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(86) When you are about to pray
to Our Lady the Holy Virgin, be firmly assured,
before praying, that you will not depart from Her
without having received mercy. To think thus and to
have confidence in Her is meet and right. She is the
All-merciful Mother of the All-merciful God, the
Word, and Her mercies, incalculably great and
innumerable, have been declared from all ages by all
Christian Churches; She is, indeed, an abyss of
mercies and bounties, as is said of Her in the canon
of Odigitry (The Canon-Song V. 1.). Therefore to
pray to Her without such assurance would be foolish
and audacious, for doubt would offend Her goodness,
just as God's goodness is offended when people pray
to Him without hoping to receive what they pray for. How do people hurry for alms to any great and rich
man whose kindness is well known, and has been
proved on many occasions? Generally with the most
perfect assurance and hope of receiving from Him
that which they desire. Like-wise, in praying we
must neither doubt nor be fainthearted.
(87) The Virgin Mary is the most
merciful sovereign of all the sons and daughters of
men, as the Daughter of God the Father, Who is love;
the Mother of God the Word, of our love; the chosen
bride of the Holy Spirit, Who is love consubstantial
with the Father and the Word. How can we do
otherwise than have recourse to such a sovereign and
expect to receive all spiritual blessings from her?
(88) Pray, my brethren, to the
Mother of God when the storm of enmity and malice
bursts forth in your house. She, Who is all-merciful
and all-powerful, can easily pacify the hearts of
men. Peace and love proceed from the one God, as
from their Source, and Our Lady - in God, as the
Mother of Christ the Peace, is zealous, and prays
for the peace of the whole world, and above all - of
all Christians. She has the all merciful power of
driving away from us at Her sign the subcelestial
spirits of evil - those ever-vigilant and ardent
sowers of enmity and malice amongst men, whilst to
all who have recourse with faith and love to Her
powerful protection, She soon speedily gives both
peace and love. Be zealous yourselves also in
preserving faith and love in your hearts; for if you
do not care for this, then you will be unworthy of
the intercession for you - of the Mother of God; be
also most fervent and most reverent worshippers of
the Mother of the Almighty Lord; for it is truly
meet to bless Her - the everblessed; the entirely
spotless Mother of our God, the highest of all
creatures, the Mediatrix for the whole race of
mankind. Strive to train yourself in the spirit of
humility, for She Herself was more humble than any
mortal, and only looks lovingly upon the humble. "He
hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden"
(said She to Elisabeth), of "God, Her Saviour" (St.
Luke I. 47, 48).
(89) Out of all of God's salutory
deeds in the world the Holy Church glorifies most
the greatest miracle of God's incarnation and its
salutory results for the human race - the Most Pure,
Most Glorified Mother of God: numerically equal to
the grains of sand in the sea are these praises to
God's Mother, especially in canons, verses,
dogmatics and akathists. And She is worthy of this -
all these praises are not sufficient even - for She
was favored to be the Mother of God, and through
Her, God united with mankind and deified them. We
too must breathe with this mystery of incarnation,
be strengthened by it.
(90) Why do we ceaselessly praise
- upon the voice and urging of the Church - Our Most
Pure Lady Theotokos with multitude of songs and
prayers? In order to glorify - at least in part -
Her majesty, holiness, truth, amazing purity,
humility love toward God and to us who are unworthy,
Her ceaseless intercession for us; in order to know
and remember those endlessly great blessings, which
the Lord has poured out through Her upon the human
race. For through Her we were considered worthy of
eternally glorifying the Holy Life-beginning
Trinity, through Her we have been vivified and saved
by God in His Three Persons. The Theotokos is
exalted higher than the Cherubims and Seraphims and
all creatures for your salvation and Christian
exaltation, that She may save and shield you.
(91) Where, in what churches of
other faiths, is the name of the Theotokos so often
repeated in prayer, so exalted, praised and called,
as in our Orthodox Church from day to day!?.. .
Proclaim this name, then, incessantly and fervently
... For we have, over the centuries, thoroughly
learned and become convinced of how powerful and
salutory is Her prayer for us. How many times has
She saved our Fatherland and our cities, our people,
our villages and many individually - from all kinds
of strife and evil! Where on earth is so worthily
praised and glorified - meet, in truth - the name of
the Most Holy Theotokos, other than in the Orthodox
Church!
(92) As long as Russia remains
Orthodox and fervently respects God and the
Theotokos, so long will she be powerful and
unshakable, for from the beginning and until now has
she come out of all misfortunes, has been
strengthened and expanded through the intercession
and aid of the Theotokos in all wars and unfortunate
circumstances. And Russian princes, tsars, emperors
and the Christ loving military have always zealously
respected the Ever-Virgin Mary, Most Blessed
Theotokos, as More honorable than the Cherubim and
beyond compare more Glorious than the Seraphim.
(93) Thank our most speedy
Mediatrix, our Lady, the Mother of our Lord, the
most pure, most good Virgin Mary, for saving us
through our fervent prayers from the harassments and
oppression of the Devil. Look up to Her, with the
eyes of your heart, in the Holy Spirit, who is
everywhere present, fills everything, and who is incomplex. Look up at Her as being close to your
very heart, and call upon Her: "Most speedy Lady Mediatrix, Mary, Mother of God, save me from the
enemy - the disturber." And immediately, in an
instant, She will save you according to the faith of
your heart, according to your soul's trust in Her;
and the oppression, the fire, and heavy despondency
will fall aside and leave you. It is only necessary
to represent to yourself and firmly believe that
the Holy Spirit is everywhere, in every place; that
He is an incomplex Being, that in Him all heaven is
near us, as upon the palm of the hand, with all its
angels and saints, so that we have only to call upon
the Lord, or upon the Virgin Mother of God, or any
saint from the depth of the heart, with
clear-sighted faith, with heartfelt repentance for
the sins by which we are bound by the enemy or by
which we have bound voluntarily ourselves - and our
salvation immediately shine forth. Marvelous is
the saving power of our Lady; it flows into the
heart like a healing balsam, or like fragrant,
life-giving air, or like calming water. Only look on
Her with the eyes of your heart, trusting in Her
mercy and help. But this, too, is difficult - to
look on Her with heartfelt, clear-sighted faith -
just as it is difficult to look on the Lord Jesus
Christ or the saints; for the enemy endeavors by
every means to stand like a hard, high, dark wall
between our souls and the Lord, or the Mother of
God, the angels and saints. The accursed one does
not allow the eye of the heart to see the Lord or
His saints; he darkens our heart in every way; he
scatters faith, oppressing, burning, and darkening
us inwardly. We must look upon all such actions as
illusions and falsehood, and break through this
imaginary wall to the Lord, or to His Holy Mother,
or His saints. As soon as you break through this
wall, you will immediately be saved. "Thy faith hath
made thee whole" (St. Matthew IX, 22).
(94) O, if only we could hear and
see the prayer for us and for the world of the Most
Holy Virgin Theotokos, of angels and saints, we
would be horrified and ashamed of our laziness and
carelessness in prayer, we would not only during
the day, but also in the middle of the night, rise
up to pray and glorify the Lord's goodness, God's
long-suffering, God's majesty, God's wisdom and
almighty power.
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