Sermon for the Day of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God

The Virgin stands this day in the church, and invisibly prays to God for us with the choirs of saints

(Kontakion of the Feast).

At the beginning of the tenth century, in the year 910 by the reckoning of the Nativity of Christ, under the Greek emperor Leo the Wise and the patriarch Tarasius, during the celebration of an all-night vigil in the Blachernae church of Constantinople, the Mother of God once appeared to the sight of chosen men, together with choirs of Angels and saints. Covering the people who stood there with her own venerable veil, she prayed to her Son and God for their salvation from enemies who threatened the capital with destruction, and the people with slavery and death. Through the intercession of the heavenly Protectress the enemy was driven back, and the city was saved. In memory of this merciful protection of the Mother of the Lord, shown to our own fatherland as well, the Orthodox Russian Church has, from the most ancient times, established an annual festal commemoration of the Protection of the Mother of God.

For more than a thousand years now the Russian kingdom has existed, and it is hard to number how many times the heavenly Protectress has covered it through her prayerful intercession before the Lord of Hosts, sheltering it from calamities. But protecting the whole fatherland, the whole people, in this way, she also extends her mighty protection over cities and villages and individual persons. Every Orthodox believer knows this, for cities, villages, and the lives of very many pious Christians are full of examples of her protection and intercession. In honor of the feast, and for your edification and my own, let us speak, brothers, of how needful for us is the prayerful intercession of the Mother of God on our behalf.

We do not understand, brothers, far, far from fully understand, how necessary for us are the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of the Lord, and to see this necessity one needs an eye or a mind far purer and clearer than ours. Only our tenderest mother, the holy Church, pure in her understanding, sees throughout all the world how necessary her intercession before God is for us, and therefore, every time she begins to pray with us to God, she never fails to call upon her, chosen among women, higher than the creatures of heaven and earth, and through her intercession asks either that some blessing be granted to us, or that we be delivered from some misfortune, so that it is hard to find a prayer without the name of the Most Pure Mother of God. And rightly so! Being the Mother of God the Word, and therefore standing nearer than all others to the throne of the Godhead, she is naturally able to accomplish much toward the mercy and appeasement of the Master. We are sinful and unclean, but she is the Most Pure One; how, for her prayers, should He not have mercy on us who are unclean, if only we desire to be cleansed and do not again add sins to sins. We are proud amid our uncleanness, but she is so humble amid all her virtues, amid all her greatness; how, looking on her humble prayers, should He not have mercy on us who are proud and stiff-necked, if we humble ourselves before God and before her! The Mother of God is truly like an unbreakable wall between God and men; she turns aside the greater part of the thunders of heavenly justice, ready to punish thankless sinners. Only behind such a wall are we often safe, while we imagine our safety to be the ordinary course of things. But let us look more closely into the position of man on earth, that we may see more clearly how necessary for him is the prayerful intercession of the Mother of God.

Ever since man lost his innocence, his blessedness, and his immortality, down to this day he presents a terrifying picture of the calamities, inward and outward, of soul and of body, that torment him, so that anyone must see that some kind of heavy yoke lies on all the sons of Adam, from the day they come forth from their mother’s womb until the day they are buried in the mother of all (Sir 40:1)—that is, in the earth. Having long ago lost his blessed state, man now believes only weakly in the heavenly blessedness promised him, unwilling to understand that the present life is not life in the proper sense, since it is nothing more than a preparation for life in heaven—and therefore gives himself here full license, often making his life a spectacle of raging passions; he amuses himself with it as with a toy, with no curiosity to know what will become of it when it breaks, and in general does not use it as sound sense itself prescribes to every man, which tells him that the life of a rational being must necessarily have a rational, spiritual aim. On the other hand, living for the most part amid sicknesses, sorrows, and misfortunes, amid wearisome yet spiritually useless cares, he is often crushed by their weight, finding for himself neither relief nor comfort. How necessary, and how joyous it would be, in so pitiable a state, to find in heaven one who cherished for us the most sincere, tender love, who had great power with God, and who by her intercession, through our prayer, might, by illumining our minds with her heavenly light, aid us gradually to tear ourselves away from the earth, might guide us toward salvation, might turn aside temptations and snares, or help us to overcome them, and might soften the harshness of our sorrows, sicknesses, and other misfortunes! Such a bright presence Christians do have—the Mother of God. Chosen above all the women of the world, wherever and whenever they may have lived, she naturally feels for mankind, being of like nature with them, and feels not only for every individual person but for all people together more than anyone else, because no human heart is capable of loving all people with such a love as the Mother of God loves us. Only the purest heart can love all people, and there has never been anyone of purer heart among men than Mary. We sometimes love some unfortunate person, yet cannot help him. To the pain of compassion, in such a case, a new pain is added: the impossibility of helping the unfortunate one. With the Mother of God this cannot happen. If she wishes to help someone unfortunate who turns to her intercession with living faith, she cannot fail to help him. As the Mother of the almighty Son and God, she is herself, in a certain manner, almighty as well. God has ordained to show us mercy for her prayers beyond measure, more than for the prayers of all other saints, because of the very loftiness of her service to the mystery of redemption, and therefore He attends to every prayer of His Most Pure Mother, since every prayer of hers is holy and pleasing to Him. And so, if you wish to save your souls from eternal ruin, to be freed from slavery to the passions, to bear with good courage and ease the sicknesses, sorrows, and misfortunes of life, turn earnestly, all of you, brothers, in prayer to the Mother of God, ask for her lofty assistance, her consolations, ask fervently, unceasingly, as though you saw her before your very eyes in her divine glory—and you will surely receive her help; she will surely overshadow you with her protection. You will see this, feel it, touch it yourselves; it will become so light for you, so peaceful, so joyful. And if you do not receive it, blame yourselves; it means you prayed insincerely, unworthily. Who, brothers, is more fit to intercede for us, more fit to hear our prayers, than the Mother of God? Though she is now in heaven, in all her heavenly glory, yet she is of us, of our sinful earth; she lived here as we do, and likewise endured many sorrows; how should she not hearken from there, not intercede for her own? Only let us never forget, brothers, that she is the All-Holy One, and does not love lawlessness. Therefore, in asking in our prayers for her intercession for us before God, let us strive to keep far from every sin, as from an uncleanness that turns away from us both the eyes and the ears of our heavenly Protectress, and draws down upon us the wrath of heaven.

Let us all, then, with pure heart, take refuge in her mighty protection amid our afflictions, our sorrows and sicknesses, and place in her our unwavering hope. Let us, amid the calamities of life, prepare ourselves for that place where there are no calamities at all, where there is eternal joy and eternal rest, and it will be the good pleasure of the Queen of Heaven to save us and shelter us from calamities and guide us to that ever-tranquil heavenly haven. Shelter us, then, O Sovereign Lady, with your honorable protection, and deliver us from all evil, praying to your Son, Christ our God, to save our souls. Amen.