[25] And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.
[26] And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. [27] And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, [28] He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: [29] Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace; [30] Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,
[31] Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: [32] A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. [33] And his father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him. [34] And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; [35] And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed. (Luke 2)
In Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, taken from the Oration on Simeon and Anna ~ St.
Methodius of Olympus (died c. 311 A.D.)
For the praise even of her
who is not man's work exceeds the power of man. Wherefore the dimness of my
poverty I will make bright with the splendour of the gifts of the spirits that around
you shine, and offering to you of your own, from the immortal meadows I will
pluck a garland for your sacred and divinely crowned head. With your ancestral
hymns will I greet you, O daughter of David, and mother of the Lord and God of
David. For it were both base and inauspicious to adorn you, who in your own
glory excellest with that which belongs unto another. Receive, therefore, O
lady most benignant, gifts precious, and such as are fitted to you alone, O you
who art exalted above all generations, and who, among all created things, both
visible and invisible, shinest forth as the most honourable. Blessed is the
root of Jesse, and thrice blessed is the house of David, in which you have
sprung up. God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be moved, for the Most
High has made holy the place of His tabernacle. For in you the covenants and
oaths made of God unto the fathers have received a most glorious fulfilment,
since by you the Lord has appeared, the God of hosts with us. That bush which
could not be touched, (Exodus 3:2) which beforehand shadowed forth your figure
endowed with divine majesty, bare God without being consumed, who manifested
Himself to the prophet just so far as He willed to be seen. Then, again, that
hard and rugged rock, (Exodus 17:6) which imaged forth the grace and
refreshment which has sprung out from you for all the world, brought forth
abundantly in the desert out of its thirsty sides a healing draught for the
fainting people. Yea, moreover, the rod of the priest which, without culture,
blossomed forth in fruit, (Numbers 17:8) the pledge and earnest of a perpetual
priesthood, furnished no contemptible symbol of your supernatural
child-bearing. (Hebrews 9:4) What, moreover? Hath not the mighty Moses
expressly declared, that on account of these types of you, hard to be
understood, (Exodus 25:8) he delayed longer on the mountain, in order that he
might learn, O holy one, the mysteries that with you are connected? For being
commanded to build the ark as a sign and similitude of this thing, he was not
negligent in obeying the command, although a tragic occurrence happened on his
descent from the mount; but having made it in size five cubits and a half, he
appointed it to be the receptacle of the law, and covered it with the wings of
the cherubim, most evidently pre-signifying you, the mother of God, who hast
conceived Him without corruption, and in an ineffable manner brought forth Him
who is Himself, as it were, the very consistence of incorruption, and that
within the limits of the five and a half circles of the world. On your account,
and the undefiled Incarnation of God, the Word, which by you had place for the
sake of that flesh which immutably and indivisibly remains with Him forever. (Hebrews
9:4)
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