Category: Mary the Mother of God

The Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos

Today, 8th September, we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mary, Our Blessed Mother!

“What then should we offer to the Mother of the Word other than an oration? Let the whole of creation make festival and sing of the most holy birth-giving of the holy Anna. For she bore for the world an inviolable treasury of blessings.” (St John Damascene, On the Nativity of Mary)

The Epistle today is from Philippians, and it is about Christ, “Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:7-9).

The mystery of Mary, the Theotokos, the Birth-giver of God, is united with the mystery of Jesus our Lord, the Giver of Life to all. Every feast is a celebration of the one Paschal Mystery, how through his death on the Cross (“by death trampling upon death”) the Son of God bestowed life upon the whole world, and how, therefore, in our humiliation, in giving ourselves in love to God and, through him, to each other, we find glory in God. Joachim and Anna were humbled and desolate, barren of children, and yet, “from infertile ground, the fertile ground is born. From her has grown the Gardener (see that Mary Magdalene mistakes the risen Christ for a gardener) of all fruit, the flower bringing life, who by the will of God nourishes the universe” (1st Troparion, Ode 3, Matins of the Pre-feast).

Today, we chant that “Joachim and Anne were freed from the reproach of childlessness.” This mystery must be re-lived in the life of Christ, the child born of Mary, who dies on the Cross in desolation, so that all the universe may be freed from the “despair of death,” and find life in God.

Sr Vassa offers this brief and informative video on Mary and her parents, Ss. Joachim and Anna whose feast we celebrate tomorrow, September 9.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras and edited by PAZ.

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Mary’s Birthday commemorated today

Today is the first of the great feasts of the Church (liturgical) year with the commemoration of the birthday of our Most Holy Lady, The Theotokos and ever-virgin, Mary.

As you know, every feast has a history and a meaning for us. Today’s feast is pointing our attention less to the birth of Mary, as very important as it is, to the Nativity of Our Lord, the Incarnation. All liturgical feasts point to Our Savior. Let’s consider the feast in these terms:

“Like most feasts of the Virgin, this one began as a feast of dedication of a church built to honor Joachim and Anna. It was located near Jerusalem at a site held by tradition to be the birthplace of their daughter.

“Apocryphal sources written in the second century provide most of the details used in the texts of this feast. Many of them parallel the scriptural accounts of the birth of John in Luke’s gospel and of Samuel in Kings. The thrust of legend is to emphasize the place of the Theotokos in the line of David.

“The mention of the Sun of Justice in the troparion alerts us to the coming feast of the Incarnation. This feast honoring the birth of the Mother of Life represents the first stage in the realization of this momentous event. (NS)

The Dormition Fast

From August 1 to August 14, the Byzantine Churches prepare for the feast of the Dormition (Assumption) of the Holy Theotokos with a period of prayer and fasting.

Presentation of the Theotokos into the Temple

“And so the child of God then enters [and] stands among the horns [of the altar], after both her begetters had given thanks and the priest was about to give a blessing. Again her parents cry to the priest, ‘Receive the one who will receive the immaterial and incomprehensible fire; receive the one who ill be designated as the receptacle of the Son and Word of the Father and only God; take the one who destroyed the reproach of our childlessness and sterility; usher into the sanctuary the one who will introduce us into our ancient inheritance of paradise; take charge of the one who, in her own birthgiving, will take charge of our own cowardice that is bringing in the power of death and the tyranny of Hades; … consecrate to God the one who has consecrated us, as a divinely perfected [being] for the expectation of [our] hopes.”

Wider than Heaven, SVS Press, 2008, pp. 153 154.

Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

Tomorrow, November 21, is a holy day. The Divine Liturgy will be served at 9:00 a.m. in both English and Ukrainian.

Today is the prelude of the benevolence of God and the herald of the salvation of mankind. For the Virgin openly appears in the temple of God, and foretells Christ to all: Let us also with full voice exclaim to her: Rejoice, fulfillment of the Creator’s plan!

Dormition 2020

“When we hear someone speak about the Ark of the Covenant from the Old Testament, oftentimes we think of modern depictions, of movies, or books, and especially the biblical accounts that present us with a fearful, awesome, and even wrathful picture. We recall that about the wooden box, which was covered with pure gold, God spoke to Moses from the mercy seat in between two cherubim. … How then might we, who are grass and made of earthen clay, begin to discourse and contemplate the living Ark of God, the Most-holy Theotokos, who was the fulfillment and the awesome reality of which the Ark of the Old Testament was merely a shadow? … This present awesome and glorious mystery is something which is not a subject for speculation, for human logic, or for vain tampering. It is a tremendous mystery that is hidden and only revealed when it is humbly received from within the light of the depths of the Church’s tradition. This feast is immensely joyful and life-giving for those who with child-like faith and without argument seek to enter into its festivities. … Those who have prepared themselves with fasting and prayer and by being present at today’s festivities, the tomb of the Mother of God is joy; it is life and it is a light-covered mountain for our spiritual ascent today.

Today she, like the Ark of the Old Covenant, goes before us as a banner of victory, a wall of defense and forerunner of the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to all mankind. Having now crossed the frontier which separates us from the age to come, through her bodily ascent to heaven, she has become the highest of all creation, and the realization of the end for which humanity was created. She is the fulfillment of all beauty and virtue and is a universal advocate for all before the throne of God, now and at the second coming.” (Acquiring the Mind of Christ: Embracing the Vision of the Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Sergius (Bowyer), pp. 129-131)

The Dormition of the Mother of God

Our Summer Pascha

Since August 1, we have been preparing for the great feast of Mary, the Mother of God through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

“This period is so rich in opportunities for prayer and worship that it has traditionally been called our “Summer Pascha.” The Transfiguration celebrates Christ as the radiant Light of the Father’s glory while in the Dormition we see Christ, who trampled down Death by His death, take His Mother into the light of His resurrection. In many churches a service resembling the Matins of Holy Saturday is held in which the shroud of the Theotokos is carried in procession to recall her burial.”

The bilingual Divine Liturgy will be served on Saturday, August 15, at 9:00 a.m. with the Blessing of Herbs. and Flowers. The Liturgy will be livestreamed.