It is Truly Meet To Bless Thee Iconographic | Axion Estin Hymn to the Mother of God Theotokos | Orthodox Christian Hardcover Journal

It is truly meet to bless you, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without defilement you gave birth to God the Word. True Theotokos we magnify you!

- "Axion Estin" Prayer to the Theotokos

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With the fall of the crown of creation, man, a change took place throughout the world, for sin brought all its consequences. The whole world has become corruptible and sinful. Nature, starting with animals, began to harm man, and he himself internally languished from separation from God.

However, the All-Wise God, even before the creation of the world, not only foresaw the fall of man who was created by him, but also predetermined how to correct it. Before the world began, it was already predetermined in the Council of the Most Holy Trinity that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, would become a man and take upon Himself the sins of the world, making amends for the crime of Adam.

The prepared cure for the human malady was not revealed to anyone; the decision of the Council of the Most Holy Trinity remained a secret for the entire created world. It was necessary to prepare on earth a worthy companion for the incarnate Son of God. Among the human race corrupted by sin, it was necessary to find an undefiled vessel into which the entire created Word of God would descend and, with the received flesh, dwell among people, Himself becoming man. It took many centuries for the fulfillment of God's wise economy to be prepared and for the pure Virgin to appear, worthy to become the Mother according to the flesh of Him through Whom heaven and earth were created and through Whom the destiny of the All-Wise Trinity for the salvation of the world was to be fulfilled.

- St John of Shangahi and San Francisco