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.