My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE HOLY DORMITION (KOIMISIS) OF THE THEOTOKOS: THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE, THE SACRED ABODE OF THE THEOTOKOS
The tomb in the Garden of Gethsemane is east of Jerusalem, across the Kedron Valley. Finally, the Holy Apostles with all the multitude of Christians reach the Garden. When they laid down the bier with the Most Precious body, again the Christians began to weep. All bewailed their orphanhood at the loss of such a treasure. In giving the last kiss and veneration, the Christians prostrated themselves before the body of the Theotokos. Kissing it, they shed copious tears, so that only toward evening could the most honorable body he placed in the new tomb. Her Sacred Relics were interred with the greatest honor while chanting and weeping took place. When the Holy Apostles stepped before her bier to bid her farewell, each according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they uttered psalms of triumph and thanksgiving and chanted prayers.
In the falling asleep, death was without corruption
It must be remembered it is not the Assumption that the Holy Orthodox Church observes on the 15th of August, but the feast of the Dormition (Keemeesis or Koimisis) or "falling asleep' of the Holy Virgin. This most sacred feast the falling of asleep of the Mother of God, which was followed by the translation (metastasis) of her Sacred Body three days later into heaven. The Feast, therefore, marks her soul being commended into her Son's hands and the short sojourn of her body in the tomb. Death is not the annihilation of our existence, but a passage from earth to heaven.
The glorification of the Ever-Virgin Mary is a result of the voluntary condescension of the Son Who is incarnate of her and made "Son of Man," capable of dying. The Mother of God is now established beyond the General Resurrection and the Last (Final) Judgment, having passed from death to life, from time to eternity, from a terrestrial condition to celestial beatitude. Hence, the Feast of August 15th is a second mysterious Pascha, since the Church celebrates, before the end of time, the secret first-fruits of its Eschatological Consummation.
The Theotokos is Bodily Translated (Metastasis) on the Third Day
The Holy Apostle Thomas
While Thomas was enlightening the lands of India by preaching the Gospel, the honored Dormition of the Mother of God took place. All the Holy Apostles had been caught up from the various lands on the clouds of heaven and were transported to Gethsemane, to the bier of the All-Blessed Virgin. By God's special arrangement, Thomas was not brought there. This was permitted by the will of God, that the faithful might be assured that the Mother of God was bodily translated (metastasis) into the Heavens. For just as they were more greatly assured of the Resurrection of Christ through the disbelief of the Holy Apostle Thomas, so did they learn of the bodily translation into Heavens of the All-Pure Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, through the delay of Saint Thomas.
On the third day after the burial, the Holy Apostle Thomas was suddenly caught up in a cloud in India. He was transported to a place in the air above the tomb of the Virgin. From that vantage point, he beheld the translation of her Holy body into the heavens, and cried out to her, "Whither goest thou, O All-Holy one?" And, removing her cincture, she gave it to Thomas, saying, "Receive this, my friend." And then she was gone.
Taking pity on him, the Apostles then did as Thomas requested and opened the tomb that he might at least behold and venerate the Sacred Relics. The Holy Apostles then rolled away the stone and opened the tomb. All were aghast when they discovered that her remains had vanished, not realizing that just moments before she had been bodily transported to Paradise. All that remained were the burial clothes, which emitted a wonderful fragrance. Thus they stood in amazement and then each of the Apostles kissed the burial clothes which were lying in the tomb. They then prayed to the Lord that He would reveal to them where the body of the Mother of God had been transported.
Rejoice, thou whose incorruptible body is glorified together with the soul!
From that time, the Holy Tradition of the Holy Orthodox Church affirms the bodily translation of the Theotokos into the heavens on the third day after her burial. We observe two things from this occurrence: that it was not fitting that the Mother of Life should remain in the tomb and partake of corruption; and that the Lawgiver proved a doer of the Law that children should honor their parents. Hence, He bestowed upon His Mother the same honor as Himself. Like He was raised on the third day in glory, thus He raised His Mother with glory on the third day and took her to Himself.
Saint Gregory Palamas affirms that "it is meet that the Mother of God now has her dwelling in heaven; for this is a suitable place for her. She now stands at the Right Hand of the King of All, 'arrayed in a vesture of inwoven gold, adorned in varied colors' (Psalm 44:8)...
"...Through the Mother of God alone did the Lord come to us and appear and live on earth among men, being invisible to all before this time. The Ever-Virgin Mother is incomparably superior to all. "Likewise," says Saint Gregory Palamas, "in the endless age to come, without her mediation, every emanation of illuminating Divine Light, every revelation of the mysteries of the Divinity, ever form of spiritual gift, will exceed the capacity of every created being. However, she alone has received the all-pervading fullness of Him that fills all things. Through her, all may now attain it, for she dispenses it according to the power of each, in proportion, and to the degree of the purity of each. Thus, she is the treasury and presides over the riches of the Divinity.
Mary Theotokos and the Church
From what we have previously read, we see that the Virgin Mary is more than an example of piety. She is more than a Saint. She is "All-holy," "Ever-virgin," and "Mother of God." She is the Church's greatest Theologian. She is the one human--body and soul resurrected, united divinized person who is "more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim." "In her," writes Saint John of Damascus "the whole mystery of the Divine Economy" is personified. (Source: The Great Synaxarites of the Orthodox Church)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George