This morning, in front of a small number of believers who respected the measures, wearing protective masks and keeping their distance, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia gg Stefan on the occasion of Epiphany - Epiphany worshiped the Chrysostom Liturgy in the church "Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God" - Center. 

This year, for the first time, due to the pandemic with Covid-19, the centuries-old tradition of laying the cross in the holy waters has been broken. Instead, this great Christian holiday was celebrated with holy liturgies in the churches and their courtyards.

Among us, said gg. Stephen, repentance or confession is very poorly or not practiced at all, and in the holy church it is one of the seven holy sacraments, but in repentance, in confession it is not enough to say that we have sinned, that we sin and that we repent. It is necessary, he says, not to repeat the sin, and to try to sin as little as possible. But the lack of knowledge of the faith is obvious.

-If we know what our holy faith teaches, we will sin less, and if we sin, we will know how to repent. This is where we start from, from family, from neighborhood, from work, from inter-party living, from everywhere and everywhere we see what is greater in us - love or hate, faith or disbelief, harmony or disagreement, truth or untruth, readiness or unwillingness to forgive and reconcile or not. We will forgive and extend a hand to our enemies and distant ones, which is good, but we cannot forgive our neighbor, our brother. There is indeed room for concern and, of course, a need to understand the place and role of repentance, and thus of confession, which are inseparable from the practice of the true Christian life. As a church and spiritual pastors we are obliged to constantly call for repentance, confession and reconciliation, because who can not reconcile first with himself and his brother, how will he reconcile with God, said the head gg. Stefan, who after the liturgy consecrated the water in the church.

On this day, the Holy Cross is laid in the rivers, and the one who catches it is believed to be followed by happiness and blessing all year round. Capturing the cross means uniting man with Christ, and it is believed that with the laying of the cross, the waters become healing.