"Hail! Full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”

“TODAY is the crowning of our salvation and the manifestation of the mystery which was from eternity. The Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel giveth the good tidings of grace. Therefore with him let us cry to the Mother of God, Hail! Full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”

~Byzantine Menaea, Troparian for the Feast (March 25). (ca. 6th cent.)

 The Annunciation, by Andrei Rublev. Tempera on wood;
c. 1410; Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, Russia.