Moscow, December 7, 2016
Ever year on the eve of the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple a miracle occurs in Troitsk, Russia in the Chelyabinsk region. This year was no exception, reports the First Regional news agency.
Just after a heavy snowfall, on the coldest night of winter thus far, pussy willows blossomed on the territory of the Kazan Monastery. The nuns of the monastery bore witness to the miracle.
“We didn’t know when exactly the willows would blossom, but the older nuns of the monastery knew it would be at night. The sisters had to go check the tree several times in anticipation of the blossoming buds. They went outside the walls of the monastery with lanterns several times that night, until they saw what they had been waiting for with faith and almost childlike hope,” the monastery reported.
And the sisters arrived just in time: a few hours later the buds had already closed again, the tree returning to its normal condition.
The nuns cut off a few twigs to keep and remember the miracle by.
The feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos commemorates the three-year-old Mother of God being received into the Temple, where she lived in the Holy of Holies in which was housed the Ark of the Covenant and where God spoke to the Jewish people through their High Priest.
In the Ark of the Old Covenant was kept the staff of the Prophet Aaron that had budded (Num. 17), and perhaps this is the significance of the budding of the pussy willows at Kazan Monastery. Aaron’s staff is understood as a prefiguration of the Mother of God herself, who “budded” forth the Christ Child, thus making her the ark of the New Covenant, and the fulfillment of the Holy of Holies, through whom God speaks to all mankind through His Word, the true High Priest.
