March 25translatedThis page has been translated from Serbian to English. It may contain minor phrasing or syntactic issues.

When the Most Holy Virgin had completed eleven years of dwelling and service at the Temple of Jerusalem, and fourteen years from her birth — that is, when she entered her fifteenth year of life — the priests informed her that by law she could no longer remain at the Temple, but must be betrothed and enter into marriage. But what a great surprise for all the priests was the reply of the Most Holy Virgin, that she had dedicated herself to God and wished to remain a virgin until death, entering into marriage with no one! Then by the providence and inspiration of God, the high priest Zacharias — father of the Forerunner — in agreement with the other priests, gathered twelve unmarried men from the tribe of David, that the Virgin Mary might be entrusted to one of them for the safekeeping of her virginity and her care. And she was entrusted to the elderly Joseph of Nazareth, who was also her kinsman. In the house of Joseph, the Most Holy Virgin continued to live just as in the Temple of Solomon — spending her time in reading Holy Scripture, in prayers, in meditation on God, in fasting, and in handiwork. She almost never went out of the house, nor did she concern herself with worldly matters and events. She spoke with very few people at all, and never without special need. Most often in the house she communicated with Joseph's two daughters. But when the time prophesied by the prophet Daniel was fulfilled, and when God was pleased to fulfill His promise to the exiled Adam and to the prophets, the great Archangel Gabriel appeared in the chamber of the Most Holy Virgin — at the moment, as certain sacred writers record, when she was holding the opened prophet Isaiah and meditating on his great prophecy: *Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son! (Isa. 7:14)*. Gabriel appeared to her in archangelic light and said to her: Rejoice, thou who art full of grace! The Lord is with thee! — and all the rest in order as it is written in the Gospel of the divine Luke (Luke 1:26-38). With this archangelic annunciation, and with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Most Pure Virgin, the salvation of men and the renewal of creation began. The history of the New Testament was opened by the Archangel Gabriel with the word: Rejoice! — to signify thereby that the New Testament was to mean joy for men and for all created nature. Hence the Annunciation is regarded as a feast both great and joyful.

For with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37)

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Before God spoke, there was no light. Nor would anyone who existed have known what light is, had God not spoken and light had not come to be. In the same way, when God spoke, water came to be, and dry land, and the starry vault, and plants, and animals, and at last man. Before God spoke, none of that existed, nor would any being apart from God have known that all this could exist. By the power of His word God created all that was created on earth and in heaven. Whatever God wills to be, and says to be — must be, and cannot but be, for the word of God is irresistible and creative. The creation of the world is a great miracle of the word of God.

Having created all creatures, God by His word again established the order and manner of existence of all creatures, and the conduct and relations of creature toward creature. And that order and manner which God established is a great miracle of the word of God.

But there is an order and manner among creatures visible and attainable to us men, and there is an order and manner invisible and unattainable. According to that invisible and unattainable order and manner — which is a mystery in the Holy Trinity — there came to pass and come to pass those occurrences which men call particular miracles. One such occurrence is the virginal conception of the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. This appears to be an intrusion into the visible and attainable order and manner, but it is no intrusion at all into the invisible and unattainable order and manner. That birth is truly a great miracle — perhaps the greatest miracle revealed to us mortals. But all created nature is a miracle, and all the visible and attainable order and manner is a miracle, and all that miracle came to be by the word of God — that is, in precisely the same way as the Lord was conceived in the virginal womb. Both this and that came to pass by the power of the word of God. Therefore the wondrous Gabriel answers the Most Pure One's question — which is the question of all generations: how can this be — answering her: with God nothing shall be impossible.

O Lord God, our Creator, immortal and steadfast Wonderworker, enlighten our minds that they may no longer doubt but believe, and enlighten our tongues that they may no longer ask but glorify Thee. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.