“Let us strike our spiritual harp on this solemn day of our feast, for today, from the seed of David, the Mother of Life is born, dispelling the darkness. She is the restoration of Adam and the recalling of Eve. She is the source of incorruption and our release from corruption. Through her we have been made Godlike and are delivered from death. So let us the faithful cry out to her with Gabriel: Rejoice, O full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, granting us God’s great mercy through thee.” (Hymn from Great Vespers of the Feast)
With the beginning of the Liturgical Year, which took place on September 1st, we begin the Major Feasts of the Year with this joyous celebration of Mary’s miraculous birth from her barren parents, Joachim and Anna. Why does the Church keep this day sacred, special, and a holy celebration?
Take just a moment, and step into the time and situation that the world had found itself in during the time of the Virgin’s birth. Mankind was languishing in darkness. What once was a natural and powerful connection between earth and God had been broken millennia before by the fall of our ancestors Adam and Eve. Indeed, the words that we sing during the “Lord I Call” verses from the psalm, were being sung in the hearts of the entire human race: “Bring my soul out of prison…”
The human race was waiting to be brought out of this spiritual darkness which had taken possession of the world…so much so that our lives as human beings had indeed become like prisons. Through the writings of the prophets, and the prefigurements and miracles from the Old Testament, there were whispers of a coming Light…One who would come, and Who would erase and destroy the power of sin and death.
Why do we celebrate this feast? Because as the hymns so beautifully point out to us, if we turn our heads to the east, there is a faint light beginning to grow brighter…just below the horizon. And what appears first in the midst of the dark sky? The morning star, which heralds the coming of the Sun of Righteousness.
The Theotokos is our morning star dear ones. It is through her womb that the darkness of the world would be dispelled. The universe had waited millenia for this chosen vessel to be born, so that the dawn of a new day in the life of mankind could begin. The coming of the light is a cause for remembrance and celebration!
“This is the day of the Lord, Rejoice O you people, for behold the bridal chamber of the Light, the book of the Word of Life, comes forth from the womb! The gate that faces the east is born and awaits the entry of the Great Priest. She alone admits Christ into the world, for the salvation of our souls!”