The Pierced Soul of the Theotokos

“Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also” (Luke 2:35). Who on this earth could even closely compare with the Lord in patient endurance of suffering except His Most-holy Mother? The elder Symeon, adorned with snowy hair like a white swan, prophetically foresaw her future sufferings and likened those sufferings to a sword […]

Selections from the 9th Ode of the Canon for the Presentation of Christ

Verse: Virgin Mother, Lady pure, what do you bring to the Nave? “I now offer my new babe to the arms of Symeon” O Believers, come let us perceive a type in the law, and the shadow and the letter. Every male that opens the womb shall be holy to God. So the unoriginal Father’s […]