PRAYER TO THE EVER-VIRGIN MARY BY Paul the Monk

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

PRAYER TO THE EVER-VIRGIN MARY
By Paul the Monk of the Monastery of Evergetis

O Spotless, unstained, incorruptible, undefiled, pure Virgin, Lady Bride of God, Who through Your Wondrous birth-giving united God the Logos/Word with mankind, and linked the fallen nature of our human race with the heavenly; the only hope of the hopeless and the help of the persecuted; the ready support of those who seek refuge in You, anad the shelter of al the Christians: do not despise me, the wretched sinner who have defiled myself with shameful thoughts and words and deeds, and through negligence of thought have become slave to the pleasures of life.

But as the Mother of our compassionate God, and a friend of man, have compassion on me the usinsinner and prodigal, and accept this prayer from my impure lips; and using Your Motherly standing, entreat Your Son and our Master and Lord to open unto me the depths of His Loving Goodness and, overlooking my innumerable faults, to return me to repentance and make me a worthy servant of His commandments. Stand by me forever; in this life as a Merciful and Compassionate and Good and Loving warm Protector and Helper, by repulsing the assaults of the adversary and leading me toward salvation; and at the time of my death, by embracing my miserable soul and driving far away from it the dark faces of the evil demons; and at the awesome day of Judgment by redeeming me from Eternal hell, and proclaiming me an heir of the ineffable glory of Your Son and our God. May I enjoy such fate, my Lady, Most Holy Theotokos, through Your intercession and protection; through the grace and love for mankind of Your Only-Begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ to Whom belong All-Glory, Honor and Worship, together with His Beginningless Father, and the All-Holy and Good and Life-Creating Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Most Glorious, Ever-Virgin, Blessed Theotokos, bring our prayer before Your Son and our God, and entreat Him, through You, to save our souls.

The Father is my hope, the Son is my refuge, the Holy Spirit is my shelter, Holy Trinity, Glory to You.

My one and my every hope, now I entreat in You, O Mother of God, under Your shelter cover me.

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THE AKATHIST HYMN

It is very meet to bless thee, the Ever-Blessed and Most Pure Virgin
and Mother of our God. Thou art more Honorable than the Cherubim
and incomparably more glorious than the Seraphim; thou, without
spot of sin, didst bear God the Logos/Word; and thee, verily the Mother
of God, we magnify.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hym. Fourth Plagal Tone.

Now there came to the knowledge of the Angel the secret command,
and he hastened to the dwelling of Joseph and spake unto her who
knew not wedlock: Lo, He Who bowed the heavens and came down is
contained wholly and unchanged in thee. When I behold Him in thy
womb taking the form of a servant, marvelling I cry aloud to thee:
Rejoice, thou Bride unwedded.

An Angel, and the chiefest among them, was sent from Heaven to
cry: Rejoice! to the Mother of God (thrice). And beholding Thee, O
Lord, taking bodily form, he stood marvelling, and with his bodiless
voice cried aloud to her saying:
Rejoice, thou, through whom joy
shall shine forth; Rejoice, thou through
whom the curse shall be blotted out.

Rejoice, thou the Restoration of the
fallen Adam; Rejoice, thou, the redemption
of the tears of Eve.

Rejoice, Height, hard to climb, for human minds;
Rejoice, Depth, hard to explore, even for the
eyes of Angels.

Rejoice, thou that art the Throne of a King;
Rejoice, thou that sustainest the
Sustainer of all.

Rejoice, Star that causest the sun to
appear; Rejoice, Womb of the Divine
Incarnating.

Rejoice, thou through whom Creation
is renewed; Rejoice, thou through whom
the Creator becomes a babe.

Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded.

Boldly and without fear the Holy Maiden spake
to Gabriel, knowing her own chastity: To my
soul thy strange message is hard to believe;
how speakest thou of a virgin and stainless
conception? crying aloud: Alleluia.

Craving to know unknown knowledge, the pure Maiden
cried to him who ministered unto her: From a virgin body
how is it possible for a Son to be born? Tell thou me.
Then spake he to her in fear, crying aloud thus:

Rejoice, beginner of the miracles of Christ; Rejoice,
completer of His ordinances.
Rejoice, heavenly Ladder by which God came down;
Rejoice, Bridge leading from earth to heaven.
Rejoice, thou great marvel and wonder of Angels;
Rejoice, thou great cause of wailing in Demons.
Rejoice, thou who ineffably gavest birth to the Light;
Rejoice, thou who withheldest the Divine secret
from all.
Rejoice, thou who oversoarest the knowledge of
the wise; Rejoice, thou who givest light to the
understanding of the faithful.

Gabriel stood amazed at the beauty of thy Virginity,
and at the splendour of the Purity, and he cried to thee,
O Mother of God What praise is meet for me to bring
to thee? What shall I call thee? I hesitate, and marvel.
Wherefore as commanded I cry to thee: Rejoice,
thou that art full of grace.
Rejoice, thou Bride Unwedded.

All the hymns of the Akathist reflect how the Mother of God is loved and venerated in our Holy Orthodox Church. However, the enemies of Christ have attempted over and over again to slander the Theotokos. And the very beginning of Her heavenly glory was marked on earth by an outburst of malice and hatred toward Her by unbelievers. When, after Her holy repose, the Holy Apostles were carrying Her body for burial in Gethsemane, to the place chosen by Her, Saint John the Theologian went ahead carrying the branch from Paradise which the Archangel Gabriel had brought to the Holy Virgin three days before this when he came from heaven to announce to Her Her approaching departure to the heavenly mansions.

"When Israel went out of Egypt, and the house of Jacob from among a barbarous people," chanted Saint Peter from Psalm 113; "Alleluia," sang the whole assembly of the Apostles together with their disciples, as for example, Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, who likewise had been miraculously transported at that time to Jerusalem. And while this sacred hymn was being sung, which was called by the Jews the "Great Alleluia," that is, the great "Praise ye the Lord," one Jewish priest, Athonius, leaped up to the bier and wished to overturn and throw to the ground the body of the Mother of God.

The brazenness of Athonius was immediately punished: the Archangel Michael with an invisible sword cut off his hand, which remained hanging on the bier. The thunderstruck Athonius, experiencing a tormenting pain, in awareness of his sin, turned in prayer to Jesus Whom he had hated up to then and he was immediately healed. He did not delay in accepting Christianity and confessing it before his former co-religionists, for which he recieve from them a martyr’s death. Thus, the attempt to offend the honor of the Mother of God served for Her great glorification.

The enemies of Christ resolved not to manifest their lack of veneration for the body of the Most Pure One further at that time by crude violence, but theri malice did not cease. Seeing that Christianity was spreading everywhere, they began to spread various vile slanders about Christians. They did not spare the name of the Mother of Christ either, and they invented the story that Jesus of Nazareth had come from a base and immoral environment, and that His Mother had associated with a certain Roman soldier.

But here the lie was too evident for this fiction to attract serious attention. The whole family of Joseph the Betrothed and Mary Herself were known well by the inhabitants of Nazareth and the surrounding countryside in their time. In small towns the family matters of everyone are well known, very strict watch was kept then over the purity of married life.

Would people really have behaved with respect towards Jesus, called Him to preach in the synagogue, if He had been born of illegitimate cohabitation? To Mary the law of Moses would have been applied which commanded that such persons be stoned to death, and the Pharisees would have taken the opportunity many times to reproach Christ for the conduct of His Mother. But just the contrary was the case. Mary enjoyed great respect; at Cana She was an honored guest at the wedding, and even when Her Son was condemned, no one allowed himself to ridicule or censure His Mother. [Saint John Maximovitch]

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George