Saint Vladimir’s Seminary
September 8, 2025
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
One of the folk-names for today’s feast is translated in English as the “Little Most Pure.” The literal meaning here is clear: today we see the Theotokos as a baby; looking at the festal icon we behold little version of our most pure Lady.
But there are also deeper meanings to this term, just as there are deeper meanings to the present feast. It is not merely the birthday of the Theotokos, celebrated like any other birthday, yours or mine. It is the birth of the little most pure—though she is small, she is already the most pure Ever-virgin Mary; she is the perfect habitation made ready and prepared for God himself.
To paraphrase St. Gregory Palamas, the tiny baby girl that we see before us has been God’s project and desire from before the creation of the world. He has desired to come and dwell in his creation as in a temple, and finally, here is the girl who will become the very dwelling-place of God, greater than the holy of holies; she is the house of God, the true Bethel, the living throne, the animate heaven in which the boundless Deity will abide.
Turning for a moment back to the folk tradition, among the East Slavs today’s feast was sometimes considered the first day of autumn. Autumn is the season of the harvest, of gathering fruits, and it is appropriate then that today we mark the Nativity of the Theotokos, for she is the first fruits of a formerly barren world.
The womb of St. Anna, the grandmother of God, was long barren, and likewise our human nature was long barren, from Adam’s fall till today. Though there were holy men and women down through the ages, there was none worthy to become the vessel of the Incarnation.
But today, the true Theotokos, she who will bear God in the flesh, is born into the world. She is the best that our human nature has to offer: she is the contact point between heaven and earth, the one through whom Christ becomes incarnate and enters into creation in order to save it.
As we celebrate this feast of the “little most pure,” we acknowledge that she will grow, even while maintaining her purity. She will consecrate her entire life to the adoration and love of God, and when she has reached the proper age, she will become the true Mother of God.
Therefore, let us celebrate her birthday not as we do other birthdays, with gifts that will perish with time. Instead, let us present her with the gift of our imitation. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, as the old saying holds, and by imitating the Mother of God, we offer not vain flattery, but fitting praise.
Though she is the unique Mother of God, we can imitate her devotion and make more and more room for God within our lives and hearts. Though she alone bore him in the flesh, we can give birth to him in our inner being and let him take on our own flesh to continue his work in the world.
Though she is the first fruits of our once-barren nature, she brought forth Christ for the salvation of the world. Now, in him, we, too, are called to bear much fruit. If we imitate the most holy Theotokos by commending ourselves, and each other, and all our life unto Christ our God, then we will experience the reality of the Incarnation. The Incarnation took place once and for all through the womb of the Mother of God, but now it is available to all of us who desire it with faith. This experience, this reality, are available both now and in the age to come.
If we make room in our lives and hearts for Christ, emptying ourselves through the stillness of prayer and the self-forgetfulness of service to others, then we will come to know the truth of the Lord’s words: “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” This kingdom is with us now, and it is the delight of those who love God throughout the endless ages to come.
To him who prepared the most holy Theotokos as his sacred dwelling place on earth, who desired to be incarnate of her for our salvation, Christ our true God, be all honor and adoration, together with his Father and the All-holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.
Most holy Theotokos, save us!