00:00Today, dear listeners,
00:29listeners, and followers, we're going to talk about the church founded by Christ is called the
00:36mystical body. But before we get into this most important reflection, we need to preface a very
00:45important person who is very instrumental in having one of the primary parts of the very beginning of
00:52the church and her salvation history according to orthodox tradition. But I first want to share
01:00how I came to have my spiritual eyes open to understand that without this individual's
01:08involvement alongside our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to bring salvation to the whole human race.
01:15So please bear with me as I give a little background here. Now, being a recent new
01:23convert to the Orthodox Church from a long line of mixed denominations, including being a cradle
01:32Catholic as a young girl, then on to being a Protestant, then evangelical, and finally a
01:39charismatic. All throughout my 28 years of teaching and preaching the Word of God, I always felt like
01:47something was missing, especially the day almost two years ago when I was preparing a message on the
01:55life of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. I even recorded the message. But even after my husband Lee
02:02had edited this message, we agreed not to publish it along with all the other hundreds of teachings
02:10because I knew that there was more to her life than I could glean from the Bible. It happened one day
02:17when a friend of our son, Jonah Evans, whose name is Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church,
02:25was visiting with us. I told him of my dilemma of not finding more information about Mary, the mother
02:32of Jesus, and he simply said, if you pray about it, she will speak to you and direct you. I did just
02:41that after he left for his flight back to Virginia, where he is abbot of St. Demetrius Orthodox Monastery
02:48in Spotslavania, Virginia, and rector of St. Herman Alaska Church in Stafford, Virginia.
02:57It was about a week later. My son Jonah put a huge book with over 600 pages in my hands. I was more
03:05than surprised, dear listener and followers. I was elated when I began to read this book that is filled
03:12with eyewitness accounts of the early church fathers regarding the life and history of the
03:19most holy Theotokos, mother of Jesus. And the name of this book is called The Life of the Virgin Mary,
03:26the Theotokos. You see, I have learned that without the birth and life, according to the Eastern
03:33Orthodox tradition, since the birth of the Virgin Mary is divinely ordained with the beginning of our
03:40salvation history. Without her, there would be no incarnation, no church, and no redemption.
03:48The Eastern Orthodox Church holds the Theotokos, mother of God, in profound reverence, not as one on
03:56the outer fringes or irrelevant figure, but as most essential to the mystery of salvation. Church
04:05tradition frames Mary's birth as foundational, since Mary has been given the title of the chosen vessel
04:12of the incarnation. You see, the birth of the Virgin Mary marks the moment when God's plan for salvation
04:21begins to unfold visibly. She was foreordained before all ages to be the pure vessel by which and through
04:31whom Christ would enter into the world. Now, reflecting back to my study for the message I was preparing on
04:40the importance of the Virgin Mary, several commentators of the King James Bible said God could have chosen
04:48any woman to bring Christ into the world. I knew this was wrong, but I had no other references on her
04:57background until I started to learn from the day, as I said earlier, that my son Jonah had put this huge
05:05book about her life into my hands. This was the answer in the way that Mary, mother of God, had answered my
05:13prayers. There were two church fathers, especially Saint Arenas of Lyon and Saint Athanasius, who emphasized that
05:25Mary's obedience reversed Eve's disobedience, making her the cause of salvation for the human race.
05:33Saint Arenas lived in 130 to 202 AD, and Saint Athanasius of Alexandria lived in 296 to 373 AD.
05:49Orthodox tradition teaches that without Mary, there would be no Christ, and without
05:54Christ our Savior, there would be no church. And it is understood and taught that the church as the body of Christ
06:03could not have taken on flesh without Mary's yes at the Annunciation. The incarnation of Jesus Christ
06:14is the cornerstone of Orthodox doctrine of salvation. Without it, dear ones, there is no Eucharist,
06:23no Pascha or Easter, no Pentecost, and all in saying, there would be no church.
06:32Church fathers, like Gregory of Nasa and Saint John of Damascus, emphasized that Mary's purity
06:40was divinely prepared, not self-generated. She was full of grace, according to Luke chapter 1,
06:49verse 28, which is a scripture interpreted by Orthodox tradition, indicating God's sanctifying presence
06:57within Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. The Orthodox tradition calls Mary's nativity the dawn of
07:07salvation. Just as John the Baptist prepared the way, Mary's birth prepared the world to receive the
07:15redeemer. Mary is seen as the first Christian and the first icon of the church. Saint Arrhenius wrote
07:25that Mary was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. She is seen
07:35as the first to receive Christ in faith, the first to bear him physically, and the first to remain faithful
07:43at the cross, making her the prototype of the church itself. In the Eastern Orthodox Church,
07:51its deeply liturgical and patristic perspective is that Mary's birth was not incidental,
07:59but rather it is like the hinge of history. Again, it must be stated, without Mary,
08:07the incarnation would not occur, the incarnation would not occur, and without incarnation, the church and
08:13salvation would remain unrealized. Now, according to Orthodox tradition, Mary was chosen as a pure vessel
08:23because the incarnate Son of God, totally holy and without sin, required a sanctified, undefiled womb
08:33to enter the world. Her purity was not incidental, but divinely ordained to fulfill the mystery of the
08:42incarnation. Mary's purity is seen as both spiritual and physical, rooted in her total obedience to God and
08:54her virginity. The Orthodox tradition, drawing from the early church fathers, teaches that her holiness was
09:02cultivated through generations of righteous ancestors culminating in her birth to St. Joachim and Anna,
09:11her parents. The Orthodox Church does not teach the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception,
09:19but it does affirm that Mary was sanctified and made pure by grace, especially at the moment of the
09:28annunciation when she fully consented to God's will in Luke 1, verse 38. You see, Mary's faithful response
09:39is that of the highest obedience to God. The incarnation is not only the work of God, but it involves the free
09:48response of mankind in the person of Mary. Where Eve once disobeyed, Mary now obeys.
09:57Where Eve closed her heart to God, Mary opens her heart to his will. Mary's response says, in effect,
10:06I am a tablet. Let the writer write whatever he desires upon it. And giving thought to this,
10:14dear listener and followers, it is purely logical that Christ, being holy, must have had a pure and
10:22holy vessel to dwell in and be born into this world. Orthodox theology teaches that Christ, being fully
10:31divine and sinless, could not have been born of one who would be tainted by sin. Now the womb that bore him
10:42had to be a holy temple, echoing the ark of the covenant, which held the presence of God. Liturgical hymns
10:51often referred to Mary as the living ark, the bridal chamber, and the gate through which the king enters.
10:59These metaphors underscore the belief that her purity was necessary for the incarnation to occur without
11:08defilement and bring the God of all creation into the world. You see, virginity is a sign of total devotion
11:20to God Almighty. Mary's virginity is not merely biological. It signifies her complete dedication to God,
11:30untainted by worldly passions. And this is why she is called the ever virgin in Orthodox tradition. Her virginity
11:41before, during, and after birth is seen as a miraculous sign of Christ's divine origin and a testimony to her
11:51unique role in salvation history. Patristic witness and liturgical affirmation comes from the
12:00church fathers like St. Gregory of Nyssa, who lived in 335 to 394 AD, and St. John of Damascus, who lived in 675 to
12:14749 AD. And he emphasized that Mary's purity was divinely prepared, not self-generated. She was full of grace, according to
12:26our scripture in Luke chapter 1 verse 28, which when interpreted by Orthodox tradition, indicates God's
12:35sanctifying presence within her. Her purity also models the church itself, which is called to be the
12:43spotless bride of Christ. The early Christian voices who helped shape the church's understanding of the
12:52Virgin Mary, especially her life and role as Theotokos, God-bearer. These figures live in the first few
13:01centuries of the church, and their writings reflect both theological insight and reverent devotion.
13:09In the late 1st century to early 2nd century, St. Ignatius of Antioch lived in 107 AD and was among the
13:20earliest to affirm the reality of Christ's birth from the Virgin Mary. In his letters, especially to the
13:27Ephesians, he emphasized that Jesus was truly born of Mary, underscoring the incarnation as a historical
13:35and spiritual event. His witness is powerful because he was a disciple of Apostle John, and his writings
13:45reflect the living memory of the apostolic community. Now, moving into mid-2nd century, St. Justin Martyr,
13:55who lived in 100 to 165 AD, introduced one of the most enduring theological parallels. Mary as the new Eve,
14:07just as Eve's disobedience led to death, Mary's obedience opened the way for life through Christ.
14:17St. Arenas of Lyon, a student of Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of John, expanded Justin's Eve-Mary comparison,
14:29writing in his own work against heresies. This man declared that the knot of Eve's disobedience was
14:40loosened by the obedience of Mary. And he saw Mary's proclamation, her yes to God, as a pivotal moment
14:50that reversed the curse of the fall. And also, in the 4th century, St. Ephraim the Assyrian lived in 306 to 376 AD
15:02and composed hymns and poetic meditations that celebrated Mary's purity, humility, and role as the
15:11Frankensteinever. But until then, of course, Kate doesn't have a lot of
