“We should never forget that we are just like the Theotokos, the Ever-Virgin Mary: our soul and her womb are the same, for she is the archetype of the human soul and the model of its response to God.”(1)

The Annunciation | The Nativity of Christ | The 'Directress' Reflection:

 

The Theotokos is our first intercessor before God, and the utmost example of living according to God’s will.  St Paul said, “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” as a reflection of his relationship with Christ. But it is the Theotokos who experienced this physically by giving birth to God, no other saint has this relationship to God.

Her womb and our soul are the same, she is our example.  That which she experienced through the Annunciation (accepting God’s will) and Incarnation (giving birth to Christ), we are called to imitate spiritually. 

“Just as Christ is the creator of all things, including His mother, and made her His mother out of love for mankind, accepted to be born from her, so too Christ first creates faith within us, and then becomes the son of that faith, from which He is embodied through the practice of the Faith in our lives.”  

Do each of our thoughts, words, and deeds embody Christ? 

Our calling as Orthodox Christians is to enter into a deep and abiding relationship with Christ through our life in the Church.  So much so, that hopefully we too may imitate the Theotokos and make Christ ‘incarnate’ each day, through our very being.  We can start by following her example at the Annunciation, by freely choosing to accept God’s will in our lives. 

The more we study and pray to the Ever-Virgin Mary, the easier it becomes for us to follow in her footsteps, the easier it becomes for her to lead us to her son and our God.

Through the intercessions of the All Holy Lady, Theotokos, and Ever-Virgin Mary may we enter into an ever-deepening relationship with Christ, and follow her example through our living the Faith, providing Christ to everyone around us with every thought, word, and deed.

Resources:

1) Perkins, Raising Lazarus, Integral Healing in Orthodox Christianity. Pg 134. 

2)  Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

3) St Maximos Confessor Questions to Thalassios “Just as the Word, who, as God, is by nature the creator of His mother who gave birth to Him according to the flesh, and made her His mother out of love for mankind, and accepted to be born from her, so too the Word first creates faith within us, and then becomes the son of that faith, from which He is embodied through the practice of the virtues.”