Luke, 3 rec., 1:24-38.

The sun is reflected in clear waters, and the sky is reflected in a pure heart.

There are many abodes with God the Holy Spirit in this vast universe, but the pure heart of man is the abode of His greatest joy. It is His true abode, all the rest are only His workshops.

The human heart can never be empty, it is always filled: either with hell, or with peace, or with God. The content of the heart depends on the purity of the heart.

At one time the human heart was filled only with God; it was a mirror only for the babbling of God, a harp only for the praise of God. Once it was truly in the hand of God - and was out of danger. But when man in madness took it into his hands, many beasts attacked the human heart, and from there began what is called the slavery of the human heart, and when viewed from the outside, is called world history.

Unable to hold his heart with his own hands, man leaned it against the surrounding creatures and things. But whatever a person leaned his heart to, it got dirty and damaged because of it.

O poor human heart, the property of many illegitimate owners, pearls among swine! How you are petrified by long slavery, how you are darkened by the heavy darkness! God Himself had to come down to free you from bondage, to save you from darkness, to heal you of sinful leprosy, and to take you back into His hands.

The descent of God to people is the most fearless act of God's love, God's love for mankind, the most joyful news for the pure and the most incredible event for the impure in heart.

Like a pillar of fire in the thickest darkness - such is the descent of God to people. And the story of this descent of God to people begins with an angel and a Virgin, with a conversation between heavenly purity and earthly purity.

When an impure heart converses with an unclean heart, it is war. When an impure heart converses with a pure heart, this is war. And only when a pure heart converses with a pure heart, this is joy, peace and miracle.

The Archangel Gabriel is the first herald of human salvation, or the miracle of God; for there would be no salvation of man without the miracle of God. The Most Pure Virgin Mary was the first to hear this gospel and the first of human beings to tremble with fear and joy. In Her heart the sky was reflected like the sun in clear waters; under Her heart the Lord, the Creator of the new and the Renewer of the old world, had to bow His head and put on His flesh. This is what today's Gospel reading says.

After these days, Elizabeth his wife (Zachariah) conceived, and hid herself for five months, saying, "Thus hath the Lord done me in these days, in which he looked upon me, that he might take away from me the reproach among men." In these days, in what days? In the days preceding the great day of the Nativity of Christ. When the fullness of time came; when all the great prophecies have overtaken one another in their fulfillment; when the terms foretold by Daniel had expired; when the prince became poor from the tribe of Judah; when the feeble human race sighed together with the feeble nature surrounding it, no longer expecting salvation either from man or from nature, but from God alone, at that time Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias, conceived. But how is the eldress Elizabeth, the barren wife of Zachariah, connected with the salvation of the human race? It is connected by the fact that she will give birth to the Forerunner of Christ, who, like a warrior, will go ahead and announce the coming of the Voivode. A barren old woman could only give birth to a herald of salvation, but not a Savior. It is an exact image of the old world, which was in old age and barren, did not bring forth harvest and fruit, hungered and thirsted; an image of a parched world, which, like an old and withered tree, could still miraculously turn green, announcing the onset of spring, but in no way bear fruit.