Why the Holy Spirit Descended as a Dove Upon Christ

By St. Cyril of Jerusalem

(Catechetical Lecture 17.9-10)

This Holy Spirit came down when the Lord was baptized, that the dignity of Him who was baptized might not be hidden; as John says, "But He which sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, Upon whomsoever you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Spirit" (John. 1:33). But see what says the Gospel: "the heavens were opened;" they were opened because of the dignity of Him who descended; for, "lo," he says, "the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and lighting upon Him" (Matthew 3:16); that is, with voluntary motion in His descent. For it was fit, as some have interpreted, that the primacy and first-fruits of the Holy Spirit promised to the baptized should be conferred upon the manhood of the Savior, who is the giver of such grace. But perhaps He came down in the form of a dove, as some say, to exhibit a figure of that dove who is pure and innocent and undefiled, and also helps the prayers for the children she has begotten, and for forgiveness of sins; even as it was emblematically foretold that Christ should be thus manifested in the appearance of His eyes; for in the Canticles she cries concerning the Bridegroom, and says, "Your eyes are as doves by the rivers of water" (Song of Songs 5:12).

"I am a Wall, and My Breasts Like Towers": The Theotokos as Protectress of Constantinople

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

In various times and ways our Lady the Theotokos guarded from many dangers the city of Constantinople which is dedicated to her. During the reign of Leo the Isaurian, who ruled in 716, the Saracens entered Constantinople, and encircled it for three years. However they departed without success. Bede among the Latins writes that when the Bulgarians fought against the Saracens they defeated them, while Kedrenos and Theophanes among the Greeks said that the Saracen fleet was obliterated by the fire-bearing ships of the emperor. Except it was the power of God and the grace of the Theotokos, which guarded the City from the danger.

On the Proper Reading of the Song of Songs by Solomon

The Song of Songs can be seen as a sublime wedding song, written by Solomon in his infinite wisdom, that portrays the love of a bride and a bridegroom, and from this perspective it has no corporeal or fleshly meaning. The bride is the Church and the bridegroom is Christ, and this book is an expression of the mutual divine eros between them. It is spiritual, not literal, or as Augustine writes, "it is a rapture veiled in allegory." Spiritually it is also a story of the individual soul with the Word of God.

Gregory of Nyssa says that Christ used Solomon as an instrument to speak to us through his voice first in Proverbs, then in Ecclesiastes, and lastly in the Song of Songs. By these three books Solomon reveals the ascent to perfection in an orderly fashion. Proverbs leads us through purification by helping to cleanse us of our passions, Ecclesiastes illumines us to see everything in the world as it is after we have been purified, and the Song of Songs is an expression of our subsequent sacred union and secret intercourse with Christ after our purification and illumination, which is our glorification. Each subsequent book is loftier than the other.