The Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.
Six months after John the Forerunner’s conception, the Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to Nazareth, a town of Galilee, unto Mary the Virgin, who had come forth from the Temple a mature maiden (see Nov. 21). According to the tradition handed down by the Fathers, she had been betrothed to Joseph four months. On coming to Joseph’s house, the Archangel declared: “Rejoice, thou Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” After some consideration, and turmoil of soul, and fear because of this greeting, the Virgin, when she had finally obtained full assurance concerning God’s unsearchable condescension and the ineffable dispensation that was to take place through her, and believing that all things are possible to the Most High, answered in humility: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” And at this, the Holy Spirit came upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her all-blameless womb, and the Son and Word of God, Who existed before the ages, was conceived past speech and understanding, and became flesh in her immaculate body (Luke 1:26–38).
Bearing in her womb the Uncontainable One, the blessed Virgin went with haste from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea, where Zacharias had his dwelling; for she desired to find Elizabeth her kinswoman and rejoice together with her, because, as she had learned from the Archangel, Elizabeth had conceived in her old age. Furthermore, she wished to tell her of the great things that the Mighty One had been well-pleased to bring to pass in her, and she greeted Elizabeth and drew nigh to her. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, she felt her six-month-old babe leap in her womb for joy. By leaping thus even before he had beheld the light of life, her babe, Saint John the Baptist, prophesied of the dawning of the spiritual Sun. Immediately, the aged Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and recognized her as the Mother of her Lord, and with a great voice blessed her and the Fruit that she held within herself. The Virgin also, moved by a supernatural rejoicing in the spirit, glorified her God and Saviour, saying: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,” and the rest, as the divine Luke hath recorded (1:39–55).
Rest from labor. Fish allowed.
The above account is taken from the Great Horologion,
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A Note on the Annunciation and the Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God. The reverence of Orthodox Christians for the Virgin Mary is founded firmly upon Scripture.
The first chapter of Saint Luke’s Gospel relates the history of the Annunciation.
• The Archangel Gabriel is sent from God to the Virgin, and reassures her in her initial hesitancy by telling her, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God.”
• When the Virgin visits Elizabeth, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and echoes with a loud voice exactly what Gabriel had said, “Blessed art thou among women.”
• She also says, “Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”
• When the all-holy Virgin herself pronounces the Magnificat, she says, “Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”
In the light of this, the following can be derived directly from Saint Luke’s Gospel:
• If Mary has found favor with God, it ought to follow that she has found favor with us.
• Both Gabriel, sent by God, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, called her “Blessed among women.” We follow suit.
• Elizabeth called her the Mother of her Lord; it follows that she is therefore the Mother of God unless Elizabeth’s Lord was not God.
• If “from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed,” then who are the generations that call her blessed – the generations of believers, or of unbelievers? If it is the generations of believers, in what camp does that leave those who will not call her blessed?
The following prayer has been known by heart and repeated in their daily prayers by countless generations of Orthodox Christians:
O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice, O Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb; for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
The following shows where each phrase of it comes from:
O Theotokos (Elizabeth: Luke 1:43)
and Virgin, (Luke 1:27)
rejoice, O Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee. (Gabriel: Luke 1:28)
Blessed art thou among women, (Gabriel: Luke 1:28; Elizabeth: Luke 1:42)
and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb; (Elizabeth: Luke 1:42)
for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
In the first line, “Theotokos” means literally “she who gave birth to God,” or, “the Mother of God,” which, as was already explained, is nothing more than what Elizabeth said in calling her “the Mother of my Lord.”
In the third line, the translation our Monastery finds more faithful to the original, “rejoice, O Mary, full of grace,” differs from the King James “Hail, thou that art highly favored,” but the original Greek of the prayer is the same as the original Greek of Luke 1:28.
This whole prayer is taken verbatim from the Gospel of Saint Luke, except for the last line, which is so self-evident as to be unobjectionable to any except those who do not believe that Mary’s Son is the Saviour of our souls. The whole prayer is pure Scripture, and it is part of the daily life of Orthodox Christians, the generations of those who, together with the Archangel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth, call the Virgin Mary blessed.