Reflection on the Saturday of the Akathist

The so-called Canon of the Akathist, composed by Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, opens with these words: “O pure Virgin, living book of Christ, sealed by the Spirit.” She is the scroll in which God’s Word is written, the heaven containing the Sun of Righteousness, the jar containing the true Manna, the oven in which the heavenly Bread is baked. If we wish to know and receive Jesus Christ, it behooves us to approach the Theotokos as our mediatrix, for she is the only pure Virgin through whom God’s Son comes into the world.