The Gift of Shyness – photo journal from Annunciation (Good Friday) – part 1: Vigil (Audio)

The Mother of God was the purest being created as all the holy fathers confess together. Her basic virtue was and is virginity, the gift of shyness – the full purity of her entire existence, not only from the bodily but also from spiritual (mental) point of view.

The Mother of God did not even sin with the thought and had the in the highest degree the natural gift of God which God gives at the birth of each one of us, which we disregard today as never before in our history, which is why we have failed as a society from the spiritual point of view: the gift of shyness.

The gift of shyness: almost extinct today

The lack of the gift of shyness means the destruction of civilization. Without the delicacy to the other, without the continuous attention in avoiding sin, without separating from the worldly matters and focusing on the law of God we will not be saved from the shadow of death and will not have the good news of the incarnation of the son of God in our hearts.

Shyness is a great natural gift of God, of which today only ruins are left because people count shyness and shame only as a social phenomenon trying to analyze it outside of God’s love and eternal life. Thus God withdraws, respecting our freedom, and therefore we are condemned to blind ourselves in a society from which shame disappears quickly. Let us not forget, however, that complete lack of shame is the first symptom of stupidity as a definite proof of the darkness of the mind caused by total trust in one’s own loneliness.

We need to have shyness – otherwise we will die spiritually

The Mother of the Lord was perfectly free from any closure in herself, from any pride, keeping intact the grace of shyness as a total and permanent openness to the word of God, whatever that was. This word was to her, the most impossible commandment in history: you will give birth to an incarnate God who will become a man from you.

Let us not believe that we will be saved from trouble by worldly means: we will only change the troubles as we change our socks. We need to get out from under the shadow of death because if we do not die to death, we will not really rise after death.

Let us have shyness, let us feel a little shame!

In the photos you can see snapshots of the celebration of the Annunciation in 2018 which fell on Good Friday and so you will see together with the service of the Annunciation the service of epitaph (burial) with the procession around the central church (katholikon) in Vatopedi. Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol and Elder Methodios, the Abbot of Hilandar monastery were present at the feast.

Tomorrow, God willing, we will post the second part with the liturgy.

The audio is a studio recording from the feast of Annunciation.

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