Похвальное слово на Благовещение Богоматери. Святителя Илии Минятия

Behold, you conceived in your womb and gave birth to a Son (Luke 1:31). From the bright gates of the most beautiful east comes the luminous messenger of the sun, the luminous dawn. And as soon as it begins to indicate the proximity of the golden sun on the shiny surface of the sky, the diverse face of the stars hastens to quickly disappear; the thick darkness of the dark night completely disappears; the embarrassed horned moon, unable to bear such a bright shine, closes itself in shame. In the bright green forests the harmonious sounds of the pleasant voices of various birds are heard; people awaken from deep sleep to different activities. And in general, like the most pleasant messenger, she proclaims to the world on all four sides: “behold, the day is already close, now it has already come!” In the same way, from the gates of heaven as bright as the sun, today comes the fiery Archangel of God, the bright and pure Gabriel. And at the same hour, as soon as with the greeting: Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with You (Luke 1:28), he announces the coming of the unsetting Sun of Truth, the ungodly polytheism of vain idols immediately begins to hastily flee, the hidden symbols of the ancient law are completely hidden; the discordant crowd of infidels, unable to bear the shining light of truth far away, covers their wicked faces in silence; the lips of the holy teachers do not cease to sing eternal praises; The human race, immersed in the sleep of ignorance, awakens to Christian life in the Orthodox faith. In general, through the divinely inspired trumpet of the blessed annunciation, the Archangel announces publicly to the whole world: behold, conceive in your womb, and give birth to a Son. Oh, inexplicable joy! Oh, an unspeakable miracle. Joy, for today the eternal God opens His bosom and gives us His Only Begotten Son. The Son is incarnated through the assistance of the All-Holy Spirit. The Spirit descends on the Virgin, and the Virgin conceives without seed. It is a miracle, since the immortal unites with the mortal, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity perceives human nature, the eternal and the temporal abides in one Hypostasis. Joy, for the condemnation of the primordial Adam is resolved, and we are given grace to acquire paradise, from which disobedience expelled us. A miracle, since the incorporeal, incorporeal and immaterial God deigned to take on body, flesh and matter. In one being, combining perfect humanity and perfect Divinity, without changing nature, without transmuting natures, without merging persons. Beginningless Son and Word of the pre-beginning Father, His ever-present living image, Source of wisdom! With your wonderful omnipotence, grant now strength to my mind, reason to my soul, soul to my word, word to my mouth, so that I can proclaim today’s great sacrament. From the mouth of a child and those who piss, he who praises Himself (Ps. 8:3)! make my unskilled tongue wise, pour out the grace of Your blessing on my lips, so that Gabriel and I may greet the Virgin with the words: Hail, full of grace Mary: the Lord is with You (Luke 1:28). Behold, conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son. The all-wise Creator of everything, God, having created the immaterial ranks of the heavenly hierarchy, created the sky, lit bright stars on it, founded the earth, decorated it with fragrant flowers, enriched it with the sweetest fruits, irrigated it with transparent sources of flowing waters, poured a light night and morning breeze into the air, called light day and darkness night, after having created the beautiful structure of the sky with such splendor and the earth, finally, taking dust from the earth, created the first man, Adam. With His life-giving breath He gave him a soul in His image and placed him in the paradise of sweetness, so that, as a king, he would have power and might over the entire endless world. But since Adam did not find a helper like him, therefore God imposed a punishment on Adam. and he fell asleep: and took one from his side, and filled it with flesh in his place. And the Lord God created ribs, taking the hedgehog from Adam, for a wife (Gen. 2:20–22). Thus created, this holy duo shone like the sun and the moon among the unfading beauties of paradise. But a little time passed. - and through the devil’s deception she was subjected to a dark and all-destructive deprivation: knowing everything, out of a desire to know, she fell even more into such stupidity that she was likened to senseless cattle, and became like them (Ps. 48:21). The creation of the foremother was wonderful, but even more wonderful and gracious is the present incarnation of the Son and the Word. There Adam, after Eve was created from his rib, remained intact as he was before; Virgo is here. when the Son of God took flesh from Her, she remained a Virgin before, during and after her birth. There, the devil, strangled by the poison of his flattery: you will be like gods, killed the entire human race; Here the Archangel Gabriel proclaimed salvation with the gospel: Rejoice. There Eve, out of her great pride, having eaten from the tree of knowledge, lost divine grace; here is the Virgin in her deep humility: behold, the servant of the Lord has become the Mother of God. There Eve heard: in sickness give birth to children (Gen. 3:16); Here is the Virgin: behold, conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son. O Divine re-creation! O holy replenishment! Oh, saving annunciation! Be amazed, people, at the infinite mercy, the gracious condescension of God, who not only adorned man with so many talents, but also enriched him with glory, having brought under his feet the sheep and all the oxen, as well as the Polish cattle, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, the passing paths of the sea (Ps. 7-9:9). But since, (deceived) by the insidious advice of the devil, he fell from bliss into disasters, from immortality - into death, from the blooming beauties of paradise - into thorns and thistles of the earth: then God determined to send His only begotten Son, so that He would take human nature from his wife, raise man to his former state, exalt him to the former honor, bestow upon him the former immortality. For God loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat (John 3:16). So, when the fulfillment of time came, the eternal council had to take place, this Divine decision had to be fulfilled. But since this sacrament was so high, secret and incomprehensible, that if the Virgin had simply and as if by chance conceived the Son of God, without first knowing about the image of conception, unprepared for such a seedless conception by the words of the Angel, she would have found herself in great fear and excitement - therefore, the great official of the heavenly powers, the lightning-eyed Gabriel, was chosen for such a task: in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God (Luke 1:26). Entering the Virgin’s dwelling with reverence, he greeted Her like this: Rejoice, O Most Gracious One, the Lord is with You, as if wanting to say: “I, the Angel who brings good news, have come from heaven to You, the pure and immaculate Virgin; I am the one who, together with the immaterial ranks, stands before the terrible throne of God and sings ceaseless praises to the Holy Trinity; I am the one who announced Your conception to Your parents, Joachim and Anna; when You, raised not so much by earthly food as by the grace of the Spirit, dedicated Yourself to the church of God, I fed You with heavenly bread; I am now sent from our Almighty Creator and Creator to preach to You the eternal advice determined by His infinite mercy for the common benefit of the human race. Rejoice, purest mirror of virginity; Rejoice, animated image of God; Rejoice, God-created statue of purity and, like the sun, a transparent throne on which the King of Ages will sit; a gracious, animated combination of virtues and a wonderful crown of all talents! In You I see virginity, purer than the crowns of the earth, the pearls of the sea and the stars of heaven; in You is wisdom so abundant that it illuminates the entire face of the heavenly ranks; in You there is humility so deep that all mind disappears in it; in You I see love so warm that all the fires burning in the souls of other righteous people seem like small sparks in comparison with the flame of Your holy heart; in You I see the highest holiness, surpassing the heavens in its height. What more? The Lord is with you. I see that all the fullness of the Divine dwells in You, that all the gifts of the Most Holy Trinity are concentrated in You. Blessed are You among women; God alone blessed You, sanctified You, loved You, and, under the influence of His Divine mercy, chose You from all the wives into His own abode. Therefore, having poured out all the treasures of His omnipotence on You, He revealed You to the world as the most wonderful and extraordinary creation of His almighty hand. And I say to You with great joy: Behold, you conceive in the womb. Although You are a pure Virgin and have not known a husband, nevertheless You will conceive in Your holy womb the Son of God without seed, without artifice; in Your holy womb you will contain Him whom even the heavens cannot contain. And give birth to a Son. When the definite time comes for birth, without damage to the womb, without the incorruption of Your virginity, in the darkness of the night, without a father, He will be born of You, Who, without a mother, is born of God in the lordships of the saints, one by Hypostasis and sublime by nature, all in heaven at the right hand of the Father and all on earth in Thy holy embrace. And you will call His name Jesus. After eight days, in order for the Lawgiver to fulfill the law, He will be circumcised as a baby, and since He will be the Savior of the human race, He will be called Jesus, which means salvation. This one will be great. When this unsetting Sun begins to spread the rays of His Divine omnipotence, casting out the false polytheism of idols, It will kindle in the darkened human souls the life-giving light of true faith, and although He is a small baby, nevertheless, like a lion, with His thunderous teaching He will expose the foolish wisdom of the Jews, drive out wickedness, frighten all hell, and, Having opened the treasures of heavenly powers, he will transform the waters into sweetness, giving light to the blind and correction to the lame, healing to the sick, and life to the dead. All demons will tremble at His name, the elements will obey His words, nature will change its laws according to His every command. And the Son of the Most High will be called. But if even with all these miracles (of birth), the difficult-to-submit entire Jewish people do not believe in Him as the true God, the Holy Spirit will descend on the Jordan and publicly proclaim Him the Son of God, co-existent, co-throne and co-originating with the Father. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. The King, seated on the cross, like a royal throne, crowned with thorns, He will pronounce His terrible sentence against the strangled devil. With his last breath he will animate the buried Adam and raise him from death to his former immortality. And He will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:33). A little time will pass, and He, as the Lord of life and death, having crushed the iron gates of evil, will rise victoriously and gloriously ascend into heaven, where, sitting at the right hand of the Father, He will reign forever, and there will be no end to His kingdom. Such most holy fruit will spring forth from Thy seedless and purest womb; You, blessed Mother, will give birth to such a blessed Son, and you will give birth while remaining a Virgin, as before. Do not be surprised at this, because God, by whose command Aaron’s rod sprouted without irrigation, cold water flowed out of the hard stone of the desert, the tablets of the Testament were found written without the participation of human hands, He Himself will preserve Your virginity in purity at birth. These words of the Archangel, although they conveyed the joy of the Annunciation, nevertheless aroused great excitement in the heart of the Virgin; but, being wise and reasonable, She first calms Her heart from fear, as the blessed one says. Theophylact of Bulgaria. In order to calm down, hear the Divine answer and, not as an unbeliever, but wanting to know about the image of the thing, She said to the Angel: what will this be like, I don’t know where my husband is? “You, God-like spirit, speaking to Me in the form of a man, words above the nature of man, tell Me: how can a virgin give birth? How can the Lord enter into Me? Lord - to be with Me? God, the highest, indescribable, beginningless, infinite, is the purest Nature, never born, forever living and never aging, never dying, how will He unite with Me, a weak, mortal being? What will it be like for the fire of the Divine to unite with Me, a corruptible blade of grass? With creation - the Creator, with the virgin - the Son of God? And what especially excites My mind and plunges My understanding into the abyss is your words, that I, a virgin, must give birth? And who has ever seen a fruit without a root, an ear without a seed, a river without a source, a son without a father, a mother without a husband? How will this happen if I don’t know where my husband is? Explain to Me, Angel, this sacrament: tell Me the image of this seedless conception, what will this be like? “Do not explore, Virgo, the image of the sacrament,” the Angel answered Her: the more you delve into it, the more inexpressible it is, and the more you experience it, the more it confuses the mind. I will tell you only one thing: the Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Holy Spirit, good, lordly, mental source of wisdom, treasure of gifts, creating prophets, making apostles. By a miraculous action He will enter Your holy womb and from Your virginal bowels forms the most pure body of the God-Man Word. And the power of the Most High will overshadow Thee. And, since You, as a person, are weak, the power of God will overshadow You, strengthen and sanctify You, so that You become a worthy abode of the Divine. This is how it was determined at the eternal council of heaven, this is how the Eternal Father ordained it, so that God would receive from You, Virgin. human likeness, so that man can regain his lost image.” The Virgin, convinced by such and similar reasoning, finally opens Her pure lips and with great humility answers Gabriel: Behold the servant of the Lord, wake Me according to your word, as if wanting to say: “Archangel, you are the messenger of the true God; Of course, it is necessary that your words are true in your lips, flowing with honey and milk, there cannot be poison or deception; therefore, although I am unworthy to support the One who holds everything, to give birth to My Creator and to be the Mother of My Creator, I nevertheless bow down with all humility, and may the Divine Word be written in Me. I am a dry fleece, and may the dew of the All-Spirit fall upon Me. I am a pure Virgin, may the eternal God receive human flesh from Me. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to thy command.” Oh, the depth of humility that takes us to heaven! O wonderful power of the virgin Daughter. One - (let there be) God striving to change the earth and stars. Why are You, the all-pure Daughter, the God-wise Mary, now elevated to such greatness and honor, subjected to such deep humility? Is it not fitting for You to shed tears after You have become the worthy abode of the Divine and, like the sun, the radiant throne of the King of glory? You are now the Mother of God, and how do you call yourself the servant of the Lord? Behold the servant of the Lord, be unto Me according to thy command. But it seems to me that the Virgin convincingly answers that She has become decently humble, for the Lord has dwelt in Her, Who opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3:34). Know that the Lord of the brokenhearted is near (Ps. 33:18). “She had to prepare with all humility to receive the Divine Word. If a person is proud, then the grace of the All-Holy Spirit can never indwell him, for everyone with a high heart is unclean before God (Prov. 16:5). That is why the all-immaculate Virgin, hearing through the mouth of an Angel from the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit will come upon you, answered decently with all humility: behold the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to your word, and with these meek words she drew the Son of God from heaven to earth, and in a hitherto unheard-of manner received into her virginal and immaculate bosom the Word abiding in the bosom of the Father. This hidden mystery of the Divine economy was pointed out by the prototypes, parables and sayings of the God-bearing fathers and prophets. This was foreshadowed by the bush that Moses saw: passing by I will see this great vision, as if the bush does not burn (Ex. 3:3): for the Virgin also accepted the fire of the Divine within Herself without harm to Her pure virginity. This was also foreshadowed by Jacob's ladder, whose head reached to heaven, and the Angels of God ascended and descended along it (Gen. 26:12), for through Mary God descended to earth, became a mortal man, and man ascended to heaven and acquired his former immortality. The handless stone of Daniel also foretold this: you saw, O king, until the stone was torn away without hands (2:34), for from the pure flesh of the Virgin the mysterious Stone was born without a man, and the Stone was Christ. (1 Cor. 10:4). The prophet Jeremiah clearly saw this in the house of that poor man who was making various vessels on a circle and, when one of them broke, he made it again, but even more beautiful: and the poor man came down into the house, and there he did the work on the stones. And breaking the vessel with which you made the clay with your hands: and then make another vessel out of it, as it was pleasing to create in your own eyes (18:3, 4). Who is this scoundrel if not the Almighty God and Father? “There is one artist and Creator - God.” Who is this wheel if not the eternal Word? - With Him He created all vessels, all creations: all things came into being, and without Him nothing came into being (John 1:3). So, in view of the fact that one of these vessels, the forefather Adam, was broken due to his disobedience and disastrously darkened the Divine image, God today restores it in an even better form, through the recreation of the new Adam: the first man is from the earth with a ring, the second man is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47), as the inspired Trumpet of the Church proclaims. This was also signified by the rainbow, about which God told Noah that from the time it appeared in the clouds, there would be harmony and love between God and people: I set My arc in the cloud, and it will be a sign of an everlasting covenant between Me and the earth (Gen. 9:13). Today, when the mysterious rainbow appeared, when the Son and the Word of God became incarnate, today the love between God and man was established. That is our world, which created both as one, and destroyed the mediastinum of the fence (Eph. 2:14). Gabriel also preached this gospel to the Virgin in the words: Behold, conceive in the womb, and give birth to a Son. Now I understand the terrible miracle that God showed to the prophet Isaiah on the sundial during the healing of the sick king. King Hezekiah lay on his royal bed, stricken with a mortal illness, and, having heard from the Prophet a terrible sentence about his death, weeping with great tears (2 Kings 20:3), as the Holy Scripture says, or not recognizing, except for his own tears, other healing, or, perhaps, hoping with these bitter tears to extinguish the flame of bitterness that burned his heart. But amidst these dark clouds of sorrow, the joyful sign of his healing shone; it was the sun which, having turned back nine steps to the great one, again rose from it and with its new rising bestowed healing on Hezekiah: in his days the sun rose and added the life of the king (Sirach 48:26). Sick Hezekiah is the human race, which, exhausted by unbelief in God, lay in the deepest unrestful sleep of persistent sin, but, seeing the unhappy state into which it had fallen, finally raised its eyes to heaven and exclaimed with all its soul: how long, Lord, will you forget me completely? How long will you turn Your face away from Me (Ps. 12:2)? Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed: save me (Jer. 17:14). Then the eternal God, who could not bear to see His image in the likeness in the hands of the devil, showed a joyful sign of human salvation. And the mysterious Sun of truth, His Only Begotten Son, turning back nine degrees, that is, having passed through the nine ranks of Angels, descended into the great shadow, into the womb of the Ever-Virgin Mary, as the Angelic words testify to this: and the power of the Most High will overshadow Thee. After some time, He will rise from Her like the sun, and with His new rising will heal all our ailments and revive us, who are dead in sin (Colossians 2:13), as a chosen vessel. For this reason the love of God has appeared in us, as God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him (1 John 4:9). And the Archangel says: Behold, conceive in the womb, and give birth to a Son. Rejoice, rejoice, human nature: for today the beginning of your salvation begins; today is the end of your suffering; today the bright doors of paradise, which disobedience has closed before you, are opened to you; today you receive that endless bliss that the devil’s deception deprived you of. Again the darkness dissipates, again the light appears; again Egypt is covered with clouds, Israel is illuminated by a pillar. Where now is the ungodly polytheism of idols? Where is the world dominion of the devil? The ancient mimoidosha was all new (2 Cor. 5:17); the letter retreats, the spirit enters into force; the shadow passes and the truth comes. Rejoice, for now the sin of the primordial Adam is resolved, the darkness of sins is dispersed, the expulsion of blessed souls from the earthly paradise ends, the end of suffering is given to us, and grace is imparted to the acquisition of eternal bliss. Today the Divinity unites with humanity, man with God, faith with the heart. And You, Most Blessed Virgin, who has enriched us with such glory, who has glorified us with such honor, who has honored us with so many gifts, now, we pray, turn Your merciful gaze upon us, Your humble and unworthy servants, who offer themselves to You as a pure sacrifice. True, we know that nothing confuses Your all-holy soul more than songs of praise brought to You; however, so that we do not appear completely ungrateful for the boundless mercies with which You have enriched our entire family, deign to accept our greeting following the example of the Angel - “Rejoice,” which became the beginning of all joy. Rejoice, O Blessed Mary, Purple-born Queen of Angels. Rejoice, silver-gilded crystal of purity. Rejoice, most blessed paradise of blessed sweets. Rejoice, church of the heavenly palace, decorated with gold and purple. Rejoice, as the royal vegetation from the root of Jesse, born from a barren womb and seeing the light of bliss before the light of the sun, who became the soul of the sky before the earth became a body, the daughter of the eternal Father earlier than Joachim and Anna, and before setting foot on the earth, she trampled the head of the poisonous dragon. Rejoice, marvelously conceived in a barren womb and shining in your mother’s womb like a pearl in a shell. You were born like the morning, adorned with the flowers of heavenly virtues; rose like the sun, crowned with the rays of Divine grace. Rejoice, one of all wives who was worthy to become the Mother of the One God and to contain in His pure womb the One who, with His omnipotent hand, contains the entire circle of the universe. Rejoice... but what else can I say? What kind of orator, even if he had in his mouth a whole golden stream of eloquence, could ever explain the glory to which God has elevated You? or the gifts of grace with which heaven has enriched You? What human language can inherit the greatness with which the All-Holy Spirit has adorned Your holy soul? So deep and impenetrable is the sea of ​​Your praises, in which the minds of even blessed Angels disappear! Therefore, O blessed Virgin, I pass over Your wonderful virtues in silence, marveling at them only in my thoughts. And falling at Your most pure feet, I ask You only for Your invincible intercession, for the help and preservation of the Christ-loving army, for the expulsion and destruction of the godless tyrant. How long will the Most Pure Virgin, the unfortunate Greek people languish in the bonds of unbearable slavery? O Virgin, remember that in Hellas, earlier than anywhere else, the life-giving light of true faith shone; The Greek people were the first to open their arms and accept the Divine Gospel of Your Only Begotten Son, the first to recognize You, the true Mother of the God-Man Word, the first to resist the tyrant who, through the darkness of torture, tried to blot out Your honorable name in the hearts of the faithful. He gave the world teachers who, with the light of their teaching, enlightened the darkened thoughts of people. He gave shepherds who, with their pastoral staff, drove out the bloodthirsty wolves from the church fence. He gave laborers who, with the sweat of the cross, tilled hearts with the plow of the cross and, having sowed the Gospel seed, reaped souls for the heavenly granary. He gave martyrs, who stained the Church’s scarlet with their blood. We pray to You, merciful Mary, for the sake of the greeting - “Hail”, which gave us joy, for the sake of the Angelic Annunciation, which became the beginning of our salvation, (we pray to You), grant him his former honor, raise him from the dust of slavery to the throne of royal dignity, from bonds to the scepter, from captivity to the kingdom. And if these prayers do not bend You to mercy, let these bitter tears flowing from our eyes bend You. But if they are also powerless, let the voices and prayers of Your saints move You, who constantly cry out from all the countries of unfortunate Hellas: Andrew calls from Crete, Spyridon from Cairo, Ignatius from Antioch, Dionysius calls from Athens, Polycarp from Smyrna, Catherine from Alexandria; Chrysostom calls from the reigning city, and, pointing out to You the cruel torment of the godless Hagaryans, they expect deliverance for the Greek people from Your extreme compassion. Accept, All-Holy Virgin, our tears. Grant strength to our most pious leader against the murderous and bloodthirsty barbarians, so that the life-giving ray of the mysterious Sun shines even brighter, so that the power of the Cross spreads throughout the world, and Your holy name is glorified by everyone with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen 154. Elijah Minyatiy pronounced this commendable word in Venice in 1688, on March 25, while still a student at the Flangian school, 10 years old. See the sermons of St. Elijah Minyaty of Cephalonite (Bishop of Kernik and Kalavrita). New translation from Greek. Publication St. Trinity. Sergiev. Laurel. 1902, countries. 379–390. You might be interested in: