The Blessed Virgin Mary was born in the humble Galilean city of Nazareth. Her parents were the righteous Joachim and Anna. They did not have children for a long time, they grieved about this and prayed to God to remove from them the reproach of childlessness, and they vowed to dedicate to God the child with whom He would please to bless them. The Lord heard their prayer and gave them a daughter, whom they named Mary, which means: mistress or high. This event is joyful for the human race, since it opened the door to the salvation of man.
The meaning and significance of this holiday is expressed in the troparion:
Thy Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, is a joy to proclaim to the whole universe: from Thee has risen the Sun of righteousness, Christ our God, and having destroyed the oath, given blessing, and having abolished death, given us eternal life. Your Nativity, Virgin Mary, announced joy to the whole universe: for from You the Sun of righteousness, Christ our God, rose, and, having destroyed the curse, He gave a blessing, and, having destroyed death, He gave us eternal life.
Kontakion.
Joachim and Anna were reproached by childlessness, and Adam and Eve were freed from mortal aphids, O Most Pure One, in Thy holy Nativity. Then Thy people also celebrate, having been freed from the guilt of sins, always calling upon Thy: the Mother of God and the nourisher of our life gives birth to infertility.
Greatness.
We magnify You, most holy Virgin, and honor Your holy parents, and glorify Your birth all-gloriously.
Irmosy.
1. Come, people, let us sing a song to Christ God, who parted the sea and taught the people, even from the work of Egypt, for he was glorified.
3. Establish us in You, O Lord, who put to death sin, and plant Your fear in the hearts of us who sing of You.
4. I heard, O Lord, the hearing of Your sight, and glorified You, the only one who loves mankind.
5. Having destroyed the hay-written darkness of fortune-telling, and illuminated the hearts of the faithful with the arrival of the truth of the Virgin Mary, and guide us with Your light, O Christ.
Having dispelled the unclear and mysterious prototypes of Holy Scripture, and illuminated the hearts of the faithful with the revelation of truth through the Virgin Mary, guide us, O Christ, with Thy light.
6. Jonah cried out to the Lord from the whale: You bring me up from the depths of hell, I pray, so that as the Deliverer, with a voice of praise, I will devour the truth to You in spirit.
7. A bush in the mountain, a fiery and dew-bearing cave, the Chaldean manifestly commanded Thee, Bride of God: Thou hast received the Divine immaterial fire in the material womb. In the same way we sing to You who was born: Blessed art thou, O God of our father.
8. In the cave of adolescence you sometimes represented Your Mother, O Lord: but this image came out of the fire, entering without burning. We sing now that You have appeared at the end of this day, and we exalt to all ages.
The bush, which was not burned by fire on the mountain, and the Chaldean cave, which exuded dew, clearly represented You, Bride of God; for You unburntly received the Divine immaterial fire into the material womb. Therefore, to Him who was born of You we cry: Blessed are You, God of our fathers.
In the cave of the youths You once represented Your Mother, O Lord; and this transformation from the fire saved them, walking (among it) unharmed. Her, who appeared through You to the ends (of the universe), we now glorify and extol for all ages.
Chorus.
Magnify, my soul, the glorious Nativity of God to Matera.
9. Virginity is foreign to mothers, and childbearing is strange to virgins: on You, Mother of God, both are settled. Thus we continually magnify all the tribes of the earth.
Virginity is alien to mothers, and childbearing is unusual for virgins; But on You, Mother of God, both happened. Therefore, all of us, the tribes of the earth, continually magnify You.