FEAST OF THE ENTRANCE INTO THE TEMPLE OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY THE THEOTOKOS

The Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on November 21 each year. The Feast commemorates when as a young child, the Virgin Mary entered the Temple in Jerusalem.

THE PRESENTATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

November 21/December 4

The Presentation or Entry (είσοδος) of the Mother of God in the Temple (November 21st) does not belong to the most ancient festivals of the Church. None the less, it must be earlier than the end of the VIIth century, since St. Andrew of Crete had known it at Jerusalem at this epoch. It seems that it was introduced at Constantinople a century later, under the Patriarch St. Tarasius. It was to be adopted in the West only under Pope Gregory XI, who had it celebrated for the first time at Avignon in 1374.

THE ENTRY INTO THE TEMPLE OF THE MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

St. Gregory Palamas, St. John of Kronstadt, Deacon Giorgi Maximov

If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit (cf. Mt. 7:17; Lk. 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who bore the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good, whether in this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and identical Image of goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He Who is the preexisting and good Word of the Father, moved by His unutterable love for mankind and compassion for us, put on our image, that He might reclaim for Himself our nature which had been dragged down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this corrupted nature and raise it to the heights of Heaven. For this purpose, He had to assume a flesh that was both new and ours, that He might refashion us from out of ourselves. Now He finds a Handmaiden perfectly suited to these needs, the supplier of Her own unsullied nature, the Ever-Virgin now hymned by us, and Whose miraculous Entrance into the Temple, into the Holy of Holies, we now celebrate. God predestined Her before the ages for the salvation and reclaiming of our kind. She was chosen, not just from the crowd, but from the ranks of the chosen of all ages, renowned for piety and understanding, and for their God-pleasing words and deeds.

ENTRY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD INTO THE TEMPLEe

St. Gregory Palamas, 

Entry in the Temple. Icon fragment, 16th century.If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit (cf. Mt. 7:17; Lk. 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who bore the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good, whether in this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and identical Image of goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He Who is the preexisting and good Word of the Father, moved by His unutterable love for mankind and compassion for us, put on our image, that He might reclaim for Himself our nature which had been dragged down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this corrupted nature and raise it to the heights of Heaven. For this purpose, He had to assume a flesh that was both new and ours, that He might refashion us from out of ourselves. Now He finds a Handmaiden perfectly suited to these needs, the supplier of Her own unsullied nature, the Ever-Virgin now hymned by us, and Whose miraculous Entrance into the Temple, into the Holy of Holies, we now celebrate. God predestined Her before the ages for the salvation and reclaiming of our kind. She was chosen, not just from the crowd, but from the ranks of the chosen of all ages, renowned for piety and understanding, and for their God-pleasing words and deeds.

FEAST OF THE ENTRANCE INTO THE TEMPLE OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY THE THEOTOKOS

The Feast of the Entrance into the Temple of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on November 21 each year. The Feast commemorates when as a young child, the Virgin Mary entered the Temple in Jerusalem.

INTRODUCTION

The birth and early life of the Virgin Mary is not recorded in the Gospels or other books of the New Testament, however this information can be found in a work dating from the second century known as the Book of James or Protevangelion.

ENTRY OF THE VIRGIN MARY THE THEOTOKOS INTO THE TEMPLE

The Presentation of Mary

Righteous Joachim and Anna had been granted their wish for a child with a vow to dedicate their child to the service of God. As soon as Mary was weaned from milk they felt an urgency to fulfill the vow they had made to God. When she was two years old her father said, “Let us take her up to the temple of the Lord, that we may pay the vow that we have vowed, lest the Lord depart from us, or perchance, the Lord send us someone to warn us that we have been too long in paying our vow because our offering hath not been received.” But her mother replied, “Let us wait until her third year, so that our daughter might not be at a loss to know her father and also that she might not look for us.” So, they decided to wait another year.

THE ENTRY OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY THEOTOKOS AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY INTO THE TEMPLE

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Since early days the Church has given to the Mother of God titles of holiness greater than those which are given to any saint. She is called the All-holy, Panagia. We venerate Her as One who is greater and holier than the Cherubim and the Seraphim, greater than the angels of God who, endowed with vision, can see, contemplate and adore, greater than the angels of God who are, as it were, the throne of the Most High. Because the ones as the others see, worship, serve God as their Lord, as their Master, and yet somehow they remain farther from Him than She, who in Her exceeding holiness has become the kin of God, has become the Mother of the Incarnate Word, who is the Bride, the perfect revelation of what the whole creation is called to be and to become.

Entering into the Inner Mystery: the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God to the Temple

Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko 

On the 21st of November/4th December, the Orthodox Church celebrates the festival of the Presentation or the Entry, the Eisodos, the Entrance, of the Mother of God, Mary, Christ’s Mother, in the Temple. In his book, The Meaning of Icons, Vladimir Lossky with Ouspensky, Leonid Ouspensky, Vladimir Lossky writes that this festival “does not belong to the most ancient feasts of the Church. None the less,” he writes, “it must be earlier than the end of the VIIth century, since St. Andrew of Crete [bears witness that it was known] at Jerusalem at [that time].”

ENTRY OF THE HOLY THEOTOKOS INTO THE TEMPLE

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov

The feast of the Entry of the Holy Theotokos into the temple is a marvelous model of our entry into the Heavenly Kingdom. The church itself symbolizes the Kingdom of God on earth. In church we see the altar table, which is like a throne on which the Lord God sits, just as He does on His heavenly throne. In church, through the partaking of holy communion, we become united with the Lord Himself. In church, as in heaven, we are surrounded by hosts of angels and saints. In church, by means of the divine services we glorify God, as do the angels and saints in heaven.