👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The Mystery of #Wednesday #Praise of the Virgin Mary
Beloved brethren in Christ, let us gather our minds and hearts to behold the mystery of this day a day radiant with heavenly brightness, the third day of thanksgiving and the fourth day of creation. On this day, our Lady, the Ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, comes among us in glory greater than usual, accompanied by multitudes of angels. The air is clothed with light, a beam from heaven spreads like golden dawn across the earth, and her voice is heard:
"Peace be with you, O blessed Ephraim."
Ephraim stands with hands uplifted to receive her blessing.Then, she came like surrounded by the choirs of heaven,after that he begins her hymn of gratitude:
"May all the hosts of heaven rejoice in the blessing of the Blessed Virgin!"
I. Mary, the Pure Wedding House of the Divine
All the ranks of the heavenly hosts cry out: "you are the second heaven above the earth!" From the angelic spheres Ihor, Ramah, and Erer voices resound: "Glory to you!"
Mary is called the Mother of the East, for from her arose Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. She is the bridal chamber undefiled, the dwelling where the Bridegroom and the Bride the Divine and the divine are united. In her, heaven and earth are wed: man with God, soul with body, nations with nations, angels with humanity. She is the pure wedding house in whom this great mystery was fulfilled, as the Apostle says, “that He might make in Himself of two one new man” (Eph. 2:15).
Abba Hiriakos declares of her:
“He breathed and was exalted… the Father saw Him from heaven, and finding none like Him, sent His first and only Son, without successor, to take flesh and soul from you, O Virgin. Pray for us, that we may not be deprived of the grace and glory of your Son, in your purity and virginity.”
II. The Question of the Intercession of the Saints
Some in ignorance ask, “Should we pray to her after her resurrection? Is her intercession now ended?” But Saint Yohannes Afewerki teaches that the saints, once they have prayed and vowed before God, receive all their desires with one prayer. As Noah’s covenant was sealed once for all and daily remembered by God when He sees the rainbow (Gen. 9:11), so too the covenant with the saints stands forever, not because they are silent, but because they have been granted a glory beyond the need of repeated asking.
Thus, when we say we call upon the saints, we are recalling to God the covenant He has made with them, as Abba Hiriakos repeats in the holy liturgy.
III. Mary, the City of God
Let us return to the vision of Mary. The generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth will call her blessed (Luke 1:48). For nine months and five days, the womb of this Virgin became the City of God, holding Him whom heaven and earth cannot contain. She conceived without seed, gave birth without loss of virginity, and nursed her Son with pure breasts.
She is the dwelling place of the righteous, the martyrs, and the angels. The kings of the earth, hearing of this news, will taste both the sweetness of the Kingdom and the bitterness of hell, and will choose to believe in her Son, the One True Light.
IV. Mary, the True Cloud of Life
She is the true cloud, the rain of life, the dew of life, the water of life, quenching the thirst of souls. As Abba George exhorts: “
"Let us give thanks to her, the cloud of light that carries the pure rain, that we may behold the light shining from the clouds.”
In her, virginity remained unbroken in birth; in her, the Word became flesh without change of divinity. The Holy Spirit preserved her from conception from any defilement, and the Son clothed Himself in her flesh to redeem us.
Continues👇🏾