Virgin Mary, Rejoice, O Blessed Mary, the Lord is with You; Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb, for You have given birth to the Savior of our souls.
Children, tell me, who is our Savior Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity? Was He always called Jesus Christ? No, He always was and is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, but He began to be called Jesus Christ when He was born of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. Listen, I will tell you about this today.
Do you know how people lived on earth before the coming of the Savior? Then people lived poorly: they did not honor the true God and did not love each other. God has punished people many times for their sins; threatened to completely destroy them, but people did not correct themselves. God could have destroyed sinful people from the face of the earth if the Son of God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, had not become the Intercessor for the human race. He Himself suffered punishment for the sins of the entire human race and taught people a righteous life. For this, the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth. That's how it was. God knew that there were two righteous spouses on earth: Joachim and Anna, who, although they lived among sinful and lawless people, never forgot the true God, but always fulfilled His holy Law and lived in love and mutual harmony. They lived to a ripe old age childless and were very sad about this, thinking that God was probably angry with them for their sins and was not giving them children.
They did not stop praying to God and asking Him to send them a child, and at the same time they promised that if a child was born to them, they would give him up to be raised in God’s church, so that the child, not seeing human temptations, could learn to love and honor God with all his heart and become kind and pious. The Lord revealed to Joachim and Anna that they would have a daughter, from whom the Savior of the whole world would be born. The couple named their daughter Maria and at the age of three they sent her to be raised in God's church. In the church, the Blessed Virgin Mary lived under the special protection of God, and the Angels fed Her with heavenly bread. When She was fourteen years old, then, according to custom, She left the church and moved to her hometown of Nazareth, to the house of Joseph, a pious elder who was descended from King David. Here She did handicrafts and housework, and in her free time she always read the Holy Scriptures.
One day, when the Blessed Virgin Mary was reading the Holy Scriptures, an Angel appeared to her and said: “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will give birth to a Son and call Him Jesus.” The Holy Virgin, having listened to the gracious message of the Angel, humbly said to him: “I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.” Soon the Blessed Virgin Mary went to her relative - the wife of the priest Zechariah, the righteous Elizabeth - to tell her about the appearance of the Angel. As soon as righteous Elizabeth saw the Most Holy Virgin Mary, then, at God’s special inspiration, greeting Her, she said in a loud voice: “Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb, and where is it that the mother of God Himself came to me.” And indeed, children, soon the Blessed Virgin gave birth to a Son, whom she named Jesus, which means Savior.
In memory of the angelic gospel of the Blessed Virgin Mary [*] and Her meeting with the righteous Elizabeth, a sacred song was composed. Cross yourself, children, and say it with me: Virgin Mary, Hail, blessed Mary, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, for you have given birth to the Savior of our souls.
Rejoice, Virgin Mary - these are the words of the Angel, as you already know, children, who was sent by God to announce to the Blessed Virgin Mary the birth of the Savior from Her to the whole world.
For all lost sinners, as for you and me, the coming of the Savior was a great joy. But most of all was the joy of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, through whom the Son of God deigned to appear into the world, who gave birth to Him as Her Son, nourished Him with Her breasts, carried Him in Her arms, in a word, raised Him as a Savior to the whole world. And on earth the Mother of God rejoiced over Her Son the Savior, and in heaven She rejoices over Him. And we, children, repeating from the bottom of our hearts the angelic greeting to the Mother of God: Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you, as if we share Her joy with the Mother of God, we rejoice with Her, which, of course, is most pleasant to Her. The word grace-filled means having received from God special power, special mercy, which consisted in the fact that the Most Holy Theotokos gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race.
Words of prayer: Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb - you children, remember whose? Righteous Elizabeth? Yes. Blessed means glorified or worthy of being glorified. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and not the righteous Elizabeth herself, she called the Mother of God the blessed of all women, and Her fruit, that is, the Savior who would be born from Her, was also blessed. With these words, Righteous Elizabeth expressed to the Mother of God that no one on earth has ever been awarded such mercies from God as the Most Holy Virgin Mary, chosen to be the Mother of God Himself, and no one has ever given and will give to the world such mercies as the Divine Son conceived by Her, the Savior of the world, who will soon be born of Her. Repeating to the Mother of God the words of the Angel and righteous Elizabeth, we add to them: for she gave birth to the Savior of our souls, and with this we express to Her our faith in Her Divine Son, Whom we recognize with all our hearts as the Savior of our souls.
Angelic greeting to the Mother of God: it sounds quite clear in the church way, with only a few words changing the ending or shortening. The words: Mother of God, Virgin, Mary are used colloquially as follows: Mother of God, Virgin, Mary. In church it is said "Savior" instead of "Savior".
Who is our Savior? When did He begin to be called Jesus Christ? - Why was He born of the Mother of God? Who was the Mother of God? Did the Blessed Virgin Mary know that the Savior of the world would be born from Her? What did the Angel say to the Mother of God? Did the Most Holy Theotokos tell anyone about the appearance of an Angel to Her? How did righteous Elizabeth greet the Mother of God? Is there a prayer in memory of the Angel's greeting to the Mother of God? Whose words does this prayer consist of? What do we say on our own in this prayer to the Mother of God? What words sound different in church than in colloquial speech? What do the words mean: gracious, blessed, Savior? Who is meant by the fruit of the Mother of God's womb?
[*] The Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated by the Orthodox Church on March 25/April 7.