‘Hail, passage through the gates of Paradise…’

Sotirios Sarvanis, Theology Student

Holy and Great Lent began a few days ago and the atmosphere is already solemn and mournful, as befits this period of time. It’s the sweetest and most beautiful time of the year, since it provides us with a great opportunity for prayer and repentance, and deep contrition strengthens this desire.

The liturgical life of the Church includes beautiful and solemn services, such as Solemn Vespers, Great Compline and the Salutations to Our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God, which give us special strength. And as we know, Our Lady is our greatest intercessor to God. Why has the Church placed the Salutations to Our Lady in Great Lent? What connection can they have with the Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord, which we are soon to experience?

The Theotokos and Ancestral Sin

The two articles that follow below, "On the Theotokos and Ever-­Virgin Mary" and "On the Ancestral Sin of the Holy and Ever-­Virgin Mary", are chapters 50 and 51 of the Treasury of Orthodoxy of Bishop Theophilos of Campania (1749-­‐1795).

By Theophilos, Bishop of Campania

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INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPEL

SATURDAY AKATHIST PRAISE OF THE VIRGIN

Mk 35. 27-31

And Jesus went with his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. The way he asked his disciples who people say I am? They answered, John the Baptizer, and others - for Elijah, but others - one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter said to him: Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

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Fifth Saturday of Great Lent: The Akathist Hymn

About the year 626, the Persians, Avars, and Slavs came with a great host and besieged the imperial city of Constantinople while the Emperor Heraclius and the main body of the Byzantine army were absent in the East. Enemy ships filled the sea, especially the Golden Horn, and on land the adversaries were ready for attack with foot-soldiers, horses, and engines of war. Though the citizens courageously withstood them, yet they were few in number and would be unable to repulse the attack of such a great host. Hence, they could not count on any other means of salvation, except the protection of the Theotokos. And truly, suddenly a violent tempest broke up all the ships and submerged them, and the bodies of the invaders were cast out near the Blachernae quarter of the city where the famous Church of the Theotokos stood. Taking courage from this, the people went forth from the city and repulsed the remaining forces, who fled out of fear. In 673, the city was miraculously delivered yet again, this time from an invasion of the Arabs. Then in 717-718, led by the Saracen general Maslamah, the Arab fleet laid siege once more to the city. The numerical superiority of the enemy was so overwhelming that the fall of the Imperial City seemed imminent. But then the Mother of God, together with a multitude of the angelic hosts, appeared suddenly over the city walls. The enemy forces, struck with terror and thrown into a panic at this apparition, fled in disarray. Soon after this, the Arab fleet was utterly destroyed by a terrible storm in the Aegean Sea on the eve of the Annunciation, March 24, 718. Thenceforth, a special "feast of victory and of thanksgiving" was dedicated to celebrate and commemorate these benefactions. In this magnificent service, the Akathist Hymn is prominent and holds the place of honour. It appears that even before the occasion of the enemy assaults mentioned above, the Akathist Hymn was already in use as the prescribed Service for the Feast of the Annunciation, together with the kontakion, "When the bodiless one learned the secret command," which has the Annunciation as its theme. It was only on the occasion of the great miracle wrought for the Christian populace of the Imperial City on the eve of the Annunciation in 718 that the hymn "To thee, the Champion Leader" was composed, most likely bySaint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Saturday of the Akathist Hymn

 

By Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos

This Saturday we chant the Akathist Hymn during Matins. In our days however this does not happen except in the holy monasteries, since in the parishes it is chanted the evening before, on Friday during the Small Compline.

Synaxarion For the Fifth Saturday of Great Lent

By Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos

FIFTH SATURDAY of LENT

On the same day, the Fifth Saturday of the Fast, we celebrate the Akathist Hymn of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

Verses

With unsleeping hymns doth thy city gratefully

Hymn her Protectress, who is unsleeping in battles.

The Akathist Hymn

Our Humble Laudation to the Theotokos

Igumen Nektary (Morozov)  

 Apr 19th, 2013 

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Human life, brothers and sisters, is full of grief and sorrow: countless worldly sorrows oppress the soul and frequent illnesses depress the body, as though reminding us that the day on which we must give an answer for all our deeds to God, the Righteous Judge, is by no means far away. And who has not sinned? How, then, can our hearts not rejoice and be glad when we hear – or, more precisely, when we recall – that we have a merciful and loving Intercessor who comforts the sorrowful, heals the afflicted, strengthens the faint-hearted and, most importantly, constantly mediates before the Lord for our eternal salvation? This Intercessor, this Mediatress, is the Mother of God – the Mother of all Christians, the Most Pure Virgin Mary.

ABOUT SECRETS OF THE ANNUNCIATION AND THE ADORATION OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

In the Annunciation - all our holidays. All grows and blossoms of the Annunciation. It - Christmas : "I bring you joy, which shall be to all people." In it - the Cross and the Resurrection, and finally Pentecost. Our Lady, the whole is full of the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by the angel: "Hail, full of grace," hear the gospel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you." This proclamation of Pentecost, the Church is called for from now rise from Pentecost to Pentecost, to reach the deification of man, Assumption, Ascension of the sacred humanity.

In Annunciation hidden secret worship the Cross of Christ, which the Church of Christ brings today.Our Lady receives the good news of the birth of the Word in the flesh eternally giving us eternal life: "May it be to me according to thy word." "Word of the devil deceived Eve - says St. John Chrysostom, - erected a tree which Adam was expelled from paradise. Word of Our tree erected a cross, which the robber - the image of Adam - is again in a paradise. "

HOMILY ON THE ANNUNCIATION. THE POWER OF THE CROSS OF GOD’S LOVE

Valaam Monastery, 2006

Schema-Igumen Seraphim (Baradell)
Translation by Nun Cornelia (Rees)

“Today is the crown of our salvation and the manifestation of the mystery that is from all eternity.” Today the Holy Spirit descended upon mankind in the person of the Most Pure One, and the Power of the Most High, the Word of God, overshadowed her and took up His abode in her. The ladder joining heaven and earth was established; man received the power to become God by grace, for the God-Man is conceived today in the womb of Her who is full of grace.

The annunciation, the crown of our salvation, is also the beginning of the Theophany, for in it the activity of the entire Holy Trinity begins to be revealed: the Father wills, the Son descends, and the Holy Spirit overshadows. This day is also the anticipation of Pentecost, for creation in the person of the Most Pure One has been vouchsafed to receive the Holy Spirit into itself, in a tangible action of the conception of God. That day also manifested in itself the power of God’s incarnation, for Mary became the Mother of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Akathist to our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God

Having secretly received the command, the Archangel hastened into Joseph's abode and spoke to the Holy Virgin. He Who bowed the Heavens with His descending, is wholly contained, yet unchanged in You. And seeing Him taking the likeness of a servant in your womb, I stand in amazement and cry unto you:

Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride [3 times].

Kontakion 1

Unto you, O Theotokos, invincible Champion, your City [or "we your people"], in thanksgiving ascribes the victory for the deliverance from sufferings. And having your might unassailable, free us from all dangers, so that we may cry unto you:

Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride.

Eikos 1

The Archangel was sent from Heaven to cry 'Rejoice!' to the Theotokos. And beholding You, O Lord, taking bodily form, he stood in awe, and with his bodiless voice he cried aloud to her such things as these: