Homily on the visit of a parish church by the Most Pure Virgin in the form of Her Miraculous Icon
Bishop Mitrophan (Znosko-Borovsky)
There is on this earth a great and holy feeling-the love of a mother for her children. There is no word more precious on this earth than "mother." This word is exclaimed with festive joy by the infant and with a sad but thankful sorrow by the elder who remembers his mother.
How many wonderful mothers Christianity has given us! And at the head of motherhood stands She who is more honorable than the Cherubim, the Most Holy Theotokos. She, the great and holy Guest, has come to us today in the form of Her wondrous miraculous icon! She is the Most Glorious Sunrise, both loving and caring, the sorrowful Most Pure Virgin, Who through Her Pure Motherly Love sweetened the childhood, fraught with thorns, of the God-Child Christ. From the manger, where Herod wanted to kill Him, to the caves of Egypt, She tenderly cherished Her Son and caringly protected Him in childhood in Nazareth. She ceaselessly followed Him, collecting His words in Her heart. Crying and weeping, She called unto Him, Her Son, at Golgotha: "My Son and my God! Where is the ancient annunciation that Gabriel proclaimed to me? Now I see You, my sweet Light, as a naked and wounded Dying One."
The second millennium is already passing, but the wondrous image of the Most Pure-kind and caring, loving and gentle-does not cease to inspire believing mothers to perform great feats of self-rejecting love toward their children. She has also come to us today, to support and to strengthen you, mothers, in your difficult task of serving your children, in carrying this cross with love.
You complain of the difficulties of this cross-the upbringing of your children? The Most Pure One directs our attention to Anthusa, the mother of Saint John Chrysostom. Anthusa was only twenty years old when she was widowed and was left with two orphaned children. When the Lord called to Himself her younger daughter, Anthusa, overtaken by grief, meekly and humbly bowed her head in prayer to God, the Providential One, with a devoted heart, and directed all of her strength toward raising her young boy John. In the midst of a pagan society, John was the hope of his mother in her old age. Love performs miracles. The love in his mother's heart left a mark on the soul of the young John: he listened attentively to the instructions of his mother and having become a great illuminator and teacher of the Church, remembered his mother with tears of gratitude. He emulated his mother in her love for God and people.
Our Guest also calls on you, grandmothers. You can give so much to your grandchildren when mothers are busy or sick. Basil the Great, who is called the decoration of the Church, was the product of the care of his grandmother Macrina. She played a special role in his upbringing and education.
Some of you, dear mothers, are struck with sorrow because your children pay little attention to your kind instructions, and because their hearts are captive to their godless, banal, and debauched surroundings. Could it be that the reason for your weakness in influencing your children is hidden in you, my dear ones? Dear mothers, preserve your faithfulness to Christ in everything; couple this faithfulness to Him with a determined struggle with your personal faults and the shortcomings of your personality, with a determined struggle for the purity of your family, with determined prayers for your children, and believe that the Lord will hear you and will turn your children to the right path. Look at Monica, the mother of Blessed Augustine. Gifted with wonderful abilities, but under the influence of bad friends, he led a frivolous life in his youth and badly wounded the heart of his mother with his behavior. Monica suffered as she looked at her son, spending sleepless nights in prayer. She asked that Lord that He renew Augustine's heart. She asked the Most Pure One that her son be saved and that the Lord would purify his heart through repentance. She desired to see her son as a servant at the altar of the Lord.
Years passed. It appeared that the Lord had not heard her prayers. But the prayers of a mother can save one from the depths of the sea. A major change occurred in the heart of Monica's son. He became not only a genuine disciple of Christ but a great teacher of the Church, and he died as a bishop.
Do not despair, mothers. Be sure that you yourselves are firm in faith and love to the Lord and the Most Pure One and in your kind and gentle determination toward your children-then your prayers for your children will be fulfilled.
Children-the great Guest of our church also addresses you. Regard every word of instruction that your mother gives you as a treasure. Respond to her requests and gentleness with obedience. Do not hurt her with your bad behavior-you have but one mother.
Through the prayers of the Most Pure Theotokos Virgin Mary, may the Lord grant you, Christian mothers, strength in the carrying out of a great feat-the Christian upbringing of your children, who are given to you as a gift from God, and whom you must return to God in purity and love for Christ, who loves us all.
Amen.