Be Ata Le Maryam Tahsas

👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾#Be’ata Le-Maryam "በዓታ ለማርያም " (#Tahsas 3) Dear followers of the Orthodox teachings on John's Repentance website .we greet you with the peace of the Lord. Today, based on the topic mentioned above, we present to you the following important lesson. We encourage everyone to read it carefully and learn from it. The Feast of Be’ata Le-Maryam, celebrated on the third day of Tahsas ,is one of the thirty-three feasts of the Holy Virgin. In Gë`ëz, the name refers to the commemoration of the day when Our Lady, the Holy Virgin Mary, was brought into the temple. ✍🏾The Prayer and Vow of Saint Joachim and Saint Hannah The parents of Our Lady, Saint Joachim and Saint Hannah, lived many years without a child. Infertility in those days was regarded as a great shame, and those considered barren were often excluded from joining the faithful in the temple. Even so: Their love for one another never diminished. They never forgot God for even a single day. They waited with hope for His work to be revealed. They continually vowed to give back the child God would grant them. God heard their sincere prayers, and in His mercy He gave them a daughter: the Holy Virgin Mary. Though she was their child for a time, she was ultimately given for the salvation of Adam and all creation. ✍🏾The Childhood of the Holy Virgin The psalmist David says, “I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You the vows my lips have spoken in my distress” (Psalm 65:12). In the same spirit, Saint Joachim and Saint Hannah went to the temple to fulfill the vows they had made. God heard their prayer and granted them a child, and they, in turn, offered that child back to Him. This reflects the pattern found in the Torah, where Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, having suffered greatly because of her barrenness, vowed that if God granted her a son, she would dedicate him to the house of the Lord. God answered her prayer, and she faithfully brought Samuel to serve before Him (1 Samuel 1:22–28). These noble and righteous parents, chosen to become the ancestors of the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, likewise dedicated their three-year-old daughter, the Holy Virgin Mary, to God. They went to the priest Zechariah, explained the vow they had made, and entrusted their blessed child into his care. ✍🏾The Heavenly Provision for the Virgin “When the priest Zechariah became concerned about the food of the Virgin, he entrusted the matter to God. In response, God sent the holy archangel Saint Phanuel, one of the most glorious angels, to provide for her. As recorded in the Book of Enoch, Phanuel is described as: “The fourth of the glorious archangels, appointed over those who repent, to be the hope of those who will inherit eternal life.” (Enoch 10:8–15) This same angel, by God’s wisdom and will, was appointed as the heavenly steward of the Mother of the Lord. He served her with complete faithfulness. The Psalmist testifies, “He gave the bread of angels to eat” (Psalm 77:25). In this way, the Holy Virgin lived in the temple nourished by heavenly bread and a heavenly cup, provided through the hand of an angel. It is called heavenly bread and a heavenly cup because it was received from above and given by divine grace. Likewise, in the Torah, the people of Israel lived on manna that came down from heaven (Exodus 16:10–13). The Scriptures also record that the prophet Elijah was strengthened for forty days by food given to him by an angel (1 Kings 19:9). In the same manner, Our Lady lived in the temple under the protection of angels, guarded, nourished, and preserved by their ministry. Continues 👇🏾