The Feast of the Annunciation has a special significance this year since it is marked by profound concern about the spreading of the new epidemic. Every Christian is asking questions about his or her safety and that of their family. Every religious community is seeking to maintain its solidarity in these moments of doubt and suspicion.

It is fitting now for us to remember the manner in which the Virgin Mary lived in the Temple in Jerusalem for 12 years prior to the moment of the Annunciation. This period of 12 years was dedicated to the reading of the Holy Scriptures and other holy writings, to prayer and meditation, in hesychastic seclusion in preparation for receiving her mission. We too can imitate her now, secluding ourselves for prayer in our families and showing our solidarity with all those who put their hope in God for salvation from this disease.

The Virgin Mary’s life in the Temple showed her to be worthy of the Good News brought by the Archangel Gabriel. The Archangel’s greeting shows the purity, innocence, and inner beauty with which the Virgin had adorned herself through her prayer in the Temple. It shows her to be “full of grace.” It is only in this state that she can receive the news that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). And she will respond in the name of all humanity, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). She will offer herself with her entire being to the work of God, receiving through faith that which reason could not comprehend.

This special calling of the Virgin was not without trials. Righteous Simeon’s announcement at the Meeting of the Lord that “a sword will pierce through your own soul” (Luke 2:35) was fulfilled. The Virgin who received the Announcement in the Temple became, through her trials, the Mother of God who received the Crucified in her arms, but also the Mother of all of us who believe in the Crucified and Risen One.

This “becoming” of the Mother of God is a model for every Christian. “The sword in the soul” of every Christian today is the sign of the trials permitted by God for our own “becoming.” And we will pass through this trial with the help of the One who became our Mother at the feet of her Son’s Cross. The prayers of the Church are full of this faith in the power of the intercession and help of the Mother of God.

In the Paraklesis to the Theotokos we beseech the help and protection of the Mother of God in all the troubles and weaknesses of our life. We call her “a protection and shelter, treasury of healings, intercessor and wall unshakable, protector of Christians.” In the Akathist to the Protection of the Theotokos we say that her hands are ever raised in prayer from her love and mercy toward us. In the Akathist to the Theotokos, the Joy of all Who Sorrow, we all beseech her to help us in troubles: “O Most Holy Lady Theotokos, higher than the cherubim and more honored than the seraphim, Virgin chosen of God, the joy of all who sorrow; grant also comfort to us who are in the midst of troubles, for apart from you we have no other rescue and help. You alone are the mediator of our joy and as the Mother of God and the Mother of mercies, standing before the throne of the Holy Trinity, you can help us. For no one who prays to you in faith will be ashamed.” We affirm our faith in her quickly answered prayers to her Son, the prayer that helps all of us who are in tribulation. And we put our hope in her as the Mother of all Christians, especially of those in trials and tribulations!

My fatherly counsel at this Feast of the Annunciation is that we pray fervently, beseeching the Mother of God with tears for her protection and help. Let us not be shaken like those who have no faith. Let us encourage one another in prayer. Let us not forget the Church, but participate in her services according to the regulations that are announced. And let us especially have hope that “our help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 120:2).

† Metropolitan Nicolae