscites that: “Have love and compassion for all…If one member suffers, all the members must suffer with it, or if one member is honored, all the members must rejoice with it, and you are the body of Christ and even His special limbs “(1 Corinthians 12: 26-27) This is the Church: Me, you, the one, the other, and we should feel that we are members of Christ, and we are all one: If you are united, we will be blessed, happy, and we will live in Paradise. Every relative of us, everyone who is close to us is ‘the flesh of our flesh.’How can I remain indifferent to him, or I disappoint him, or hate him?This is the greatest mystery of our Church: to be all united in God. If we manage to do this, we belong to Him, and there is nothing else more beautiful than this unity and this union. This is our Church. This is Orthodoxy. This is Paradise”, Mr. Keselopoulos ended.
After this inspiring speech, the young people, having learnt more about their responsibility as Christians, continued with joy to plant more trees (45 olive trees), in the new olive grove, whichterrain had been prepared beforehand. The first who blessed the work and gave his example was His GraceAndoni, the Metropolitan of Elbasan, Shpati and Librazhd, and then other clergy and participants joined the activity. In addition to maintaining and beautifying the monastery, these olive trees will contribute to the monastery’s financial income.
Finally a meeting in small groups took place, which was led by students from USA and Canada and a student from Albania. The group discussions helped the young people to reflect more on concrete ways to approach our Lord. Then some fun activities followed until the time came for the Vespers of Forgiveness which was attended by all the participants closing thus the day in a mystic, beautiful and inspiring way.
Let us be thankful to God for His numerous blessings and show our gratitude to all those who contributed for the organization of this special active week which turned out to be very productive indeed.
