Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of announcing the ascension of the body of Saint Virgin Mary to heaven, on the sixteenth of Misra (08/22), happy feast to all of you, we pray to God to shower Egypt and its people with bounties and blessings, and for peace to prevail the world, through the intercessions and prayers of Saint Virgin Mary. About Saint Virgin Mary, Solomon the Sage said: “Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.” it was said in Surat Al-Imran: “And when the angels said, “O Mary, indeed Allāh has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the women of the worlds.” Two previous articles have talked about the occasion of this feast, and the fast of the father apostles of Lord Christ until God showed them her pure body, after Apostle Thomas told them that he had seen the angels carrying her body after her departure to heaven.
We also talked about the virtue of endurance in the life of Saint Virgin Mary in which she suffered pains and trials until she has become a support for every burdened person who seeks her intercession, she kept giving until she became an inexhaustible spring that brings blessings to us yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Today, I would like to talk about the virtue of piety in the life of Our Lady.
Life of Piety
Saint Virgin Mary lived a pure, holy life filled with piety and meekness. Since an early age, she was a child who was vowed to God. She entered at an age of three. She led a life of contemplation, prayer, and service, knowing nothing but God’s love and submission to His commandments. God was her only support in life, so she completely relied upon Him, reiterating the prophetic words of David: “I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.” In her life, praises and prayers were her desire and the essence of her pleasures, meditation on the greatness and majesty of God occupied her mind and attracted her thoughts, along with the acts of righteousness and love that characterized her throughout her life.
In her pious life, she was filled with grace, so that when heavens desired to greet her through Archangel Gabriel, she was told: “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” In piety, she obeyed the tidings and said: “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” She devoted her life to serving and obeying God, no matter how difficult or overwhelming things seemed. She piously offered love to all; When Archangel Gabriel told her that her barren old relative Elizabeth was six months pregnant, saying: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” Saint Virgin Mary, with a loving and tender heart, hastened to serve Elizabeth, no matter how hard it was for her. The Bible says: “Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth… And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.” Thus, the life of Saint Virgin Lady taught us how piety and true love should be, obeying God’s commandments, “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is mentioned about the love of Saint Virgin Mary that when she fled to Egypt, she crossed the city of Samanoud in the north-east of Gharbiya Governorate.
The Holy Family was warmly received in this city, so Saint Virgin Mary asked her child, Lord Christ, to bless the city and its people. He blessed them and informed her that there would be a church blessed in her name, then He blessed a water well there. Her tenderness is quite remarkable when she interceded for the wedding guests of Qana of Galilee with Christ and He fulfilled her request to perform His first miracles there.
Saint Virgin Mary led a holy pious life in perfect love and amazing submission to God and His will, until her departure and ascension of her body, she still offers people her prayers and intercessions, she blesses Egypt’s people with her apparitions in her churches, which spread worldwide.
Happy feast to all of you, and… stories about beautiful Egypt never end!
General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
