The members of this New Israel are a new, “holy nation, a peculiar people,” an ethnos without tribes or ethnicity, a nation with no abiding or ruling city here. In the New Israel, not only priests and kings but all the people are anointed with a new anointing, the holy chrism and seal of the Holy Spirit, into “a royal priesthood”39 inherited not through “the will of the flesh,”40 not through a family, tribe, or
Mother and symbol of the Church In Old Israel, only the kings and the priests were anointed. The anointing was powerless, prefiguring but not conferring the seal of the Holy Spirit. In the Virgin, the barren church of Old Israel is reborn as the New Israel, and the royal and priestly lines are recapitulated and become one. The fruit of her womb is the one High Priest and King of the New Israel Who, in
Her mediation and Christ’s mediation operate as one in an unceasing, indivisible synergy in Heaven and in the world. Therefore, she remits sins, intercedes, saves, heals, enlightens, sanctifies, guides, guards, protects; she routs demons and barbarian hordes, delivers us from dangers, turns tides, calms storms. A profound vesper hymn clearly distinguishes the unique nature of the intercessions of the Theotokos: “Unveil to us the boundless sea of your mercy and goodness and thereby wash away
The New Testament gives us the following vivid example of the power of her mediation with motherly boldness before the Lord. When the Savior attended the marriage at Cana, the time had not yet come according to the divine plan for His public miracles to begin. Therefore, replying to His mother’s mediation to Him because the host’s wine had been exhausted, He said, “Woman, what hath this to do with Me and with thee? For
One mediation of the Mediator and the Mediatress “She did not mediate only on behalf of certain chosen races, but between God and the entire human race. Standing between both, she made God the Son of Man and men the sons of God. “7 Her mediation is more than a parallel to her Son’s; it is the same mediation because she is the mother of His humanity. And Christ’s mediation belongs to the humanity of
“She came into life for Him, to serve in the salvation of the world so that the ancient will of God for the Incarnation may be fulfilled through her.”1 The Virgin’s mediation, then, is central to the eternal mystery of the Incarnation. She was always the Mediatress. “The communion of God the Begetter of All Things with the creature He formed, and His sharing in its nature”2 came about by the mediation of the Virgin.
Rod of the Root of Jesse IN OTHER WORDS, the katavasias have a prophetic nature, and they point us to their fulfillment in Jesus Christ: First Ode Christ is born, give glory. Christ comes from heaven, go to meet Him. Christ is on earth, be exalted. Sing to the Lord, all the earth, and sing hymns in gladness, O people, for He has been glorified. Third Ode To Christ our God, the Son who was
When you saw the God so longed-for walking the earth, O First-called beholder of God, you called out to your brother: “Simon! We have found the One we have longed for!” To the Savior you cried out like David: “As the hart longs for fountains of water, so my soul longs for you, O Christ God:”(Vespers of the Feast of St. Andrew, fourth hymn of the Lity) ON THE FEAST OF ST. ANDREW (November 30)
The Temple of God The most pure Temple of the Savior, the precious Bridal Chamber and Virgin, the sacred Treasure of the glory of God, is brought today into the house of the Lord. She brings with her the grace of the divine Spirit. God’s angels sing her praise: She is the heavenly tabernacle. (Kontakion of the Feast of the Entry of the Mother of God) THERE IS A STRANGE SILENCE about the Nativity in
ORTHODOX WORSHIP As with Great Lent, so too with the Nativity Fast, the approaching feast is prepared for not only by abstinence, but also through the profound meaning of the biblical readings and the hymns (contained in the hymnbooks known as the Menaia for November and December) that we hear in church during this season. Because the main focus of Advent is our preparation for the Nativity-the Incarnation of the Son of God-the hymns for
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