The Unfailing Protection of the Mother of God - Sermon for Feast of Pokrov (2026)

Today we celebrate Pokrov, the protection of the Mother of God. Although this feast began as thanksgiving to the Theotokos for protecting her city of Constantinople against the barbarians (this time the Slavs, not the Arabs), we must not leave it at merely an historical remembrance. Sometimes these lesser feasts can get lost in the mix, especially of the Mother of God, because there’s almost always a feast of one of her icons every day of the year. But for us Orthodox Christians, we are asked not just to commemorate an historical miracle, but to enter more deeply into the mystery—today it’s the mystery of the Mother of God’s protection in our lives.

The Theotokos gave her entire life to God from the beginning. She is unique amongst all humans in that her words, “Let it be to me according to thy word” was not merely a culmination of a life of purity, but a reflection of her attitude toward God her whole life long. In gratitude and as a reward for her exalted service to God and the whole human race, God has placed her higher than every created being. And we see that just like her Son used His power and authority for the salvation and redemption of the human race, so too, Our Lady wields power over all creation for the protection and salvation of all.

We see in the Theotokos the answer to all the naysayers against monasticism. To those who say monasticism and especially hesychasm is just a selfish retreat from the world. To those who think monks only care about their own salvation and leave the world to rot. To those who think the only productive monasticism are those who do social work, to all those I present the Mother of God as the supreme Hesychast who not despite of but because of her life of reclusion and prayer and struggle for union with God, has done more positive historical good for the entire human race than any other human being.

I’m not merely speaking of the fact that she gave birth to Our Savior. But on an historical level, on a personal level, because of the union she achieved with the Holy Trinity, she has saved cities under siege—Constantinople numerous times, Moscow numerous times, Novgorod, and probably most major cities in Greece, Asia Minor, Russia, and the Balkans. She has delivered people from flood, fire, earthquake, famine, disease over and over again throughout Christian history. No one has healed more victims of cancer and terminal illnesses than she. She has saved tens of thousands of people, countless people. No human has ever done as much good to individuals on a personal level than the Mother of God has. Outside of God Himself, there is no one who protects us and loves as much as her.

Our life as Orthodox Christians is experiential—if we do what we are supposed to do as Christians, we will know in ourselves the truth the Church proclaims. There is nothing different with our relationship to the Mother of God. The more we venerate her, the more we turn to her for help in our life’s problems, the more she will reveal her power and abiding protection over us. 

Her protection covers all, even impenitent sinners who love her, even those sinners he keeps company with. There’s a story of a man who was a leader of a band of robbers. The term robber is not just one who simply was a petty thief. Rather, it means they did whatever they could to get what they wanted, murdering and plundering wherever they wanted. However, the leader, John, would pray the Akathist to the Mother of God every morning and night.  This might seem bizarre to us—how can he praise the Theotokos that reverently but still live an absolutely impenitent life? Wouldn’t it be better if he just quit the charade and live like the others? But God wanted to show John (and all of us) how much the Mother of God protects and cares for those who call upon her for help. Once, God allowed a clairvoyant elder to be kidnapped by the band of robbers. Once brought back, he wanted to see all of them and address them all. So John brought them all before him. The elder addressed the cook in particular and told him to reveal himself. As it turned out, the cook was actually a demon in disguise, sent by Satan to kill John and take his soul to hell. But he was prevented every day because John said the Akathist every morning and every night. In fact, the demon was prevented from doing this for 14 years. He was waiting for one day, just one day when John would not praise the Mother of God. Astonished at the longsuffering of God and the protection of the Theotokos, John and the robbers all repented, some becoming monks, others living honorably in marriage.

This story is not told in order to make us slack. It’s not told so that we can live however we want as long as we say the Akathist without fail. The point is that if Our All-Immaculate Lady so deigns to help a murderer, and not only that, but a leader of criminals, if she is so willing to protect his life from death and his soul from hell even while he was living an obstinately impenitent life, how much more will she protect us who are actually trying to live as Christians? If she safely brought not only him, but all those with him, to a life of repentance because of his small faithfulness to her, why should we, especially us monastics who are trying to dedicate our whole life to Christ, ever despair of her help?

Probably the greatest praise to be given the Mother of God outside of the Akathist Hymn is in the sermons of St. Gregory Palamas. He writes:

She alone forms the boundary between created and uncreated nature, and no one can come to God except through her and the mediator born of her, and none of God’s gifts can be bestowed on angels or men except through her…. She is the reason for everything which preceded her and the protectress of everything that came after, and the cause of eternal blessings. (The Homilies of St. Gregory Palamas)

The takeaway for us today, for those of us who aren’t interested in history, for those who perhaps question if the Mother of God really plays that significant part of our life anyway, for those who don’t feel a connection with her, is this—we are all here today specifically because of the love of the Theotokos for us. Personally. God so willed that all of His gifts should come to us through her. We are not here either because we managed to keep a thousand or two thousand year family tradition of Orthodoxy. We are not here because we’re really smart and figured out that actually Orthodoxy is the correct faith. We are here because the Mother of God personally and directly guided us here. She is the one who calls us to follow Her Son. She is the one who always has us under her protecting veil. And she will not stop praying for us, she will not stop helping us, and interceding for us, and pouring out God’s grace upon us, because she is our Mother who desires that we share in the Kingdom of her Son. Amen.