REV. THOMAS CONSTANTINE Mary deserves a place of honor

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed." Luke 1:46-48.
These are the words of the Virgin Mary as Elizabeth proclaims that the "mother of my Lord" came to stay with her. The Orthodox church honors the holy virgin's words.
Jesus Christ is our Lord and God, but we do honor the Virgin Mary and put her in a place of honor.
On Sunday, for example, is the feast of the Entrance of the Virgin Mary into the Temple. It is not among the most ancient feasts of the Orthodox church, nonetheless it was instituted earlier than the seventh century.
This celebration is not listed in the canonical gospels, however, the church introduced this feast from the apocryphal gospel -- the Protoevangelium of James. This feast is celebrated showing the incomprehensible way God works. He had chosen the mother of our God even before her birth.
Her lineage
Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, had been married 50 years when they produced their much-desired offspring. Because God took away Anna's reproach among women, their child was dedicated to the temple and the service of God. Thus, at the age of 3, Mary was brought to the temple.
Mary joyfully accepted this, and according to tradition, as she came to the temple, she dropped her parents' hands and climbed the 15 large steps to the temple, where she took the high priest's hands. The high priest Zacharias then did a strange thing that caused all to marvel: He led the child into the inner sanctuary, known as the Holy of Holies, beyond the second veil to the place of the ark of the covenant.
Not only women, but even priests, were forbidden to enter the inner sanctuary. Only the high priest went into the holy of holies, and then only once a year.
Yet, Zacharias led the most pure virgin directly into this holy place and allowed her to make use of it as a place of prayer.
We celebrate this tradition to emphasize the Virgin Mary's role in the church. She gave birth to Jesus. She bore our savior in her womb and raised him as a child. God prepared her for this task.
Call her blessed
Today, we still honor her and call her the blessed one. As we honor all the saints, the Virgin Mary has a special relationship with us. She is called the Theotokos -- "Mother of God." We honor her as the mother of the church with such words as the all holy one and ever Virgin Mary. She is considered the closest human to God because she gave birth to Christ. St. Gregory Palamas, a 14th-century saint, wrote, "God chose her from among all generations and bestowed upon her grace higher than that given to all others, making her, before her wonderous childbirth, the saint of saints. ..."
In a few days, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. We all have something to be thankful for. Let us all praise God and thank him for the many blessings he has bestowed on us.
We should also thank him for his holy church, the examples and guidance of the saints, especially for his holy mother.
In closing, let me quote from our divine liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. "Remembering our most holy, pure blessed and glorious lady, the Theotokos and ever Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God."
XThe Rev. Thomas M. Constantine is pastor of St. John The Forerunner Greek Orthodox Church in Boardman.