St. Romanos the Melodist
O mystery brought about on earth!
After the birth, Anna prayed to our God and Maker Who knows all things in
advance: "You have heard me, O Lord, as you have heard Hannah who was
accused before Eli of being drunk" [1 Sam. 1:14]. She promised Samuel,
after his birth, to the Lord to become priest. Just as formerly you have given
me too a gift, the barren woman gives birth to the Mother of God and the nurse
of our life.
In your holy birth, Immaculate
One, Joachim and Anna were rid of the shame of childlessness; Adam and Eve of
the corruption of death. And so your people, free of the guilt of their sins,
celebrate crying: "The barren one gives birth to the Theotokos, who
nourishes our life."
Consequently, the tribes of
Israel heard that Anna had given birth to the pure Virgin, and they all
rejoiced with great gladness. Joachim held a great feast and celebrated splendidly
the miraculous birth. And when he had summoned to prayer the priests and the
Levites, he placed Mary in the midst of all, in order that she be magnified.
St. Andrew of Crete
O Bride of the Father, immaculate
Mother of the Son, and holy and resplendent temple of the Holy Spirit; O most
chaste of all creation, most suitable to His ultimate purpose, on this account
the universe was created and, by thy birth, was the eternal will of the Creator
fulfilled.
O Lord, you have opened the womb
of Sarah, giving her Isaac as fruit in her old age. Today, O Savior, you have
likewise given to godly Anna a fruit born from her womb, even your own Mother
without spot.
St. Sergios of Constantinople
She is the treasure of virginity,
the rod of Aaron springing from the root of Jesse, the preaching of the
prophets, offshoot of the righteous Joachim and Anna. She is born, and with her
is the world become new again. She is born, and the Church clothes herself in
majesty. She is the holy temple, the receiver of the Godhead: the instrument of
virginity, the bridal chamber of the King, wherein was accomplished the
marvelous mystery of the ineffable union of the natures which come together in
Christ.
St. Germanos of Constantinople
As foretold by the angel, today
have you come forth, O Virgin, the all-holy offspring of righteous Joachim and
Anna...you did destroy the curse and give blessing in its place.
No more are the gifts of Joachim
turned away: for the lament of Anna is changed to joy. "Let all the chosen
of Israel rejoice with me," she says, "for behold, the Lord has given
me the living Pavilion of His divine glory, unto the joy and gladness of us all
and the salvation of our souls.
St. John of Damascus
The day of the Nativity of the
Theotokos is the feast of joy for the whole world, because through the
Theotokos the entire human race was renewed and the grief of the first mother
Eve was changed into joy. For whereas the latter heard the divine statement,
“In pain you shall bring forth children” [Gen. 3:16] the former heard, “Rejoice
favoured one!” [Luke 1:28]. The latter heard, “Your recourse shall be towards
your husband!” and the former, “The Lord is with you!"
The holy parents of the Mother of
God received from heaven a gift worthy of God, a throne higher than the very
cherubim [Is. 6:1; Ez. 1:4] -- she who in childbirth would bear the Word of the
Creator.
The Mother of God was born to us
at the holy Sheep Gate. Rejoice, O Sheep Gate, the most holy temple of God's
Mother. Rejoice O Sheep Gate, the wall of Joachim's sheep.
St. Stephen the Hymnographer
Eve declares her daughter and
descendent blessed, "for unto me is born deliverance, through which I
shall be set free from the bonds of hell."
St. Photios the Great
The present feast honoring the
birth of the Virgin Mother of God easily carries off the glittering prize of
seniority against every competitor...for without the Virgin's feast none of
those that sprang out would appear...The Virgin's feast, in fulfilling the
function of the root, the source, the foundation...takes on with good reason
the ornament of all those other feasts, and it is conspicuous with many great
boons, and is recognized as the day of universal salvation.
After God had bestowed on man the
enjoyment and mastery over everything in the Garden, it was meet for him who
was entrusted with so great authority to be disciplined and trained with some
command. However, after transgressing this command, the Creator did not
overlook His creatures though they had plunged themselves into such great
error. It was needful, therefore, that one Person of the Trinity become man, to
make it manifest that the recreation too, like the creation, was their own
work. Incarnation entailed a pregnancy and a mother. So it was needful that a
mother should be prepared down below for the Creator, for the recreation of
shattered humanity. She was to be a virgin, just as the first man had been
formed of virgin earth; so the recreation too should be carried out through a
virgin womb, and that no transitory pleasure, even lawful, should be as much as
imagined in the Creator's birth; for the Lord suffered to be born for the
deliverance of him who was a captive of pleasure.
Who then was worthy? Clearly it
was she who this day strangely issued from Joachim and Anna, the barren root.
It was needful, yea needful, that she who from the very cradle had by a
superior reason preserved her body pure, her soul pure, her thoughts pure,
should be marked out to be the Creator's Mother.
It was needful that she who had
been brought to the temple as an infant, who had trodden the untrodden places,
should appear as a living temple for Him Who gave her life. It was needful that
she who had been born in a wondrous manner from a sterile womb, and had removed
her parents' reproach, should also make good the failure of her forefathers;
for she, the descendent, was able to repair the ancestral defeat, who brought
forth the Savior of our race by a husbandless birth, and molded His body.
The Lord's throne (Mary) is being
prepared on earth, earthly things are sanctified, the heavenly hosts are
mingled with us, and the wicked one, who first deceived us, has his power
crushed, as his wiles and devices rot away.
St. Neophytos of Cyprus
Anna, delivered by the Creator of
nature from the bonds of sterility, conceives by her spouse, Mary, a daughter
of God. Anna, today gave birth to Mary, the first-fruits of our salvation, the
immaculate Mother of God the Word, and the first-fruits of the renewal of our
nature that had been aged and tarnished by transgression of the divine
precepts.
St. Gregory Palamas
For her sake, the God-possessed
prophets pronounced prophecies, and miracles are wrought to foretell that
future great miracle of the world, the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. Generation
after generation of vicissitudes and historical events, make a path to their
ultimate destination, to the new ministry that will be wrought in her. The
rites and laws had provided beforehand a type of the future truth of the
Spirit. The end, or rather the beginning and root of those earlier events and
wonders of God, is the annunciation to Joachim and Anna, who were accomplished
in the virtues, of what was to be accomplished (in their daughter).
All divinely-inspired Scripture
was written for the sake of the Virgin who begat God.
Source:
johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/09/on-nativity-of-theotokos-various-church.html
CONVERSATION