The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

Today, we celebrate and honor the Feast Day of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. She is the Queen of all Heaven and the Bride of God. This feast day commemorates Sts. Joachim and Anna presenting her into the Temple of God as dedication much as St. Hannah presented the Prophet Samuel into the Temple. There is strong typology in the stories here. St. Hannah is a prefigurement of St. Anna. Both share the same name (Hannah in Greek is Anna), both women were barren, and both presented their children to God in the Temple from a young age.

The Irmos for the day reads:

"Seeing the entrance of the pure one, angels marvelled in wonder how the Virgin could enter the holy of holies. Let no hand of the profane touch God's living ark, but instead let the lips of those who are believers sing out ceaselessly in the words of the angel, crying out with great joy to the Mother of God: O pure Virgin, you are truly higher than all."

Knowing her future role as the one who would bear the Christ, the incarnate God, she ascended into the Holy of Holies, the place which in the Old Testament was reserved for only the priests and the Ark of the Covenant, and showed herself to be the Ark of the New Covenant. It is for this reason she is rightly given the title Ark of the Covenant for she has born God. The old Ark of the Covenant held God's presence in it but she has held God's flesh in her womb. What joy for us all to hold her as our Queen!

Because of the emphasis on the Ever-Virgin being the Ark of the Covenant, Easterners have also held the tradition that even after the birth of Christ St. Joseph felt himself unworthy to ever touch her and indeed did not out of the utmost fear and reverence for what had happened. This is why in our iconography we hold it inappropriate to depict the Holy Family together as Latins take liberty to do but only depicting the Christ-Child with his Mother in the image of the Directress.

God bless and happy feast day!