Every year during this time Ukrainians sing a song to the Virgin Mary. I’ve been hearing the song in my head for months. “Pure maiden, rejoice! I say again, Rejoice!” The English translation sounds clunky and puritan, but in Ukrainian it’s the most beautiful song. It flows from word to word. The notes rise with each verse bringing a sense of excitement and giving me chills. It never fails to make me emotional.

In Ukrainian, the word used is “шиста”, which means clean or pure. It’s common to describe water this way.

The song itself is not Ukrainian. It was written by the Greek, St. Nectarios of Aegina, called Agni Parthene ( O Pure Virgin), first published in 1905. It became an Eastern Orthodox hymn and made its way to the Ukrainian church where it found me.

My family has always loved the Virgin Mary. I remember my aunt teaching me her prayer. I remember how my mom and grandma spoke about her. She seemed like the most gentle and loving person. The epitome of what it means to be a woman.

I slowly felt distanced from mother Mary because the virgin part was so emphasized. I get the sense that the church, priests, nuns, bishops etc, seemed to focus on the virgin part, like that was the most important thing. Whenever I heard priests read Mary’s story from the Bible and even speak about her during mass, the purity seemed to take center stage of her story.

As I explored my beliefs I felt resistance to Mary. Similar to Jesus, she seemed too good. No one can ever compare. No matter how hard I try, I will never give birth to the messiah in a virgin birth. What an incredibly impossible ideal for women!

Other than being impossible for most women to attain, it’s also extremely limiting. The biblical and catholic perspective of Mary centers around her being a mother to the savior. A virgin mother to the savior. Is that her highest goal? To be a mother? To give birth? I’m not saying this isn’t a beautiful blessing and honor, but is that all women have to live up to? Motherhood?

Obviously in the present day women can be mothers and also contribute to the world in other ways. Women create music and art. They build bridges and plan cities. Women can do all the things men can do and then give birth to the savior. Women are incredible.

I’ve been reading about this idea of a virgin. I’m starting to understand it a different way. Someone whose soul is pure, is a virgin. It’s not actually about the body. Although when your soul is pure you will take care of your body. All of us, men and women, should strive for a pure soul.

If Mary is the catholic version of the divine feminine, then there’s a whole lot of stuff that’s missing from her narrative.

Mary’s hero’s journey starts with Annunciation. March 25th marks the day that Archangel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she will give birth to Jesus.

At the time, Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. She was a young, unwed woman in a time when women were property under the law. The punishment for sex outside of marriage was death.

Women nowadays have children outside of marriage all the time. Women are their own people under most laws in present day. If a woman claimed she was impregnated by God today, most of us would think she’s crazy. Or lying. Of course, those concerns were there then too. Even Joseph doubted Mary’s story. Archangel Gabriel also came to Joseph to settle his fears about the baby.

But Mary had way more to fear than people thinking she’s a crazy liar. Her life was in danger. The Angel’s message was a death sentence in those times. Mary must have been terrified at first. I imagine her panicking and asking “why me?!” I imagine she thought this was a punishment. She was ready to start her perfect life and all the sudden God comes in to shake it up.

Later in the Bible, Jesus is all grown up doing his thing talking to crowds. A woman yells out, “Blessed is the womb that carried you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” This is in Luke 11:27-28.

As a side note, I find it disturbing to refer to women, much less Mary, as a womb with breasts.

Jesus responds to this woman’s outburst by saying, “Even more blessed are those who hear God’s Word and guard it with their lives!” I love this response because it shows the way. While being a mother is a blessing, the bigger blessing in Mary’s story is that she heard the word of God and followed it.

Interesting that the numbers of the Bible passage have a message, too. 1127 carries the energy of surrender. 2728 means to have faith in what you do. The number 28 means follow your one true heart. The number 27 means trust your intuition and follow your inner guidance. 

While catholics like to say Jesus is telling us to follow the Bible (word of God), I believe the message is different. Jesus is not referring to the Bible as the word of God because the Bible hadn’t been written for hundreds of years. In fact, he’s not referring to any church’s claim to being the word of God.

At that time, there was a well-established religion: Judaism. The were temples and holy men. There were religious leaders and judges. Jesus was saying Mary is especially blessed to have heard the word of God, not from her church or religious text, but from her heart and intuition. Jesus is giving the message that God speaks to us all the time. Blessed are those who hear.

It takes more than just listening though. It takes strength to follow that path that is revealed. It takes courage to answer the call of your destiny. It takes purity to hear it in the first place.

Archangel Gabriel’s name translates to “God is my Strength”, which doesn’t exactly make sense in his role of communication. Strength seems better suited for a warrior like Archangel Michael. Why does the messenger embody strength? Because Archangel Gabriel is the Angel that reveals our purpose to us. Nothing is harder than to stand in your truth with the whole world against you.

Archangel Gabriel, as the Angel of messages and communication, is also the same energy as Mercury. Mercury is about to go Retrograde and the Angel Gabriel is here with us to help us with our purpose. He shares his strength and clarity with those who hear the word of God in their lives.

If you want to hear God, purify your thoughts. Sit with your shadows and deep clean your soul.

God’s word is the fire that burns inside us. What’s burning inside you?