Kiev, December 13, 2021
pravmir.com
The Mother of God cares for all people, and especially small children, and is a mother to us all, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry says in the latest episode of the Word of the Primate.
To illustrate this point, His Beatitude recounts a story about the miraculous intervention of the Mother of God that he heard from a woman many years ago.
When this woman was a child, her mother led a depraved life. His Beatitude continues:
They had icons at home, but her mother never prayed or said anything to her. In the end, her mother became so entangled in carnal sins that in her madness she planned to kill her daughter. She took an axe and swung it. The girl was 5 years old. She didn't understand much then, and when she saw the danger, she just started crying. A strange woman appeared and snatched the axe from her mother’s hands, and her mother came to her senses...
The girl thought her neighbor had protected her and was waiting for her to say something to her the next time she saw her. But she realized the neighbor had no idea about it.
One day, the girl started looking at the icons and recognized the woman who had saved her in the image of the Mother of God. But she didn’t know it was an icon, and she thought it was just a photograph. In difficult times, she then always approached this “photo,” complained like a child, cried, and received comfort. And when she grew up, she found out that it’s not a photograph, but an icon of the Mother of God—the Queen of Heaven and Earth. She was imbued with a fervent love for the Mother of God, and she became for her a true mother who raised and protected her.
And calling all to constant prayer, His Beatitude exhorted: “When a man prays to God and the Mother of God both in times of prosperity and in times of trouble, then his prayer has a strong boldness, is more pleasing to God, and bears good fruits. May the Lord protect us all through the prayers of the Most Holy Virgin Mary.”
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