👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾About #Mary(#Negere #mariyam)Our# Lady’s #Temple Life According to the #Saints
(Part 2)
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 Teaching of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem(315–386 AD)
✍🏾Saint Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, taught about the life of Our Lady in the Temple in his sermons.
He explains that Joachim and Anna had the custom of visiting their daughter once each month. They would bring her what she needed, and the holy Virgin would serve in the Temple together with the older virgins, who taught her the work of the hands and the ways of service.When she reached the proper age, she would go to the Temple by herself.
✍🏾 No man would see her except the priests and her father. The Virgin Mary lived within the Temple, and the Archangel Gabriel would approach her with a sweet fragrance. Her beauty was beyond measure, and the Temple was filled with angels because of the fragrance of her purity. Saint Cyril describes her life in detail, saying that people would come only to hear her holy words.
✍🏾The Teaching of Saint Demetrius of Antioch
(256 AD)
👉🏾Saint Demetrius, Archbishop of Antioch, also taught concerning the life of Our Lady in the Temple.
✍🏾When her mother Anna placed her at the door of the Temple before the priests, the child entered and went as far as the veil of the altar, where sacrifices were offered to the Lord. After entering, she did not turn back to go outside, nor did her mind dwell on her family or on earthly matters.
✍🏾As she grew and reached the age of eight or ten, she became an example to all the priests. They feared to gaze upon her, for her body was pure and her heart firmly established in the Lord.
She was pure in body and soul. She never turned her face toward the outside of the Temple, never saw a stranger, and never looked upon the face of a man. She lived in holiness, serving God continually in the Temple. Her garment reached her forehead, and her veil covered her eyes.
✍🏾She did not use eye makeup, nor did she adorn her face with ornaments or flowers. She did not wear sandals on her feet, nor bracelets or jewelry on her arms and hands. She did not seek rich food, did not walk in the marketplaces of the city, and had no interest in worldly affairs.
✍🏾She never exposed herself to defilement, nor examined her body with vanity, bearing witness to her perfect purity and holiness during her life in the Temple.
✍🏾The Teaching of Saint Cyril of Alexandria(376–444 AD )
Saint Cyril of Alexandria taught the women gathered in the Temple about the humble life of the Holy Virgin, saying:
👉🏾“All women who desire virginity should follow the example of Mary, the Mother of our Lord.”
He called attention to her simple way of eating and her habit of sleeping on the ground. She had no desire for the pleasures of this world, and her name was continually on the lips of the priests because of her holiness.
She never washed her body in public baths. She never adorned herself with makeup, eyeliner, ointments, or brightly colored clothing, as was common among women of her time.
👉🏾She never tasted wine and lived in constant expectation of her Creator, who created all worlds. She would sit facing the east in prayer. She did not meet or speak with anyone except her mother and father, and she became a teacher and example to the pure virgins.
✍🏾The prophet David says:
👉🏾 “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.”(Psalm 91:12–13)
Continues 👇🏾