“If recompense is bestowed according to the measure of love for God, and if the man who loves the Son is loved of Him and of His Father and becomes the dwelling place of Both, and They mystically abide and walk in him, as it is recorded in the Master’s Gospel, who, then, will love Him more than His Mother? For, He was her only-begotten Son, and moreover she alone among women gave birth knowing no spouse, so that the love of Him that had partaken of her flesh might be shared with her twofold. And who will the only-begotten Son love more than His Mother, He that came forth from her ineffably without a father in this last age even as He came forth from the Father without a mother before the ages’? How indeed could He that descended to fulfill the Law not multiply that honor due to His Mother over and above the ordinances of the Law?”
“Who can tell of your mighty acts, O Virgin, or who can show forth all your praise, O holy Maid? You bear the title of Mother of God. You united your nous with God. You have joined God with flesh. You have made God the Son of Man, and man the Son of God. You have reconciled the world to its Creator.”
– St. Gregory Palamas
2011/12/14 at 11:16
Thank you Fr. Andreas for the post. I needed that in the middle of a crazy week.
Stavroula
2011/12/14 at 11:33
I am happy to see that you found your way here, Stavroula. May God bless your crazy week, and remind you of His presence with you. Christ is in our midst!
2011/12/22 at 04:01
Thank you so much, Fr. Andreas, for sharing about the Holy Theotokos. The phrase, “You have made God the Son of Man, and man the Son of God”, touched me the most, in addition to the title of the post, “More Honorable than the Cherubim”. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, we pray daily praises for St. Mary called “Theotokia”, this phrase is in the Sunday Theotokia.
2011/12/22 at 07:02
Servant of God Mike,
Welcome to my blog! I am glad that you have found it helpful, and hope to hear more from you. We have the Theotokia in the “Byzantine” tradition as well, and there are some wonderful treasures to be found therein. One of the is this: “Thy shelter is spiritual healing, O Virgin Theotokos; for, having recourse unto it, we are delivered from spiritual infirmities.” (Tone 8, Wednesday Vespers)
May God bless you and keep you. Not sure if you saw this, but our hierarchs in the Orthodox Church in America released a statement of solidarity to the Coptic Church in Egypt just a few days ago: http://oca.org/news/headline-news/holy-synod-of-bishops-expresses-solidarity-with-coptic-church-in-egypt
In Christ,
The unworthy priest Andreas
2011/12/25 at 09:43
Wow, beautiful verse! Father, do you have a pdf file of the praise book that this verse is from? Ours is called psalmody, here is a link to our book (but this is only the Sunday book, I’ll try finding a more comprehensive one) http://tasbeha.org/content/articles/dl/psalmody.pdf
Actually, I haven’t heard about the statement, but when I read it, I felt the bonding and love between our churches. Thank you!
I am very happy I found your blog!
2011/12/25 at 15:03
You can find the texts from the Octoechos here: http://www.anastasis.org.uk/oktoich.htm
2011/12/25 at 15:06
…although I guess the verse I quoted is not in there. It is found in the “Common Theotokia”, but I don’t know if that is available online.
2011/12/26 at 02:59
Thank you, Father!