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Protection of the the Theotokos
THE PROTECTION OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY
THE THEOTOKOS AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY
October 1
O Chosen by the pre-eternal God, Queen of heaven and earth
higher than all creation, who hast in days past entered
praying into the Church of the Blachernae we, offering Thee
with thanksgiving due veneration, flee with faith and
compunction under Thy shining vestment for we lie in
darkness. And Thou who hast invincible power does set us
free from every affliction that we may cry to Thee:
Hail! Our Joy, protect us from every ill by Thy precious
veil.
The Feast of the Protection commemorates the appearance of
the most holy Theotokos in the Church of Blachernae in
Constantinople in the early sixth century, as recorded in
the life of Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ’s sake. While
the multitudes of the faithful were gathered in Church, Our
venerable Epiphanius, the friend of Saint Andrew, through
the Saint’s prayers, beheld the Virgin Mary above the
faithful and spreading out her veil over them, signifying
her unceasing protection of all Christians. Because of this
we keep a yearly feast of grat itude,
imploring our Lady never to cease sheltering us in her
mighty prayers.
During our Divine Services we have become accustomed to
seeing clergy, choir, and parishioners in attendance, but we
have completely forgotten that others are invisibly present:
God’s holy Angels, His holy Saints, the Most-holy Virgin,
and our Lord Himself, are there as well. Our venerable
fathers Andrew together Epiphanius, and many other righteous
ones could see this. We do not see, because it is “the pure
in heart [who] see.” It is only the pure in heart who are
capable of beholding what mystically transpires within the
Church; only they behold those who stand alongside us in
Church. I suppose that we could not bear the actual sight of
the spiritual world as it really is. The more one grows
spiritually, the more one can see and understand. For our
part, we occasionally hear “Now the Hosts of Heaven
invisibly worship with us.” The Feast of the Protection of
the Mother of God-Pokrova reminds us that Heaven reaches all
the way to the earth.
In times of national misfortune, as in times of individual
trials and sorrows, the faithful rush to God’s temples, rush
to the Protection of the Mother of God, and ask of the Queen
of Heaven her defense and assistance: “Remember us in thy
supplications, O Virgin Lady and Theotokos, that we not
perish because of the multitude of our sins. Protect us from
all evil and grievous perils, for in thee do we put our
trust, and honoring the feast of thy protection, we magnify
thee.”
O Most Holy Theotokos – Cover us with thy wondrous
omophorion,
and preserve us from all evil!
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