Hymn: “O Taste and see that the Lord is
good, that the Lord is good.”
When you come into an Orthodox Church, you're
definitely going to see images of the Virgin
Mary, and that is kind of disturbing to some
Protestants. They’re afraid that she's being
worshiped. They are afraid that we treat her
as an idol. Or even put her into competition
with the Lord. Pray to her instead of him.
That has never been a problem in the Eastern
Church. Thank God for that. We see her as
a child of God, a servant of God, a willing
handmaid who did what God called her to do.
So she's an inspiration and example to us,
and she's a comforting presence to us. She's
someone that we can talk to, someone we can
go to and ask her to pray for us.
It's not in competition with our prayers to
the Lord. You can picture it is if, when you're
worshiping, when you're praying, you're surrounded
by that great cloud of witnesses, right, there
are all these saints and you can speak directly
to the Lord, or you can turn to someone else
in the circle and say, “Hey, this same thing
happen to you when you're alive on the Earth.
Put in a good word for me. Ask the Lord the
same thing that I'm asking. Make a request
of him.” And likewise we can turn to the
Virgin Mary. We can address her and we can
ask her to pray for us. And that should not
in any way threaten our relationship with
the Lord. Quite the contrary; it would enhance
that relationship.
And because our Lord said to her, “Behold
your son,” told her to look on the disciple
John has her own son, and said to John, “Behold
your mother,” we can see her as, not just
our friend that our mother as well. So we
have a lot of affection for her. You know
how a little child loves her mother. She just
can't stop pouring on all the adjectives about
the most wonderful, the most perfect and beautiful,
in the whole world. * So when you come to
Orthodox worship you're going to hear some
of that about the Virgin Mary, but like that
little child we pile up the adjectives, and
we make it sound as exuberant and beautiful
and superlative as it can be.
It's sort of like if there was a testimonial
banquet for a man who was retiring from his
business, and everybody who stands up to give
a toast says a more extraordinary thing after
another, they all are overstating how wonderful
this guy is. That's how we feel toward the
Virgin Mary. And that's why our prayers to
her sometimes sound over-the-top, just sound
like we’re going overboard. Remember that
it's coming out of a heart that is overflowing
with love for her; it's the language of love.
* About here a hymn starts and runs through
the end of the video:
“A mystery I behold, which is strange and
wondrous. The cave is heaven, and the Virgin
is the throne of the Cherubim. In the confines
of a manger is laid the infinite Christ our
God, whom we praise and magnify.”
