👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The Mystery of #Zemene #Tsige and the #Mahlete #Tsige
(Part 4)
Beloved in Christ,Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, who love the Mother of God and her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.Let us enter with reverence into the mystery of Zemene Tsige the Season of Flowers and the sacred hymn called Mahlete Tsige, which the Fathers of our Church have handed down to us as a treasure of thanksgiving, contemplation, and spiritual renewal.
The Structure of Mahlete Tsige
Prayer (tselot)
✍🏾 Abba Samuel Zewaldba was reciting the Qeddase Maryam, and the water was miraculously transformed into bread. After admiring this miracle, he said, “O Mary, you can do all things; forgive my sins.”
✍🏾 Our Lord said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:1) This shows that nothing is impossible for those who believe.
✍🏾When the angel told her, “You will conceive and give birth to a son…,” our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, asked how this would happen to her. When she heard the angel say, “Nothing will be impossible for God,” she responded with complete faith, saying, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”
✍🏾Saint Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, testified, “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:45) If it is possible for all who believe, then nothing is impossible for our Lady, since she gave birth to the God whom all the saints worship. That is why she prayed, saying, “For nothing is impossible for You; forgive me my sins and lighten my burden.”
1.2. The Miracle of Mary Foretold in the Torah
The miracle of Mary was preached in the Torah. The great prophet Moses, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw it revealed through the vision of the burning bush.
👉🏾 The fact that the fire did not extinguish the bush is a symbol of God becoming human without diminishing the glory of His divinity.
👉🏾 The fact that the fire did not consume the bush is an example of how the divinity, being united with our Lady, strengthened and sanctified her.
✍🏾 After recalling that the miracle of the conception of our Lady and her being the Mother of God was foretold from ancient times, the author presents this prayer:
👉🏾 “Pray for me in the name of the Holy Spirit, O Lord, for the forgiveness of my sins, O Lord, my fire.”
This means:
👉🏾 “That fire which was united with the Holy Spirit Your Son, Christ may atone for my sins and strengthen me in Your Holy Spirit.”
✍🏾 As David said, “All who dwell in you will be glad” (Psalm 8), it is clear that the prophecy has been fulfilled that those who dwell under the shadow of our Lady’s motherhood and intercession will be blessed with the forgiveness of sins through the grace of her Son, Christ, and will receive the joy and grace of the Holy Spirit.
Continues 👇🏾