On When the newborn is presented in church:
But the ultimate meaning, and also joy of this rite is to be found- as the church understands and experiences it- in the light and the joy of the mystery of Mary, the Mother of Christ. As the mother stands at the entrance of the church, holding her child in her arms, ready to offer it and thus her very motherhood to God, she faces in fact, another Mother with another Child in her arms: the icon of the Theotokos, the very icon of the incarnation and of its acceptance by creation.
And the church, in her prayers, unites those two motherhoods, fills human motherhood with the unique joy of fullness of Mary's divine Motherhood. The Child Whom she bore, with whom as mother she was fully united, who was her whole life, made her, "full of grace." And now this grace fills the Church; and it is this Grace- the Grace of Mary, the Grace of the Church- that each mother receives yet also gives as she brings her child to God.
But the ultimate meaning, and also joy of this rite is to be found- as the church understands and experiences it- in the light and the joy of the mystery of Mary, the Mother of Christ. As the mother stands at the entrance of the church, holding her child in her arms, ready to offer it and thus her very motherhood to God, she faces in fact, another Mother with another Child in her arms: the icon of the Theotokos, the very icon of the incarnation and of its acceptance by creation.
 |
| source |
- Of Water and the Spirit, Fr. Alexander Schmemann
No comments:
Post a Comment