26.English/The figure of PANAGIA

      ΜΡ                             ΘΥ   

    The figure of PANAGIA

    Standing in presence before your Icon, 

 Noetically I consider to be standing before You, 

Mother of life , 

and I entreat you with awe, 

deliver me from invisible 

and visible enemies .... 

 

Rejoice, You, my sweet Name, and existence MAIDEN MARY, delving of my tongue , and sweet contemplation of my heart. All my soul, o IMMACULATE ONE, running after You, it follows close behind you, ALL-PURE ONE, and as a deer,  longs for the springs of waters, so all my mind longs for you and it faints within me, therefore your right hand take hold on me mercifully, o PURE ONE, and may it make me worthy to observe the glory of your countenance. 

 

(From the Theotokarion of Saint Nicodemus. Tone plagal 2)

 

 

 The Holy Fathers of our Church, the fixed stars and guiders to salvation, the ones who have settled everything rightly, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, say that, as the Holy Scripture mentions, God made everything. He created it good, and not simply good, but...very good ....very good indeed...

perfect...

He made all things in wisdom ...

 

  Within all these good things, three things are overexceeding and crowing the rest, they are the quintessence of the creation:

The joy of paradise....

Christ's Incarnation...

PANAGIA...

 

PANAGIA !!!! PANAGIA !!!!!! PANAGIA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the one ...and everything...

the one ...and all...

the one.......and the whole..

The ONE who was created, and offered everything to the creation and to humanity, and the objective of the noble call, salvation, because she gave flesh to God, to the Word of God...

 

Our Church uses the most decorous, warm, holy, theological, dogmatic, touching, sincere, befitting to holy things, serious, sound, noble , deep and bright expressions to speak about our PANAGIA….

  Our Church has a rich, but at the same time poor  vocabulary when it comes to speak about PANAGIA.

Extensive vocabulary, as much as human nature, power-and at the same time weakness- can hold. 

 

And also restricted, because as many as one might express, preach, define dogmatically, praise , glorify or sing, still it will be like a grain of sand compared to the Holiness and the magnitude of the VIRGIN IMMACULATE MAIDEN. 

 

We offer the widow’s two mites, and SHE knows our intention, our desire, our wishful thinking, our purpose, and SHE grands the grace accordingly, for SHE  is the giver of every divine kindness.

 

 But as much as one may try to describe and set forth precisely Her Hallowed figure,  he will fail to achieve it, as if he would try to write on the sea, to stop the route of the sun, or to count the sand of the sea shore and the stars of the sky...

 

  But condescending to our humane weakness, She offers us a spiritual treat and our Holy and God-bearing Fathers, out of their extreme love to THEOTOKOS , they have handed down to us a few pieces of evidence , so that we have an idea about how PANAGIA looked like, when She was still on earth. 

 

   Yet, the Holy Gospel exhibits Her real figure, which is revealed to us through her Holy life, Her modesty, 

Her humbleness, her simplicity, Her obscurity, Her obedience, Her playfulness, Her braveness...

 

   We witness Her and we feel Her presence within the Holy Services, during the holy feasts, inside the THEOTOKIA* Troparia, the Engomiastical, Dogmatic and  alphabetical ones, in those which are called «first», in those found in the Supplications, in THEOTOKARION**, and in the rest Holy Services. And when we attend Her hymns with due respect and piety, we feel as if HER grace is imprinted inside us, like a puzzle…

 

   We approach Her through the Holy Icons, the icon paintings, through the sermons and homilies of our Fathers, through the worship of our Church. 

 

The Sacred Tradition, and the Holy Scripture, compose   the ALL-PURE MAIDEN’S splendour, the grateness of the only one who defeated……the Undefeatable One...

 

   With their Holy life and warm prayers, our Fathers inherited us the description of THEOTOKOS’ person, and we can see, in what refinement and awe they approach and describe Her, in a way as if they draw near spiritually to the beauty of that sacred figure ...... :.....

 

....she was Modest, Venerable, talking  only when it was necessary....

...She was quick to obey and affable, She honoured all people, bowing before them.

She was of average height, middling , symmetrical. 

She didn’t appear to everyone. 

She was away from laughter, 

out of any kind of upset and anger .....

 

   ....the shade of that God-receiving Body, which enclosed the One who cannot be enclosed, the living Temple, the all-golden Throne, was same as the colour of the wheat seed....

 

....She was fair-haired, although nobody could ever see it, for having Her head covered.

Her eyes were very beautiful, coloured with divine modesty, boasted with sharp pupils, similar to the olive tree, crowned with tender eyelashes , black and round shaped  ...

 

   ...her nose was normal and straight ....

   ....Her immaculate lips were like in bloom, shining seemly , with natural red color, and they were full of Her words' sweetness....

 

   ...Her holy-befitting face was slightly long, 

Her God-carrying hands were long, and 

the fingers of Her hands long and delicate....

 

   ...she was humble , 

 

She  had an effortless extreme humility, which is the garment of the Divine.

She was wearing  clothes , naturally coloured, as we read about her sacred Sash, which was long, and self-coloured  ....

 

   ...and to conclude, in general, and …. in an Orthodox way, LADY THEOTOKOS, concerning the external limbs of Her body, She was perfect, full of divine grace and venerability , so that if someone would sight Her,  he would receive so much fear of God and awe and devout in his soul that, even if he didn’t know who She is, only by the external characteristics, he would recognize that she was the MOTHER of God…..

  ...When Dionysios the Areopagite heard that the Mother of the Lord was still alive, because of his great love for Christ, he went to meet HER. When he encountered Her, he was amazed at her divine sight , her awesome and  royal and heavenly beauty. And when he saw that Angels were devoutly standing round Her, circling Her as a Queen, and he heard the heavenly words springing out from Her mouth, Saint Dionysios being full of divine grace, he confessed that Her figure and Her bodily presence are enough to reveal that She is the MOTHER of the Highest....

 

   ...unique magnitude in the world, She was chosen among all generations, to become the MOTHER of God, She was proclaimed in advance by the Prophets, She was conceived after an angelic announcement, according to the laws of nature, but brought forth through a barren and fruitless womb, that of  God-grandmother, Anna ....

 

   ...after Lord’s Ascension, SHE was making great spiritual efforts, unobserved, and SHE was trying and somehow struggling a lot, practicing long prayers and kneelings and every kind of asceticism, giving thanks to the Giver of the gifts, Who endowed Her with so many and such kind of presents....

 

   ... When the Archangel came to announce Her the time of Her Metastasis (Dormition), he found HER praying in her...private room, and from the frequent and often prostrations that THEOTOKOS was making daily, the floor stones, on which SHE was kneeling to pray, had hollowed ...

 

.....While she was alive, she didn’t work miracles...

She didn’t perform any. She was helping the Lord in His mission. But, after His Ascension and especially after Her Dormition, the whole universe, earth and heaven, and under the earth, has become full of Her blessing and grace.

 

   Who entreated Her and didn’t accomplish Her blessing? 

Who run to HER for refuge, and went away disappointed? 

How did our nation endure so many plottings of visible and invisible enemies? 

Who hasn’t called PANAGIA, in moments of pain, sadness, problems, temptations....?

 

.....No one who has recourse to you, goes from your presence put to shame and rejected, o THEOTOKOS PURE VIRGIN, but asking for grace, they receive gifts and benefits, most advantageous to the plea they make....

 

We sing in PANAGIAS Supplication...

 

 She is the ready assistance of them that run to HER, and refuge of all Christians....

Come, let us fall down before Her...

Come, let us venerate Her...

Come let us fall down before Her and venerate Her...

And we will never miss to attain our hopes and expectations ...

Through HER holy intercessions may we all be saved and may God’s mercy be upon us. 

Amen.

 

In the Mission…. 2021-8-15

A lot blessed of Mother of God , all us …

And for ever ….

 

 

 

*THEOTOKIA are called in general the hymns that refer to  THEOTOKOS. They are divided in many different categories,  such as those mentioned here by the author:  Engomiastical , Dogmatic and  alphabetical.

 

**THEOTOKARION is a book with canons and hymns to THEOTOKOS, composed by several hymnographers. In the Monasteries it is used in a daily basis, as a part of the evening or morning worship.