Luke 1:26-38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” The verse I would like us to think about for a few minutes in this reflection during the Fast of the Virgin occurs at the end of the well-known account of the Annunciation, and it is the words which the Virgin Mary addresses to the angel Gabriel. She says, Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word. I would like us to reflect on this verse and see if we can learn a few lessons for our own spiritual life. Certainly, the Virgin Mary is held up to us as an example, indeed THE example of an entirely human life transformed by union with God. When our Lord says to the Apostle John, ‘Behold, your mother’, the Church has understood that in some sense the Virgin Mary was the mother of all Christians. Both offering a mother’s intercession, and always having a mother’s care. Certainly, after the resurrection and ascension of our Lord she is always found with the Church, indeed in the middle of the early Christian community. But returning to this verse, in the first place we must remember that the Virgin Mary has had an experience of God communicating his will to her far beyond anything which we might ever dream could possibly happen to us. God speaks to us, certainly, but usually in a more mundane and prosaic manner. We read the Bible and a verse or passage stands out as applying particularly to our situation. Or we hear a sermon, or we receive some advice. Or perhaps during prayer we have a strong sense of assurance and peace. God speaks to us in all these ways, and many others. we might think that the Virgin Mary was blessed by having such a clear and straightforward message conveyed to her with the certainty of an angelic visitor. In our case we are often left wondering what exactly God is doing in our lives, and what he requires of us. Sometimes we might think that everything would be clearer if an angel came to explain God’s will to us. But we only must remember this passage and we are reminded that in the case of the Virgin Mary, and that of Zechariah before her, in fact the presence of an angel is not always a guarantee of being able to perfectly understand God’s will. We can see that the Virgin Mary was not at all sure HOW God’s will would be worked out in her life, but she did not doubt that it would be. And this attitude teaches us that it is possible also in our own lives to be both ignorant of HOW God will work out his purposes for our good and be entirely sure in faith that He will do so. Let us hear the words of the Lord in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Now if we believe this, if we trust that God will work out His plans for us, plans to prosper us and give us hope, then we will be able to answer as the Virgin Mary does. It seems to me there are two aspects to the attitude she displays. Firstly, she considers herself to be the handmaid of the Lord. This part of her reply shows us that it is necessary also for us to accept that in our own lives we are the servants of God, and not the masters and mistresses of our own destinies. When we try to take care of everything for ourselves, we find that we do not have the strength or the ability to do so. Things start to fall to pieces when we trust only in ourselves. But if we are servants of the Lord then this changes everything. Our lives are not our own. They do not belong to us, and so we can hand over the responsibility for our lives to the one who owns them, the one who is our Master and Lord. We are free to seek first the kingdom of God, and then we discover that all the other things we need are provided for us. Secondly, she asks that her life be worked out according to God’s will. Let it be to me according to your word. This is not a sense of fatalism, as if we must just meekly put up with whatever a capricious and pitiless God chooses to happen to us. On the contrary, we believe in a God who loves us so much that He became human and suffered for us so that we might be united to him forever. When we trust in this loving Father there is no fear that he wishes us to be caused pain and hurt. Rather we believe that in the circumstances of our human pain and hurt we will find that he is already there and bringing us peace and patience. Indeed, he has already shared our human experiences. He knows pain and hurt. He knows what it is to be rejected. He knows what it is to be hungry and thirsty. He knows what it is to shrink back from the future. There are many times in my own life when I see something happening and I pray, ‘Lord, not again’. But in fact, we know that the problems we face as humans run much deeper than the practical ones, and even the person who seems to have no practical problems has plenty of others to face. And the person who has no job worries has many others. And the person who has no periods of loneliness has many other problems to face. It is part of our human condition and experience as Christians to face daily the challenges which are particularly our own. We should not be surprised that we are often called to face difficulties of many kinds with faith and hope. But we can believe that God has a purpose for us in the middle of these difficult situations. He does not take us out of the fiery furnace, but like the three young men of the Old Testament, we discover that he is standing with us. He does not take us out of the Lion’s Den, but he shuts the lion’s mouths. If our God is the Lord of our lives, so that they belong to him, then we can have the confidence to ask that He works out His will, in His time, and in His way because we know that He will not allow His servants to come to harm. Let me read that passage from Jeremiah again, Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. If we believe this then we can pray with confidence, Behold the servant or the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word. May the Lord give us grace to hand over our lives entirely to His service and to his Glory, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: St George Orthodox Ministry, Coptic Mission Community in the UK

 

It is significant that the Virgin Mary is present and active at the first miracle which our Lord Jesus Christ performed. We may remember the account of the Wedding at Cana. Jesus and his disciples were guests, and at some point in the event it was discovered that the host was running out of wine. What a disaster at a time and place when generous hospitality was everything! We should make a careful note of the words which his mother, the Virgin Mary spoke. They are not accidentally recorded for us by St John. On the contrary they were filled with spiritual meaning which became clear as the ministry of the Lord unfolded. St John writes… And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. John 2:3-5 There are some important lessons here. We see that there is a need, and it is the Virgin Mary who goes to our Lord and tells him that there is a problem. She is not oblivious to these practical concerns, and when the folk at the wedding realise that they are going to run out of wine it is the Theotokos who is included in their anxious conversation. We call her All-Holy and Ever-Virgin, but she is also seen to be found in the middle of ordinary events, and directing those in need to Christ, her Son. She goes to the Lord Jesus and tells him that they have run out of wine, and he seems to respond in a resistant manner. It is not yet time to manifest his divine power in miracles. But in fact the Virgin Mary is already sure that he will act for blessing and to save the situation, and she tells the servants at the feast to do whatever the Lord Jesus says. I learn some wonderful lessons from this. Firstly that the Virgin Mary is concerned about our needs. She is not God. We do not confuse her with God. She is human. But she has always been a caring and compassionate mother, and we should not hesitate to share our own needs with her, asking her intercession on our behalf. We also see that she has influence with her Son. Not that we should imagine that he does not care, or is too terrible to approach in prayer. We do not believe that at all. But the Virgin Mary remains for all eternity the Mother of the Lord Jesus, and in this she has a unique relationship. The Fathers of the Church see in this occasion the force of the intercession of the Virgin Mary on our behalf. It is not that Christ needs to be convinced to act for us, but that he loves to be moved by his mother, and our mother, to respond to our prayers. And we see in this event the faith of the Virgin Mary in her Son. Even though he seems to reject her request, she knows that he will do what is good and necessary. She tells the servants to be prepared to do whatever the Lord Jesus asks even when it seems he will do nothing. In this we also hear the teaching of the Virgin Mary, do whatever he says, and through her prayers on our behalf ask for the grace to do just this, all those things the Divine will asks of us. In this season of the Fast of the Virgin Mary may we all offer ourselves to the will of God in such a manner, for our salvation, making her words our own.  

Source: St George Orthodox Ministry, Coptic Mission Community in the UK

 

  In this 10th reflection during the Fast of the Virgin Mary I would like to return to the account found in the Proto-evangelium of St James. The infant Virgin Mary was received into the Temple precincts where she spent her childhood in the company of angels, and in the care of the consecrated Widows and Virgins. But as she approached early adulthood the council of the priests became concerned for her future and said to Zacharias the High Priest that he should enter the Holy of Holies and ask of God what should be done. He did just this, and an angel appeared and instructed him to assemble all of the widowers of the Jewish people, each one with their walking staff, and the Lord would show by a sign the man who should take care of the Virgin Mary. And so it was that, according to this ancient tradition, all of the walking staffs were laid before the Lord and Zacharias offered prayer, and then began returning the walking staffs to each man as it belonged to him. The staff of Joseph was last, and as he received it from the hand of the High Priest a dove appeared and settled on him, and this was understood to be the will of God. Joseph was not enthusiastic about the prospect of this responsibility. He insisted that he was an old man, and already had children. More than that, he was afraid of becoming a laughing stock because he was elderly and the Virgin Mary was young. The text continues… And the priest said to Joseph: Fear the Lord your God, and remember what the Lord did to Dathan, and Abiram, and Korah; how the earth opened, and they were swallowed up on account of their contradiction. And now fear, O Joseph, lest the same things happen in your house. And Joseph was afraid, and took her into his keeping. And Joseph said to Mary: Behold, I have received you from the temple of the Lord; and now I leave you in my house, and go away to build my buildings, and I shall come to you. The Lord will protect you. It was with fear and trepidation that Joseph received the Virgin Mary into his house, as a precious and consecrated offering from the altar of the Lord. What can we reflect upon? In the first place, that Joseph and the Virgin Mary, as we come to consider the events recorded in the Gospel, were not an unknown couple from a remote part of Judea, but would have been known to all. Joseph would have felt that all eyes were upon him. It was not a common-place and ordinary responsibility which had been placed on his shoulders. In the second place, we see that even in the case of Joseph he was concerned with what other people thought about him, and it required a direct word from God through Zacharias the High Priest to convince him to to God’s will. And thirdly, when he had obeyed God and taken the Virgin Mary into his home he had a sense that among all the other responsibilities he had, this divine service would be preserved by God, so that he was able to say, The Lord will protect you.  

Source: St George Orthodox Ministry, Coptic Mission Community in the UK

 

  It is undoubtedly the case that the Virgin Mary remains a great obstacle to people from an evangelical background considering the claims of the Orthodox Faith to be the one Church which is the Body of Christ, established by the ministry of the Apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit. This would hardly have been the case until the 16th century, as even Martin Luther insisted on the preservation of all those traditional and ancient teachings about her, which modern evangelicals certainly misunderstand and often misrepresent. But when we are considering the Orthodox Faith we can never start from anywhere other than where we are. Therefore this series of short posts is intended to sympathetically address the concerns of those from just such an evangelical background when they wonder about the Virgin Mary and her place within Orthodoxy. Before anything else it is absolutely necessary to state that Orthodox insist that the Virgin Mary is only and truly and completely a human being as we are. She has not become one of the Holy Trinity, nor is she a demi-God, neither does she exercise any divine power of her own. But we do undoubtedly consider that she is one of the most important figures in the history of salvation stretching from Adam and Eve through the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and into the times of our present experience of the Christian life. Orthodox do not ask evangelicals to adopt the extreme and un-Orthodox views which it may be thought we hold. Rather we ask all those thinking about Orthodoxy to carefully examine what we actually believe. In this post we will study the words of the angelic greeting which the angel Gabriel offered to the Virgin Mary. Here is the account of the Annunciation which I am sure are well known to all… Luke 1:26-38 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. We can surely begin our study of this passage describing the Virgin Mary by being in agreement about all those things which we find written about her in the Scriptures. The angel says several things which I will carefully list here…

1. Mary is highly favoured
2. The Lord is with Mary
3. Mary is blessed among women
4. Mary has found favour with God
5. Mary will bear the Son of the Highest
6. The Holy Ghost will come upon Mary
7. The Power of the Most High will overshadow Mary
8. Mary will bear the Son of God
9. Mary responded, Let it be unto me according to your word

There are two aspects which I particularly want to focus on. Firstly, against those who suggest that God could have chosen any random Jewess to bear Christ in her womb, the angel insists that Mary has found favour with God and is highly favoured. For her to have found favour with God is to say that she lived such a life that God was pleased with her. There was that about her which caused God to choose her and no-one else. Indeed no-one else has ever received such a greeting. Therefore she is blessed among women. Secondly, we can see from this passage that Mary gives her assent, offers her obedience, to receive the Holy Ghost, to be overshadowed by the Power of the Most High, and to bear the Son of God. No one else has ever been called to such a service to God. What can we agree upon? Surely that it is proper to speak of Mary as highly favoured, or as another translation of the Greek properly puts it, full of grace. It is surely also proper to say of her that she is blessed among women. This is enough for this short post perhaps. As the Scripture teaches us, we shall consider further in the next posts what is said of Mary, full of grace and blessed among women.  

Source: St George Orthodox Ministry, Coptic Mission Community in the UK