It is worthy to eat in justice - to glorify You, Mother of God! This is the cry of the Holy Church and each of us. Mother of God, sending up my praises and glorifications to You! But these praises are needed not for You, Who is already glorified above all the powers of heaven, but only for us, because they, sent to Your heavenly throne, never remain fruitless, but, accepted with Your usual mercy, are resolved in the bosom of Your love, with countless benefits to us, proclaiming both Your glory and the immutability of Your heavenly intercession for us!
It is worthy to eat, as you truly bless Thee, Theotokos - the whole Christian world exclaims to You! But what worthy gifts, says St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, can this world bring to the One Who is unworthy of everything that fills it? For if Ap. Paul, speaking about the Saints, said that the whole world is unworthy of each of them (Heb. 11:38), then what can be said about You, Mother of God, who is as much holy than the Saints as the light of the sun exceeds the brilliance of the stars? There is nothing in the world that can compare with You, Mother of God, says St. Proclus the Man! Pass with your mind all the creations of God and see: can anything not only exceed, but even compare with the Most Blessed Virgin? Run across the earth, examine the seas, explore the air, delve into the heavens with your thoughts, test all the invisible forces - and say: is there another miracle like this in any creation? Angels - serve God with fear; Archangels worship Him with awe.
The cherubim, unable to see His glory, cover their faces with their wings; The seraphim, flying around His throne, do not approach and, trembling, cry out: Holy, Holy, Holy! (Isa.6:3); the waters obey His voice (Luke 8:24); the clouds serve as a chariot for Him as He ascends; The sun, unable to endure the reproach of His Creator, disappears at the sight of His crucifixion; hell, out of fear, spews out the dead; hellish beliefs - from one glance of Him they are crushed!.. Calculate everything else that is miraculous, and, comparing it with the powers of the Mother of God, glorify the superiority of the Blessed Virgin, as the Mother of the One Whom every creature praises with fear and obeys Him with trembling!
All the memories of the Old Testament Holy Men are praiseworthy; but there is nothing more glorious than the triumph of the Mother of God; for they all saw Christ allegorically, and She carried Him in her womb, incarnate! — Glorious is the face of the Old Testament Holy Wives, mothers of Patriarchs, Judges, Kings and Prophets; - but the Most Blessed Mary became worthy of worship as Mother and servant; like the cloud, the palace and the ark of the Lord! Mother, like one who gave birth to the One who wanted to be born; Slave - as one who unquestioningly accepted the Archangel's message; cloud - like one who dispassionately conceived and was illuminated by the Holy Spirit; The palace, as the receptacle of God the Word, and the Icon, as the one carrying in the womb, are not the tablets of the law, but the Lawgiver Himself!
Saints are also called in Scripture persons dedicated to God (Ps. 105:16) and all believers in Christ, sanctified by the grace of His Sacraments (1 Cor. 6:1), but the grace that the Ever-Virgin was vouchsafed for, by serving Her Mystery of God, exalted Her, not only above these earthly participants in grace; but also above all the hosts of disembodied forces who, serving God, worship Her as the Queen of Heaven, Most Honest of the highest ranks of Angels!
The name of the Saint was finally adopted in the Holy Scriptures by an entire people, chosen from among all the nations of the earth, to serve the One True God (Ex. 19:6); but the Mother of God - appeared to be the chosen one and from these chosen ones, for among the whole people she alone was found worthy of the highest honor of serving the incarnation of the Son of God, for which, one of all the wives of the world, contrary to the rules of nature, retained virginity by birth!
St. Gregory of Nyssa speaks about it this way: A virgin conceived; Worn by a virgin; She gave birth to a virgin, and remained a virgin by birth! Such a miracle has never been seen on earth!
St. John of Damascus adds: “Oh, a new miracle, the highest of all ancient miracles! For who has seen a mother who gave birth without a husband!”
St. Chrysostom, talking about the same thing, says: “Like Adam, without a wife, he produced a wife; - so the Virgin, without a husband, gave birth to a Husband, and paid the debt for Eve! Adam remained unharmed and unharmed after his bodily rib was taken from him; the Virgin also remained unharmed and incorruptible after the birth of the Divine Child!”
St. Ephraim the Syrian expresses it this way: “She gave up Her womb to labor and illness; but instead perceived it as immaculate and inviolable. The Divine physician acted by Her nature, and therefore left Her completely intact. It was not man who was pleased to choose the Virgin for the birth of the Son, but God! That’s why He gave nature what it didn’t have, in order to show that He came not to destroy nature, but to preserve it unharmed and incorruptible!”
St. Augustine exclaims: “Such a Virgin is chosen from the whole world, who is so deserving that she received the Son of God into Herself and remained a Virgin. For such is the Divine power that made Her the Mother and preserved her virginity inviolate!
St. Ambrose, speaking about the same thing, adds: “What is incredible here if Mary gave birth against the order of natural birth and remained a Virgin, when against the order of nature she saw the sea and ran? (Ex. 14:22). Equally, also
The Monk Isidore Pelusiot, in his letter to Theodosius (deacon), says: “The Lord, by His birth, preserved the virginity of the one who gave birth to Him, just as, having risen from the dead, He passed through the imprisoned and sealed doors of the Tomb. Both of these actions show that He is God clothed in human nature!”
The same truth is confirmed by all the ancient teachers of the church, instilling at the same time that the preservation of the virginity of the Mother of God, in conception and in birth, belongs to the family of miracles that exceed the laws of nature, and is a special work of the omnipotence of the One who was born, by whom the rules of nature are conquered and for whom nothing is impossible!
The Holy Apostles, God-bearing witnesses of the earthly and heavenly glory of the Most Holy Theotokos, were the first to glorify her in service songs and call for help in their prayers. The highest glory of the Mother of God, constantly growing and spreading among Christians, and the worship due to Her, were solemnly approved at the Third and Seventh Ecumenical Councils, and at the first of them the Holy Fathers pronounced to Her, like a victory song, a solemn doxology: Rejoice, Mary, Mother of God! - cried the universal Saints, - You are the cover of the whole world! You are an unquenchable light! You are the crown of virginity, the scepter of Orthodoxy, the container of the Incontainable! Virgin Mother, rejoice, who bore in Your blissful womb the Immeasurable and Immense One. The final day of the Council was a day of celebration in honor of the Mother of God.
There is a very touching story in the book entitled “The High Veil over Mount Athos” about the origin of the prayer It is worthy, etc., in the very fullness in which it is now sung by the Orthodox Church. This story, according to the compiler of the book, was taken from the description of the Athonite miracles by the Prototus of the Holy Mountain, Hieromonk Seraphim Thiipolom in 1548, bearing the name Νέου Μαρτορολογιον.