It tells about the appearance of the Angel of the Lord to the priest Zachariah during the service in the temple, who predicted the birth of his son John, who would be great before the Lord, as well as about the punishment of Zachariah with muteness for unbelief and about his conception by his wife Elizabeth.

King Herod, who is mentioned here, was an Edomite by birth, the son of Antipater, who under Hyrcanus, the last of the Maccabean dynasty, took possession of the affairs of Judea. From Rome he received the royal title. Although he was a proselyte, the Jews did not consider him their own, and his reign was precisely the "taking away of the scepter from Judah", after which the Messiah was to appear (see Prophecy Gen. 49:10).

The priests were divided by David into 24 sections, and Abija was placed at the head of one of them. Zechariah was also included in this group. His wife, Elizabeth, also came from a priestly family. Although both of them were distinguished by true righteousness, they were childless, and this was considered by the Jews to be God's punishment for sins. Each section served in the church twice a year for one week, and the priests distributed the duties among themselves by lot. It fell to Zechariah to perform incense, for which purpose he entered the second part of the Jerusalem temple, called the Holy or Sanctuary, where the altar of incense was located, while all the people prayed in a specially designated open part of the temple, or in the Court. Entering the sanctuary, Zacharias saw an angel, and fear fell upon him, since according to Jewish concepts, the appearance of an angel foretold imminent death. The angel calmed Zachariah, saying that his prayer had been heard, and his wife would bear him a son, who would be "great in the sight of the Lord."

It is difficult to imagine that Zachariah, being old, and at such a solemn moment of worship, with all his righteousness, would have prayed for the granting of a son to him. Obviously, he, as one of the best people of that time, prayed to God for the imminent coming of the Kingdom of the Messiah, and it was about this prayer that the Angel said that it was heard. And so his prayer received a high reward: not only was his sorrowful barrenness permitted, but his son would be the Forerunner of the Messiah, whose coming he had so intensely awaited. His son will surpass all in unusually strict abstinence and will be filled from birth with the special grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit. He will have to prepare the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah, which he will do by preaching about repentance and correction of life, converting to God many of the sons of Israel, who revered Jehovah only formally, but in heart and life were far from Him. For this purpose, the son of Zechariah, John, will be given the spirit and strength of the Prophet Elijah, whom he will resemble in his fiery zeal, strict ascetic life, preaching of repentance and denunciation of impiety. He will have to call the Jews out of the abyss of their moral fall, restoring to the hearts of parents love for children, and those who resist the right hand of the Lord to be confirmed in the way of thinking of the righteous.

Zacharias did not believe the angel, since he, like his wife, was too old to hope for posterity, and asked the angel for some sign to prove the truth of his words. In order to dispel Zechariah's doubts, the angel gives his name: he is Gabriel, which means the power of God, the same one who preached the good news to the prophet Daniel about the time of the coming of the Messiah, indicating the dates in "weeks" (Dan. 9:21-27). For unbelief, the Angel strikes Zachariah with muteness, and at the same time, apparently, with deafness, since they then explain themselves with him by signs. Usually the censing does not last long, and the people began to wonder: why does Zechariah linger in the sanctuary? But as soon as Zachariah appeared and began to show something with gestures, everyone understood that he had a vision. It is remarkable that Zechariah did not abandon his family and continued his ministry to the end. His wife, Elizabeth, after her husband's return home, did indeed conceive a son. For five months she hid this, for fear that people might not believe her, and ridicule her, while she herself rejoiced in her heart and thanked God for removing the reproach from her. The Conception of St. John the Baptist is celebrated on September 23.

Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Luke 1:26-38).

In the sixth month of the conception of John the Baptist, the Angel Gabriel was sent to a small town located in the tribe of Zebulun in the southern part of Galilee, in Nazareth, "To a virgin betrothed to a man, whose name was Joseph, from the house of David; and the name of the Virgin was Mary." The Evangelist does not say: "to a virgin who is married," but: "betrothed to a man." This means that the Blessed Virgin Mary was formally, in the eyes of society and from the point of view of the law, considered to be the wife of Joseph, although she was not in reality.

Having lost Her parents at an early age, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, who had been given by them to serve at the temple, could not return to them when She was 14 years old, and according to the law She could no longer remain in the temple, but, according to custom, had to marry. The high priest and the priests, learning that She had taken a vow of eternal virginity and not wishing to leave Her without protection, formally betrothed Her to Her own relative, the eighty-year-old elder Joseph, known for his righteousness, who already had a large family from his first marriage (Matt. 13:55) and was a carpenter.

Entering the Virgin, the Angel called Her "Grace-filled," that is, having found grace with God (see v. 30), i.e., God's special love and favor, God's help, which is necessary for holy and great works. The words of the Angel confused Mary with their extraordinariness, and She began to ponder their meaning. Having calmed Her down, the Angel prophesied to her the birth of a Son from Her, Who would be great, but not like John, but much greater, for He would not only be filled with the grace-filled gifts of God, like that one, but Himself would be the Son of the Most High. Why does the angel say that the Lord will give him the throne of David his father, and that he will reign in the house of Jacob? Because the Jewish kingdom in the Old Testament had as its destiny to prepare people for the spiritual eternal Kingdom of Christ and gradually be transformed into it. Consequently, the kingdom of David as such is the one in which God Himself placed kings, which was governed according to the laws of God, all forms of civil life of which were imbued with the idea of serving God, which was inseparably connected with the New Testament Kingdom of God.

Mary's question: "How will this be, when I do not know a man?" would have been completely incomprehensible and would have no meaning if she had not made a vow to God to remain a virgin forever. The angel explained to Her that Her vow would not be broken, since She would give birth to a Son in a supernatural way, without a husband. The seedless conception will be produced by the Holy Spirit, the "Power of the Most High," that is, the Son of God Himself (see 1 Cor. 1:24) will overshadow Her, descend into Her like the cloud that once overshadowed the tabernacle, "In a light cloud," as the sacred song puts it (Isaiah 19:1). And although the Most Holy Virgin did not require any proof, the Angel himself, in confirmation of the truth of his words, pointed to Elizabeth, who conceived a son in extreme old age by the will of God, for Whom nothing is impossible. From the prophetic books, the Most Holy Virgin knew that not only glory awaited Her and the Divine Son, but also sorrow, however, being obedient to the will of God in everything, she answered: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to Me according to your word." The Annunciation is celebrated on March 25. Having accepted the gospel, the Most Holy Virgin said nothing about it to Joseph, justifiably fearing, as St. Chrysostom explains, that he might not believe Her and think that She wished to conceal the crime committed by such a warning.

The Meeting of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Elizabeth

(Luke 1:39-56).

The Most Holy Virgin hastens to share Her joy with Elizabeth, Her relative, who lived in Judea, as it is believed, in the city of Yutta, near the priestly city of Hebron. Elizabeth greeted Her with the same unusual greeting with which the Angel addressed Her: "Blessed art Thou among women," and added: "Blessed is the fruit of Thy womb!" – although, as a relative, she should have known about Mary's vow of virginity. Then Elizabeth exclaimed: "And how is it that the Mother of my Lord has come to me?" She immediately explains the meaning of her words by saying that the child she was carrying joyfully leaped in her womb as soon as Mary's greeting reached her ears. It was only under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the infant in Elizabeth's womb felt the nearness of another infant, the One for whose appearance in the world he would have to prepare mankind. That is why he produced an extraordinary movement in the womb of the mother. From the infant carried in the womb, the influence of the Holy Spirit passed on to the mother, and she, by grace-filled insight, instantly recognized what joyful news Mary had brought her, and therefore glorified Her as the Mother of God, in the words of the Archangel Gabriel. Elizabeth praises the Most Holy Virgin for the faith with which She received the angelic message, thus contrasting this faith with the unbelief of Zechariah.