In all these cases, the Blessed Virgin Mary is a reflection, a living image of a Biblical Christian. We must become like Her by listening to the Word of God, meditating on it, keeping everything in our hearts, and observing everything that the Lord Jesus Christ tells us. When God speaks, you should listen with obedience

UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE THROUGH THE CHURCH

Secondly, as stated in the statement of the Moscow Conference, "we know, receive and receive the Holy Scriptures through the Church and in the Church" Our approach to the Bible should be not only obedient, but also ecclesiastical

It is the Church that tells us what the Holy Scriptures consist of. This or that book is not part of the Holy Scriptures because there is evidence regarding its authorship and the year of its writing. If it were suddenly proved, for example, that the Fourth Gospel was not actually written by the holy Evangelist John, the most beloved disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, this would not change the fact that we, the Orthodox, recognize the Fourth Gospel as part of the Holy Scriptures. Because the Gospel of John is accepted by the Church and in the Church

It is the Church that tells us what the Holy Scriptures are, just as it is the Church that tells us how the Holy Scriptures are to be understood. Meeting an Ethiopian, who was reading the Old Testament in his chariot, the holy Apostle Philip asked him: "Do you understand what you read?" (Acts 8:30-31). The words of the Holy Scriptures are not always understandable without explanation God speaks directly to the heart of each of us when we read the Bible: the reading of the Holy Scriptures, as St. Tikhon says, is a personal conversation of each of us with Christ. But we also need guidance And our guide, the Mother Church, We make full use of our own minds with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit; we make full use of the discoveries of modern Bible scholars, but we always subordinate private opinion, whether our own or the opinion of scholars, to the conciliar centuries-old experience of the Holy Church

The essence of this Orthodox point of view is reflected in the question to the catechumen, in the rite of receiving him into the bosom of the Church. In Russian practice: "Do you recognize that the Holy Scriptures must be accepted and interpreted in accordance with the faith handed down to us by the Holy Fathers, which our Mother, the Holy Orthodox Church, has always preserved and preserves to this day?"

Reading the Bible should be personal, but at the same time we should not feel isolated from each other, units, solitary Christians We read as members of a family, a family of the Universal Orthodox Church When we read the Holy Scriptures, we do not say "I," but "we." We read in fellowship with all the other members of the Body of Christ in all parts of the world and at all times. The criterion for understanding the meaning of the Holy Scriptures is the mind of the Church, the Bible is the book of the Holy Church

Where should we begin in order to discover the teaching of the Church? The first step is to find out how the Holy Scriptures are used in Divine Services How, in particular, are the Bible readings chosen for various feasts? We must also turn to the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Church and take into account the way in which they interpret the Bible

As an example of what the liturgical method of interpreting Scripture consists of, guided by the way it is used during church feasts, let us consider the paremias – readings from the Old Testament that rely on the vespers of the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos – March 25 (April 7 in the civil calendar) There are three of them: 1) from the Book of Genesis, 28:10-17 – Jacob's dream about the ladder ascending from earth to heaven; 2) from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, 43:27 - 44:4 — the prophet's vision of the Jerusalem sanctuary with closed gates, through which no one except the prince can pass; (3) Proverbs 9:1-11 — beginning with the words, "Wisdom has built herself a house"

All these Old Testament texts chosen for the services of March 25 (April 7) and other feasts of the Mother of God should be understood as prophecies about the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Virgin. The Most Holy Virgin Mary is the ladder of Jacob, who gave flesh to the incarnate God, Who entered our human world The Most Holy Virgin Mary is a closed gate; She is the only woman who conceived in virginity and remained immaculate. The Most Holy Virgin Mary is the house that Christ "the Wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24) accepts as a dwelling place. If we trace in this way how the readings for various holidays are selected, we reveal the versatility of biblical interpretation, through the comparison of images and examples that are not at all obvious at the first reading

Let us take as another example the Vespers of Great Saturday, which many centuries ago was the first part of the Paschal All-Night Vigil. It contains no less than 15 readings from the Old Testament To our great regret, in very many churches most of them are omitted, and therefore the people of God are deprived of the opportunity to be satiated with their Biblical meaning. These 15 paremias, one after the other, reveal to us the entire plan of sacred history, at the same time revealing the deep meaning of the resurrection of Christ. The first of the readings, from Genesis 1:1-13, is about the first three days of Creation. The Resurrection of Christ is a new Creation. The fourth reading is the entire book of the holy prophet Jonah, which describes how the prophet was in the belly of the whale for three days, which anticipates the three-day resurrection of Christ (cf. Matthew, 12:40). The sixth reading tells of the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 13:20-15:19), which heralds Christ's new Passover transition from death to life (cf. I Corinthians 5:7; 10:1-4). The last reading is the story of the three holy youths thrown into a fiery furnace (Daniel, 3), another prototype of Christ's resurrection from the tomb.

Such is the effect of the conciliar reading of Holy Scripture in the Church and together with the Church. Studying the Old Testament in parallel with the liturgics of the Holy Church and resorting to the works of the Holy Fathers, we everywhere discover new guiding signs leading us to the knowledge of the great mysteries surrounding the Lord Jesus Christ and His Most-Pure Mother. By reading the Old Testament in comparison with the New and the New Testament in comparison with the Old (which is indicated by our church calendar), we discover the unity of Holy Scripture.

In parish Bible study circles, it is helpful to assign someone a special activity: to find out on which feasts a particular passage from the Old or New Testament is read during worship. Then you can discuss together why this particular passage was chosen Other members of the group can be given an assignment on the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church, using primarily the sermons and teachings of St. John Chrysostom But it should be remembered that it will take diligence in the search before you find what you are looking for Holy Fathers of the Church addressed people of a different time, Archpriest George Florovsky used to say that modern Orthodox Christians need to acquire a patristic way of thinking. And in order to achieve this, we must penetrate deeper than a superficial understanding of the words of the Holy Fathers, into the very essence of their inner meaning.

THE SOUL OF THE BIBLE IS CHRIST