A reading from the first letter to the Corinthians (15:54b-57)

When that which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:

"Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

From Sophia, The Wisdom of God by Sergei Bulgakov

Mary was manifestly apt for the Holy Ghost to descend upon her. But he eternally abides upon the Son. Therefore, in receiving the Spirit she, at the same time, conceived the Son, who is inseparable from him, and became Mother of God. Her humanity became his humanity. In Christ this human nature was united with the divine nature, received the divine personality of the Word, and was taken up into Divine-humanity. In Mary this same human nature which she gave to Christ remained in its original human condition, with the personality of the Virgin, though now sanctified by the Holy Ghost and becoming Spirit-bearing. The birth of Christ from the Virgin is not merely an isolated event in time; it establishes an eternally abiding bond between Mother and Son, so that an image of our Lady with her infant in her arms is in fact an image of Divine-humanity.

The fact that our Lady is Spirit-bearing did not make her theandric nor constitute an incarnation of the Holy Ghost. For the Holy Ghost is not the subject but the principle, of the Incarnation. He abides, however, in the ever-virgin Mary as in a holy temple, while her human personality seems to become transparent to him and to provide him with a human countenance. We must distinguish the different stages in this overshadowing of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost.

First of all, in this connection, comes her peculiar and exclusive sanctification by the grace of the Holy Ghost, shown in her conception, nativity, and presentation in the temple, and throughout her holy childhood and maidenhood. Next follows the personal descent of the Holy Ghost at the Annunciation, which consecrated her whole bodily being and made of her the Mother of God.

The consecration of the temple of her body could not, of course, be accomplished without a further sanctification also of her soul. The end was not yet, however; she had soon, in company with her son, and treading in his footsteps, to travel the road of his earthly ministry, to receive the “sword in her heart” all the way to her station by the cross on Golgotha, where she had to suffer a spiritual death with him upon the cross, in order, with him, to enter into his glory. She completed this entry into the glory of her son at Pentecost. Then, together with the apostles, but of course in superabundant fullness, she received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

The person of the Holy Ghost remains hidden from us even in his descent at Pentecost, which conferred immediately only the gifts of the Spirit.  But there is a human person to whom it is given to manifest the Holy Ghost himself, and that is the most holy Virgin, Mary, the heart of the Church. And yet this manifestation of the Holy Ghost—let us emphasize the fact that it is precisely a manifestation, not an incarnation—remains for us in this life beyond our understanding.

It vanished from the world with the event of the death, resurrection, and assumption of our Lady; her glorified likeness is unknown to the world, which cannot yet receive its revelation of the Holy Ghost. It concerns only the age to come, and will belong to the last things. Together with the appearance of the glorified Christ at his coming again in Glory, the world will behold his glorified humanity in the person of the Spirit-bearer, the Virgin Mary.

Divine-humanity is to be found “on earth as it is in heaven”—in a double, not only a single, form: not only that of the God-human, Christ, but that of his Mother too. Jesus-Mary—there is the fullness of Divine-humanity. The internal self-disclosure of the Holy Trinity is marked by this same duality: the revelation of the Father is made through the Son and Spirit together, inseparably and unconfusedly. In like manner, in the Incarnation, the Son is “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.” She is the personal subject of the humanity of Christ, and his feminine counterpart. The image of the Mother of God with her child is an expression of this Incarnation of Divine-humanity. To separate Christ from his mother (still more to forget her, as historical Protestantism has done) is in effect an attempted violation of the mystery of the Incarnation, in its innermost shrine.

Yet the veneration of the Virgin extends not merely to her divine maternity, but also to herself. Accordingly she is depicted in certain of her icons apart from the Holy Child, as the “Unwedded Bride,” as “Ever-Virgin.” This conception of her perpetual virginity is, as it were, a personification of the Church, the glorified creation, the Bride of the Lamb; and it is in this sense that the expressions of the Song of Songs concerning the mystical marriage of Christ and the Church are most often understood, alike in East and West. 

 

Musical Selection (Archangel Voices)

 

 

Oh, the marvelous wonder!

The source of Life is laid in a grave, and the

tomb becomes a ladder to heaven. Rejoice,

Gethsemane, holy shrine of the Theotokos!

Let us, the faithful, cry out with Gabriel as

our captain: “Rejoice, O full of grace, the

Lord is with you, He that grants the world

great mercy through you.”

 

Oh, the wonder of you mysteries, pure

Lady: you were made the throne of the Most

High, and today you have passed from earth

to heaven. Your glory is full of splendor,

shining with grace in divine brightness.

Virgins, be raised to the heights with the

Mother of the King! Rejoice, O full of grace,

the Lord is with you, He that grants the

world great mercy through you.

 

The Dominions and Thrones, the rulers,

Principalities and Powers, the Cherubim and

fearsome Seraphim, glorify you falling asleep.

All those born of earth rejoice, adorned with

honor by your divine glory. Kings fall down

and sing with the Archangels and Angels:

“Rejoice, O full of grace, the Lord is with

you, He that grants the world great mercy

through you.”

Prayer