The Conception of Saint Anna when she conceived the Most Holy Mother of God
All-Night Vigil Feast. A day when the faithful are highly encouraged to participate in the Divine Liturgy. Nativity Fast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
Galatians 4:22-31; Luke 8:16-21
Read Galatians 4:22-31
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Conception of St. Anna, when she and Joachim conceived the Mother of God. Byzantines generally celebrate this feast on December 9, although some celebrate it one day earlier to align with the Roman Catholic date of the feast. In the Byzantine tradition, in order to numerically represent the perfection of Christ, He alone is celebrated with exactly nine months between the date of His conception and the date of His nativity. Christ’s conception, the Feast of the Annunciation, is celebrated on March 25, and we celebrate Christmas on December 25. However, in the cases of Mary and St. John the Baptist, there aren’t exactly nine months. Mary’s conception we celebrate today on December 9 and her nativity on September 8. John the Baptist’s conception we celebrate on September 23 and his nativity on June 24. Mary’s nativity is celebrated one day short of a full nine months after her conception, and John’s is remembered one day longer than nine months. Today’s epistle reading is the same as when we celebrated Joachim and Anna on September 9 as well as when we celebrated the conception of John the Baptist on September 23 earlier this liturgical year.
Tradition tells us that the righteous Joachim and Anna were shamed for their childlessness. They prayed for a child, and God granted them to conceive the Virgin Mary. One of the stichera of Vespers for today’s feast is as follows:
O Anna, the One who made waters gush forth from a rock* bestows as a fruit of your womb, the ever-Virgin Lady.* Through her, our salvation will come.* Because of this you were delivered from shame.* No longer will you be on earth as a fruitless soil,* for you have produced an earth* which will bring forth the Tree of Life.* According to His will, He delivered mankind from all shame* when He became man out of His compassionate mercy.
God not only released Joachim and Anna from their shame, but He chose them to give birth to the one through whom He would be born incarnate into this world. In today’s reading, St. Paul tells us that we are not in bondage or slavery to sin. “We are not children of the bondwoman but of the free” (Gal. 4:31). We are children of “the Jerusalem above” which “is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). Likewise, Mary is the mother of us all, as we are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Today, let us joyfully celebrate the conception of our immaculate Mother and remember that through her, Christ our salvation was born.