Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we approach this weekend, looking forward to the celebration of Mother’s Day, I pray that all of the Moms, Grandmothers, Godmothers, and influential women in our lives will be richly and abundantly blessed. Just this past week, His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, reflecting on the naming of our parish of St. Anna, told me that without the participation of the Mother of God, the Theotokos, there is no salvation for human kind. She made God’s plan possible through her “yes.” And without St. Anna, there is no Theotokos. No Mary…no “yes,” no salvation. Your parish has such an important Saint.”
We honor the mother of the Theotokos every time we pray to God. We bless her name every time we petition Him with any and all requests, unto salvation. Her name, is in our hearts as His name is on our lips. We honor the Theotokos, and as specific inheritors of St. Anna’s tender ministry of motherhood, we hold her dearly.
Giving thanks to God for the abundant gifts He continues to pour upon us, we must acknowledge, as His Eminence reminds us, that the incredible Mothers in the life of Christ, must be ever-present in our proclamation of God’s incarnation in the flesh. The God Man, Jesus, is Man, only through His birth from a young maiden. Through her sincere piety, unyielding faith, steadfast devotion, and tender love, He came into the world to save us from sin, destruction and death. His mother made this possible.
Her mother made HER possible.
There is no way of skirting the significance of their roles in the lifting up of humankind; returning us to the very Kingdom, from which we were once banished.
A blessed Mother’s Day to all who celebrate. Our very lives are but a witness to your sacrificial love and obedience to your sacred vocation of motherhood.
As I am, myself, the son of an incredible Mother, and the husband of a woman fiercely dedicated, in every way, to the well-being of her children, I remain,
With Love in our Risen Lord,
Fr. Anthony