E fundit!

21:44 TODAY

Over 3 hours of protest/ Citizens march in the streets of Tirana

After more than 3 hours on "Martyrs of the Nation" Bouleva...

Ana Baba, the Orthodox woman who lives to know the creator: Man will be challenged in this life with...

2024-09-11 14:48:00, Aktualitet Eda Preka

Ana Baba

Her mission in this life is to know the creator, with these words Ana Baba introduces herself, who has been serving the Orthodox Church for 22 years.

According to her, a true Orthodox is one who prays without ceasing.

Her morning as a believer starts by thanking, asking and praising the creator for the blessing of the day.

With a modest cross hanging around her neck and without any other symbolism, Ana shows that today she works in the administration of the Orthodox Church where she teaches the younger generation.

For Anna, the desire to dedicate herself to God did not come out of nowhere.

Born in 1976 in Sheqishte of Fier, a village surrounded by churches, she learned to worship God from an early age.

Her father, originally from Korça, instilled the Orthodox faith in her heart.

She says that during childhood they often prayed and lit candles even without knowing the meaning of religion.

"I knew we were an Orthodox family, but I didn't know the faith very well."

Ana surprises you when she says that unfortunately she did not live 97' after she gave you the opportunity to leave for Greece.

"Unfortunately, I was not in Albania in '97. I say unfortunately because on the one hand I would like to have lived the challenge that our people went through. I was given the opportunity to go to Greece. There I studied music, as I really wanted the songs we sing in the Orthodox church."

Although she is proud that her family is Orthodox, on the other hand, the 48-year-old says that they did not practice and practice their religion.

Brought up by two honest workers, she and 6 other children of the Baba family grew up with the fear of mentioning the word god outside the walls of the house.

Ana is not the only member of the family who has dedicated her life to God. Her brother, the 3rd child of the family, was the first to bring the spirit of practicing the Orthodox religion to this family.

After finishing school for agronomy, her brother studied Orthodox theology in Durrës.

Today, he tells with a dose of humor that when he heard the prayer "Our Father in heaven" for the first time, he was surprised and called the scripture a poem that he surprisingly escaped without reading.

Initially, it was her brother's stories that pushed Ana to faith and devotion.

Unbeknownst to me, she was always looking for herself and the reason to live.

Therefore, in addition to her brother, Ana also decided to study Orthodox theology in 1999.

He completed these studies in a 3-year period where he deepened in prayer and learned about the Orthodox religion.

"I studied very diligently, I wanted to learn as much as possible, sometimes it was not enough. I was always seeking to know the creator my mission in this life is to live to know god. My goal that I hope to achieve is to know him. I have achieved many things in life that I have enjoyed a lot, but the thing I want most is to know God."

Life stages such as education, employment, marriage are nothing for Anna if faith does not stand before them.

"When you pass from the door of this world to the door of the other world, you will meet the creator. If you didn't get to know him during your life, you won't be able to get to know him there either. The church teaches you that this life is not what it seems. You will be challenged in life, you will be studying all the time, while working you will sacrifice to build a healthy family. All these have only one purpose in the end, so you cannot be "satisfied" knowing Christ"

According to Anna, we live in a world where the motivation to live has been lost. She feels offended and surrounded by sinful people when she remembers the Olympic games where the figure of Christ is insulted in the center of the world.

This world is made better by believing people, she insists, if you are a believer you learn to love, knowing how to love you cannot do wrong.

"I want one of my sons to become a priest" - this is the last bequest her father left when he passed away.

The sentence is more than enough to understand the great faith that this family cultivates in their hearts.

Even though she has chosen not to marry, Ana says that the first criterion she would look for in her partner is trust.

"You don't fall in love in an instant, the main point is to see if you and your partner walk on the same path because if the principles are different, the path to happiness is difficult. Man will be challenged in this life with wealth, with life abroad, with luxury, but you should never compromise with the things that you have essential in life. There are some things you can tolerate, but never principles."

For 22 years, Ana has often felt prejudiced as people call her an introvert since she attaches more importance to the inner world and God.

Ana claims that she has never frequented the night life, but on the other hand she says that the church does not stop you from doing anything. I leave you free, it is the person who chooses whether to follow your principles or not.

Ana Baba had no calls, visions or messages in her dreams, she says that she found existential answers in the Orthodox religion, so she never stopped believing and practicing.

"I don't believe it very easily, even if it appeared in my dream, I would hardly believe it without proving it as I want."

When you talk about the monastery, your eyes light up, you think it's the ideal life for a believer, you devote yourself to prayer, reading and service. The more questions you have, the better it is, because when you search, you find it and get clarity, says 48-year-old Ana Baba.

She has worked with many young people in Orthodox camps in the city of Elbasan and says that often families forbade their children to have contact with religion.

"God changes a person a lot, we have to change the concept we have about faith, we are a people who are used to doing something out of fear, but faith is not fear, it is love"

Religion opened new paths for him and pushed him to grow professionally. 12 years ago, in 2012, Ana started high school for "Literary Language" in parallel with the service in the church.

"God has guided me, so I feel very fulfilled. I didn't study theology to serve the church, I did it because I wanted to know who God is, I wanted to know my creator. I never get tired of reading and studying. I did language, literature and master's for teaching because I want to perfect myself.

Ana sees religion as the answer to every question and the solution to every spiritual concern.

"No one came into this world by himself, every man was brought by God. The Creator has a place in our heart. Our mission is to find that space and then the mosaic of our lives will be complete."

Having been living and practicing faith for 22 years, Ana says that she knows only 30% of the Orthodox religion and is surprised how some people live without faith in their hearts.

Ana will tell the world about the values ??that faith brings, the anthropological value that neither politics nor science brings to man, he must learn to be a man according to it.

Her horizon does not stop only at church books, Ana also talks about the philosophers and literature that helped her, and gives the answers to the "Whys" that arise in every human being.

She supports her faith in Dostoevsky (Fyodor Dostoevsky) when she quotes that if you remove faith, everything is permitted and man no longer has limits or in Aristotle when he says that man without a god becomes not an animal but a beast.

With this word, Ana tries to open your eyes and clarify the importance of faith and the values ??it brings.

"Man is the most beautiful creature that God has created; no other creature did he wear with freedom and reason as he did with man. People today enjoy creatures like dogs or cats, but imagine how much we would enjoy each other if we didn't leave God.

Ana sees the wars between people as a great departure from the creator and often in the name of modernity the primary values ??of man are lost.

A man like Ana Baba is a reflection of the search for truth. Finding truth in the Orthodox faith does not make her immortal, but unlike many people, she is clear about what she was born and came to this world for.

Her mission is to know her creator and dedicate her life to him, which according to her there is no trial and no one can stop her.