Today is the great feast – The Protection of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary. What are we celebrating?
In the Blachernae Church at four o’clock in the morning, during the all-night vigil, Saint Andrew the Fool-for-Christ saw the Mother of God in heaven, praying for the people. And he asked his disciple Epiphanius: “Do you see the Queen and Lady praying for peace?” “I see and am horrified,” Epiphanius replied.
They saw the Mother of God praying for hours with tears.
And then they saw Her take off Her veil,shining like lightning, and spread it over the world.
Then the vision of the Mother of God disappeared, and Her omophorion also disappeared. But its grace-filled effect has been spreading over the world to this day.
Which of the believing people in their life has not experienced this feeling of the grace-filled protection of the omophorion of the Mother of God?
And in our internal struggles, in our spiritual life, how effective, how tangible is this constant protection and intercession of the Mother of God.
But not everyone sees the Protection of the Mother of God, not everyone feels it.
For this faith is needed, for this we need to look not at the dirty road along which we are walking, but at the sky. We need to be able to raise our eyes to the sky, we need to be able to see with the eyes of faith this grace-filled gift that is revealed to us in the vision of Saint Andrew.
Translated from Russian.
Excerpt from the sermon on October 13, 1927 at All-Night Vigil