Mark 15:43-16:6

By St. Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria

*42-47. Now when the evening was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and asked for the Body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered if He were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether He had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the Body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen, and laid Him in a tomb which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the tomb. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where He was laid.

While yet a servant of the law, the blessed Joseph recognized Christ as God, and this is why he dared to do such a praiseworthy deed of courage. He did not stop to think to himself, “I am a wealthy man, and I will lose my wealth if I ask for the body of one condemned by the rulers authority, and I will be slandered by the Jews.” No such thoughts did he harbor, but placing all other considerations second, he begged to bury the Body of the One condemned. “Pilate wondered if He were already dead,” for Pilate thought that Jesus would endure on the cross for a long time, as did the thieves. So he asked the centurion if Jesus had already died some time before. Joseph then took the Body, having bought linen, and when he had taken It down from the cross he wrapped It in the linen, and buried reverently that which was worthy of all reverence. For Joseph too was a disciple of Christ, and he knew that it was necessary to honour the Master. He was noble, that is, devout, pious, and blameless. And he held the rank of counsellor, a title which conferred duties of public service and responsibility; the counsellors supervised the affairs of the marketplace, and danger often befell one holding this position because of the evil doings in the market. Let the wealthy, and those engaged in public business, heed that Josephs high rank in no way hindered him from living a virtuous life. Joseph means “increase,” and Arimathea means “taking hold of that.” Let us be like Joseph, always increasing in virtue, and taking hold of that which is truly good. Let us also take the Body of Jesus, through Holy Communion, and place It in a tomb hewn out of a rock, that is, place It within a soul which always remembers God and does not forget Him.[1]

And let that soul be hewn from a rock, that is, from Christ Who is the Rock on which we are established. Let us wrap the Body of Jesus in the linen, that is, let us receive It within a pure body. For the body is the linen and the garment of the soul. We must receive the divine Body of the Lord not only with a pure soul, but with a pure body as well. And we must wrap It and enfold It within ourselves, and not leave It exposed. For this Mystery is something veiled and hidden, not something to be exposed.

*16:1-8. And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the tomb at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, “Who shall roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?” And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, “Be not affrighted: ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, Who was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him. But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you.” And they went out quickly, and fled from the tomb; for they trembled and were amazed; neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.

The women had no understanding of Christs divinity while they sat by the tomb, and they bought myrrh with which to anoint His Body in accordance with the Jewish practice, so that It would remain fragrant and not begin to have the foul odor of decay. Myrrh also dries things out, and thus it absorbs the moisture of the body and preserves it from corruption. Thinking such thoughts as these, the women rose and came to the tomb “very early in the morning,” or, as Matthew says, “after the sabbath,” or, as Luke says, “at early dawn.” [Mt. 28:1; Lk. 24:1] All four Evangelists say, “On the first of the sabbath” [mias Sabbaton], meaning, on the first day of the week (for “sabbath” was also the name they gave to the seven days of the week considered together, so that the “first day of the sabbath” meant Sunday). As the women approached the tomb, they talked among themselves about who would roll away the stone. While they were thinking about this, the angel rolled away the stone without their noticing. Matthew says that the angel rolled away the stone after the women had come to the tomb [Mt. 28:2]

On this point Mark is silent, because Matthew had already said who rolled away the stone. Do not be troubled that Matthew says that the angel was sitting on the stone, while Mark says that after they entered the tomb, the women saw the angel sitting on the right side. It is likely that they first saw the angel sitting on the stone outside the tomb, as Matthew says, and that he then went before them into the tomb, where they saw him again. Some say that the women mentioned by Matthew were not the same ones mentioned here by Mark. Mary Magdalene, however, was with all of them, as she was fervent and aflame with zeal. The angel who appeared to the women said, “Be not affrighted”. First he takes away their fear, and then he announces to them the good tidings of the Resurrection. He calls Jesus “the Crucified”, for the angel was not ashamed of the Cross, which is the salvation of mankind and the beginning of good things.

“He is risen.” How do we know this? Because “He is not here”. Do you want further assurance? “Behold the place where they laid Him.” This is why the angel had moved away the stone, to show them the place. “But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter.” He names Peter separately from the other disciples, as Peter was the foremost of the apostles. Also, because Peter had denied the Lord, the angel singles him out by name so that, when the women came and said that the Lord had commanded them to tell the disciples, Peter could not say, “I denied the Lord, and therefore I am no longer His disciple. He has rejected me and abhors me.” The angel added the words “and Peter”, so that Peter would not be tempted to think that Jesus found him unworthy of mention, and unworthy to be ranked among the Lords disciples, because of his denial. He sends them [out of Judea] into Galilee, delivering them from tumult and from their great fear of the Jews. Fear and amazement had taken hold of the women at the sight of the angel and at the awesome mystery of the Resurrection, and because of this “neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.” Either they were afraid of the Jews, or they were so in awe of what they had seen that their minds were confounded. For this reason “neither said they any thing to any man”, and they even forgot the command the angel had given them.

[1] The Greek word for “tomb,” mnemeion, is derived from the word mneme, which means “memory.”

ST THOMAS SUNDAY: ANTIPASCHA

Every day during the week of Pascha, called Bright Week by the Church, the paschal services are celebrated in all their splendour. The Pascha baptismal procession is repeated daily. The royal gates of the sanctuary remain open. The joy of the Resurrection and the gift of the Kingdom of eternal life continue to abound. Then, at the end of the week, on Saturday evening, the second Sunday after Pascha is celebrated in remembrance of the appearance of Christ to the Apostle Thomas “after eight days” (Jn 20:26).

It is important to note that the number eight has symbolical significance in both Jewish and Christian spiritual tradition. It signifies more than completion and fullness; it signifies the Kingdom of God and the life of the world to come since seven is the number of earthly time. The sabbath, the seventh day, is the blessed day of rest in this world, the final day of the week. The “first day of the week,” the day “after Sabbath”; stressed in all of the gospels as the day of Christ’s Resurrection (Mk 16:1, Mt 28:1, Lk 24:1, Jn 20:1, 19), is therefore also the eighth day,” the day beyond the confines of this world, the day which stands for the life of the world to come, the day of the eternal rest of the Kingdom of God (see Hebrews 4).

The Sunday after Pascha, called the Second Sunday, is thus the eighth day of the paschal celebration, the last day of Bright Week. It is therefore called the Antipascha, and it was only on this day in the early church that the newly-baptized Christians removed their robes and entered once again into the life of this world.

In the Church services the stress is on the Apostle Thomas’ vision of Christ and the significance of the day comes to us in the words of the gospel:

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:27-29).

We have not seen Christ with our physical eyes nor touched his risen body with our physical hands, yet in the Holy Spirit we have seen and touched and tasted the Word of Life (1 Jn 1:1-4), and so we believe. At each of the daily services until Ascension Day we sing the Paschal Troparion. At each of the Sunday services beginning with Antipascha, we sing the Paschal canon and hymns, and repeat the celebration of the “first day of the week” on which Christ rose from the dead. At all of the liturgies the epistle readings are taken from the Book of Acts telling us of the first Christians who lived in communion with the Risen Lord. All of the gospel readings are taken from the Gospel of St John, considered by many to be a gospel written particularly for those who are newly-baptized into the new life of the Kingdom of God through death and new birth in Christ, in the name of the Holy Trinity. The reason for this opinion is that all of the “signs”—as the miracles in St John’s Gospel are called—deal with sacramental themes involving water: wine and bread. Thus, each of the Sundays after Thomas Sunday with the exception of the third, is dedicated to the memory of one of these “signs.”

THE MYRRHBEARING WOMEN

The third Sunday after Pascha is dedicated to the myrrh-bearing women who cared for the body of the Saviour at his death and who were the first witnesses of his Resurrection. The three troparia of Holy Friday are sung once again and from the theme of the day:

The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy most pure body from the Tree, wrapped it in fine linen and anointed it with spices, and placed it in a new tomb.

When Thou didst descend to death, O Life Immortal, Thou didst slay hell with the splendour of Thy Godhead.

The angel came to the myrrh-bearing women at the tomb and said: Myrrh is fitting for the dead, but Christ has shown Himself a stranger to corruption! So proclaim: The Lord is risen, granting the world great mercy.

THE PARALYTIC 

The fourth Sunday is dedicated to Christ’s healing of the paralytic (Jn 5). The man is healed by Christ while waiting to be put down into the pool of water. Through baptism in the church we, too, are healed and saved by Christ for eternal life. Thus, in the church, we are told, together with the paralytic, to sin no more that nothing worse befall you” (Jn 5:14).

THE FEAST OF MID-PENTECOST

In the middle of this fourth week, the middle day between Pascha and Pentecost is solemnly celebrated. It is called the feast of Mid-Pentecost, at which Christ, “in the middle of the feast” teaches men of his saving mission and offers to all “the waters of immortality” (Jn 7:14). Again we are reminded of the Master’s presence and his saving promise: “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink” (Jn 7:37). We think also once again of our death and resurrection with Christ in our baptism, and our reception of the Holy Spirit from him in our chrismation. We “look back to one, and anticipate the other” as one of the hymns of the feast puts it. We know that we belong to that kingdom of the Risen Christ where “the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price” (Rev 22:17. Is 55:1).

In the middle of the feast, O Saviour, fill my thirsting soul with the waters of godliness, as Thou didst cry unto all: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! O Christ God, Fountain of life, glory to Thee! (Troparion).

Christ God, the Creator and Master of all, cried to all in the midst of the feast of the law: Come and drink the water of immortality! We fall before Thee and faithfully cry: Grant us Thy bounties, for Thou art the Fountain of our life! (Kontakion)

THE SAMARITAN WOMAN

The fifth Sunday after Pascha deals with the woman of Samaria with whom Christ spoke at Jacob’s Well (Jn 4). Again the theme is the “living water” and the recognition of Jesus as God’s Messiah (Jn 4:10-11; 25-26). We are reminded of our new life in him, of our own drinking of the “living water,” of our own true worship of God in the Christian messianic age “in Spirit and in Truth” (Jn 4:23-24). We see as well that salvation is offered to all: Jews and Gentiles, men and women, saints and sinners.

THE BLIND MAN

The sixth Sunday commemorates the healing ofthe man blind from birth (Jn 9). We are identified with that man who came to see and to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. The Lord has anointed our eyes with his own divine hands and washed them with the waters of our baptism (John 9:6-ll).

Jesus used clay of spittle and told the man to wash in the waters of Siloam. He did so because it was the Sabbath day on which spitting, clay-making and washing were strictly forbidden. By breaking these ritual laws of the Jews, Jesus showed that he is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath, and, as such, that he is equal to God the Father Who alone, according to Jewish tradition, works on the Sabbath day in running his world.

There is scandal over the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath day. He is separated from the synagogue because of his faith in Christ. The entire Church follows this man in his fate, knowing that it is those who do not see Jesus as the Lord who are really blind and still in their sins (Jn 9:41). The others have the light of life and can see and know the Son of God, for “you have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you” (Jn 9:37).

I come to Thee, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes, and call to Thee in repentance: Thou art the most radiant Light of those in darkness! (Kontakion)

Jesus did not live with his disciples after his resurrection as he had before his death. Filled with the glory of his divinity, he appeared at different times and places to his people, assuring them that it was he, truly alive in his risen and glorified body.

To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

It should be noted that the time span of forty days is used many times in the Bible and signifies a temporal period of completeness and sufficiency (Gen 7:17; Ex 16:35, 24:18; Judg 3:11; 1 Sam 17:16; 1 Kg 19:8; Jon 3:4; Mt 4:2). On the fortieth day after his Passover, Jesus ascended into heaven to be glorified on the right hand of God (Acts 1:9-11; Mk 16:19; Lk 24:51). The ascension of Christ is his final physical departure from this world after the resurrection. It is the formal completion of his mission in this world as the Messianic Saviour. It is his glorious return to the Father who had sent him into the world to accomplish the work that he had given him to do (Jn 17:4-5).

… and lifting his hands he blessed them. While blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. … (Lk 24:51-52).

The Church’s celebration of the ascension, as all such festal celebrations, is not merely the remembrance of an event in Christ’s life. Indeed, the ascension itself is not to be understood as though it were simply the supernatural event of a man floating up and away into the skies. The holy scripture stresses Christ’s physical departure and his glorification with God the Father, together with the great joy which his disciples had as they received the promise of the Holy Spirit who was to come to assure the Lord’s presence with them, enabling them to be his witnesses to the ends of earth (Lk 24:48-53; Acts 1:8-11; Mt 28:20; Mk 16:16-14).

In the Church the believers in Christ celebrate these very same realities with the conviction that it is for them and for all men that Christ’s departure from this world has taken place. The Lord leaves in order to be glorified with God the Father and to glorify us with himself. He goes in order to “prepare a place” for and to take us also into the blessedness of God s presence. He goes to open the way for all flesh into the “heavenly sanctuary … the Holy Place not made by hands” (see Hebrews 8-10). He goes in order send the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father to bear witness to him and his gospel in the world, making him powerfully present in the lives of disciples.

The liturgical hymns of the feast of the Ascension sing of all of these things. The antiphonal verses of the Divine Liturgy are taken from Psalms 47, 48, and 49. The troparion of the feast which is sung at the small entrance is also used as the post-communion hymn.

Thou hast ascended in glory O Christ our God, granting joy to Thy disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing they were assured that Thou art the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world! (Troparion).

When Thou didst fulfill the dispensation for our sake, and didst unite earth to heaven, Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from those who love Thee, but remaining with them and crying: I am with you and no one will be against you! (Kontakion).

By Fr Kyril

This Great Feast of the Lord commemorates His final moments on earth before being taken up into heaven. Jesus led His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and after blessing them and asking them to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of God the Father (which was that He would send to them the Holy Spirit), He ascended into heaven.

Christ made His last appearance on earth, 40 days after His Resurrection from the dead. The Acts of the Apostles states that the disciples were in Jerusalem. Jesus appeared before them and commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the “Promise of the Father.” He said, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1: 5).

As the disciples watched, Jesus lifted up His hands, blessed them, and then was taken up out of their sight (Luke 24: 51; Acts 1: 9). Two angels appeared to them and asked them why they were gazing into heaven. Then one of the angels said, “This same Jesus, who just now was taken up into heaven, will return in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1: 11).

Even though we see Christ departing, the Orthodox Church sees the second and glorious coming of Christ in the same icon. So the icon of the Ascension of Christ also doubles as the icon of Christ’s Second Coming. Jesus said He would return in the same way that He ascended. The icon does not show direction. His love and teachings are still with the Church. The focus of the lower part of the icon is the Theotokos. She represents the entire Church waiting for Christ’s return. The entire group, the Theotokos and the disciples also represent the Church. In this case they represent faithful, learning Christians. The disciples are waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and are shown in confusion. The disciples shown cannot be the historical gathering, but again an image of the Church. The Apostle Paul who was still Saul, a non-believer at that time, is standing next to the Virgin Mary.

We sometimes hear from those who do not want the festive celebration of Pascha to end, “What is there to be happy about? Wouldn’t it be more proper to grieve, since the Lord left His disciples and the world and ascended to the heavens and took His place at the right hand of God, where He will only return again for the terrible and just Judgment of the living and the dead?”

The Apostles rejoiced because Christ said to them: “I am with you always, even to the end of the world,” and He promised to send down His equal, the Holy Spirit, the Divine Consoler, saying: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is a good thing for your sake that I go away: because if I do not go away, the Comforter (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).

Thanks to this holy event, and the matter of our very salvation achieved by Christ, we have become “divine humans by potential.” This is the core of the belief of Theosis, or what is also known as the doctrine of deification: That our purpose in life is to come ever closer to God our Creator and Loving Father, by becoming more like Him. To unite ourselves (our humanity) with God. To become god-like by God’s grace. The way for all this has been opened to us by (1) Christ’s Crucifixion and Death, where Jesus breaks the gates of hades and the power of death over us, and (2) by His Resurrection which is also our Resurrection and triumph over death and into eternal life with Him, and (3) by His Ascension into Heaven, where He opens the gates of heaven for us and unites our humanity with His divinity for all eternity.

Through these events, which saved the world, Jesus freed and rescued us from death and corruption. By completing the task of our salvation by establishing the Holy Church, Jesus restores the direct contact with God that was lost through the sinful fall of our ancestors. We now obtain this direct contact with God even now while we are still in the flesh and living in this world, thanks to the special mercy and providence that He has towards us, when we participate in the saving Mysteries of the Church. That is, (1) when we regularly pray and worship (communicate with God directly and through His saints), and (2) when we regularly receive the sacraments (the Mysteries) especially Confession and Communion, where we are constantly forgiven, purified, sanctified and where we come into the most intimate contact and union with our God by receiving His actual Body and Blood. This is a very physical and tangible way in which we unite ourselves to God and where we unite our humanity with divinity.

Troparion of the Feast of Ascension (Tone 4)

O Christ our God, upon fulfilling Your dispensation for our sake, You ascended in Glory, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. You were never separate but remained inseparable, and cried out to those who love You, “I am with you and no one is against you.”

In the Old Testament Pentecost was the feast which occurred fifty days after Passover. As the Passover feast celebrated the exodus of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, so Pentecost celebrated God’s gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.

In the new covenant of the Messiah, the Passover event takes on its new meaning as the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, the “exodus” of men from this sinful world to the Kingdom of God. And in the New Testament as well, the Pentecostal feast is fulfilled and made new by the coming of the “new law,” the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ.

When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed as resting upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit… (Acts 2:1-4).

The Holy Spirit that Christ had promised to his disciples came on the day of Pentecost (Jn 14:26, 15:26; Lk 24:49; Acts 1:5). The apostles received “the power from on high,” and they began to preach and bear witness to Jesus as the risen Christ, the King and the Lord. This moment has traditionally been called the birthday of the Church.

In the liturgical services of the feast of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit is celebrated together with the full revelation of the divine Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Godhead is manifested with the Spirit’s coming to man, and the Church hymns celebrate this manifestation as the final act of God’s self-disclosure and self-donation to the world of His creation. For this reason Pentecost Sunday is also called Trinity Day in the Orthodox tradition. Often on this day the icon of the Holy Trinity—particularly that of the three angelic figures who appeared to Abraham, the forefather of the Christian faith – is placed in the center of the church. This icon is used with the traditional Pentecostal icon which shows the tongues of fire hovering over Mary and the Twelve Apostles, the original prototype of the Church, who are themselves sitting in unity surrounding a symbolic image of “cosmos,” the world.

On Pentecost we have the final fulfillment of the mission of Jesus Christ and the first beginning of the messianic age of the Kingdom of God mystically present in this world in the Church of the Messiah. For this reason the fiftieth day stands as the beginning of the era which is beyond the limitations of this world, fifty being that number which stands for eternal and heavenly fulfillment in Jewish and Christian mystical piety: seven times seven, plus one.

Thus, Pentecost is called an apocalyptic day, which means the day offinal revelation. It is also called an eschatological day, which means the day of the final and perfect end (in Greek eschaton> means the end). For when the Messiah comes and the Lord’s Day is at hand, the “last days” are inaugurated in which “God declares:… I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” This is the ancient prophecy to which the Apostle Peter refers in the first sermon of the Christian Church which was preached on the first Sunday of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1 7; Joel 2: 28-32).

Once again it must be noted that the feast of Pentecost is not simply the celebration of an event which took place centuries ago. It is the celebration of what must happen and does happen to us in the Church today. We all have died and risen with the Messiah-King, and we all have received his Most Holy Spirit. We are the “temples of the Holy Spirit.” God’s Spirit dwells in us (Rom 8; 1 Cor 2-3, 12; 2 Cor 3; Gal 5; Eph 2-3). We, by our own membership in the Church, have received “the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” in the sacrament of chrismation. Pentecost has happened to us.

The Divine Liturgy of Pentecost recalls our baptism into Christ with the verse from Galatians again replacing the Thrice-Holy Hymn. Special verses from the psalms also replace the usual antiphonal psalms of the liturgy. The epistle and gospel readings tell of the Spirit’s coming to men. The kontakion sings of the reversal of Babel as God unites the nations into the unity of his Spirit. The troparion proclaims the gathering of the whole universe into God’s net through the work of the inspired apostles. The hymns 0 Heavenly King and We have seen the True Light are sung for the first time since Easter, calling the Holy Spirit to “come and abide in us”, and proclaiming that “we have received the heavenly Spirit.” The church building is decorated with flowers and the green leaves of the summer to show that God’s divine Breath comes to renew all creation as the “life-creating Spirit.” In Hebrew the word for Spirit, breath and wind is the same word, ruah.

Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit: through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, Glory to Thee (Troparion).

When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, he divided the nations. But when he distributed the tongues of fire, he called all to unity. Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-Holy Spirit! (Kontakion)

The Great Vespers of Pentecost evening features three long prayers at which the faithful kneel for the first time since Easter. The Monday after Pentecost is the feast of the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox Church, and the Sunday after Pentecost is the feast of All Saints. This is the logical liturgical sequence since the coming of the Holy Spirit is fulfilled in men by their becoming saints, and this is the very purpose of the creation and salvation of the world. “Thus says the Lord: Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I your God am holy” (Lev 11:44-45, 1 Pet 1:15-16).

Unlike the Resurrection of Christ, the mysterious character of Mary’s death, burial and ascension were not the subject of apostolic teachings extant but were preserved in the oral tradition of the Church.

19 Aug 2014 – Neos Kosmos

DEAN KALIMNIOU

“If her Fruit, Whom none may comprehend, on Whose account she was called a heaven, submitted of His own will to burial as a mortal, how should she, who gave Him birth without knowing a man refuse it?” - St John of Damascus

Every time we enter the feast preparatory to the celebration of the Dormition of the Theotokos on 15 August, I cannot help noticing how reminiscent the traditional iconography of this event is of traditional representations of the Nativity, and the preceding quote, by perhaps one of the greatest theologians of all time, offers ample explanation of why this is the case. In the Dormition icon, the Most Holy Theotokos is seen lying on her bed, much as in the Nativity icon, surrounded by angels, saints, friends, neighbours, and apostles arriving on a cloud, rather than shepherds and magi. This represents one of the more miraculous events surrounding the central miracle itself: the Theotokos prepared for her death, having been advised of this by the Archangel Gabriel, who appeared before her, handed her a palm leaf, a symbol of victory symbolising, according to St Germanos, her overcoming of corruption, while stating: “Thy Son and our God, with the Angels, Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim and all the heavenly Spirits and the souls of the righteous shall receive thee, His Mother, into the heavenly Kingdom that thou mayest live and reign with Him forever.”

Looking closer at the Holy Bier, we see Saint John the Evangelist, who bends his head near to the Theotokos, calling to mind the parallel biblical passage of John 13: 23-25 where the beloved disciple places his head on Jesus at the Last Supper. The bier itself, lined with a brilliant vermilion mat upon which the Theotokos lies, is also reminiscent of the Nativity icon. In both icons, we see a parallel motif of life coming into a world of death. Candles burning brightly in front of the bier represent light in a world of darkness, proclaiming the theme of ‘life’ and ‘light’. Christ will give the Theotokos, who sleeps in death, new life, which is metaphorically described as ‘light’. Thus: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)

The Theotokos prayed while reclining upon her bier and all of a sudden a thunderclap was heard. Almost immediately, all the apostles who were scattered to the ends of the world, except Thomas, were gathered together on clouds and brought to Jerusalem. This, along with all other events associated with the Dormition, are expounded in the hymns sung at this time. The Matin Hymn, written by St Cosmas of Damascus relates: “Carried to Sion as it were upon a swift cloud, the company of the Apostles assembled from the ends of the earth to minister to thee oh Virgin.” As his brother, St John of Damascus mentions in his hymn, also sung at this time, this gathering together of her Son’s apostles was an event of profound theological significance: “It was right that the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word should see the Dormition of His Mother according to the flesh, even the final mystery concerning her: hence, they might be witness not only to the Ascension of the Saviour but also to the translation of her who gave Him birth. Assembled from all parts by divine power, they came to Sion, and sped on her way to heaven the Virgin, who is higher than the cherubim.”

Around the entire icon there is a glow of gold and reds, representing the burst of the new kingdom and the surge of life. It is a scene representing both earthly and heavenly members of creation, coming to see the fulfilment of Christ’s word.

The resemblance of this Dormition icon to the Nativity icon is furthered by its background composition. Here, the Nativity background of lofty mountains, representing contact between God and humanity, is replaced by a mountainous mandorla, a small one outlining a glow of divinity around Christ connected to the flow of the Spirit indicated by a bright ray and a large mandorla filled with the singing heavenly hosts angels. The larger mandorla encompasses the realm of heaven and the small mandorla the aura of Christ, bearing the soul of his Mother in a depiction reminiscent of the Theotokos’ presentation at the temple as a baby and of Christ in swaddling clothes, in the Nativity icon. This records the moment when the Theotokos turned and said to the Apostles: “Cast incense and pray, because Christ is at hand, sitting on the throne of the cherubim.” Holy tradition records that the roof of the room opened and Christ descended from Heaven at the head of a host of angels and called her to him. After worshipping him, proclaiming: “Blessed is Thy name, O Lord of Glory and my God, Who was pleased to choose Thy humble handmaiden for the service of thy mystery”, the Theotokos gave up her soul.

At the peak of the larger mandorla the six-winged angel known as the Cherubium predominates, much as angels predominate the Nativity icon. In iconography, angels are predominantly portrayed through the significant profusion of wings. These heavenly hosts represent the guardians of the Holy of Holies, so as to keep the Tree of Life protected until the end of time. This causes us to recall that of the trees in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ate only of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The gift of true and everlasting life was retained by God, to be fully received only in the end of time, in accordance with the Book of Revelation. Here, in the icon, the Cherubium flutters at the top of the larger mandorla – symbolising that Christ has brought new life and His Mother is the first to realise the new eschaton, the beginning of humanity’s journey in the final days of the Kingdom to the Tree of Life. This then is the supreme significance of Theotokos’ koimisis. As the Vespers stichera marvel, giving voice to the grief of the Apostles who turn to each other in their grief: “O marvelous wonder! The source of life is laid in the tomb, and the tomb itself becomes a ladder to heaven. Thy glory is full of majesty, shining with grace in divine brightness.” Thus, at the very centre of the top of the icon, we find a time lapse glimpse at the Theotokos being carried into the open gates of Heaven itself by the heavenly hosts, an experience that has become accessible to us by the dignified koimisis of Theotokos and which believers are called upon to emulate.

Underlying her role as intercessor and protector of all humanity, the Υπέρμαχος Στρατηγός of Byzantium and, according to popular belief, the guardian of the Greek nation during such times of tribulation as the German occupation, even as she ascends to heaven, the Theotokos’ arms are wide and she bends toward the earth still caring for all those who are now the Mystical Body of Christ in the world. Thus believers comprehend her as the Platytera, one whose body held the God of the universe, wider than the heavens. She prays in early Christian style in the orans position, with arms extended. She is the one who will constantly draw all to her Son and eventually to the realm she now enters.

The Feast of the Dormition does not commemorate the Assumption, as in the Roman Catholic tradition, but rather, the koimisis (Dormition) of the Theotokos and the translation of her sacred body to heaven three days later, upon the arrival of the Apostle Thomas, from India. It was St Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the fifth century, who related to St Pulcheria, the earliest traditions concerning the translation of the Theotokos’ relics. At the end of the sixth century, Emperor Maurice established the Feast for 15 August and it has been so celebrated by the Eastern Christians ever since.

Unlike the Resurrection of Christ, the mysterious character of her death, burial and ascension were not the subject of apostolic teachings extant but were preserved in the oral tradition of the Church, giving rise to the Orthodox belief that inaccessible to the view of those outside the Church, the glory of the Theotokos’ Dormition can be contemplated only in the inner light of Tradition. The glorification of the Theotokos, Mother of all, is a result of the voluntary condescension of the Son who was made incarnate by her and thus, became in his human nature, capable of dying. For believers therefore, the Mother of God is now established beyond the general Resurrection and the Last Judgment, having passed from death to life, from time to eternity, from terrestrial condition to celestial beatitude.

Δεκαπενταύγουστο (15 August) then, is a second mysterious and wondrous Pascha, since the Church celebrates before the end of time, the secret first-fruits of its eschatological consummation. Χρόνια Πολλά to all eortazontes (all those who mark and celebrate their name day).

*Dean Kalimniou is a Melbourne solicitor and a freelance journalist.

Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and renowned John of the Golden Speech, patron saints of all Orthodox students

DEAN KALIMNIOU – NEOS KOSMOS ENGLISH EDITION – 31 JANUARY 2015

In the top drawer of my desk resides a stained chromolithograph icon of the Three Hierarchs. This was given to me by my grandmother when I was studying for my first exam in year seven. Informed that it belonged to my father and was the sole reason that my father was able to complete his studies, I secreted same in my breast pocket and have, ever since, kept it upon my person, not only during exams but also whenever receiving advance notice of any impending challenge or trial in which the blessing, intercession and intellectual prowess of the Three Hierarchs was particularly required.

Honoured in the Catholic Church as ‘the Doctors of the Church’ (the Church of the East also has a feast commemorating the Greek Doctors of the Church, but these, Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsouestia and Nestorius are considered heretics in the Orthodox Church), the Three Hierarchs, Saint Basil of Caesearia, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Gregory the Theologian, are considered so important to the Orthodox liturgical tradition that they are invariably depicted in the apse behind the altar of every Orthodox church. This is fitting since two of these saints, St Basil and St John, were responsible for writing liturgies that are still in use in the Orthodox Church today, as well as, in the case of St Basil, in the Coptic Church. Furthermore, because of their intellectual prowess, they are the patron saints of all Orthodox schoolchildren, which is why the 30th of January, their feast day, is a school holiday in Greece.

The Three Hierarchs all enjoy their own specific feast days and the sole reason for the celebration of a joint feast comes from the pervasive influence each of the three saints had within the church. Such was the importance of their theological writings that they came to represent distinct spheres of thought within the Orthodox tradition, their followers arguing with each other as to which saint had theological pre-eminence. In a Byzantine Empire often more interested in abstruse points of the theology than anything else, such theological conflicts also brought about political and social conflict as well.

Such disputes reached a climax in the eleventh century, in Constantinople. Fervent proponents of the virtues of St Basil argued that he was superior to the other two saints because of his explanations of Christian faith and monastic example. This is because, quite apart from his immense charitable and welfare activity (he was responsible for the creation of hospitals and rest homes as well as petitioning the Emperor successfully for tax relief for the poor – feats which in the popular conscience made him the first Father Christmas figure), St Basil established such guidelines for monastic life which focus on community life, liturgical prayer, and manual labour that he is remembered as a father of communal monasticism in Eastern Christianity.

Furthermore, he was a famous preacher, and many of his homilies, including a series of Lenten lectures on the Six Days of Creation, and an exposition of the psalter, have been preserved. Some, like that against usury and that on the famine in 368, are valuable for the history of morals, while others illustrate the honour paid to martyrs and relics.

Most significantly, his address to young men on the study of classical literature shows that St Basil was lastingly influenced by his own education, which taught him to appreciate the propaedeutic importance of the classics. His theological writings earned him the epithet of ‘ουρανοφάντωρ’, or revealer of the heavenly mysteries.

Supporters of St John Chrysostom countered that the outspoken Archbishop of Constantinople, known as the ‘Golden Mouthed’ was unmatched in both eloquence and in bringing sinners to repentance. Saint John’s fiery sermons, much like the sermons of Protestant pastors during the Reformation, argued for social reform and offered a devastating critique of the ruling class’s policies and greed, at the expense of ordinary people. Echoing themes found in the Gospel of Matthew, and in a much more direct manner than the Occupy Wall Street protests, he called upon the rich to lay aside materialism in favour of helping the poor, often employing all of his rhetorical skills to shame wealthy people to abandon conspicuous consumption, asking questions such as: “Do you pay such honour to your excrements as to receive them into a silver chamber-pot when another man made in the image of God is perishing in the cold?”

St John was also an opponent of materialism and excessive luxury within the church and its practices, at a time when poverty was widespread:
“Do you wish to honour the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he is cold and ill-clad. He who said: ‘This is my body’ is the same who said: ‘You saw me hungry and you gave me no food’, and ‘Whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also to me’… What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well.”

As a sworn opponent of the arrogance of power, he denounced the erection of a silver statue of the profligate empress Eudoxia near his cathedral, exclaiming: “Again Herodias raves; again she is troubled; she dances again; and again desires to receive John’s head in a charger.” He was banished to the Caucasus in Abkhazia, where he eventually died. His writings, liturgy and homilies have been so influential to the development of Christianity as a whole, that he is also honoured by the Anglican, Lutheran and Coptic traditions.

Supporters of St Gregory the Theologian insisted that as a close friend of St Basil, he was preferred to the others due to the majesty, purity and profundity of his homilies and his defence of the faith from the Arian heresy. Further, a humble man, he was willing to resign as Archbishop of Constantinople, in order to heal rifts within the church, stating: “Let me be as the Prophet Jonah! I was responsible for the storm, but I would sacrifice myself for the salvation of the ship. Seize me and throw me … I was not happy when I ascended the throne, and gladly would I descend it.”

A conflicted figure, throughout his life Gregory faced stark choices. Should he pursue studies as a rhetorician or philosopher? Would a monastic life be more appropriate than public ministry? Was it better to blaze his own path or follow the course of being a bishop, as was expected of him by his father and mentor St Basil? St Gregory’s writings illuminate the conflicts which both tormented and motivated him, so much so that it is easy to suggest that it was this dialectic which defined him, forged his character and inspired his search for meaning and truth.

As the conflict between the supporters of each saint intensified, Church tradition holds that the three hierarchs appeared together in a vision to Saint John Mauropous, bishop of Euchaita, in Pontus in the year 1084, and said that they were equal before God: “There are no divisions among us, and no opposition to one another.”

As a result, the 30th of January feast day commemorating all three in common was instituted around 1100 under the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.

While the conflict between the supporters of the Three Hierarchs has long since vanished from popular memory, the importance of the Thee Hierarchs to eastern culture and the Orthodox faith cannot be over-emphasized. It is for this reason that the troparion to the Saints, sung every 30th January, states: “Let all who love their words come together and honour with hymns the three luminaries of the light-creating Trinity: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and renowned John of golden speech, who have enlightened the world with the rays of their divine doctrines, and are mellifluous rivers of wisdom who have watered all creation with streams of divine knowledge; they ever intercede with the Trinity for us.”

In early tradition, Pascha meant baptism and baptism always had a paschal feel to it. The two were inextricably linked.

Archpriest Lawrence Farley | 12 May 2014

One wonders sometimes about why the Gospel story of the healing of the paralytic was chosen for the Paschal season.  One understands why the stories of Thomas and the Myrrh-bearers were chosen, but the paralytic?  Perhaps our incomprehension is rooted in our modern separation of Pascha from baptism.  In the early Church from at least the time of Tertullian (d. 220), Pascha was considered as the time for baptism, and the spectacle of many catechumens lining up to be baptized in the baptistery (a separate building in those days) and then processing with solemn joy into the church to be anointed with laying on of hands by the bishop forged an indelible link in people’s minds between Pascha and baptism.  Even now in our Pascha-night Liturgy, in place of the Trisagion hymn we sing “As many as have been baptized into Christ.”  In early tradition, Pascha meant baptism and baptism always had a paschal feel to it.  The two were inextricably linked.

That might explain why all the Sunday Gospels in the Paschal season after the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers focus upon water:  the Samaritan woman finds Christ by the well, and the blind man finds salvation as he washes in the pool of Siloam.  Similarly, the paralytic encounters Christ as he sat by the waters of Bethesda.  In all these Gospels, we find water, a clear echo of baptism for those to whom baptism was linked with Pascha.  As early as Tertullian (in his book On Baptism, chapter 5), the presumed descent of the angel into the Bethesda pool foreshadowed the spiritual and transformative power of Christian baptism.

As we examine the story of the paralytic in greater depth, it is important to see that in its original context the Bethesda pool was not a source of salvation for the paralytic, but a rival alternative to it, if not its positive impediment.  Remember the details of the story:  the paralytic sat languishing by the pool, thirty-eight years in his wretched condition, hoping for healing.  When the pool’s waters were stirred (by an angel, as everyone thought), he hoped to be the first one into the pool to soak up the angel’s divine power and be cured, but being paralyzed, he was too slow, and someone always beat him to the pool.  So, he waited and waited, hoping to find salvation one day in the pool.

It was there that Jesus found him.  When Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6), he didn’t say, “Yes Lord, please heal me!”  He was still hoping to get into the pool, and he answered, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me.”  But salvation wasn’t in the pool.  It was in Jesus.  Jesus simply said, “Rise, take your pallet, and walk,” and the man did.  He didn’t need the pool after all.  All he needed was Jesus.

In John’s subtext, the pool functions as an image of the Law and the man as an image of Israel hoping to find salvation in the Law.  The paralytic had been long in his condition, even as Israel had long been waiting for divine salvation.  The Bethesda pool was thought to have been stirred by an angel, even as the Law had been given by angels (Acts 7:53).  The pool even had five porticoes (John 5:4), even as the Mosaic Law had five books—a detail noticed by Saint Augustine.  Like the paralytic who had to stop relying on the pool for salvation and turn instead to Christ, so Israel had to stop relying upon the Law to save them, and also turn to Christ.  The old was giving place to the new.

We see this contrast between the old and the new throughout John’s Gospel:  not Jewish water, but Christ’s wine, not the old Temple, but Christ’s body, not the manna in the wilderness, but Christ’s flesh.  Christian faith involved turning from the old ways to the new, as sacred Jewish history veered upward into the Kingdom and the eschaton.  It was as Isaiah foretold long ago:  “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you know perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19).  This is the newness of Pascha, and the new life given to us in baptism.  The paralytic found this life not in the old pool, but in the living Christ.  Our Paschal season reminds us that this is where we find new life and constant renewal as well.

Source: OCA

If we turn to the Gospel and read it every day, or if we simply read it once in a while with an openness that we do not always possess, we may think that Christ holds before our eyes a mirror in which we see ourselves as we are.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Gospel Reading – John 4:5-42

5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: andit was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

COMMENTARY

When the Samaritan woman came back in haste to her town and called all those who lived around her to see Christ, she said: ‘Come! Here is a Man who has told me everything I have done!’ And the people flocked around, and listened to what Christ had to say.

At times we think, how easy it was for this woman to believe and how easy it was for her, from within this shattering experience to turn to others and say: Come! Listen to one who has spoken as no-one else has ever spoken, One Who, without a word of mine has seen into the depth of my heart, into the darkness of my life, has seen and known everything.

But is it not something that can happen to each of us? Christ did not tell her anything very singular; He told her who she was, what her life had been, how God saw her. But this He can tell us every day of our life, and not in a mystical experience, not as it happened to some saints, but in the simplest possible way.

If we turn to the Gospel and read it every day, or if we simply read it once in a while with an openness that we do not always possess, we may think that Christ holds before our eyes a mirror in which we see ourselves as we are: either by rejoicing at what we see, or by contrast, being shaken by the fact that we are so different from what we seem to be, or what we imagine we are.

Christ said to the Samaritan woman: Call your husband! And she said: I have no husband. Christ replied: You have spoken the truth. You have had five husbands, and the one who is your husband now indeed, is not your husband more than anyone else.

Certain spiritual writers have commented on this passage by saying that Christ was saying to her: Yes — you have been wedded to all that your five senses could give you, and you have seen that you find fulfilment, satisfaction in none. And now, what is left to you is your own self, your body, your mind, and this, no more than your five senses can fulfil you, give you that fullness without which you cannot live.

Is this not what Christ says to us when we read the Gospel, when He presents us with what we could be, when He calls us to that greatness which is ours by vocation; the greatness that Paul describes by calling us to reach the fullness of the stature of Christ — to be human as He was, in the same way as Christ is true man, fulfilled by total final, full communion with God.

So let us learn from this woman that we have turned, all of us, to so may ways in which we could receive the message of this world and be filled, and we have all discovered, that nothing can fill us, because man is too deep for things material, too deep for things psychological, too vast — only God can fill this vastness and this depth. If we only could realise this, we would be exactly in the position of the woman of Samaria. We need not meet Christ at the well; the well, indeed, is the Gospel, the place from which the water of life may gush — but not a material well, that well is a symbol. The water which we are to drink is different…

And so, let us emulate this woman, let us come to our senses, let us realise that all we have been wedded to was not our fulfilment; and let us then ask ourselves “Who am I, with regard to myself in the dimension of God’s vision?” And then we can go to others and say: I have met someone who has held a mirror before my eyes, and I have seen myself as I am, He has told me about myself: come and see! Come — and listen to Him! …. And others will come, others will listen, and then they will turn to us and say: It is no longer your testimony that makes us believe — we have seen for ourselves, we have heard for ourselves, we know for ourselves. We believe. Amen.

Source: Metroplitan Anthony of Sourozh Archive

The ability to keep silent is very highly valued in human society. Not without reason is it said that silence is golden, but the word is silver. A silent person is able to control his thoughts, words, and actions. It is for this reason that silence was (and still is) so highly appreciated in the ascetic practice of the Church.

Sermon of His Holiness, Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia, Delivered on Tuesday of the First Week of Great Lent, 2010, at the Convent of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Moscow:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Sin, which is rooted in the human soul, manifests itself in the form of various vices. There are among them some that are particularly dangerous, both for the person who bears them and for the people around him. Anger and spite are among these dangerous vices. John Climacus, considering them, said that they are a spiritual disease. Just as there are many causes of a physical illness, so too are there many causes of a spiritual illness.

Anger is a form of expressing one’s disagreement with the words and deeds of those around one. This means of expressing disagreement is accompanied by an inadequate reaction, when one raises one’s voice, uses spiteful words, and insults others. Frequently anger is the result of a mental disorder, the result of an illness of the nervous system. In this case it is the object of medical care; what interests us is anger as a manifestation of one’s inner life, as a sort of spiritual illness. What lies at the foundation of this illness? What are the causes and roots of this disease?

As with the majority of vices, anger grows out of human pride. A proud man, who places himself in the very center of life, develops a sense of self-confidence. Self-confidence asserts itself more and more in one’s proud attitude to the surrounding world. And if someone says or does something to the proud man that he does not agree with, he takes this as a challenge to his sense of “I,” which is the most important and central thing in the world. Hence arises this dreadful emotion, accompanied by raised voices, angry words, and terrible facial expression. With the force of his words and facial expression, this person attempts to strike a blow against those who disagree with him.

There is something in this vice that is torturous for the person himself, for an angry person does not have friends. Anger destroys relationships with one’s neighbors and relatives, creating an extremely difficult atmosphere. How many families are destroyed only because someone in the family is unable to control his anger, making life unbearable! Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, considering the vice of anger, said: “How awful an angry man looks – but what must be going on in his soul!” Indeed, at the moment of anger, the human soul suffers; anger truly is a manifestation of a disease of the soul.

Anger has very dangerous consequences in human life. John Climacus, considering this topic, says: “Nothing prevents the Holy Spirit from entering us as much as anger.” If person does not fight with anger, if he is not aware of the danger of his spiritual disease, then anger turns into spite.

Spite is a distortion of human nature itself. Spite is the kind of illness that leads to an irreversible process in the spiritual life resulting in the destruction of the human personality. Apostle Paul expressed it remarkably: Let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:26-27). In other words, if one is angry longer than one day, then his anger turns into spite; and where there is spite [in Russian: zloba] there is the devil, because the devil is evil [in Russian: zlo]. And if one stays angry for a long time, then an irreversible process begins in his spiritual life. A spiteful man can be intemperate when speaking, because he lives in spite. It is not possible to yell and be abusive at all times, but it is possible to keep this spite in one’s heart throughout the entirety of one’s life. In order to avoid such a terrible contortion of one’s spiritual life, it is necessary to battle against anger, not allowing anger to turn into spite.

What means does the Church offer us for overcoming the vice of anger? The first and foremost means is silence. Set, O Lord, a watch before my mouth (Psalm 140:3) – we must remember these remarkable words of the psalm each time we suddenly feel the urge to vent our anger against our interlocutor or against someone with whom we work or live. The ability to keep thy tongue from evil means to do good (Psalm 33:13, 15).

The ability to keep silent is very highly valued in human society. Not without reason is it said that silence is golden, but the word is silver. A silent person is able to control his thoughts, words, and actions. It is for this reason that silence was (and still is) so highly appreciated in the ascetic practice of the Church. This does not mean that everyone must stop talking and become mute. This is impossible, since the majority of people are engaged in social life and in a variety of relationships with others. But the value of silence is in the fact that, through it, we can guard ourselves from anger and spite.

Of course, the greatest means of overcoming this vice is prayer. When we feel that anger is stirring in our hearts, we have to stop, be silent, and turn to God in prayer. This is very difficult to do. But if during the great and saving Holy Forty Days we begin the struggle of battling against anger and irritability, we will make a very important step towards the Lord. May the Lord help us during the great and saving Holy Forty Days to overcome the vices that characterize us all, and to make at least small, but real, steps toward the Risen Savior! Amen.

Translated by Ekaterina Chernysheva

Edited by Hierodeacon Samuel (Nedelsky)

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/overcoming-the-vice-of-anger/

By Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

 

We are at the mid-point between Pascha, the Resurrection of Christ and His victory over death, and Pentecost where He sends down the Holy Spirit, the “living water,” so we too can follow Him. In this feast we continue the celebration of the Resurrection that emphasizes the Divine nature of Christ. Simultaneously, we are reminded that  the descent of the Holy Spirit is coming soon. We should become aware of the joy our soul seeks to receive His Grace through the Spirit. It is His grace that enables us to follow His teachings, to make our lives Christ centered, to live united with Him in hope of our Resurrection. We are encouraged to think of the joy in receiving the Holy Sprit so that we too can share with others the love God gives us. We can become His light that shines through us like “rivers of flowing waters” (John 7:38).

During the feast we can reflect on the nature of our faith and how weak it is in these times, how few follow His teachings. We too often say that it is more important for us to follow our inner feelings and not to be constrained by His teachings. We think this is freedom. But let’s realize when we say this we are admitting we are a slave to the norms of our current secular culture instead of God’s hopes for us.  The way of our times is not true freedom. It will not lead us to eternal life in His kingdom. In this feast we are reminded to thirst for what is beyond earth, beyond our feelings, beyond our self-centered wants and desires, to thirst for the Holy Spirit that is to be sent to us by Christ Himself on Pentecost. This will bring us true joy, true freedom, and the strength to follow Christ.

For the next week we sing along with the Resurrection hymn the following:

Having come to the middle of the fest,
refresh my thirsty soul with the streams of piety;for thou, O Savior, didst say to all:Let him who thirsts come to Me and drink.O Christ our God,Source of Life, glory to Thee.

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/mid-pentecost-what-is-significance-of.html

By Jesse Dominick

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. CHRIST IS RISEN!

If we come to the daily services and pay close attention to the hymnography in this Paschal period, or if we read through the Pentecostarion (which is a great thing to do at home even outside of Church) we will hear and read about the theme of “water” all throughout this period between Pascha and Pentecost in which the Church uses this liturgical book known as the Pentecostarion. On Pascha we hear “come let us taste a new drink, not miraculous water drawn forth from a barren rock, but the Fount of Immortality, springing from the tomb of Christ, in Him we are established,” and in the succeeding weeks we hear of the Sheep’s Pool, the Well of Jacob, the Pool of Siloam, and the Living Waters of Christ which cause us to never thirst again. We receive this living water in baptism, and in the Cup of Life which is the side of Christ from which flowed blood and water as He hung, triumphantly, on the Cross. He is truly the Fount of Immortality. Thus, in the Dismissal Hymn of Mid-Pentecost we ask Christ for the “waters of piety” to be imparted to our souls.

This feast looks back to Pascha and ahead to Pentecost, originating from both, offering to us, in a sense, a torrent of overflowing grace. The grace of these two amazing feasts is united on this day, and perhaps it is for this reason that this feast was held in especially high esteem by the holy elder Joseph the Hesychast, who was instrumental in renewing the spiritual life on Mt. Athos, and reposed in 1959. He delighted in this feast with the faith of a simple child and awaited with great expectancy and preparation in order to receive these “waters of piety.” It is said that the ascent of his soul and the divine visions he received were especially great on this present feast. Such is the love, mercy and grace of God towards man that are poured out in this Paschal period.

Pentecost pours out such abundant grace that it reaches all the way down to Hades—and so on Pentecost we pray on bended knee for those who have reposed. Christ is the Living Water for both the living and the dead. And the Pentecostarion period concludes with the Sunday of All Saints on which we read from Isaiah 55, that as rain and snow pour out of Heaven and saturate the earth, causing the plants to bud and bringing bread to man, so shall be the Word of God. Whatever proceeds from the mouth of God shall not turn back until all things He wills shall be accomplished. His ways and commandments will prosper, and all peoples, mountains, hills, and trees—indeed, all of creation—shall exalt with joy, and the Lord’s name shall be an everlasting sign for Israel. Of course we know that as the Church we are the New Israel, so we are seeing in Isaiah a promise of God’s everlasting fidelity to us and the promise of His well-spring which can never be quenched.

Even beginning from the Old Testament we see innumerable important references and events involving water. Genesis shows all life beginning and being sustained by water—and again, Christ is the well-spring of life—He invites all who are thirsty to come and drink from Him and to have their thirst quenched from His unquenchable fount. There are also the events of the Red Sea, the Jordan River, etc. These are all prefigurements of the spiritual realities that are revealed in full in the Incarnation of Christ and are available to us without limit within Christ’s Holy Church, which is His very water and life-giving Body.

From the life of Christ, this feast celebrates the time He was found in the Temple at twelve years old in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles. He spoke concerning His origin from God and the living water that He offers, and He astonished all those who heard Him. Here Christ is celebrated not only as the Spring of Living Water but also as Holy Wisdom, which is of course intimately connected to His living water. We sang tonight: “Thou, the Wisdom of God, didst come to the temple at Mid-feast,” and many other hymns referring to Christ as the Wisdom of God. Some scholars even believe that the Church of the Holy Wisdom, Agia Sophia, in Constantinople celebrated its feast day on this feast of Mid-Pentecost.

In meeting Christ in the Church in worship and in the sacraments we come to know His Wisdom experientially. This wisdom of course, is not that of man, but it is the Divine Wisdom of God—it is the very life of Christ. It is the life-giving water that He pours out into our souls and with which He saturates our entire being. This Wisdom, which is the life of Christ, is humility. The preaching of Christ is foolishness to the world, but all the wisdom of the world is foolishness in the face of the humble Christ Who gives endlessly of Himself to us who are undeserving of His life. But here, in the Church, on this feast, and at all times, we receive His life through our humility and our repentance—our recognition that we absolutely need His energy to bring us again to Paradise. This is Wisdom and this is Life. Come let us taste this new drink.

Christ spoke in the Temple of His divine origin, and Mid-Pentecost continues the glorious celebration of His defeat of death, which emphasizes His divinity for only God Himself can defeat death. Only God IS Life. Today we remember Pascha, but today we also look ahead to the feast of Pentecost. We are reminded of the coming of the Spirit and are emboldened in preparation for receiving the Spirit. This is the summation of the Christian life according to St. Seraphim of Sarov—the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.

And not only do we receive the Spirit—today we prepare moreover to GIVE the Spirit. Christ says “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly show flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). After Pentecost the Apostles did not stay in Jerusalem and keep this gift of Life to themselves. They went out into all the world and imparted that which they had received, as they had been commanded by Christ. If Christ has given to us, surely we must give to others. Otherwise, where is Christ in our life? Christ is love and humility. Deal with everyone in love and humility, no matter how it works against our egos, and burns us. This burning is cleansing and is cooled by the water we are receiving from Christ. Elder Joseph loved this feast and the grace it imparts, but his life and legacy demonstrates that he also loved to give the Spirit. His influence is keenly felt on Mt. Athos, in Greece, and even here in America, and throughout the world. This is the mark of the true Christian—he who transmits that which he has received and changes those around him for the sake of Christ.

In his homily on Mid-Pentecost, Fr. Seraphim Rose says if there is anything we learn from this feast it is this: to THIRST. Even in the midst of our rejoicing and feasting on the good things of the earth in these days of Pascha we look ahead to the outpouring of the Spirit—to the good things from above the earth. Indeed, let us seek this Wisdom, and let us thirst for this living water. Thus we sing:

“Having come to the middle of the feast, refresh my thirsty soul with the streams of piety; for Thou, O Savior, didst say to all: Let Him who thirsts come to Me and drink. O Christ our God, Source of Life, glory to Thee.”

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. CHRIST IS RISEN!

A homily on the commemoration of the Procession of the Cross and the Seven Maccabean Marytrs with their mother Solomonia and the priest Eleazar.

By Fr. Seraphim Holland

 

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, today is the Procession of the Cross which we celebrate on the first of August, and also the holy Maccabean martyrs with their teacher Eleazar and their mother Solomonia. And we read today about the Cross in two readings, both because of the feast of the Procession and also because of the martyrs, because the martyrs followed the way of the Cross. Now St. Paul has two famous phrases that are in one of the epistles we read today—a very misunderstood phrase. Let’s talk about what it really means.

He speaks about the preaching of the Cross. In another place He speaks about the foolishness of the preaching of the Cross. What does this mean? It’s talked about a lot but it’s not understood. We must understand what happened on the Cross. Our Lord showed His great love for us and He destroyed death by His human death and His subsequent Resurrection. One cannot speak of the Cross without speaking of the Resurrection. We can see this clearly when we prostrate before the Cross. We sing “Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship O Master, and Thy holy Resurrection we glorify.” The Cross was the vehicle by which the Lord chose to die so that He would again live and make our flesh capable of life.

And the Cross of course was an instrument of torture. It was a way to kill someone—not only an execution, but also to humiliate them and to torment them—so it was saved only for those criminals or those people that the government wanted to make a special example of. There was shame in the Cross. But the Lord has turned the shame of the Cross into glory. This is the preaching of the Cross.

Now, some people would believe the preaching of the Cross to be that the Lord on the Cross substituted His death for ours because it was required; that because of sin we must die and because of that there was no other way out, because our sin is so huge, so infinite, that only an infinite sacrifice would suffice to bring about the regeneration of men. This is called Substitutionary Atonement and it is not at all an Orthodox doctrine. It is not at all a very old doctrine—maybe 300 years—but it is prevalent everywhere, even amongst those in the Church because they hear things from outside the Church—from radio programs or books or movies—that espouse this doctrine. It is really a terrible thing to say that the Lord was forced to die because His Father required it.

Our Lord gave His life willingly because of His love for us. The preaching of the Cross is that. We see His sacrifice. We see His love. We see His humility. We see His purpose, and we emulate it. This is the only way of life. At the end of his epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle says after saying that we preach Christ crucified—to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness—but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greek, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

When we see the Cross we should see power. But what kind of power? The power that comes from love, from consuming love; the power that comes from humility; the power that comes from not attacking those who attack you but turning the other cheek; not hating those who hate you but praying for them; not slandering those that slander you, but bearing all. This is the way of the Cross and it’s the only way of life.

A great disservice has been done to the Christian life by the heresies that have come into the world that make Christianity to be some sort of legal contract wherein the Cross is that legal document which ensures that we will not be judged. Christianity is to have a Father to Whom we cry “Abba;” to have His Son Who is the Body of the Church and Who calls us friend because we become like Him. We’re made in the image and likeness of God and we must, over the course of our lives, attempt to make this image shine bright. The way of the Cross will make it shine bright.

The reason why we have two readings for the Cross, as I told you in the beginning, is because of the two feasts. Generally this long reading that tells about our Lord’s actual Crucifixion and all the things that happened: Pilate writing “Jesus Christ, King of the Jews” in the three languages, and all the rest, is read for feasts of the Cross. But then another reading which is even more profound and really more applicable to us because it has commandments in it is read, which is the one about taking up the cross. The preaching of the Cross is what the Lord did for us. And the reason He did the things that He did for us is His love for us—His consuming love for us. Even though many of us have returned His love with hatred, His love with indifference, His love with hypocrisy, yet He loves all equally. This is all the way of the Cross, and the Lord commands us to take up this way.

In fact, He makes this command in startling terms that we should listen to, because Christianity is not anything legal, but it is about a relationship with Jesus Christ, with God the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, through the Church. He says, And he that taketh not His cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. Before then He says something which is part of the way of the Cross and He says it in even more startling terms. He saysWhosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.

This is describing the way of the Cross which we must follow in these two commandments, both in a positive and in a negative fashion. The way of the Cross is to emulate our Lord Jesus’ Christ’s life. It’s nothing about legal contracts. It is about following our Lord, following His example. This is what Christianity is. And the reason why is because He lived the perfect human life, so that we could reach perfection. There is only one way to reach perfection, and that is by emulating Jesus Christ.

Now there is a multiplicity of life paths. One of us becomes a doctor, one of us a lawyer, one of us a priest, one of us a soldier, one of us a monk. There are multiple ways in which we follow Christ, but fundamentally all these ways must be doing the same thing—they must be obeying the preaching of the Cross. The majority of our Lord’s preaching was how He lived, not what He said. Most of what He said has not been recorded. But everything He wanted to teach us is recorded in the mind of the Church, by His example which His disciples learned and passed onto us.

And so the preaching of the Cross is to follow the example of the Lord and know that the way of the Cross is the way of power—power over sin, power over death, power over all that stuff in you that you can’t get rid of yet. You want to get rid of it? I sure do. Christianity promises that we can. All that darkness, all that icky stuff in there, the thoughts that you have that you wish you didn’t have, the things you do that you wish you didn’t do, the things you don’t do that you wish you could start doing—the Cross offers the way to accomplish these things, because the only way of life is the way to follow Jesus Christ. There is no other way. So let us follow the preaching of the Cross. It’s foolishness to most of the world. It’s foolishness to a lot of people that call themselves Christians. Let’s not listen to that. Let’s just follow the way of life. Look at our Lord’s life and follow it. This is the Christian life.

Now there’s one caveat I will say to you—how are you going to know the Lord’s life? The Lord in another place says My sheep follow Me because they know My voice, but they won’t follow a stranger because they don’t know the voice of a stranger. There are many strangers out there saying lots of things about Jesus Christ. How are you to know which are true? Well there are two things that you must do. You must struggle to follow the way of Christianity. It’s about morality. It’s about sacrifice. And also you must strive to know the Lord. How will you know Him except to read about Him with expectation in the Gospel, the Epistles and all of the Bible, and to pray before Him daily, many times each day, to come to the services and to confess and to commune, to receive His Body and Blood for eternal life? If you don’t do these things with effort you can’t know Christ, because to know Christ is to be ever-changing, ever getting better, more humble, more kind, more wise. And the way of the Cross is the only thing that will bring you to, as the apostle says, the power of God and the Wisdom of God.

May God grant us to follow this preaching of the Cross and to understand what it really is. There is not one shred of legalism in the way of the Cross. There is no contract in the way of the Cross. Do we have a contact with our father and mother? Is there anything written down? No, we love them and they love us, because it is the way things should be. So it is with the way of the Cross. The Lord loves us above everything infinitely, and so we should strive to Love Him infinitely, and as we do so by following His way of life we will experience the power of God and the Wisdom of God.

May God bless you and help you in all things.

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This sermon is available in audio format at Orthodox.net.

Transcribed by OrthoChristian.com

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Edited by OrthoChristian.com

By Matushka Constantina

Today we commemorate the holy belt of the Theotokos – the only surviving relic of the Virgin Mary. According to Tradition, the Apostle Thomas was the only apostle absent at the dormition of the Mother of God. He was grieved to learn of this, but suddenly found himself witnessing the Virgin’s ascent to Heaven. He pleaded with her to give him a blessing; she untied her belt – made of camel skins – and gave it to him. This belt is the only existing relic of the Virgin Mary. Its only known remaining piece is housed at the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. The Orthodox Church celebrates the Holy Belt of the Theotokos on August 31. As a blessing, the Fathers lay pieces of cord or rope across the relic and give them out to the faithful to wear around their waist, particularly women who desire to conceive. I used to have one, but I gave it to a friend. I’ll have to try and get another one before we leave Greece.

Here is an example of a few of the many miracles that our Holy Mother works through her holy belt. I’ve translated it from Pemptousia’s website (Greek articles: http://www.pemptousia.gr/2012/06/thavmata-agias-zonis-meros-26o/):

Testimonial to the Miracle of the Holy Sash of the Virgin Mary -December 21, 2008

A few days ago I received a blessing – a rope blessed on the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary. The girl who used it became pregnant despite all the problems that existed; it was the miracle of miracles. She did a [kind of] therapy for 6 months in which time she could not take medication so as to cleanse the body, and since she was trying, for 3 of those months, to get pregnant she avoided drugs for this purpose as well. As a consequence she had great pain all over her body because of her disease.

The last day of her therapy was 1 December 2008; she planned to resume her medication the next day. On the evening of November 30 she took a pregnancy test and the result was positive. Of course you can understand the joy and happiness of us all. Once again, the Virgin Mary had helped.

In April of 2003 we visited your monastery and got two more ropes which were blessed on the holy belt of the Virgin Mary. One of which I gave to a colleague. Her sister, who lived in Germany, had tried for years to have children and could not. She had spent large amounts of money trying to do so. The other I gave to a colleague of my mother (a teacher) who was also trying for many years but unfortunately could not have children.

After I gave away the “belts” I felt confident about the outcome. However I was careless and didn’t ask [any follow-up questions].

One year or so passed and suddenly on our way to work my colleague tells me that she planned on taking a vacation in order to go and see her niece. I asked if this was her sister in Germany who had given birth, and it turned out after so many years of effort her sister had finally had a child.

That afternoon I told myself I must ask my mother what happened with her colleague. Her colleague, who after so many years of sorrow, also gave birth, thanks to the grace of the holy belt.

I thanked the Virgin Mary, who helps so many every day. We sought her help once more and like an affectionate mother, she ran to help.

– Evangelos Nanos

We solemnly celebrate, dear brothers and sisters, the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary from her barren parents, pious Joachim and Anna. The Holy Church established this feast during the first centuries of the Christian Faith. The event that we celebrate—the birth of the God-Chosen maiden—brought joy to all the world, for the God-man, Jesus Christ, Who shone forth from Her, destroyed God’s curse which weighed heavily upon the transgressing and accursed human race, and brought God’s blessing upon it; having trampled down inherent death, He gave people eternal life. Thus the Holy Church explains the cause of the present joy.

The parents of the Ever-Virgin sorrowed long over their barrenness; they prayed long and fervently to the Lord that He loose this barrenness, which was considered a punishment from God for sins. They gave much alms in order to incline the mercy of the All-Merciful, endured the reproach of their countrymen, and through this sorrow and ceaseless prayer and good works, they gradually purified their spirits, and burned ever greater with love and dedication to God, thus being prepared by God’s Providence to give blessed birth to the Most Blessed Daughter, chosen out of all people to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word.

The Lord leads His chosen ones to glory by a narrow and sorrowful path; for even She, the Mother of God according to the flesh, received the prophecy of Simeon that a sword shall pierce Her soul, and She will experience heavy sorrows in her soul during Her Son’s suffering life, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Lk. 2:34–35). The path of all God’s chosen is thus sorrowful and narrow, for the world and the prince of this world—that is, the enemy of God and people, extremely presses the people of God. The Lord Himself allows them to go by the narrow way, inasmuch as He enables them to strive for God and put all their hope in Him.

But let us turn our gaze from the sorrow to the joy. What joy does the Nativity of the Mother of God bring us? Let us explain in more detail the Church hymn which explains the meaning of this feast’s joy. Through the birth of the Ever-Virgin, through Her only-begotten Son and God, cursed and outcast mankind makes peace with God Who is immeasurably offended by man’s sins, for Christ became the mediator of this peace (cf. Rom. 5:10-11). Man is freed from the curse and eternal death, made worthy of the blessing of the Heavenly Father; he is united and co-mingled with the Divine nature; he is raised to his first inheritance by this co-mingling, according to the Church hymn. Mankind, once an outcast, has been made worthy of sonship to the Heavenly Father, received the promise of the glorious resurrection and eternal life in the heavens together with the angels.

This has all been and is being wrought by the Son of God incarnate from the Most Pure Virgin from the Holy Spirit, and by the intercession of His Most Pure Mother. How honored and magnified is mankind through the Holy Virgin Mother of God, for it has been made worthy of renewal and sonship by God; She Herself was made worthy by Her immeasurable humility and exceedingly great purity and holiness to be the Mother of the God-man! She is ever the most powerful Intercessor for the Christian race before Her Son and God! She is our Hope unashamed; She turns away from us the dark cloud of God’s righteous wrath, opens to us the ancient paradise by Her powerful intercessions; She upholds the thrones of kings, and preserves them unshakeable to the ages. She has saved Russia thousands of times and continues to save her; She has made her strong, glorified her, established her, and continues to do so; She is the Surety of Sinners for salvation. To Her do Christians direct their numberless prayers, requests, and praises, doxologies and thanksgiving; She has worked and continues to work miracles without number in the Church, to the ends of the world.

Let us brightly celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, adorning ourselves with all the Christian virtues.

Together, the Great Feasts serve to tell us the story of the Incarnation, which has its climax in the centre of the year with the celebration of the “Feast of Feasts” – Pascha. It is therefore fitting that the first Great Feast of the Church year, which begins in September, is that of theNativity of the Theotokos.

The early life of Mary, the Mother of God, up to the occasion of the Annunciation is described in the ancient Protoevangelium of James. Hymnography and iconography for the feasts celebrating Mary’s conception, birth, and dedication to the Temple as a child, all borrow from this early (c. 2nd century) account.

The Mother of God’s birth was miraculous, not because she was born without original sin, nor because she was born of a virgin, but instead because she was born of a man and her barren wife: Joachim and Anna.

The icon of the feast is a more-or-less faithful imaging of the protoevangelium, with the composition echoing the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ which Mary’s birth prepares the way for. Anna is reclining in a bed, in a similar way to how Mary herself reclines in icons of Christ’s Nativity. Below Anna, the infant Mary is being bathed by midwives, just as the infant Christ is washed by Salome in the icon of His own birth. Likewise, just as Joseph is shown removed from the main scene of the birth in Nativity icons, Mary’s father Joachim is also shown apart from the scene in icons of the Theotokos’ birth.

As for the differences, the main one is that the surroundings. Whereas Christ’s birth is shown to be in a cave, in the wilderness, the Mother of God’s birth is shown within the city walls, amid what appears to be a beautifully decorated house, because Joachim was “a man rich exceedingly” (Protoevangelium). Instead of a cave, Mary is inside Anna’s bed-chamber, which according to the protoevangelium was made into a sanctuary until the time Mary entered the Temple. Whereas Mary and the Christ-child are attended by angels in their relative solitude, around Anna is a hive of activity: the “undefiled daughters of the Hebrews” whom Anna brought into the bed-chamber to attend to her. A table by Anna shows the feast which Joachim prepared on Mary’s first birthday, to which were invited the scribes, priests and elders of Israel.

Other details which may be present are separate details of Anna, Joachim and the infant Mary together in a loving embrace. Scenes from before the Theotokos’ nativity may also be shown, such as the angel visiting Joachim in the desert to tell him of the upcoming conception, and Joachim and Anna embracing at the gateway to their house, an image also depicted separately as the “Conception of the Mother of God”. At the bottom of the Icon there is sometimes a fountain of water or water fowl in a small garden. This describes Anna’s “double lament” beneath the laurel tree of her garden, when she thought that she would neither conceive or see her husband again:

Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me? Because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord.

The icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos show us the relatively exalted beginnings of Mary’s birth. Yet in her humility she does not expect the tidings that the Archangel Gabriel brings just a few years later, and bears with quietude the spartan surroundings of her own Son’s birth in Bethlehem.

Today the Virgin Theotokos Mary
The bridal chamber of the Heavenly Bridegroom
By the will of God is born of a barren woman,
Being prepared as the chariot of God the Word.
She was fore-ordained for this, since she is the divine gate and the true Mother of Life.

Source: A Reader’s Guide to Orthodox Icons