The content of the article
- Introduction in temple Presvjatoj of the virgin. What was it like?
- Icon of the presentation in the temple of the blessed virgin Mary
- Prayers
- Sermon
- Article
On 4 December the Orthodox Church celebrates the presentation in the temple of the blessed virgin.
Introduction in temple Presvjatoj of the virgin. What was it like?
According to the preserved Tradition of the stories, parents of the virgin Mary, righteous Joachim and Anna, praying for permission of neplatite, vowed, that if she had a child, she would dedicate him to the service of God.
When the blessed virgin was three years old, the Holy parents decided to fulfill their promise. Gathering of relatives and friends, wearing pure Mary in the finest clothes, singing a sacred song, with lighted candles in their hands brought her to the temple in Jerusalem. There he met the maiden of the high priest with many priests. In the temple stairs leading up to fifteen high steps. The child Mary, it seemed, could not Herself make it up this stairway. But as soon as It was put on the first step, strengthened by the power of God, She quickly overcame the remaining steps and ascended to the top. Then the high priest, through inspiration from above, entered the most Holy virgin into the Holy of holies, where all the people only once a year the high priest entered with sacrificial blood of cleansing. All present in the temple were astonished at this most unusual occurrence.
Righteous Joachim and Anna, having entrusted their Child to the will of the Heavenly Father, returned home. The most blessed Mary remained in the room for the virgins, who were at the temple. Around the temple, according to the testimony of Scripture and the historian Josephus Flavius, there were many living quarters, in which dwelt those dedicated to the service of God.
Icon. Novgorod. XIV century the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
Shrouded in deep mystery the earthly life of the blessed virgin from infancy to the ascension into heaven. Innermost was and Her life in the temple of Jerusalem. “If someone asked me, said the blessed Jerome, how spent time in his youth, the blessed virgin, I would answer: it is known to God Himself and the Archangel Gabriel, relentlessly the Keeper of It.”
But in Church Tradition preserved information that during the stay of the blessed virgin in the temple she was brought up in the society of pious virgins, diligently read the Holy Scriptures, doing arts and crafts, prayed constantly and grew in love for God. In commemoration of the entry of the Theotokos into the Jerusalem temple, Holy Church from ancient times established a solemn feastday. The instructions to commit a holiday in the first centuries of Christianity are found in the traditions of Palestinian Christians, which says that the Holy Empress Helen built a Church in honor of the Introduction in temple Presvjatoj of the virgin.
In the fourth century mention this celebration of St. Gregory of Nyssa. In the VIII century sermon on the day of Injection were uttered by the saints Herman and Tarasius, patriarchs of Constantinople.
The feast of the presentation of the blessed virgin Mary foretells the blessing of God to the human race, the preaching of salvation, the promise of Christ’s coming.
Icon of the presentation in the temple of the blessed virgin Mary
Mosaic TS. Of the assumption near Daphne. OK.1100 Greece
Fragment epistyle. Con. The XII century the Monastery of Vatopedi, mount Athos, Greece
The Western gates of the Nativity Cathedral. 1227-1238. Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-reserve. Fragment
Manuel Panselin. The fresco of the assumption Cathedral of the Protaton, of karyes, Athos. Con. XIII — early XIV century.
Double-sided icon-tablet. 2nd Thursdays. XV V. Sergiev Posad history and art Museum-reserve
See also: in the temple of the blessed virgin Mary: the iconography, icons, paintings
Prayers
The text of the service of Introduction in temple Presvjatoj of the virgin
In Malay Vespers, at Lord I have cried, stichera, tone 1.
Similar: Celestial ranks:
From the Lord priime promises the fruit of Joachim and Anna, the mother of God, blagopriyatno sacrifice in the temple of vodocha today, and Zacharia great Pontiff blessed sight. [Twice.]
Holy Holy Holy worthy in abitati wadesa, like blagopriyatno victim: and This virgin dobrodeteli blogorama, Sudanese seat up front, premadasa the Lord as a sacred vessel.
Let otvertetsya blagopriyatno the door of the temple: the temple Beau of all the King and the throne this day with glory inside the reception, Joachim lays consecrated to the Lord, He elected in His mother.
Glory and now: voice 8:
David provozglashali You, the all knowing with the blessing of Your entrance to the temple: wherein the ends of celebrating this day, praise Thee, to be in Trouble. Which Bo before birth of the virgin, and on Christmas abide incorruptible, Mother of the Word of life. This day in the temple, Zacharia fun, vopium Thee mistress, and the Holy of holies rejoice, podemski Thee source of our life. Paloski Wherefore, we cry to thee: o we pray to Thy Son and our God, taravati us the great mercy.
On stihova stichera, in tone 2:
Similar: House Evgrafov:
Doors of heaven take the virgin into the Holy of holies, the undefiled tabernacle of God Almighty.
Verse: the lead is the King of virgins after Her, Her sincere will are You.
The streets are Clean devstvennye accept the virgin Sudanese light in the Holy of holies, thou Bride of God Secara.
Verse: shown in gladness and rejoicing, enter into the temple Tsarev.
The bread is verbal, the Palace of God’s Word, from the hands of the divine angel prefers dwelling in the Holy of holies.
Glory, and now, like the same:
Light Thee trevanny, viegli the virgin, in the temple of glory, heavenly Minute meals sends, the greatness of Thee.
Troparion, tone 4:
Today the grace of God, preobragenie, and the people the proclamation of salvation, in the temple of God is clear Virgo, and foretells Christ to all. That and we commandingly vozovik: rejoice watching Zaiditinova performance.
See also: in the temple of the blessed virgin Mary: what is sung in that day in the temple?
Sermon
Metropolitan Anthony Of Sourozh:
There are festivals, which is commemorated event; matter much to them, deciding on the destinies of the human what happened; this is the feast of the Nativity or the feast of the Resurrection; of crucial importance is the fact that indeed in that day, God became man and was born on earth, that day the risen Lord, the dead death on the cross for our salvation.
And there are holidays, as well as icons that tell us about a sort of event, even if the historical situation is not clear. This is the feast of the presentation of the blessed virgin. To historically in ancient Jerusalem really happened the event which is described in liturgical song, is hardly possible; but it tells us something more significant, more important about the Mother of God, rather than physical entry into the Holy of Holies, which was forbidden, and the high Priest. This is the day when the blessed virgin, under the early maturity, which makes the baby able to personally experience personally to perceive and respond to the mysterious touch of grace, when, having reached this age, She entered really in the Holy of Holies — not the real Holy of Holies of the temple, and in that depth of communion with God, which is historically the Temple was depicted.
And with what awe should we read in the prayer book the words that are attributed with such tenderness, with such depth of Joachim and Anna: Child, come! And be the one That gave you everything, and heave-offering of sweet fragrance! Step into the area where there is no door; learn the secrets and get ready to become the site of invasion of God Himself… How marvelous to think that the mother, the father can apply to the child with these words: Go into that depth, join in the mystery, where no one leads, no real door, and prepare yourself to be an offering to God, a sweet fragrance, a place of introduction…
So some fathers of the Church and St. Theophan interpret the meaning of this entry of the Mother of God in the temple, in the Holy of Holies. Untouched by sin, uncontaminated by anything, but is capable of a pure heart, not contaminated by the flesh, no clouded mind to respond to the Shrine, to the glory of God on divnost, three-year-old Girl is sent to these depths of prayer, contemplative communication.
And in another place of the same Liturgy we read, as She quietly tells the Archangel Gabriel to open to God and ready to move-in the coming Savior.
That’s what tells us the occasion: from the outset, naputstvuya mother and father, admonished by the Angel, She enters into the depths of prayer, silence, awe, love, contemplation of purity, which are the real Holy of Holies. And is it any wonder, then, that we this day celebrate as the beginning of salvation: the first of all creatures, the blessed virgin shall be the impassable, inaccessible depths, enter into that fellowship with God which will grow and grow, spotless, Mazatenango, neskorena throughout Her life, until the moment when, according to one of the Western writers, She will be able, in response to the call of God, to pronounce God’s name with all your mind, all your heart, all will, all with the flesh and, together with the Holy Spirit to give birth to the incarnate Word of God.
Yes, the day of this festival really takes place to the phenomenon of this marvelous event, the beginning of that growth, but also gives us the image of what we are called where we are calling the Lord into the Holy of Holies. Yes, we polluted; Yes, our minds are dazed; Yes, our hearts are unclean; Yes, our lives are flawed, unworthy of God. But available to all repentance, which can cleanse us and in the mind and in the flesh and in the heart, to rectify our will and our lives to make right, so that we could enter into the Holy of Holies.
And in this celebration, in words which I read at the beginning, pronounced as if Joachim and Anna, isn’t there a call to every mother and to every father, to the early years — from the moment when the child may have something if you do not mind to understand, to sense, perceive sensitivity, to receive grace is to say to our children: join reverently, tenderly, in the area where no door — no Church, or mentally, or other does not enter, but only the silent, anxious anticipation before God, — the Holy of Holies in order to grow into a full growth of Christ, to be like the Mother of God and become a temple, a place of introduction and of the Holy spirit, and the Lord in the Sacraments, and become children of our Heavenly Father. Amen!
Sermon of his Holiness Patriarch Kirill on the feast of the presentation in the temple of the most Holy lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary 4 Dec 2012
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