Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
CHRIS IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
On the Ninth Day of the Month of December our Holy Orthodox Church
Commemorates the Conception by Saint ANNA of the Most Holy
THEOTOKOS.
Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. Fourth Tone
TODAY the bonds of childless are loosed; for God hearkened to
Joachim and Anna. And though it was beyond hope, He clearly
promised them that they should bear a divine child, from whom
was born the Uncircumscribable One Himself Who became a
mortal, and through an Angel commanded them to cry unto her:
Rejoice, thou who art full of grace; the Lord is with thee.
Kontakion Hymn
ALL the world doth celebrate Anna’s conception on this day with
festive joy, because it came to pass through God; for by Divine
grace she hath conceived her that beyond words conceived the
Logos (Word) of God.
Our Lord and God, wishing to prepare a Living Temple and Sacred abode for Himself, sent an Angel to the Righteous Joachim and Anna with word that the barren and childless Anna would conceive the Maiden He HAD FORECHOSEN to be His Mother according to the flesh. Soon after marital union Anna indeed found herself to be with child, and in time bore the Holy Virgin Mary, according to the Divine promise. Only our Lord and God Jesus Christ was conceived ineffably and WITHOUT SEED, BY THE THEOTOKOS and THROUGH THE OPERATION OF THE Holy Spirit. At His Incarnation, the Lord received THE FULLNESS of His human nature (that same nature which He Himself created in the beginning) from the Maiden WHO NEW NOT WEDLOCK.
The present feast was celebrated with splendor at the most honorable temple of our Lady the Theotokos at Evorania, near the Great Church of Holy Wisdom (Aghia Sofia) in Constantinople. [Source: The Great Collection of The Lives of the Saints]
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 