The Entry of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple
The Entry of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple
Troparion: Today is the beginning of God's dispensation and the prelude of the fulfilment of the mystery hidden from the ages; for the Virgin takes up her dwelling in the temple of God and proclaims Christ to all. To her let us cry aloud: Rejoice, O fulfilment of the dispensation of God.
Kontakion: The all-pure temple of the Saviour, the most precious Virgin, the sacred treasury of the glory of God, is brought today into the house of God, bringing with her the grace of the Holy Spirit; the angels of God hymn her, for she is the tabernacle of heaven.
● Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, sermons for the feast of the Entry of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple (2001 · 2003 · 2006 · 2007 · 2010)
● St Gabriel (Kikodze) the Hierarch, a word on the Entry of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple; a short teaching on the Entry of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple
● Archbishop Zosime (Shioshvili), The Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (1983 · 1996)
The Entry of the All-holy Mother of God into the Temple
St Joachim and St Anna lived together for fifty years, but were given no child, and for this they bore a great many insults from men. Once the high priest even refused Joachim's offering, telling him: you must have many hidden sins, since God gives you no child. Great sorrow came upon the righteous couple. With lamentation St Anna vowed to the Lord that, if He would show mercy and give her a child, she would offer it to Him.
The Lord heard Anna's prayer: the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her and told her the good news that she would have a daughter, Mary, from whose womb the Saviour would come into the world. At the end of nine months the longed-for child was born to the couple. They guarded the girl as the apple of their eye, raised her and cherished her; and the child Mary, by divine grace, gladdened and strengthened her aged parents.
Mary turned three, and the time came to part from her parents. St Joachim and St Anna remembered well what the Archangel had said, and they resolved to bring their only daughter to the temple with solemnity, as befitted the mother of the Messiah. They invited their kinsfolk, neighbours and friends. St Joachim was a descendant of Nathan, son of the Prophet David, and St Anna's forebears were of the priesthood, so on this blessed day many people greatly honoured in Israel gathered in their home. They dressed the child Mary in royal clothing. The aged parents stood on either side of the girl, took her by the hands, and so set out on the road from Nazareth to Jerusalem. A company of virgins went before them, and behind came the throng of kinsfolk and neighbours with lighted lamps in their hands. David's prophecy was fulfilled: the daughter would forget “her own people” and “her father's house” and be brought to the Lord of Sabaoth, for the King “has desired her beauty”.
They went on their way singing psalms. On the third day, at dawn, they entered Jerusalem. The whole city came out to see this glorious procession. “The heavens and the earth were amazed, for they saw the spiritual heaven coming to the divine house, to be raised in honour.”
The festive company entered the court of the temple and brought in the spiritual temple of the great King — the child Mary. The angels of the Lord joined the company of virgins going before. They did not know the power of God's mystery, but at the Lord's command they surrounded holy Mary and escorted her into the Holy of Holies.
The high priest Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, came out of the temple to meet them. He was the husband of Elisabeth, St Anna's niece. As soon as the child Mary set foot on the stairs, she ran up all fifteen steps without help and threw her arms around Zacharias's knees. “The grace of the Holy Spirit came upon the high priest,” says St Theophylact. “He understood that this child was the dwelling place of the grace of God and more worthy than he… He remembered that the Ark of the Covenant, according to the Law, was to be kept in the Holy of Holies; he understood that this was said of Mary, and therefore without a moment's thought he made bold and, against the Law, led the holy Virgin into the Holy of Holies.”
The joyful parents gave thanks to the Lord, returned home and held a great feast, while their blessed daughter went on living in the house of God.
The temple at Jerusalem was surrounded by stone buildings. In one lived those dedicated to the service of God; in another, widows who had vowed to live in holiness before God; in a third, men called Nazarites… St Zacharias gave the child Mary to the virgins to be brought up. From them Mary learned Holy Scripture, the ancient Hebrew writing, weaving and embroidery. The priests were clothed in vestments she embroidered when they served.
Within a few years Mary's parents died. To the will of God the All-holy Virgin added her own labour. From dawn to the third hour she stood in prayer; from the third to the ninth hour she did handiwork or read Holy Scripture; from the ninth hour she began again to pray, until an angel of the Lord appeared to her and gave her heavenly food; and she always prayed in the Holy of Holies. “The angels visited her every day,” says the blessed Jerome. “If anyone asks me how the All-holy Virgin spent the days of her youth there, I will answer that only God knows, and the Archangel Gabriel, her guardian inseparable from her since her birth, who often came to her with the other angels and spoke with her in love.”
The Virgin Mary grew in wisdom and was made ready to be the spiritual temple of the Lord.
It all began with the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple. On this blessed day “is the beginning of God's dispensation and the prelude of the fulfilment of the mystery hidden from the ages”. This is why the Christians of old kept this day with particular solemnity. The holy empress Helena is even said to have built a church dedicated to this feast.
“The righteous are brought into the Kingdom of God by the Apostle Peter, but sinners by the All-holy Mother of God herself,” says St Ambrose of Optina; and let us too, who labour and are heavy laden, never lose hope, but “fall with hope into the motherly embrace of the Mother of God, that through her intercession Christ God who was born of her may have mercy on us. Amen.”
