Happy feast!
Friday (March 25th) was the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, where the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would (if she accepted) bear Christ into the world. We celebrate it nine months before Christmas.
Today is the beginning of our salvation, / the revelation of the eternal mystery! / The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin / as Gabriel announces the coming of Grace. / Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos: / Hail, O Full of Grace, / the Lord is with You!
I really like how the troparion points out that the Annunciation is where humanity begins to be saved, and how the Son of God becomes a man through a woman. God became like us, which is something that I can hardly understand.
The third Sunday in Great Lent is dedicated to the Holy Cross. We give the Cross various titles, like the Weapon of Peace, the Tree of Life, the Trophy Invincible. There are lots of songs we sing about the cross, but my two favorites are the troparion and the stichera.
'Come ye Faithful' stichera for the Exaltation of the Cross
Both the troparion and the stichera were used as anthems for the Byzantine Empire, though the Empire existed before anthems became a 'thing' tbh.
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