dear brothers and sisters, today the orthodox church celebrates the nativity of the most holy theotokos, yes, or the year of birth of the most holy mother of god is unknown to us, but this event is most honestly connected with what the church calls the economy of our salvation. and church tradition told us the date for celebrating today's holidays is the first two-tenth holiday

of the church-calendar year of the birth of the pure virgin capable of accommodating god, just as the birth of the messiah was predicted by the creator himself at the beginning of human history and imprinted in first book of the old testament after the fall of the forefathers, the lord announced to them along with this and to all their descendants that the seed of the woman would erase the head of the serpent of the christian tradition ; by this seed it is customary to understand the prophecy about jesus christ. saint philaret drozdov draws attention to the fact that the lord did not say the seed of man or the seed adam used the seed of his wife, however, seed is a concept in human nature related to the masculine principle, thus indicating seeds. the patristic tradition sees

a hidden prophecy that the son of god according to human nature, will be born only from the virgin without male seed, emphasizing the great role of the virgin mary in the matter of human salvation. the holy fathers considered it important to mention another old testament prophecy about her. on jacob’s way to the haram, where, with the blessing of isaac, he had to choose a wife for himself in a dream , the lord himself addressed him standing on the stairs that connected heaven and earth, thus the most pure virgin served god and to people by what has become the ladder along which the second person of the holy trinity, the son of god eternally, born of god the father descended to earth and brought together humanity. nature, born.

o virgin mary thus, thanks to the most holy theotokos , two natures united in the height of christ, the divine and the human birth of jesus christ took place according to the eternal providence of god, but all this would have been impossible without the personal feat of the most pure one. what was it? she was the bearer of the same human nature that every person possesses, and human nature bears the stamp of original sin, which makes it susceptible to the corruption of death and prone to committing sin. but the blessed virgin mary, through personal effort, completely subdued her will to the will of god and did not commit a single sin. the history of the feast of the nativity of the virgin mary tells that the blessed virgin was born

from holy parents to the righteous joachim john, the lord gave a special test. for those years. they had no children, but the pious spouses did not fall into despair, but became an example of how to experience childlessness; they did not think about finding another husband or another wife. they did not say you are sick or you are sick against the background of accusations from the jewish priests of ungodly life and akim john did not accuse each other of secret sins, because of which god punishes infertility. on the contrary, they supported each other and never ceased to hope for god’s help; they said, thank god that we have each other and god is with us, and we are happy. so this pious woman lived

to old age one day on the day of the jewish passover and akim came to the temple to bring gifts to god , but one of the priests told the righteous husband you cannot bring gifts first. for you did not create offspring, israel were greatly upset by these words and akim decided not to go home, but went into the desert, set up a tent and said i will not go home, not for food or drink, until the lord comes to me. prayer will be my food and drink. the reason is similar to the suffering of childlessness. it will become clearer to us when we learn about the peculiarities of the old testament teaching about the marriage of death and the future kingdom of the messiah according to the ideas of the ancient jews. after death, righteous and sinners.

we found ourselves in sheol, dark and distant place. they no longer had the opportunity to become part of the kingdom of the mission; all hope was placed on the offspring of only those whose children, even before the coming of the messiah, would gain eternal life for their descendants in this way. according to old testament ideas , the most important purpose of marriage was procreation. therefore , the absence of offspring was perceived as god’s punishment, depriving a person of hope for eternal life. church tradition tells that at the same time, the righteous anna, jokim’s wife , also received the reproach of childlessness from her maids and cried bitterly. but at the same time she remembered isaac, born of sarah , who was advancing in age and asked the lord

to bless her sorcerer. at this time , an angel of god appeared and said that she would give birth to a child; the akim was also informed of the gift of a child, and he returned to his home. after 9 months. they had a daughter , who was named maria. please note that the righteous parents did not have a sense of possessiveness towards the long-awaited daughter, the spouses understood that she was a great gift from god and decided to dedicate her to the lord. given education and service at the jerusalem temple until the age of majority. joachim john saw happiness not in possessing something, as is often accepted today, but in loving god and being obedient to him; they also wanted the same

for their beloved daughter. today, as we celebrate the nativity of the blessed virgin mary and especially honor the righteous and parents and akim john, we thank you for the example of love for god and each other for the cloudiness. today we compare our lives, our lives, we ask ourselves questions, what is the most important thing in our life, what we want most. in what is our obedience to god, do we fulfill the will of god or do we plunge our mind into darkness , irritation of doubt or even resistance to the will of god in the life of akim john an amazing example of obedience to god and to each other they overcame those insults and challenges that someone who was an unbeliever suffered from those around them , for sure,

questioned it. divine justice, especially towards them, but despite all the trials. they carried prayer to god throughout their lives and continued to support each other and trust each other and the lord glorified their family with a great miracle by the birth of one who would be called the most honest of the cherubim and the most glorious without comparison , the seraphim. and the wonderful fruit of their obedience to love and prayer. we say today that she has become a living temple, because through her god became incarnate, today and every day we will ask the lord for the virtues with which the righteous and akim john shone and glorify what has been born now to the most pure mother of god. rejoice, joyful joy, and the blessed lord is with you. happy holiday.

this is news live on belarus 1 and belarus 24 in the studio olga medved good morning and watch this episode.