“THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CHURCH SERVICES, 2” 

In the canon for the Entry into the Temple, a picture of the the outward events is first depicted - how a young girl child, adorned as if she were a bride, surrounded by all those who were close to her heart, is brought by her pious parents to the Temple of God to be brought up in the Lord’s presence. The priests, who serve in the temple, come out to meet her with spiritual songs, and the priest Zacharias, taking the pure Virgin from the pious Anna, is inspired by a special revelation to take her into the most hidden part of the Temple, into the very Holy of Holies.

Corresponding to this outer depiction, we are also given to see the inner side of things, the inner significance of the festival. It records that through receiving her thus festively into the Holy Temple, the Lord wished to to reveal the special goodwill that He had for the All-holy Virgin. The Lord thus shows us that she who is thus led in is no ordinary virgin, simply coming to dedicate herself to pious occupations in the Temple, but that she is fore-ordained to become the dwelling place of the God-Child Himself, and that she is now laying the foundations for those great blessings which God is to bestow upon the peoples of the whole world. Because of this, on the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, from this very day, we begin to chant the joyous irmoses from the the canon of the Nativity of Christ the Saviour: “Christ is born, give ye glory.”

The prokeimenon on this feast is the same as that on the Nativity of the Theotokos. The Apostle reading (Hebrews 9:1-7) expresses the thought that the Mother of God was prefigured by the Old Testament tabernacle. The Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42, 11:27-28) is again the same as that on the Virgin’s Nativity, and contains the laudation of the Mother of God’s ministry as a mother.

The magnification of the Virgin in the Divine Liturgy is replaced by a special hymn:-

“The Angels, beholding the entrance of the All-Pure one,
were amazed; how hath the Virgin entered into the Holy of Holies? Since thou are the animate ark of God, let no defiled hand touch thee.
And let not the lips of the faithful be silent,
rather let them cry out with joy with the voice of the Angel:
Truly thou are more exalted than all, O Pure Virgin.”

The communion hymn is “I will receive the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”

…to be continued with “The services of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ”