The Sixth Day of Pascha: Teaching 10 (Approaching the Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring)

 

The Sixth Day of Pascha:
Teaching 10

Commemoration of the Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring

(With Which Prayers, When and How Should One Approach the Theotokos?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today is the celebration in honor of the icon of the Life-Giving Spring. Let us set forth the history of the present feast of the Life-Giving Spring and draw from it lessons of edification that we can learn.

In the middle of the fifth century, in the environs of Constantinople, the capital of the Greek kingdom, there was a beautiful place, shaded by a grove of various trees and watered by a pure and bright spring; but with time it died out and the spring itself closed up. The Greek Emperor Leo the Macedonian, when he was still a simple private man, was walking one day in this place and met a man who was blind from birth. Being compassionate by nature, Leo gave his hand to the blind man and led him; but the blind man, being scorched by the strong heat of the sun, asked for a drink. In vain Leo, having seated the blind man in the shade, looked for water; there was none anywhere. But when he returned tired from his useless search to the blind man, he suddenly heard a wonderful voice from heaven: “Do not be sad, Leo! The water is near you.” Struck by this voice, Leo was confused and saw nothing around him. Then again the gentle voice was heard: “Leo, king! Enter this thick, shady grove, take the water you find there and give it to the thirsty man, and put the mud from the spring on his eyes. Who I am, the long-time inhabitant of this place, you will learn later, and with My help you will not hesitate to build a temple in My name on this place, in which those who come here and call upon My name with faith will receive the fulfillment of their petitions and complete healing from illnesses." The frightened Leo immediately hurried to the indicated place, and first, taking mud from the spring, applied it to the eyes of the blind man, then, taking water from the spring, gave it to the half-dead blind man, who was immediately refreshed. But as soon as he sprinkled water on his own eyes, he suddenly regained his sight and, no longer requiring a guide, went alone into the city, preaching the miracles of the Mother of God.

Having ascended the throne, Leo ordered the miraculous spring to be cleared of alluvial soil and rubbish and erected a magnificent temple over it, which was named the “Life-Giving Spring,” and truly became an inexhaustible source of miraculous acts of God’s grace, through the prayers of the zealous Intercessor of the Christian race.

But for betraying the pious morals of their fathers, Constantinople lost the protection of its Intercessor and was conquered by the Turks along with the entire Greek kingdom. The Turks, who did not spare the monuments of the Christian faith, destroyed the Temple of the Life-Giving Spring and turned the entire flourishing area into a dwelling of death - a cemetery for Muslims. For a long time, the holy place remained in desolation. Only in 1843, the people of Constantinople, enjoying the favor of Sultan Mahmud II, turned to him with a request to restore the Temple of the Life-Giving Spring, for which they received permission and built a temple. In this temple, as before, the water of the miraculous spring still flows, attracting Christians and non-Christians from all over. Around the spring, there are rooms where the sick are doused. "Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Catholics constantly come to the water - and all with tears ask the Queen of Heaven and receive healing. The Sultan himself often visits this place and orders that water be taken from there daily for cooking. The Mohammedans involuntarily confess the Mother of God and say: 'Great among women is Saint Mary!' and call the water: 'Saint Mary'" (The Tale of the Wandering Monk Parthenios, Part III, p. 22).

II. Christian brethren! The Most Holy Mother of God is truly the "Mother of the Living," as Saint Epiphanios calls Her, and the Life-Giving Spring of salvation. Through Her all the blessings and gifts of God descend upon us, and through Her all our prayers and petitions ascend from us to God. She, like a light-receiving candle, Herself ineffably illuminated by the unfading Light, illumines all believers by Herself. She, like a life-receiving and life-giving source, Herself overflowing with grace, pours it out inexhaustibly upon all who thirst and ask.

Come, brethren, let us draw with joy from this Life-Giving Spring of salvation.

a) What shall we draw? What, that is, shall we pray for and ask the Mother of God for? We must ask for everything that is necessary and beneficial for our life.

Let us ask Her for earthly blessings as well: physical health, contentment in everything necessary for life, deliverance from troubles and sorrows, from needs and circumstances, success in honest and useful affairs and enterprises, prosperity in our labors and activities.

But first and foremost, let us ask Her for spiritual and eternal blessings – forgiveness of our sins, blessings and help in good and God-pleasing deeds, the grace-filled gifts of the Spirit of God – the spirit of prayer and reverence, the spirit of purity and holiness, the spirit of wisdom and spiritual understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength in virtue, the spirit of piety and the fear of God. Then everything needed for temporary life will be added to us of itself. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33) – this was said by the One in whose hands is not only the whole world with all its treasures and blessings, but also our very life and breath.

b) When and in what cases should one flow to the Life-Giving Spring of grace – the Mother of God? Always and in all cases of life – sad and joyful, comforting and sorrowful. Little children turn to their mother in everything and incessantly: they tell her their sorrows and griefs, convey to her their thoughts and feelings, confide to her their desires and intentions, expectations and hopes, share with her their joys and delights; for nowhere and in no one do they find and will not find such a living and warm, such a kindred and selfless participation in themselves as in their mother. So a Christian will nowhere and in no one find for himself such a living and kindred, such a benevolent and merciful participation in his needs as in his heavenly Mother, our Lady the Mother of God. She is akin to all of us by nature and knows all the weaknesses and all the needs of our nature from Her own experience.

c) How are we to draw from the Spring of grace – the Mother of God? How, that is, are we to pray and ask Her?

One must pray and ask the Mother of God with true, firm, unshakable faith, with a sincere desire to use everything given by Her, according to the will of God, for the good and salvation of one’s soul, with a sincere desire to be Her true children, to imitate Her in pleasing Her Son and God.

1) According to the promise of the Lord Himself, only that prayer is effective which is united with true living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: "All things whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father, believing, ye shall receive in My name." Faith, uniting us in one spirit with the Lord, attracts to us the love and good will of His Most Pure Mother; on the contrary, unbelief, little faith and superstition, alienating us from the life of God, thereby deprive us of participation in the gifts of grace poured out upon the Church of Christ through the Mother of God, who is blessed above all. "Let him ask with faith" - so the Holy Apostle teaches us to pray, without doubting anything - "with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind" (James 1:6, 7).

2) Even more impure and unworthy of the hearing of the Mother of God are our prayers when we use God's gifts for evil: "You ask, and receive not," says the Apostle, "because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3). And earthly parents do not give their property to such children who use it for evil to themselves and others; much more will the Heavenly Father not give His gifts in vain, and the Most Pure Mother of the Lord, by Her very love, cannot intercede for that which we ourselves use to our own detriment. Does it not often happen that people force those very blessings which Heavenly Love gives us for our advancement in virtue and piety to serve as instruments of sin and iniquity, so that, having every sufficiency in everything, we may abound in every good work. Some turn them into a subject of vanity and arrogance, others into a pretext for intemperance and debauchery. We extend our ingratitude to God to such an extent that we turn His own blessings and gifts against Him. Is it surprising that the Heavenly Father, offended by such ingratitude, sometimes deprives us of His blessings, takes away His blessing from us, sends us poverty and hunger? Is it surprising that the most gracious Mother of the Lord turns Her face away from us, does not accept our prayers, does not want to give us what we ourselves so recklessly turn to our own destruction?

III. Thus, my brethren, the Most Holy Mother of the Lord loves and accepts, precedes to aid, and delivers from all troubles and evils only those who are pious and fear God. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.