The Nativity of the All-holy Mother of God
Akathist to the All-holy Mother of God
Supplicatory canon to the All-holy Mother of God
Prayers to the Mother of God
● A prayer to be said daily to the holy Mother of God, if you desire to behold her at the hour when your soul departs
● A prayer of supplication to the All-holy Mother of God, by our holy father Mark the Monk
● A prayer to the All-holy Mother of God
● A prayer to the All-holy Mother of God, composed by Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople
● The five prayers to the All-holy Mother of God to be said daily, by St Dimitry of Rostov the Hierarch
● Festal prayers to the All-holy Mother of God
An explanation of the Gospel read on the feast of the Nativity of the All-holy Mother of God, after the priest Grigory Dyachenko
● His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, sermons for the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God (1988 · 1992 · 2004 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010)
● St Gabriel (Kikodze) the Hierarch — a word on the day of the Nativity of the Mother of God, spoken in the Monastery of Gelati; a word spoken in the cathedral of Gelati, 8 September 1861; a teaching at Gelati, 8 September 1863; a word spoken at Gelati on the day of the Nativity of the All-holy Mary; a teaching on 8 September 1864 in the Monastery of Gelati; a word spoken at Gelati on 8 September; a word spoken at Gelati on the day of the Nativity of the Mother of God; a word on the day of the Nativity of the Mother of God, spoken in the Monastery of Gelati in 1877; a teaching spoken at Gelati on 8 September 1869
When the Lord willed to save the race of Adam, He was pleased to take human nature, and He chose the All-holy Virgin Mary to be His Mother.
In the books of the Old Testament prophecies of the Mother of God are found in many places. To the prophet Ezekiel she appeared as a shut gate: “which none passed through save God, and the gate remains shut” (Ezek. 44:2); the prophet Daniel said: “a stone cut out of the mountain without hands” (Dan. 2:34), which signified the birth of Jesus Christ without a man; and Isaiah cried out: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Isaiah 7:14).
Moses beheld the Mother of God as the unburnt bush on Mount Sinai; Gideon as the fleece; David as the ark; the prophet Hosea preached her as the incorrupt virgin; Ezekiel as the gate of holiness; Daniel as the unshaken mountain; Isaiah as the root of Jesse.
In Christian literature there is an apocryphal work of James, “The Nativity of Mary” (apocryphon is a Greek word and means “hidden”; later the name was given to non-canonical books, though the holy Church accepts some apocryphal works if their account does not contradict the teaching of the Church), which tells in detail how Joachim and Anna came to have the future Mother of the incarnate Lord.
The All-holy Virgin was born in the small Galilean town of Nazareth. Her father, the righteous Joachim, was of the tribe of King David, and her mother, the righteous Anna, was a descendant of Aaron, the first high priest. The God-fearing couple were given no child. So they came to old age, yet they did not lose hope that God, for whom nothing is impossible, would grant them a child. Joachim and Anna made a vow that they would dedicate the newborn to the Lord for service in the temple. The Jews held childlessness to be a punishment from God, and so Joachim and Anna heard many unjust reproaches from their countrymen. At one of the feasts the righteous Joachim wished to offer a sacrifice to the Lord in the temple at Jerusalem, but the high priest refused him. The old man was filled with deep grief; he went out into the wilderness and spent forty days in fasting and prayer.
The Lord heard the entreaty of the couple. The Archangel Gabriel announced to Anna that she would soon be a mother, and that her child would be magnified. In her joy the woman at once made a vow, in token of her thanksgiving, that she would offer the child to the Lord. The angel announced to Joachim also, alone in the wilderness, that God had heard his entreaty and that he would soon have an heir.
Time passed, and Anna gave birth. A daughter was born to her, and they named her Mary.
When Mary was a year old, Joachim held a great feast and invited the high priests, the priests, the scribes and the honourable elders. The high priests and the priests blessed the child and asked God's blessing upon her.
The Nativity of the All-holy Virgin Mary, who bore the incarnate Lord in her immaculate body, is one of the greatest feasts of Christians. By her purity and her virtue the Mother of God surpassed not only every mortal but every angel as well; she became the living temple of God and, as the holy Orthodox Church hymns her, the “gate of heaven through which Christ came into the world for the salvation of our souls”.
In the heavenly hierarchy the All-holy Mother of God stands higher than the angels of the highest rank. As one of the hymns dedicated to her says, she is “more honourable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim”.
The All-holy Mother of God is the helper and intercessor of all, but Georgia and the Georgians she protects in a particular way. This is because, according to sacred tradition, Iveria is the lot of the Mother of God. When the Apostles cast lots as to who should preach the law of Christ in which land, Georgia fell to the Mother of God; but the Lord appeared to the Mother of God and told her not to leave Jerusalem, since her dormition was drawing near, and He promised her that the land of her lot would shine in the time to come. And so, in place of the Mother of God, Andrew the First-Called was sent to Georgia.
That Georgia is under the protection of the Mother of God is a great mercy of God, but at the same time it is the greatest responsibility. A mercy needs, besides thanksgiving, to be received worthily; for a mercy is a reward only when you serve the Lord faithfully; if you treat the grace given you unworthily, it becomes a punishment.
The Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of the All-holy Mother of God on 21 September (8 September, Old Style). On this day particular hymns are offered in the churches — the All-holy Virgin is magnified as the ladder that joined heaven and earth when she bore the Lord in the flesh, and as the “unburnt bush”, for she contained God and was not consumed.
