He can read it in a snarky tone and act all shocked, but aside from some pearl-clutching and a "gracious" concession that the entire Orthodox church isn't a bunch of idolaters (phew!) what was his critique, exactly?
Every single time we hymn Mary, it is a confessing the person of her Son. It is a form of Christological Dogma. Her title "Theotokos" is the quintessential example of this. This is her honorific, a unique title for a unique person in human history, but what is it saying? That she bore God. Is this about her, or about Him?
Orthodox faith and practice is fundamentally experiential, and this experience is fundamentally liturgical. So, we see the Theotokos depicted in iconography in a very different way than the Roman Catholics do (for example, the Virgin of Guadalupe). In an Orthodox church you will find that she's almost never "the Virgin," but the Theotokos. And in this role she continually represents the Church ministering to us, and Christ ministering to the Church. She is us in iconography, in both directions (whether she is looking to Him, or looking to you!).
Her typical icons are like the Hodegetria,"she who points the way" depicting her pointing towards Christ, inclining her head to Him. In this she is the Church, showing the way to Christ to you.
In the Deesis (supplication) she prays to Christ Jesus enthroned (Pantocrator, the Almighty) one one side, with St John the Forerunner on the other, confessing His power, and the continuity of the Prophets with the Church. A prophet on one side, and the lowliest, humblest person in Jewish society - a young girl who calls herself the "lowly slave of God" (same word "lowly" or "humble" Christ speaks of Himself). The Iconostasis in every Orthodox church mirrors this - Christ on the right, St John to His right, the Theotokos opposite: old and new, unbroken, all praising and worshipping and interceeding and witnessing to Christ. She is the Church, us.
In the Eleousa (lit. tenderness or showing mercy) she holds Christ Jesus against her cheek, flesh to flesh, confessing His humanity and love. She is typically looking out toward us, witnessing to us the intimacy and mercy of Christ with His bride, the Church.
Most churches feature her over the altar, the Platytera ("wider" or "more spacious") a confession that she became was "more spacious than the heavens" to contain the uncontainable God. This also shows that now, in our churches, our altar has a bema seat like the temple, but instead of it being empty with the invisible presence of God it is now filled (this is why the Platytera is usually flanked with angels, like the ark was).
When we call her the Panagia "all-holy" it is because she is a witness to human freedom. She is chosen by God, but she also chooses to accept. She represents both grace and synergia (co-working), predestination and free will. Not on her own, but as the example of Christians of what all humans can and should be (St Maximos says, for example, we should all become little theotokos', giving birth to Christ in ourselves through obedience and faith). She is the most beautiful representation of the promise St Paul speaks of - neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. The first is last and the last first, the lowliest member of Jewish society becomes the image of the quintessential Christian. Just as Christ is The Man, The Anthropos, The Seed (singular!) of Abraham through which all the promises run, Mary is The Woman, the new Eve, the representation of human obedience as it should have been - and our best representative.
Given all that, let's revisit the post communion prayer.
Quote:
O All-holy Lady Theotokos, light of my darkened soul, my hope, my shelter, my refuge, my consolation and my joy: I thank thee that thou hast accounted me worthy, although unworthy, to be a partaker of the immaculate Body and precious Blood of thy Son. But do thou, who gavest birth to the true Light, enlighten the mental eyes of my heart; O thou who didst bear the fountain of immortality, quicken thou me who lie dead in sin, O compassion-loving Mother of the merciful God, have mercy upon me, and grant me humility and contrition of heart, and meekness in my thoughts, and deliverance from the bondage of my vain imaginings. And account me worthy, even unto my last breath, to receive without condemnation the sanctification of the immaculate Mysteries, unto the healing of both soul and body. And grant unto me tears of repentance and confession, that I may hymn thee and glorify thee all the days of my life: for blessed and glorified art thou unto all ages. Amen.
It is beautiful.
