Событие введения во храм Пресвятой Девы

By her very miraculous birth, predestined by the Lord to be the dwelling place of the Son of God, the palace of the inconceivable Living God, Most Holy. The Virgin, even in the time subsequent to her birth, from the years of her earliest youth, was preserved by Divine Providence in absolutely exceptional purity, holiness and far from any vice and depravity, from any even the slightest stain, whether physical or moral. The Most Holy of Holies could only be born from the purest of the very angels, the very cherubim. Church tradition 1, surrounding with memories of tender love the very cradle of the divine Baby - the future Mother of the Savior of the world, testifies with what holy care the parents of the Most Rev. The Virgins protected their divine Daughter from everything unclean that could somehow, even if only indirectly, touch their God-given Child, even at an age when children usually do not consciously distinguish between good and evil and live a pure, immaculate life. The Mother of God is right. Anna surrounded the very cradle of the Baby with purity, and removed everything unclean from herself, so that her own uncleanness would not touch her Daughter. “And she sanctified her bed, and she put away everything bad from herself for Her sake” 2. Fearing that others around them would not, at least inadvertently, throw some unclean grain into the Child’s childish soul, he is right. Anna allowed only people of known purity and immaculateness to approach her Daughter’s cradle and preserve Her childish peace. “And she called the virgins of Judah, and they followed the child.” The pious mother carefully monitored the purity of the baby’s food. “And she set up an altar in her child’s upper room, and did not let him eat anything unclean or bad.” Jealous of the purity and holiness of his Daughter, he is right. Anna believed that the very contact with the sinful earth, the very walking on the dust, so often desecrated by the feet of sinners and vicious people, would become unclean and would stain her Daughter. “When She was six months old, Her mother put Her on the ground to see if She could stand. And She took seven steps and returned to the arms of her mother. And Anna said: “As the Lord my God lives, You will not walk on the earth until I bring You to the church of the Lord.” How all this, this whole wondrous atmosphere of purity, tender maternal, still warmed by piety and faith, love and caring should have been reflected, what pure stripes of light would fall on the soul of the future Mother of God! Let them not say that in infancy children are not receptive, that the environment of their childhood life does not affect their subsequent development, their future life. A child's soul is a tender plant that loves light, affection, purity; in an abundance of spiritual light, in an atmosphere of love and purity, the soul of a child receives, even in early childhood, a rich reserve for future development in goodness and holiness, for growth in them, for strengthening in them. And the soul of the Mother of God from the tenderly receptive days and months of infancy, so to speak, was penetrated by the rays of the holiness that surrounded Her, wondrous purity, tender love and maternal affection. But nothing penetrates through invisible paths into the infant soul like the religiosity and fear of God that surrounds the baby. And the Mother of God absorbed this fear of God, reverence for God, in the proper sense, with the milk of her righteous mother. Everything I did was right. Anna in general and especially for her divine Daughter, she did with a prayer to God, with a reverent song to the Creator. “And her mother took her,” says the legend, “and fed her and sang a song, saying: “I will sing praises to the Lord my God, for he has visited me from the blasphemy of my enemies.” And the Lord God gave me the fruit of justice, which increased in His presence.” The attitude of rights was imbued with no less piety and no less pure love. Joachim to the divine Daughter. This is how, for example, the legend describes the celebration organized by the rights. Joachim on the occasion of the naming of the Most Holy One after “Mary”. Mother of God. “When She (the Mother of God) was one year old, Joachim held a great feast and invited the high priests, and the scribes, and the whole council and all the people of Israel. And he offered gifts to the high priests, and they blessed Her, saying: “God of our fathers, bless this child and give Her a name, that she may be glorified throughout all generations.” And Mary's parents presented Her to the priests, and they blessed Her, saying: "Lord of glory, look on this child and send Her your blessing, indestructible for ever." “And they gave her the name Mary, 3 glorifying the God of Israel.” In such an atmosphere of purity and holiness, tender and pious parental love and care, in an atmosphere of pure religiosity and reverence for God, the Most Holy One prepared. The Virgin to what she was destined for by the vow of her parents - to dedication to God and to life in the church of God. This thought of giving their Daughter to serve the Lord in His church did not leave the righteous parents of the Most Holy. Virgos. No matter how carefully they guarded their divine Daughter from everything unclean and vicious, it could still seem to them that the best protection of Her purity was not in their home, but in the church of God, under its sacred cover in the care of God’s chosen servants. “When Mary was two years old, Joachim said to Anna, his wife: “Let us take Her to the church of the Lord in order to fulfill the vow we have made; Let us be afraid, lest the Lord be angry with us and take this child away from us.” And Anna said: “Let’s wait until the third year, for I am afraid that he will call his father and mother.” And Joachim said: “Let’s wait.” Only the fear that the love of a too-young child would turn his eyes to his parents, and this love would not be entirely given to the Lord - only this very natural fear kept the parents from fulfilling their vow - to devote their Daughter to the Lord immediately after two years of Her life. Finally, the Most Rev. Virgo is three years old from birth. The age had come when, according to the conviction of Her parents, the child would no longer call on his father and mother and when, therefore, he could fulfill his vow - to bring his Daughter as a gift to the Lord, like a three-year-old clean lamb. The great moment of introducing the divine Daughter of rights has arrived. Joachim and Anna - the future Mother of God in the Church of the Lord - an event occurred to which the Orthodox Church devotes one of its greatest holidays. It may, however, seem unclear why Orthodox. Church to such an apparently private event in the life of the Most Rev. She dedicated one of her greatest holidays, the feasts of the Twelve, to the Mother of God, as Her entry into residence in the Temple of Jerusalem. After all, by honoring this event with such a holiday, the Church thereby places this event along with events of such truly global, universal importance as the most important events in the life of the Savior, such as His birth, baptism, ascension, which serve as the basis for other twelve holidays. And, of course, there were serious reasons for being right. The Church so exalted this event from the life of the Mother of God. These reasons lie in the very essence of this event, which in the life of the future Mother of God, in the matter of Her preparation to be “the friend of the inconceivable God,” to be the purest vessel of the most holy Son of God, was an event of the highest importance. Through this event of the introduction of the Most Rev. The Virgin in the church receives the greatest importance in the matter of the entire dispensation of salvation of the human race. In life, the Most Rev. The Mother of God, Her admission to live in the Jerusalem Temple was no less important than in the life of Christ, for example, baptism. It changed the entire further course of the life of God’s Chosen Youth so much that it could be called Her second birth for a new life - for a life dedicated to God alone. You need to have an idea of ​​the conditions and circumstances in which the church virgin had to live in order to understand the full significance of such a life for a pure soul, already previously brought up in true piety. Church hymns do not exaggerate when they say that St. The virgin lived in the church, and not at the church. The building in which the virgins who dedicated themselves to God lived was located in the very courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple, and the courtyard of the church there had the same meaning and use as in our churches the entire pre-altar part of the church. Here the people of Israel fell prostrate before God, here there was an incessant noise of prayer. From the window of his upper room, St. The virgin could see and smell the daily smoke of the morning and evening sacrifices, “with the stench of fragrance” rising to heaven. And truly nothing worldly or earthly could penetrate here. The very air here seemed to be saturated with the holy name of God. But Rev. The Virgin, according to divine dispensation, was not only assigned to live in the church: She was given access to the greatest shrine of the entire church - the Holy of Holies. And what significance did Her access to this altar of the Old Testament church, to this place of the mysterious presence of the most holy and formidable Jehovah, have in the upbringing and preparation of the future Mother of God - this is understandable without explanation. You need to enter the soul and understand the way of thinking of the ancient pious Jew in order to understand what the Holy of Holies was in his eyes. Hidden behind a heavy curtain that opened only once a year, protected by the fear of instant death not only from entering it, but also from an immodest look inside it, immersed in a stunning, mysterious and sacred darkness - for a Jew it truly differed little from the sky itself; to be there also meant to see God and talk with Him, to feel with one’s whole being the real presence, the real closeness of God. And to be brought up in the high school of the mysterious Holy of Holies meant almost the same thing as to be brought up in heaven itself, directly at the foot of the throne of God. So, if the former life of Rev. The Virgin in her parents' house was Her preparation for entering the church of God and into the Most Holy of Holies, then entering here was a true preparation to become worthy of the Matter of God, purer than the angels themselves. That is why this is a great event in the life of Rev. The Virgin could not happen in the usual way, but was accompanied by miraculous signs from God, which made it clear to everyone that it was a matter of God’s special providence and was of great importance not only for the Virgin Mary, but for all humanity. According to Divine dispensation, the event of the introduction of the Most Holy. The visit of the Mother of God to the Church of the Lord not only bore the character of a sacred and miraculous celebration, but also the character of a nationwide celebration. According to legend, when the Virgin Mary was three years old, he was right. Joachim gathered his many relatives to Nazareth to participate in this celebration. Young pure maidens were also invited to precede the solemn procession, “Call me,” he said. Joachim, the immaculate Jewish virgins, and let them take the lamps and light them, and let not the child turn back, and let not her spirit depart from the house of God.” And so, on the appointed day, a sacred and solemn procession to the Temple of Jerusalem opened. The maidens walked ahead with lighted lamps; their righteous parents, the saints, led them by the hand. A daughter dressed in royal splendor; They were surrounded in a large crowd by relatives, acquaintances and strangers, attracted by the extraordinary procession. It was truly a procession, similar to the Old Testament procession with the ark of the Lord to the Temple of Solomon (1 Chron. XV)! And is this surprising when the one who was to serve as an animated ark of the Living God walked towards the church of the Lord, when, according to the testimony of church hymns and the fathers of the church, the marching Mother of God was surrounded not only by people, but also invisibly by hosts of celestial angels, accompanying the Mother of their Lord to the church! At the gates of the Temple of Jerusalem, priests in their sacred vestments, led by the High Priest Zechariah, came out to meet the Mother of the Great High Priest, welcoming the arrival of the Mother of God with sacred chants. And, according to the legend passed on by Bl. Jerome, a miracle happened here again. “Around the church, in accordance with the 15 psalms of degrees, there were 15 steps, on each of which the priests and Levites sang one psalm, ascending to serve. The parents placed young Maria on the first of these steps. And when they took off her traveling clothes and, according to custom, dressed Her in the best and most splendid, the Virgin of the Lord alone, not supported or eased by anyone’s hand, ascended all the steps as if at perfect age.” So - “she who perennially lived in body was perennial in spirit and exceeded the powers of the heavens” (3rd canto of the 2nd canon). But then everyone was surprised to see in the three-year-old Maiden such extraordinary power, as if foretelling the greatness of the grace that would rest in Her in the future. The High Priest Zechariah, perhaps prophetically foreseeing all the glory and greatness of the Maiden now being introduced into the church, accomplished a completely exceptional, extraordinary deed. He led Her into the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the church, inaccessible to anyone, where the high priest himself could enter only once a year (on the day of the holiday - “purification”) - on the day of repentance and fasting and after prayerful preparation to intercede before God for the sins of the people. No wonder Orthodox. The Church sings that the angels themselves were surprised that the Virgin entered this most holy part of the church. The angels, of course, saw all the purity and beauty of the Little Virgin’s soul; they could even foresee with reverent fear the great service for which the Lord was preparing this great Little One. And yet they were surprised at Her entry into the Holy of Holies. And the high priest performed a truly amazing thing, introducing the Virgin into the inaccessible shrine and thereby foretelling everything immeasurable by the human mind, exceeding all the laws of the greatness of the Virgin who entered the church and then into the Holy of Holies - an animated ark that had within itself Christ God. No matter how wonderful these events were that accompanied the introduction of St. Theotokos to the Jerusalem Temple, however, church tradition is sacred and firmly preserves the sacred memory of them and leaves no room for doubt about their reality. True, these signs are not mentioned in the Gospels, just as the event itself is not mentioned. But church tradition speaks about them, dating back to the most ancient centuries of Christianity. Already in the 2nd century. This tradition begins to be recorded in the so-called apocryphal gospels. In the IV and V centuries. it is already known throughout the Christian world. Palestinian Christians still point to the remains of the church built by St. Equal to the Apostles Helen in honor of the Introduction. Such strong evidence confirms the authenticity of the legend about the introduction of the Most Holy One into the church. Mother of God. But even from the inside, from the side of its content, it does not contain anything that would cast a shadow of doubt on it, and some of its features directly breathe the spirit of sacred antiquity. Such, for example, is the particularity of this legend that the Most Rev. The girl, still three years old, herself climbed up to the 15 steps of the church stairs. For whom is it not obvious that the legend about this should come from the time when magnificent church buildings with their high staircases existed, and did not arise when all of them were left unturned (and the latter happened only 100 years after the time of Christ). This particular part of the legend could have all the power and strikingness for those who saw and ascended these sacred steps, on each of which, on holidays, a special of the 15 power psalms was sung by a large choir of Levites and each of which, therefore, had to represent a whole considerable platform. It is also impossible to recognize as incredible that part of the legend (about the introduction of the Most Holy Theotokos into the church), according to which the high priest introduced the Most Holy Virgin into the very Holy of Holies. Without a doubt, the high priest did this “according to the mysterious teaching of God, being then beside himself, embraced by God” 4 . If the prophets, at the inspiration of God, embraced by the Holy Spirit, performed strange and incomprehensible actions - such as for example. walked naked, lay for hundreds of days on one side, walked around the city under a yoke - then why couldn’t the high priest, who, according to his position, received revelations from God in the Holy of Holies, act in this case according to the inspiration of God? If it was none other than Zechariah, the parent of the Forerunner (church songs accept this tradition), 5 then the possibility of his admitting the Most Holy Theotokos into the Holy of Holies becomes even greater: Her high destiny could have been revealed to him, just as the destiny of his son was revealed to him, and subsequently to his wife, the destiny of the Blessed Virgin. There is no need to assume that the Blessed Virgin was introduced into the Holy of Holies publicly, nor that everyone knew about Her right to enter there: the church hymn hints that only angels witnessed Her entry there. Perhaps only later and after a long time it was discovered that the high priest for some reason found it necessary to share his great privilege with the woman. It is also possible that this act of the high priest, the whole meaning and all the necessity of which he alone could understand, did not go unpunished by the people and the authorities. The Savior mentions the murder, apparently, shortly before His time, of some high priest, namely Zechariah - “between the church and the altar.” In any case, neither immediately nor shortly after committing his amazing, divinely inspired act, the High Priest Zechariah, of course, did not have to regret it, since the life of the Most Holy. The young women in the church could only exalt Her in the eyes of those who saw her. She was “brought up like a dove in the church of the Lord,” says legend. “All of Her, dwelling inside the church and nourished by heavenly food, was sanctified by the All-Holy Spirit,” testifies St. Church (5th Canto of the Canon). Settled at the church in a three-story building of separate rooms, stretching along the outer wall of the church itself and close to it, Presv. The virgin spent most of the day in prayer and contemplation of God. According to legend preserved by Bl. Jerome, She prayed from the morning until 3 o’clock (in our opinion from 6 to 9 o’clock in the morning), from that hour until 9 o’clock (3 o’clock) she was engaged in needlework and reading the Holy Scriptures, which was originally taught to Her by other virgins who lived in the same room; and then again indulged in prayer until the evening, when she took food, according to legend, from the hands of an angel. And in general, an angel often appeared to Her, the Most Pure One, to protect Her from all evil. The High Priest, for his part, allowed the Most Rev. The Virgin Mary enters the Holy of Holies and through this, as it were, approaches God Himself and His most holy dwelling. Thus, far from all worldly vanity, in constant contemplation and prayer, in trembling and reverent approach to the throne of the Lord, the Most Holy Mother remained. The virgin is in the church until she is 12 years old. When the time came when the Mother of God had, according to custom, to leave her present home and, like other girls, to enter into marriage, She announced to the high priest and priests that She had taken a vow of perpetual virginity. Then, respecting Her sacred vow, they betrothed Her to preserve her virginity to the righteous old man Joseph from the line of David, according to his occupation as a poor carpenter. According to legend, this betrothed, the guardian of the virginity of the Mother of God, was appointed by the Lord himself. The priests gathered 12 men from the line of David, laid their rods on the altar and prayed that God would show him what was pleasing to Him. When the high priest then returned the staff to each of those who brought it, no sign appeared. “But when he gave the staff to Joseph, a dove flew out of it and sat on Joseph’s head. And the high priest said to Joseph: “You have been commanded by God’s election to receive this virgin of the Lord, so that you may keep Her with you.” And Joseph accepted the Mother of God, and She settled in the house of her betrothed. This legend has been preserved, like other legends regarding the life of the Most Holy One. Mother of God, in various fathers and writers of the Church and in church hymns. The sources and aids in compiling this article were: “Cheti-Minea” by St. Demetrius of Rostov; Muravyova V. “Life of the Most Rev. Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary” M. 1875; "The First Gospel of James the Jew" ed. Vega, St. Petersburg. 1912 and others. This and subsequent excerpts are taken from the First Gospel of James. The meaning of this name has not been established. It is explained in 67 different meanings. The most likely meaning is “important”, “beautiful”; other meanings: “lady”, “hope”, “gift”, “enlightener”, “myrrh”, “chief of the sea”, “drop of the sea”, “star of the sea”, “bitter sea”, “their indignation”, “bitter”. The latter meanings can be explained by the circumstances under which Miriam, the sister of Moses, received this name, which is very rare among Jews (in the Old Testament it is also found only as a masculine name: 1 Chron. 4.17). The latter circumstance makes it likely that the name is of Egyptian root (like Aaron), then it would mean: “tenderly beloved” (Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de La Bible, IV, Paris 1908, 774–775). Debolsky “Days of Worship” 1, 118. Although Zechariah is called in the Gospel not a high priest, but simply a priest, the high priest in the Pentateuch is almost always called a priest (and the priests are “priests”). You might be interested in: