Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and the Nativity of the Most-Holy Mother of God!

Last Sunday the Holy Orthodox Church celebrated its New Year, while today, eight days later, we mark the first, chronologically speaking, of the great feasts. Throughout the coming year, we will mark all the main events from the lives of the Most-Holy Virgin and her Sweetest Son and, at the end of the year, will celebrate her Dormition. In such a way we see that the entire church year is organized so that each of us personally participates in all the events tied to our salvation. Thus the church calendar may be likened to an icon of our salvation or a dramatization of the Gospel.

Today we remember the birth of the Most-Holy Virgin Mary to elderly and barren parents. This joyful and unexpected birth occurred by God's providence, but not without taking into account the godly qualities of the holy parents. It seems to me that the first and main virtue of Sts. Joachim and Anna was their hope: hope that they had not been forgotten by God, that the Lord would hear their prayers, that their holiness would be accounted for in Heaven, that they did not struggle in vain spiritually throughout their entire lives.

The second virtue that they possessed was stillness or quietness. At the most difficult moment of their lives, when they were numbered with the sinners (for it was clear to the Jewish religious community that the childless couple could not have been righteous in the eyes of the Lord), they did not fall into deep despair, but instead retreated from everyone and everything to pray in stillness and quietness, Anna into her garden and Joachim into the desert. They knew how to leave the vanity of the surrounding world and in profound physical and spiritual stillness to commune with their Creator. Of course the Lord did not leave such holy people without His benevolence. As a consequence, they were granted to be the parents of not just a simple child, but of a girl who would become the Mother of God.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, let the Holy and righteous Joachim and Anna be for each of us a beacon in difficult times. Let us learn from them to never lose hope in God’s help. Let us take them as examples and try at least a little, at least for a short moment, to draw back from the noise of the world, from earthly cares, and in a deep spiritual stillness to enter into communion with our Saviour. It seems to me that if we emulate them in this, the Lord will not leave us without His favour.

priest Alexis