August: Day 31: Placement of the Honorable Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos

August: Day 31:
Placement of the Honorable Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos
 
(On the Prayers That Are Not Pleasing to the Mother of God?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today the Church commemorates the Placement of the Honorable Zoni of the Most Holy Theotokos, which took place in the year 408. Besides Her robe, the Most Holy Theotokos also left the faithful Her honorable zoni (girdle); it was passed on among the faithful, just as the robe was, by succession from one to another in Jerusalem. The Emperor Arcadius, son of Theodosius the Great, having received the zoni from Jerusalem, placed it in Constantinople. In time, due to public calamities, the zoni was taken from Constantinople to the city of Zila, in Cappadocia, but under the Emperor Justin it was again brought to Constantinople. Many miracles occurred from it through prayer to the Mother of God, if these prayers were pleasing to the Lord and were acceptable to the Mother of God. Part of the zoni is on Athos, in the Vatopaidi Monastery, in a cross, the other part is in the Trier Monastery, in the west.

II. Christian brethren! Many pray fervently before the icons of the Mother of God and deeply revere the holy objects that were in Her use during Her earthly life, for example, Her robe and zoni, as an instrument of God's mercies, as a sacred protection. But not every prayer may be heard by the Mother of God.

a) Firstly, irrational prayers, no matter how fervent they may be, can never be heard by the Queen of Heaven.

Is it not hard for the Most Holy Virgin Mary to hear (and She hears!) how someone who has been offended by someone, instead of asking for love for the offender, according to the commandment of the Savior, asks for vengeance and destruction? Is it not hard to hear (and the Mother of God hears!) how someone who has stolen or unjustly appropriated someone else's property, instead of asking for the good disposition to "return fourfold" (Luke 19:8) what was unjustly acquired, asks for success in hiding his injustice from the eyes of justice? To enlighten such petitioners, we must, at least briefly, note that in heaven there is no partiality, that only truth or sincere repentance is accepted there, that the will of the Mother of God and Her Son is one and the same, which is “our holiness” (1 Thess. 4:3); that the Mother cannot ask for what the Son cannot grant without violating His truth, therefore those who ask for something unjust pronounce not only a refusal to themselves, but also condemnation.

b) Secondly, all those who ask the Mother of God for something permissible, but with an impure intention, are also subject to this condemnation. 

For example, if someone asks for wealth, having a strong desire to begin to lead a luxurious and sensual life; if someone prays for the return of health, so that, having received what he asked for, he immediately returns to bad habits and deeds. Let all such and similar petitioners know once and for all that what they ask for will not be accepted, for “they ask wickedly” (James 4:3). Every request for something unjust, or for an lawless purpose, is an insult to the Mother of God and is directed at the head of the petitioner.

c) Thirdly, prayers to the Mother of God exclusively for sensual benefits also may not always be heard by Her.

If by some miracle the totality of petitions sent to Her in this one temple were revealed to us, what do you think we would see? We would see a countless number of petitions for temporal blessings, for deliverance from various illnesses, from enemies, from slander and persecution, for success in trade, in travel, in marriage, and the like. But how many, do you think, would appear before us for spiritual blessings, for healing from various illnesses of the soul and conscience, for conquering bad habits and passions, for acquiring this or that virtue, for accomplishing difficult feats of love for God and neighbor? Ah, and even without a special revelation of the mysteries of the heart, one can say unmistakably that there are very few petitions for spiritual blessings to the Mother of God. Why is this so? Do we have only one body, and not a soul and conscience? Do not our soul and conscience have their own kind of illnesses and needs? Can the Mother of God give only the temporary and corruptible? Or do we love only our body, and put our soul at nothing? Or do we not believe in another life, in judgment and retribution after death? - But none of the most depraved people will say this. We will not say it in words, but in deeds we speak incessantly - almost all of us. All of us only care about the earthly and corruptible, about food, clothing, amusements, but about the state of our soul, whether our conscience is intact, whether we are faithful to Christ, with Whom we were united at baptism, whether we have strayed from the right path, about how we can leave this vain life and appear before our Creator, whether our sins are washed away by repentance, whether there is in us even a small sprout for eternal life in God, about this extremely important matter, we, if we think at all, then very rarely, superficially, as about someone else's unimportant matter. And in such an unhappy frame of mind we appear in the very temples of God! With such disregard for our salvation we are not ashamed to appear before our Redeemer and His most pure Mother! Can She listen to such unreasonable petitioners? To grant the blessings we ask for would mean on Her part giving us the opportunity to become even more attached to the earthly and sensual, to plunge even deeper into carnal pleasures, to lose the last memory of the soul, conscience and future life. Therefore, it is not at all surprising if the Most Holy Virgin, out of Her true love for us, does not hear many of our petitions; if She even gives us something completely contrary to what we pray to Her for.

III. From this a new and necessary rule for our prayers to the Most Holy Virgin naturally follows, which, however, is very often forgotten: I mean the need to conclude all petitions to Her by surrendering them and ourselves to Her holy will. Our own benefit requires this, for, due to the limitations of our minds, due to the impurity of our hearts, we can pray to the Lord and His saints for what seems useful to us, but in itself is harmful, or in itself useful, but pernicious for us. From heaven we are all more clearly seen, and all our past, present, and future; therefore, it is more convenient for the inhabitants of heaven to arrange our participation. Our duty, remembering this, is not to bother them with unconditional petitions, not to despond if we do not see the fulfillment of what we ask, not to be sad if the opposite happens to us. This seeming inattention of theirs to our prayers can be the true fruit of our prayers. In such a case, it is best to turn to your conscience without complaining, examine your life, delve into your abilities, your character, your relationships, remember that we were created not for the earth, but for heaven, that today or tomorrow they will call us to our unearthly homeland: then you yourself can see why the Mother of God did not fulfill any of your requests. And even if you did not see the reason for this, then even then you should not be despondent and complain, remembering that here we do not understand much in our destiny. The time will come when everything will be revealed. Then we will thank the saints of God that they did not listen to many of our prayers, and acted contrary to our desires.

Mother of God! Not only protect us, but also enlighten us: for we ourselves “know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26). Amen. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.