The Great Feast of the Annunciation
Categories: hymns, feast-days, poetry
Date: 24 March 2010 11:37:11
Troparion - Tone 4:
Today is the beginning of our salvation,
the revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
as Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
"Rejoice, O Full of Grace,
the Lord is with You!"
Kontakion - Tone 8:
O Victorious Leader of Triumphant Hosts!
We, your servants, delivered from evil, sing our grateful thanks to you, O Theotokos!
As you possess invincible might, set us free from every calamity
ao that we may sing: "Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!"
Today, 9 months before the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [Christmas], is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, the Feast of the Annunciation.
As the troparion(*) above comments, and this is a feature of the hymns for the Feasts of the Orthodox Church, "today is the beginning of our salvation"; this is not merely a recollection or some poetic licence, through the celebration of the Feast we make the Feast and its meaning present to us now, in this time and place. By the Theotokos' [the Virgin Mary; the 'God-bearer'] "Yes", by her submitting to the Will of God in humility and obedience and bearing the Son of God, God's salvific plan from the beginning [in a new way for all the Old Testament reveals God's plan for our salvation] through the ultimate act of Love and Sacrifice in the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity begins.
As John Donne has been on my mind of late, I will make mention of his La Corona, particularly the Annunciation stanza, which I love [he also has a poem dedicated to a day when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same date]. Though I may add I am not sure about his terming of the Virgin's womb a "prison", though I can understand the intent; I find the Orthodox Church's use of throne in one of her hymns to the Theotokos more appealing:In you rejoices, O full of grace, all creation, the hierarchy of Angels and the race of mankind; sanctified Temple and intellectual Paradise, the boast of virgins: from whom God was incarnate, and became a Child, Who is our pre-eternal God. For He made your womb His throne, and shaped your womb to be more spacious than the heavens. In you rejoices, O full of grace, all creation: glory to you.A blessed Feast of the Annunciation to all! [*] I am not sure that I have ever explained the terms troparion and kontakion before; I've linked to Wikipedia articles as well as tried to give a brief explanation below. There are many words describing the various hymns or parts of hymns in the Orthodox services and being rather unmusical I get very confused. A troparion is a type of hymn, often one stanza but sometimes more; when there are more than one they are often inserted between verses of a Psalm. A kontakion is type of hymn, consisting of 18 to 24 stanzas; being of such length they may be called sermons in verse for they expand on theological concepts. Today it is often the case that only the first verse is chanted in services.