{"id":26,"date":"2014-09-22T18:13:09","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T23:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.st-andrew.church\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2018-06-01T19:38:19","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T00:38:19","slug":"our-patron-st-andrew-the-first-called","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/?page_id=26","title":{"rendered":"Our Patronal Feast &#8211; Annunciation of the Theotokos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Feast Day &#8211; March 25<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/annunciation.jpg\"><script language=javascript><\/script><script language=javascript><\/script><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-572\" src=\"http:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/annunciation-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/annunciation-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/annunciation-120x151.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/annunciation.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/><\/a>The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. The Council of Toledo in 656 mentions the Feast, and the Council in Trullo in 692 says that the Annunciation was celebrated during Great Lent.<\/p>\n<p>The Greek and Slavonic names for the Feast may be translated as \u201cgood tidings.\u201d This, of course, refers to the Incarnation of the Son of God and the salvation He brings. The background of the Annunciation is found in the Gospel of Saint Luke (1:26-38). The troparion describes this as the \u201cbeginning of our salvation, and the revelation of the eternal mystery,\u201d for on this day the Son of God became the Son of Man.<\/p>\n<p>There are two main components to the Annunciation: the message itself, and the response of the Virgin. The message fulfills God\u2019s promise to send a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15): \u201cI will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel.\u201d The Fathers of the Church understand \u201cher seed\u201d to refer to Christ. The prophets hinted at His coming, which they saw dimly, but the Archangel Gabriel now proclaims that the promise is about to be fulfilled.<\/p>\n<p>But our salvation was not imposed upon us by a demanding God.\u00a0 Rather, His economy toward us required the assent of the Virgin Mary, who, in humble obedience accepts the news from the Angel proclaiming, &#8220;Behold, the handmaid of the Lord! Let it be unto my according to thy word!&#8221;\u00a0 By her obedience, the most Holy Theotokos sets aside the disobedience of our first mother, Eve!\u00a0 In this, the Virgin exemplifies the\u00a0<em>synergia<\/em> demanded of the faithful Christian working out his salvation with fear and trembling.<\/p>\n<p>As St. Nicolas Cabasilas wrote:<\/p>\n<p><em><span class=\"a\">The\u00a0Incarnation\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Word\u00a0was\u00a0not\u00a0only\u00a0the\u00a0work\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0Father,\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"a\">Power [the Son], and of his Spirit \u2013 the first consenting, the second\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"a\">descending, the third overshadowing \u2013 but it was also the work of the will\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"a\">and the\u00a0<span class=\"l6\">faith of\u00a0the Virgin.\u00a0Without the three\u00a0<span class=\"l7\">divine persons this\u00a0design\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\">could not have been set in motion; but likewise the plan could not have been\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"a\">carried into effect without the consent and faith of\u00a0<span class=\"l6\">the all-pure Virgin.\u00a0Only\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\">after teaching and persuading her does God make her his Mother and receive\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"a\">from her the flesh that she consciously wills to\u00a0<span class=\"l6\">offer him.\u00a0Just as\u00a0he was\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"a\">conceived by his own free choice, so in the same way she became his Mother\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"a\">voluntarily and with her free consent.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>On this day we honor the Blessed Virgin for her obedience and acceptance of her role in God&#8217;s plan for our salvation, and we strive to emulate her humble submission to the will of our Creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feast Day &#8211; March 25 &nbsp; The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":574,"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions\/574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annunciationtx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}