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melrassi
Posts: 1
Joined: Mar 2005
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March 16, 2005 9:54 PM
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Among all the Eastern wall paintings, as large as four storey building, one I admire the most in my Church. It is the Angelic Salutation to the Virgin Mary. It is painted on two (half height) doors, which split in the middle. These doors open in the middle to the left and to the right as the barrier seperating the Alter from the Church seatings. This icon in Particular I enjoy most and it never fails to speak to me. I had an apportunity to write a paper on it for my theological studies, "Iconography" class. The Virgin in my paper, is the door of heaven as in the ladder of Jacob; She is the Bush that never burns on Mount Sinai. I can't help it since as a Melkite Eastern Catholic, multitudes of praises and hymnals are sung to the Virgin. These are among the best written material that is ever ancient, as ancient as St. Basil, and St. John Chrysostom. She is the first fruits vested with the grace of the Holy Spirit as God willed it to be in the begining before the fall, for all the human race. This exact thing that seem to make me wonder at this Salutation with joy; the marriage of the divine and the human. The Virgin is humanity's amabsodor with her Son. Intercede for us Oh Mother of God, for your womb is larger than the universe, because you carried God in your womb.
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