The Catalog of Good Deeds

Miter (or Mitre)

(Greek, lit. headscarf)

The miter is a kind of headgear, which resembles a royal crown, and is part of ecclesiastical attire of a bishop, an archimandrite, or a priest who is entitled to wearing it. There is an icon of the Holy Trinity or a six-winged Seraph on top of the miter. A bishop’s miter is crowned by a cross. There are several iconographic images around the miter. A bishop’s miter symbolizes both the royal crown of Christ and his Crown of thorns at the same time.

Skufia (Greek, lit. a cup)

A small soft pointed folding hat. The folds of the skufia form a sign of the cross around the wearer’s head. Skufia is worn daily by Orthodox clergy, monks, some novices and laymen. A monk’s skufia is black. A married priest may be awarded the right to wear a violet skufia. There is a small four-pointed cross embroidered on the Patriarch’s and the bishops’ skufias.

Kamilavka (Greek, lit. made of camel wool)

A stiff black, purple or dark blue cylinder, which slightly widens as it rises. The Russian Church began using kamilavkas after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the 2^nd half of the 17^th century. Married priests and protodeacons may be awarded the right to wear kamilavkas during worship.

Klobuk (Turkish, lit. a cap)

Klobuk is a black kamilavka with a long train divided in three, worn by Orthodox monastics.

Monks who belong to the clergy wear klobuk both during divine services and in their daily lives. Archbishops wear a black klobuk with an embroidered cross. Metropolitans wear white klobuk with a cross.

Koukoulion of the Russian Patriarch

The klobuk of the Russian Patriarch is traditionally referred to as koukoulion. The Patriarch’s koukoulion is a hard round white hat with images of winged Seraphs (aka “Zions”) on the forehead and two ends of the train. It has a small cross on the top. It is worn daily.

Koukoulion of a Schema-Monk (Latin, lit. a hood)

A soft black pointed hood with two long stripes of fabric, which cover the wearer’s back and chest. The koukoulion has images of winged Seraphs and the text of the Trisagion embroidered in white. Worn by Schema-Monks over the mantle.

Apostolnik

It is a headscarf with an opening for the face. It flows freely down an Orthodox nun’s shoulders, back, and chest. Nuns wear apostolnik under a skufia, a kamilavka, or a klobuk.

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://foma.ru/7-tserkovnyih-golovnyih-uborov.html

Have you ever thought about the angels? Most of us, I’d suspect, usually don’t, unless we find ourselves in a difficult situation, and then remember to ask our guardian angel for help. Thinking about the angels isn’t something easily done in the culture of the world in which we live. Many people, when angels are mentioned, get an image of a golden-haired person in a long white robe with white wings. Of course, as the “traditional” beginning of the Christmas shopping season is less than a week away, soon we’re going to be surrounded with this sort of image of the angels.

Our Orthodox fathers teach us something different; an aspect of which can be seen on the deacon’s doors – the side doors into the altar, one on either side of the royal doors. The door to the right quite often is an icon of St. Michael the Archangel, dressed for battle; while the door to the left is quite often the archangel Gabriel, who, while not in armor, is nevertheless a figure of power, much different from the angels on Christmas cards and atop Christmas trees. The fathers teach us that, before God created the heavens and the earth, the nine ranks of angels were created. They are not material beings, as we are; they are spiritual beings, super-intelligences, able to take on the appearance of having being, and so to interact with the material world. The fathers also teach that the foremost of these created beings, Lucifer, the “bringer of light,” led a revolt of some of the angels after having beheld God’s plan for creation, and especially for mankind, to be created in the image and after the likeness of God. These rebellious beings, cast out of the heavenly realm, became the demons, with Lucifer, renamed Satan – the Adversary – as their leader; opposed by the holy archangel Michael, the leader of the bodiless hosts.

Because we are created in the image and after the likeness of God we are, as the Psalmist says, but a little lower than the angels. One thing we can deduce from this is that we are not as intelligent or as powerful as the angelic beings. Why, then, do we not worship them? Why, then, are we not subject to them as part of the dominion of God?

The answer is at once both simple and instructive. It is the nature of the angels to serve. In the case of the angels who did not rebel against God, they remained faithful servants of God. Indeed, the word “angel” derives from “messenger” – the angels are the messengers of God. Among other things, this means they are servants. In the case of the demons, they chose to serve themselves, rather than to serve God. What is striking about this is how much we have in common with the angels. We are also called to be the obedient servants of God; and yet consider how often we choose to serve ourselves, instead of doing the will of God! Every time we go to confession, every sin we admit there is evidence of how we have followed the example of the rebellious angels, rather than keeping faith with God.

It is said of many of the saints that they lived among us as “angels on earth.” This means, in part, that they gave no thought to the things of this world, but lived in a bodiless way, as much as is possible for us to do. They lived only to serve God; and quite often this was expressed by their serving those made in the image and after the likeness of God, giving instruction with love to assist others in the pursuit of the salvation of their souls. In this way, both by teaching and by their deeds they served us as a way of serving God.

Brothers and sisters, it is our calling to follow the example of the holy Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of heaven, and to be the servants of God. Of course, one of the greatest examples of this is found in the holy and blessed Lady Theotokos, who, when told of her part in God’s plan for the salvation of the world by the archangel Gabriel, responded by surrendering herself in the fullness of her being – body, mind, and spirit – in order to give birth to our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As with the angels, and with the Mother of God, so it is meant to be with us. We are given the opportunity to bear Christ, as did the Theotokos; and to present Him to the world, as she does, as she is most often depicted in the icons. Not only should Christ be seen in and through us, in what we say and in what we do; but having followed the example of our blessed Lady who said, “Behold the handmaiden – that is to say, the servant - of the Lord,” we are to follow the example of the holy angels and archangels; who, despite their power in comparison to our own, are the servants of God. This is what we should understand, and cultivate in our own hearts – that the joy of the servant is in serving. So let us rejoice in the presence of the angelic hosts, and let us serve each other in humility and love, and so become more and more like angels on earth.

By Fr. John McCuen

Source: http://orthodoxsermonsonline.blogspot.com/2009/11/living-as-angels-on-earth.html

There is a joke that says, “To become a saint, you’ve got to die first.” In fact, that joke is one hundred percent true. We’ve prepared a brief Q&A for you to know what else you’ll need to do, aside from that.

01. What is canonization?

Canonization is a process whereby a person is included in the “canon”, or list, of recognized saints. It makes veneration of a reposed righteous person legitimate. From the standpoint of the Church, it isn’t the canonization per se that makes one a saint but his or her actions and faith. Canonization is the declaration of that person’s sanctity to all Christians and a call to venerate him or her.

02. Who can initiate canonization?

The Holy Synod, ruling bishops, or lay people. In the latter case, people must contact their bishop who will send their case for inspection into the diocesan canonization commission. It it that commission that oversees the collection of historical data about that person and forwards it to the Patriarch or to the Synodal Canonization Commission.

03. Who deals with the case?

The Synodal Commission for Canonization of Saints. It looks into applications and examines the biography of the candidate for canonization thoroughly. The Commission was established on April 11, 1989 by a decree of the Holy Synod. It consists of bishops, monks, and priests. By the way, the Commission itself cannot initiate canonization; it can only investigate submitted applications.

04. Who decides?

His Holiness the Patriarch, the Synod of Bishops, or the Local Council, based on the verdict of the Synodal Commission for Canonization of Saints. The Patriarch can grant ecclesiastical honor to a locally venerated saint (i.e., a saint who is venerated in one diocese or one region), while the Synod of Bishops or the Local Council can canonize saints for all Russian Church.

05. What are the main criteria for canonization?

The list of the main criteria for canonization in the Russian Orthodox Church includes a life of piety, strict adherence to Orthodox canons, popular veneration, and miracles. Martyrdom is a separate case. All facts are collected and recorded to be investigated by the canonization commission. Witnesses and those who received healing (if any) are surveyed.

06. Is a person considered a saint if his or her relics are uncovered?

Not necessarily. Relics (uncorrupted remains of a human body) are not the definitive criterion, just an additional proof. However, if relics exist, they are subjected to careful scrutiny. The Commission for Canonization invites scholars (archaeologists, historians, anthropologists) to examine the remains.

07. How long does it take for a saint to be canonized?

The Russian Orthodox Church does not have a fixed period after which a righteous person can be canonized. However, the canonization commission “must not be hasty in canonizing recently reposed venerated clerics and laymen. The provisional investigation into their lives and works must be thorough, extensive, and based on documents.”

08. What does the saint get out of his or her canonization?

Nothing. Canonization isn’t a postmortem church award. Saints are canonized to be examples for other Christians, so that we could look up on them and invoke their intercession before God. Also, according to the Russian tradition, people receive their Christian names only in honor of canonized saints.

09. Is a saint’s entire life saintly?

No. It may or may not be saintly. Saints are canonized not because of their sinless life but for their acts of faith. For instance, many martyrs had persecuted Christians or even killed them before they repented and suffered martyrdom, and thus became saints.

10. Where can I read the saints’ list?

There is a book called Menologium. It contains an exhaustive list of officially recognized Orthodox saints from all over the world. A shorter list can be found at the end of the Orthodox Church calendar for each year, sold in every church booth.

By Kirill Baglai

Translated by the Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://foma.ru/kak-stat-svyatyim-ofitsialno.html

In 2015, the Russian Church celebrated two important anniversaries of Holy Patriarch Tikhon: February 1—150 years since his birth, and on April 7—ninety years from the day of his repose. Patriarch Tikhon captained the ship of the Church through the bloody storm of anti-ecclesiastical persecution inspired by the godless leaders of the communist regime, who had seized power in much-suffering Russia.

Patriarch Tikhon is one of the most venerated saints of our times. He has three feast days: September 26/October 9 is the day of his canonization, March 25/April 7 is the day of his repose, and November 5/18 is the day he was chosen as the Patriarch of All the Russias. But despite the many years that Patriarch Tikhon’s life and service have been studied, there are still many blank spaces in his biography.

On the eve (November 17) of a conference held in the St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Humanitarian University on the life and service of Patriarch Tikhon—the veneration of him, the manner of his sanctity and his place in the history of Russia, we have asked Archpriest Vladimir Vorobiev, the director of the largest center for the study of the history of Russia’s new martyrs and confessors and rector of St. Tikhon’s University.

—Fr. Vladimir, what role did Holy Patriarch Tikhon play in the history of the Russian Church and the history of Russia?

—This year marks the ninetieth anniversary of Patriarch Tikhon’s repose, which occurred on the feast of the Annunciation of the Mother of God—April 7, 1925. He died in the Bakuniny hospital, not far from the Monastery of the Conception on Ostozhenka Street. When he died, everyone suspected that he was poisoned. Although it was written many times that he “had not been poisoned,” he died “simply from a heart attack,” nevertheless, the version that he had been poisoned has not been dismissed because it is highly probable. This version has never been proved. I do not know whether it can be proved, but there has never been any attempt to investigate it. If it is poisoning, then Patriarch should be called a hieromartyr. If his death was from a heart attack, then it is anyway the death of a confessor.

St. Tikhon lived under conditions of serious persecutions against the Church and went through seven years of Patriarchal service as truly a way of the cross, the path to Golgotha. These very years led to his untimely end. He died at sixty years of age; that is, he did not live a very long life.

Today, looking back at the history of the twentieth century, we can say that Patriarch Tikhon is one of the greatest Russian saints, and he undoubtedly stands among the greatest universal saints. He was chosen by the most remarkable Council in the history of the Russian Church.

—Please remind us how this election took place.

—Preparation for the Council of 1917 went on for eleven years. The delegates were chosen democratically, without any political pressure. It was very representative [of society]—over 500 delegates.

The Patriarch was also chosen in a remarkable way. First, twenty-eight candidates were chosen. Then three were chosen out of these according to the number of votes. Then the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God was brought from the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The Kremlin had already been occupied by the communists, and therefore no services could be held there, so the icon was brought to the Church of Christ the Savior. In this church, the holy hieromartyr Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) served the Liturgy; he was the first hieromartyr of the new martyr bishops. After the Liturgy and a special moleben before the Vladimir icon, Elder Alexey of the St. Zosima Hermitage drew the lot with the name of Patriarch Tikhon. Operating in the election was an amazing unity of the people’s active participation and God’s will.

Patriarch Tikhon headed the Church during the most terrifying persecutions against Christians in world history. We have more than sufficient grounds to say that Patriarch Tikhon stands at the head of the army of new martyrs.

He himself suffered persecutions from the very first days of his Patriarchy.

—Could you cite some little-known episodes from the period of his persecution?

—One day the Patriarch was informed that a whole train car of sailors was coming from Petrograd to arrest him, and he was asked to leave the Troitsky podvorye where he was living until 1922. This was in the evening, when Patriarch Tikhon was going to bed. He listened and then answered, “I’m not going anywhere.” The sailors arrived the next morning, disembarked, had a meeting on the platform, got back into the train, and went back to Petrograd. God Himself preserved His saint.

Everyone knows the testimonial Patriarch Tikhon wrote to the Bolsheviks, they know about his epistle with the anathema against iniquitous Bolsheviks. He tried through his epistles to protect the Church from the persecutors and bandits. In 1922 he was arrested. He was interrogated in court. A brochure of this interrogation with his comments survives. Then there was a year of strict imprisonment in Donskoy Monastery. From there he was taken for interrogations to the Lubyanka. He spent some time in the Lubanka prison. There is very little known about this.

The politburo pronounced the death sentence on him. Not the judge, but the Politburo itself made this secret decision. The sentence was not carried out, because the people’s commissar for foreign affairs G. Chicherin convinced the Politburo that the murder of Patriarch Tikhon will not be useful to the soviet government. The entire Christian world—in Europe and America—rose to protect the Russian Patriarch. The world “abroad” threatened the Soviet Union with what would now be called economic sanctions. It was decided not to shoot the Patriarch, but to demand a letter of repentance from him instead. Having received what they wanted, they released him.

—Couldn’t this be viewed as a sign of weakness?

—Patriarch Tikhon, of course, could not in any way have known what was going on in the upper echelons of the Bolshevik government—after all, he was a prisoner. How do Christians act in such cases? They ask God’s will. The guards who were watching him wrote in their diaries, “The old man is good to everyone, only he prays all night.” He prayed, and the Lord instructed him on what to do. Patriarch Tikhon agreed to sign the “repentance letter” that compromised him.

When he was released, the provocation activities of the “Living Church” immediately collapsed. A huge number of people understood what was going on, stopped going to the Living Church churches, and returned to Patriarch Tikhon. The clergy that had joined the Living Church came to the Patriarch with repentance. The Patriarch’s “repentance letter” did not damage his authority in the people’s estimation. The people knew that Patriarch Tikhon was a holy man.

The Bolsheviks arrested the holy Patriarch’s closest zealots, put them in prisons, sent them into exile, and executed some of them. Before his eyes they closed churches, monasteries, and theological schools; they confiscated holy shrines and opened reliquaries. Many archpastors could not summon any courage and tried to “agree” with the Soviet authorities, going in this way against the head of their Church. Patriarch Tikhon had at times to stand all alone against the soviet persecutions and seek the right path for the Church.

Even while he was alive, the soviet newspapers slandered Patriarch Tikhon unremittingly, humiliated him and mocked him. When he died, a falsified “will” was published in him name. But no one believed this falsification. Those who knew Patriarch Tikhon believed that he was a holy man. The people trusted him limitlessly, as a saint. Patriarch Tikhon possessed moral authority, which turned out to be an extraordinarily powerful force that united the Church, the clergy, and the entire Russian people.

When Patriarch Tikhon reposed, even worse times began for the Church. The lack of a spiritual leader produced adverse consequences. After his death the soviet authorities began picking people who suited their purposes to fill the position of patriarch. As long as the Patriarch was alive he could be arrested, but it was impossible to compromise him. The people trusted him.

There are firm grounds for speaking about the universal significance of Patriarch Tikhon’s heroic labor. The twentieth century is one of the most difficult epochs in human history, when materialism, atheism, and communism spread all over the entire globe, like a plague; when revolutions and antichristian persecutions started happening everywhere. Science claimed that Christ was a legend, a myth, that He never existed. And during this very time a giant of the Christian faith arises! A true Christian, who manifests Christian sanctity on the Patriarchal throne! A flame of confessing faith stood on a candle stand seen by the whole world, and glorified our Heavenly Father.

Patriarch Tikhon is the image of an Orthodox saint, who stood alone against the hurricane of bloody evil: revolution, civil war, mass violence, executions, and murders. They threatened to kill him also, and sent assassins on several occasions. He did not run away from death.

The only thing that he held dear was service to the Church. He understood that the Lord had placed him as a lighthouse that should shine in the darkness and light the path to Christ.

His circulars are patristic teachings to all Christians for all the remaining ages.

—What other significance does Patriarch Tikhon’s work have?

—Patriarch Tikhon, like all holy people, was inwardly very free. He blessed and thus legitimatized, as Patriarch and as a saint, frequent Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. He called the people to this. This blessing has particular meaning to us.

He blessed people for the labor of confession and martyrdom. He showed by his own example how the Church can be victorious over the most terrifying, unbelievable evil.

He showed that the Church can be governed by holy bishops, even if it is deprived of administrative forms. And its life, though outwardly disastrous, is an extraordinary example of faith. The Church called forth these saints. In this sense, the communist persecution was the brightest page in the history of the Christian Church. When has such a host of saints made known? And the Patriarch was their leader. The warriors of Christ walked under his omophorion. This was unique in history.

If you look at our history in the historical scope of the Universal Church, then we see before us a terrifying picture of a spiritual war, when persecutions are not happening in some distant province where an emperor comes and makes a local pogrom. No, a whole enormous country, the largest country in the world, was subject to persecutions. Throughout Russia the Church was declared illegal. And not just as a temporary measure, but with the intent of destroying the whole Church. The entire episcopate was suffering repression. Almost all the priests were either killed or imprisoned. Before the [Second World] war, in Russia only a few bishops and about 100 priests remained free.

But the Church proved that it is not an earthly organization that can be closed or destroyed. It is the Body of Christ. It showed that it is not bound by earthly forms. You can destroy all the Church’s earthly forms of it life, but it will not become any weaker from this. It answers deadly persecutions with the feat of confession and sanctity, and it is victorious.

If you imagine a painting, you would have a battle between good and evil, the righteous and the sinners, and in this picture, at the head of the army and among the warriors, following after Christ and the angelic powers, goes Patriarch Tikhon leading the army. The Gospel shows us a spirit of victorious opposition on the way of the cross. These were Christians who took up their cross and followed after Christ. There were hundreds of thousands of them. Patriarch Tikhon is a symbol of the era, and an image of ascetic labor in the Church.

Our Patriarch

—Which of Patriarch Tikhon’s personality traits are especially important to us?

—Those who knew Patriarch Tikhon testified that he was a man of unbelievable humility, meekness, and love. He was perfectly simple. He was a stranger to emotional pathos. He was simple in life, and how he related to people. I say this because my grandfather knew him. He was the dean of Moscow diocese and went to diocesan councils under Patriarch Tikhon.

In Sergiev Posad (then called Zagorsk) there was a remarkable elder, Fr. Tikhon Pelikh, the rector of the St. Elias church beyond the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra. He was born to a peasant family, and sent to the army. Here is his personal account. He reached Moscow in his soldier’s overcoat and came to the church where Patriarch Tikhon was serving. He was a young fellow, hungry and cold. He related: “I myself don’t know how I ended up in the altar. Some kind of power led me there, and pushed me towards Patriarch Tikhon. I didn’t know what to say. I went to get his blessing. The Patriarch affectionately asked me, “What is your name?” I answered, “Tikhon”. He said, “My name is also Tikhon.” I don’t remember anything after that, only that the subdeacons pulled me out of the altar by the edge of my coat.” All who came into contact with Patriarch Tikhon were blessed with grace and love.

It is impossible to convey how people loved Patriarch Tikhon. When he came to serve in some regional town, the factories stopped their work, and all the workers came out to greet him, not resuming work until he had gone. His saintliness, love, and dedication to God’s will brought Christians together, and helped them withstand the terrible aggression coming from the dark world.

Patriarch Tikhon showed us the ascetic labor by which the Russian Church must go in the last days, because he by his own labors renewed Orthodox life in Russia.

At that time revolutions were happening, there were renovationists introducing reforms to renew the Church, to create a “Living Church”. But Patriarch Tikhon really “renewed” the Church life, again manifesting the sanctity of the Church, and the labor of an archpastor. This is the main path of renovation. He could not bring to pass the reforms decided upon at the Council, but he renewed the spirit of the first Christians, who were ready to give their lives to God and to defend the Christian faith even unto death. We need this spirit also. Our times are very complicated, and the aggression of darkness is not slackening. We can oppose this aggression if we are inspired by the labors of the saints.

—What does Patriarch Tikhon mean to you?

—I knew about Patriarch Tikhon from early childhood, because he was very revered in our family. My grandfather associated with him personally. We preserve like a relic a Paschal egg that Patriarch Tikhon gave our grandfather. We have a whole series of documents signed by him.

I knew an old lady who suffered in childhood from a terrible case of epilepsy—eighteen seizures per day. Then she was a girl who didn’t believe in God. On the night of his repose, Patriarch Tikhon appeared to her and blessed her. She was healed and became a deeply believing Christian. There are very many such testimonies to the sanctity of Patriarch Tikhon. For me he was a saint even before his canonization. I would go to his reliquary in the Donskoy Monastery. I especially learned much about him through Mikhail Efimovich Gubonina, who served in the altar at Patriarch Tikhon’s services, and deeply revered him and collected many documents about his life.

By Alexander Filipov

Source: http://orthochristian.com/88587.html

Did you know that, according to Scripture:

Mary is crowned with glory and honor to rule over the works of the Lord’s hands, and God has put all things under her feet. She will be given power over the nations, she will judge the world, she will judge angels. Mary will be crowned with life and righteousness and will sit with Christ on his throne. God’s divine power has given to Mary all things that pertain to life and godliness. Mary has been perfected forever. Mary is a member of Christ’s body, of his flesh and bones. She cannot die any more for she is equal to the angels.

If that sounds overstated, then read the scriptures for yourself: You’ll find all these things boldly stated in Ps 8:5-8; Re 2:26; 1 Co 6:2,3; Ja 1:12; 2 Tim 4:8; Re 3:21; 2 Pt 1:2; Re 21:7; Heb 10:14; Ep 5:29-30; Lk 20:36.

“But wait,” you say, “Those passages don’t mention Mary the mother of Christ! Those are descriptions of humanity glorified in union with Christ!”

Yes. Yes they are.

And of course, if these things are true of all Christians, or at least all those who persevere to the end and are saved from their sins, then they are certainly true of the first Christian, who received Christ into herself: Mary.

But the reason we are uncomfortable with scripturally hailing Mary as being full of grace (Lk 1:28) and blessed among women (Lk 1:42) is that our view of salvation is too small.

What was revealed in the Transfiguration of Christ? What glory knocked the Apostles on their faces in fear, awe and wonder? For just a moment, the eyes of their souls were opened to the noetic reality of the divine nature in union with human nature in the Person of Christ. The brightness and divine light streamed from a divine-human Person.

And as the Church has always taught, Christology is soteriology. That is: What you believe about the union of the natures of God and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ is also what you believe about salvation.

The vision that brought the Apostles to their knees, the revelation that Saint Paul prays we may somehow grasp (Ep 1:17-23), is the glory of redeemed humanity: purified, illumined, and personally united to God, so that the glory of the Uncreated Trinity shines through.

If these passages about the exalted destiny of the human race in Christ are true of any of us, then first of all they are true of the first person to receive Christ in herself: His mother. If the altar of God in the temple was holy, and the Ark of the Covenant, on which God’s glory was seen, was so holy that to touch it was death — then what about the person who held her Creator and God within her body for nine months, fed him milk and carried Him in her arms, and sang Him to sleep?

Mary is not only a passive vessel through which God once passed; she is a person and for all her adult life she was the Mother of the divine, human Person Jesus Christ. And because we worship the God of the living, not of the dead, remember that she is alive and she still is His mother. “Mother of God” is not only a dogmatic title teaching the divinity and humanity of Mary’s Son; it also points out that her relationship to her Son and God is unlike anyone else’s. Who else, at Cana, had the boldness to decide that Christ will do a miracle here and now?

Don’t worship Mary as a goddess. The Orthodox certainly don’t. But don’t be afraid to praise her. Not only God is worthy of praise; rather, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Ph 4:8). Praise is an appropriate response to virtue (Pr 27:2, 31:31). And, what Father is displeased when you praise His daughters? God is not shortchanged; rather “God is glorified in His saints” (2 Th 1:9-12).

If you want a scriptural example of how to respond to the wondrous works of God in the person of the virgin who became Christ’s mother, then take the example of the Archangel Gabriel and exclaim, “Hail, O full of grace! The Lord is with you!” And with St. Elisabeth, exclaim “Blessed are you among women!” What could be more authentically Christian? You’re quoting the Gospels.

In light of these scriptures about the awesome glory of the saints who will judge angels, crowned with glory and honor to rule the world, Orthodox hymns don’t sound so startling:

“You are more honorable than the cherubim and you are more glorious when compared to the seraphim. Without defilement you gave birth to God the Word: True Birthgiver of God, we magnify you.”

“Hail, O virgin Birthgiver of God, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you! Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb for you have borne the Savior of our souls.”

By Fr. Silouan Thompson

Source: http://silouanthompson.net/2018/10/should-we-hail-mary/

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