As an example of what it means to interpret Scripture in a liturgical way, guided by the use made of it at Church feasts, let us look at the Old Testament lessons appointed for Vespers on the Feast of the Annunciation, on March 25th. They are three in number ...
-Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, How to Read the Bible., 20th Century


These texts in the Old Testament, then, as their selection for the 25th of March and other feasts of the Theotokos indicates, are all to be understood as prophecies concerning the Incarnation from the Virgin. Mary is Jacob's ladder, supplying the flesh that God incarnate takes upon entering our human world. Mary is the closed gate who alone among women bore a child while still remaining inviolate.
-Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, How to Read the Bible., 20th Century


Mary provides the house which Christ the Wisdom of God (I Corinthians 1:24) takes as His dwelling (in another interpretation, the title Wisdom or Sophia refers to the Mother of God herself). Exploring in this manner the choice of lessons for the various feasts, we discover layers of Biblical interpretation that are by no means obvious on a first reading.
-Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, How to Read the Bible., 20th Century