The Sinai Polycephalion (Sinuri mravaltavi)

On the twenty-fifth of March, readings of the Annunciation, spoken by Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea, bishop, concerning the Annunciation of the Holy Mother of God. Today, with the arrangement of the angels, radiant hymns are made, and that light of Christ’s coming shines forth to the faithful. Today, that joyful sun of ours, Christ, the sun of righteousness, has shone upon us with radiant light and has enlightened the minds of the faithful. Today, Adam is renewed and rejoices; he flies up to heaven with the angels, because the coming of the Holy Spirit has taken place. Today, the grace of divinity, the delight of the invisible ones, enlightens the minds more than their glories, because the coming of the Holy Spirit has taken place. Today, the grace of divinity, the delight of the invisible ones, enlightens the minds more than their glories, because that mystery hidden from eternity has been revealed to us. Today, crowns of ineffable virtue are made for the worthy and obedient lovers of the feast: God desires the crowned state of the beloved ones of unshakable faith, as he called the excellent and the dwellers, and swiftly bestows the kingdom of heaven upon the imitators of heaven for union with the service of God in the assembly of angels. Today, that saying of God is fulfilled, which says: Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad.

of the Lord rejoice, for he is coming. And all the trees of the oak-grove rejoice before the Lord, for he is coming. And David speaks of a tree, while the Forerunner of the Lord called him a branch worthy of bearing fruit for the coming of the Lord. And our Lord Jesus promised that ineffable joy to all the faithful who are with him, for he said: I shall see you and you shall rejoice, and no one shall take your joy from you. Today, that ineffable and unspeakable mystery, in which we have hope in Christ, is worthily revealed to us, the sealed Christians. Today, Gabriel, who stands before God, came to the holy Virgin and announced to her thus: Rejoice, O favored one! And she pondered: How can this greeting be? And the angel immediately answered and said: The Lord is with you! Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace from God. Therefore, conceive and bear a son, and call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord shall give him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Israel forever, and there shall be no end to his kingdom.

Mary said to the angel: "How can this be for me, for I know no man? And shall I remain a virgin afterwards, or shall I receive the honor of virginity?" As the holy virgin was pondering this, the archangel immediately offered her the interpretation of that word and said: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will protect you. For this reason, the holy one to be born shall be called Son of God. For that which is, is to be called accordingly." In likeness, the holy Mary alone among all races was chosen by that grace, for she was truly perfect in every way. No one like her was ever found among all the races. Not like the first virgin Eve, who alone in paradise moved about with a weak mind and, without reflection, accepted the evil serpent's word of her heart, and thus the thought of her heart withered, and through her that cunning one cast his venom, spread death, and brought it upon the whole world. For this reason, all the labor of the saints was increased, but only through the holy virgin was that sin of hers healed. And not first did that holy one endure the reception of that gift, until she learned the teaching and what that gift is, and who is the receiver.

She, the holy virgin, was pondering this in her own mind, and then she said to that angel: "Whence comes this blessing in such a form to us? From what treasuries was this pearl of speech sent to us? Whence has this gift to us its beginning? You come from heaven, you appear in the form of a man, and you are radiant with the light of a lamp." The holy virgin was pondering this in her own mind. But with such words the archangel dispelled that doubt and said: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will shield you. Therefore your child shall be called holy, the Son of God. Do not be afraid, Mary, for I have not come with terror to frighten you, but rather to drive away the cause of fear. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace before God. Do not judge that grace by nature, for grace does not submit to the laws of nature. Understand, O Mary, wherein the patriarchs and prophets erred; learn what until now was hidden even from the angels. Hear such things as the assembly of the God-clad was never worthy of. Moses, David, Isaiah, and all the prophets preached beforehand, but they did not know in what form it would be.

You alone, O holy, holy virgin, whose mystery all are ignorant of, have received and learned, for where the Holy Spirit is, there everything is prepared and directed. The Holy Spirit came upon you, and the power of the Most High shielded you. Therefore that which was born is called holy, the Son of God. For if He is the Son of God, He is co-equal in form with God the Father and co-ruler of the ages, in whom the Father has all revelation, the image in the face, and from the radiance that glory is illuminated. And as from an inexhaustible spring rivers flow forth, so from this inexhaustible and ever-living spring came forth that ineffable light. And therefore the prophets cried out and said: "The streams of the rivers gladden the city of God." Not only one city, but all, for as it gladdens one city, so it is fittingly likened to the whole world. The archangel announced this to the holy Mary face to face and said: "Rejoice, O graced one, for in you all the price of grace was gathered, for among all generations this only holy virgin was found pure in body and soul.

This alone has been revealed, concerning which all are ignorant of the words, and not only the goodness of this holy one is wondrous, but also that of the Spirit, the pleasing form. For which reason that angel first cried out to her and said: "Hail, O graced one! The Lord is with you!" And not an earthly bridegroom, but He Himself, the Lord of purity, is with you—He, the Father of purity and the Creator of incorruption and the Giver of immortality, He, the true achiever of nobility, the giver of the treasure of peace, who from a virgin of the earth created that man and from his side brought forth Eve. He Himself, the Lord, is with you and then from you. Come now, O beloved ones, let us join together with the angelic praise and, according to our power, let us offer that which is fitting intelligently and let us say: Hail, O graced one! The Lord is with you! For yours is the joy truly, because the grace of the Godhead has dwelt with you, as it knows, the Lord with the handmaid, the beautiful one with the beautiful one, by goodness surpassing the sons of men, with the immaculate one—which sanctifies all places. With you is God and from you is God. He who is the perfect man, in whom is established the entire fullness of the Godhead.

Rejoice, O graced one, source of light, who enlightens all the faithful who approach you. Rejoice, O rising of that hidden sun and immaculate flower of life. Rejoice, O graced Mary, O ever-beautiful vine, which gladdens the souls of those who praise you, O unsown, fair-fruited field, for the sake of our mental assimilation and for the fulfillment of the times of birth, but especially because of the one who came from heaven by nature, who renewed Adam in your womb, and because the seed of approach was given to the holy virgin by the Holy Spirit, for the truth of the body came forth from the body. And just as the pearl from two natures—from lightning and from water—from these invisible wonders of the sea emerges, so also our Lord Jesus, undisturbed and unaltered, from the immaculate and undefiled all-holy virgin Mary came forth, full of divinity and full of humanity. Many holy fathers, patriarchs, and prophets desired with their heart to see face to face, but were not deemed worthy. And some saw in vision as a form, as a parable; some were deemed worthy to hear the voice of the cloud-pillar of divinity; and some were deemed worthy of the revelation of the holy angels.

Rejoice, O graced one! And that word she accepted, and at that time of her bodily incarnation she brought forth that pearl of great price. Come now, O beloved ones, and let us sing the hymn of the spirit of God according to David, which we have learned, and let us say: Arise, O Lord, for your repose, you and the ark of your sanctity. For truly the holy virgin is an ark, within and without adorned with gold, who herself bore the very price of sanctity. Arise, O Lord, from the bosom of the Father, that you might raise up the fallen race—the first-created Adam. This David besought, who was from him the sprouting rod and the beautiful fruit and flower, concerning whom he prophesied and said: Hearken, O daughter, and see, incline your ear, forget your people and the house of your father. Your goodness has spoken to the heart of the king, for the Lord God himself is your bridegroom, and worship him.

Listen, O daughter, to what was foretold concerning you from the beginning by prophecy, so that now with the eye of understanding you may behold the deeds. Listen to me, to the messenger unto you, and to the archangel, who speaks to you aloud of the true mysteries. Come now, O beloved ones, and let us also hasten to that commemoration of the past, and let us glorify, hymn, long for, and praise that which from the root of Jesse so gloriously blossomed forth as a flower. For it is not to Joseph, but to the Mother of God that Luke bears witness in the Gospel and points to that lineage of David concerning her, and says: Joseph went up from Galilee to the city of Judea, which is called Bethlehem, to register with Mary, who was betrothed to him. And he was present, for they were from the house and tribe of David. And those days of her giving birth were fulfilled, and she bore that son of hers, the firstborn, more perfect than all created things, and she swaddled him with a cloth and laid him to her breast; she swaddled him who created every creature; she swaddled him who put on light as a garment.

Listen, O daughter, to what was foretold concerning you from the beginning by prophecy, so that now with the eye of understanding you may behold the deeds. Listen to me, to the messenger unto you, and to the archangel, who rested upon the lips of the one seated upon the cherubim, and who was glorified by the many angels. The Word of God rested upon the lips of the beasts, so that truly those who by their own will placed the heavenly bread upon the beast-like forms might give to men the means of receiving that secret nourishment. And there was no place for them in that dwelling. There was no place for him who prepared and established heaven and earth! For this reason, because he was rich, he impoverished himself for our sake, and he willed an endless humility for the sake of the life of our nature... He rested in the bosom of the Father in heaven, and in the cave upon the arms of the mother. Upon the lips, the assembly of angels stood around, proclaiming glory in heaven and peace upon earth. He sat at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and in the lips he rested as upon the cherubim. This too was truly a throne like the cherubim, a royal throne, the only holy of holies upon earth, in which Christ our God rested. For to him belongs all glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.