Значение праздника

The significance of a real holiday is measured by the significance that upbringing has in a person’s life. No matter how different opinions may be on this issue, it is hardly possible to deny the extremely great influence that at least his initial, childhood life, the environment in which it takes place, and the entire totality of impressions that influence the child, have on a person’s mental makeup. At the introduction into the church of St. The Church of the Mother of God sees, as the service of this feast sufficiently shows, primarily from this point of view. Through his introduction into the church of St. The virgin was placed under the entire amount of the blessed influence of the church. No matter how inferior the Old Testament church was to the Christian one, it had an impact on the soul of the believer, so to speak, of exactly the same order and character as the New Testament church. It was the same atmosphere of holiness, purity and divinity. And according to the thought of the church service for the holiday, the influence of the church on the sensitive and child-like soul of the “God-Lady” was of such extraordinary power that, one might say, it seemed to gradually prepare the very incarnation of God, filling Her soul with Divinity. This is the deep basis for the close connection in which this holiday is placed (by hymns) with the Nativity of Christ. Being truly “Divine” by its very source, this influence of the church on the child’s soul of the Mother of God could not be paralyzed by the morally at least not brilliant state in which the then hierarchy was, i.e. the human element of the church, and the hymns of the Introduction quite rightly completely ignore this negative authority. As a result, the entire holiday with its service is a continuous hymn to the holiness and purity that is imparted by the church to the Ever-Virgin who found shelter in it. This holiness and purity was especially exalted by the fact that what was brought into the church was a gift to God, received from God, as if “Thine from Thine” to Him, a sacrifice to Him from parents and all mankind, and every sacrifice, even if it is served by an unreasonable animal, by the mere fact that it is a sacrifice, is the greatest holiness, “the holy of holies,” as the sacrifices and the altar are called by Moses. The holiness of this church Dweller was exalted by Her vow of virginity, which, joining those two figures, truly raised the holiness and purity that breathed here to the zenith, imparting to it a directly heavenly and Divine height. This is the grace-filled and, of course, most beneficial breath that this exceptional holiday, like all other twelve holidays, imparts to the believer. It is joined, of course, in connection, although logically quite elusive, by the spirit of the holiday and the service of some kind of simply childish, unaccountable joy. Rarely does a holiday shimmer with such bright, light joy. This is like the joy of that round dance of girls who, according to legend, a holiday so beloved by church services, saw off the Ever-Virgin; to the church (“with bright lights”), “singing, playing and rejoicing.” Purity and holiness, light and joy - these are the motives of this holiday. You might be interested in: