THE OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY THEOTOKOS AND EVER VIRGIN MARY

The Dormition, or "Falling Asleep."

The Dormition of the Mother of God. Early eighth century, Novgorod.

After the Lord’s Ascension, the Mother of God remained under the care of the Apostle John the Theologian, and when he was absent, she lived in the house of his parents, near the Mount of Olives. For all the Apostles and all the faithful, she was a consolation and edification. Talking with them, the Mother of God told them of the wondrous events of the Annunciation, the conception without seed, and her birth of Christ without corruption, His childhood and earthly life. Like the Apostles, she instructed and strengthened others in the Christian Faith by her very presence, words, and prayers. The Apostles’ reverence for the Most Holy Virgin was extraordinary. Upon receiving the Holy Spirit on the remarkable day of Pentecost, they remained in Jerusalem for about ten years, serving for the salvation of the Jews and wishing to see and hear her divine words as often as possible. Many of the newly-enlightened in the faith even came from distant lands to Jerusalem in order to see and hear the Most Pure Theotokos.

SERMON ON THE DORMITION OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS

St. John of Kronstadt

“Magnify O my soul, the honourable Translation of the Mother of God from earth to heaven.” (Refrain for the 9th Ode of the Canon)

Let us be happy, beloved brothers and sisters that we belong to the Holy Orthodox Church, worthily and rightly glorifying the Most Holy Sovereign Theotokos on this eminent day out of all the days of the year with special solemnity. There exists on earth many societies and entire governments that do not consider the need nor the obligation to call upon and glorify the Queen of heaven and earth, the Mother of Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ, and other saints and angels; to submissively serve Her lovingly, as the true Mother of God. Sadly in Russia nowadays we have heretics (among us) who actively dishonor the Mother of God, the saints, their icons, their relics and their festivals. O, if only they also unanimously with us glorified the worthy Queen of heaven and earth!

SERMON ON THE DORMITION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

The Dormition of the Mother of God.

The Most-Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, lived for some fifteen or twenty years following the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. During this time, she was as a wanderer fervently wishing to return to her homeland, preparing herself for the heavenly abode. And finally the day came, and she paid the debt to her physical nature, death.

A HOMILY ON THE DORMITION OF OUR SUPREMELY PURE LADY THEOTOKOS AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY

By St. Gregory Palamas

Dormition of the Mother of God. Icon. 15th century, Novgorod. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.

Both love and duty today fashion my homily for your charity. It is not only that I wish, because of my love for you, and because I am obliged by the sacred canons, to bring to your God-loving ears a saving word and thus to nourish your souls, but if there be any among those things that bind by obligation and love and can be narrated with praise for the Church, it is the great deed of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. The desire is double, not single, since it induces me, entreats and persuades me, whereas the inexorable duty constrains me, though speech cannot attain to what surpasses it, just as the eye is unable to look fixedly upon the sun. One cannot utter things which surpass speech, yet it is within our power by the love for mankind of those hymned, to compose a song of praise and all at once both to leave untouched intangible things, to satisfy the debt with words and to offer up the first fruits of our love for the Mother of God in hymns composed according to our abilities.

FEAST OF THE DORMITION OF OUR MOST HOLY LADY, THE THEOTOKOS AND EVER-VIRGIN MARY

INTRODUCTION

Icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos provided by Theologic and used with permission

The Feast of the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on August 15 each year. The Feast commemorates the repose (dormition and in the Greek kimisis) or "falling-asleep" of the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Feast also commemorates the translation or assumption into heaven of the body of the Theotokos.

BIBLICAL STORY

The Holy Scriptures tell us that when our Lord was dying on the Cross, He saw His mother and His disciple John and said to the Virgin Mary, "Woman, behold your son!" and to John, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:25-27). From that hour, the Apostle took care of the Theotokos in his own home.
Along with the biblical reference in Acts 1:14 that confirms that the Virgin Mary was with the Holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost, the tradition of the Church holds that she remained in the home of the Apostle John in Jerusalem, continuing a ministry in word and deed.

OUR MOM

By His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria

As of today we find ourselves once again to be in the month of August. This is the last month of our ecclesiastical year, since from the 1st of September, the beginning of the Indiction, a new ecclesiastical year begins.

Since the glorious years of Byzantium this month has been dedicated to the Honorable Cross, hence on the 1st of August we celebrate the Procession of the Honorable Cross. The Honorable Cross, the Honorable Wood, exited the Sacred Palace where it was kept and it arrived at the Great Church from were for fifteen consecutive days it was brought throughout the entire City for the sanctification of the faithful.

THE VISION OF THE THEOTOKOS COMMUNING THE WEARY FATHERS

On the One Who Saw the Panagia Communing the Weary Brothers With Heavenly BreadOn the One Who Saw the Panagia Communing the Weary Brothers With Heavenly Bread

In the time of Saint Savvas there lived in his Lavra many virtuous monks who served the Lord. A noble and wealthy ruler, therefore, went there to live the monastic life, who was welcomed with joy by the Saint.

A STRANGE SCENE IN THE ICON OF THE DORMITION

In many icons of the Dormition of the Theotokos, one can see a strange scene near the bottom: an angel invisibly cuts off the two hands of a certain man.

What is the story behind this scene?

Bewailing their separation from the Mother of God, the Apostles prepared to bury Her all-pure body. A solemn procession went from Zion through Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane. Unbelieving inhabitants of Jerusalem, taken aback by the extraordinarily grand funeral procession and vexed at the honor accorded the Mother of Jesus, complained of this to the High Priest and scribes.

Two Understandings of Death: On the Dormition of the Theotokos

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today we mark one of the Twelve Great Feasts, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. We are celebrating this feast in the principle temple of our Church: the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin. Along with the entire Church, we rejoice in an event that has been passed down to us by the Holy Tradition of the Universal Church: the blessed repose of the Most Holy Theotokos, her Dormition, which has become a feast day.

SAINT SERAPHIM OF SAROV: ON THE ACQUISITION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Conversation with Motovilov

An example of the grace of the Holy Spirit at work within the life and words of St. Seraphim of Sarov has been preserved for us. In November of 1831, a pious Orthodox Christian named Nicholas Motovilov met with Saint Seraphim, and recorded his conversation.

Nilus wrote the following introduction:

This revelation is undoubtedly of worldwide significance. True, there is nothing essentially new in it, for the full revelation was given to the Apostles from the very day of Pentecost. But now that people have forgotten the fundamental truths of Christian life and are immersed in the darkness of materialism or the exterior and routine performance of 'ascetic labors,' St. Seraphim's revelation is truly extraordinary, as indeed he himself regarded it.

"It is not given to you alone to understand this," said St. Seraphim towards the end of the revelation, "but through you it is for the whole world!" Like a flash of lightning this wonderful conversation illumined the whole world which was already immersed in spiritual lethargy and death less than a century before the struggle against Christianity in Russia and at a time when Christian faith was at a low ebb in the West. Here God's Saint appears before us in no way inferior to the prophets through whom the Holy Spirit Himself spoke.

We record everything word for word without any interpretations of our own.

*   *   *

ST. SERAPHIM'S TRANSFIGURATION IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

Conversation with Motovilov

"But how," I asked Father Seraphim, "can I know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?"

"It is very simple, your Godliness," he replied. "That is why the Lord says: All things are simple to those who find knowledge (Prov. 8:9, Septuagint). The trouble is that we do not seek this divine knowledge which does not puff up, for it is not of this world. This knowledge which is full of love for God and for our neighbour builds up every man for his salvation. Of this knowledge the Lord said that God wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. 2:4). And of the lack of this knowledge He said to His Apostles: Are you also yet without understanding (Mat. 15:16)? Concerning this understanding [15], it is said in the Gospel of the Apostles: Then opened He their understanding (Lk. 24:45), and the Apostles always perceived whether the Spirit of God was dwelling in them or not; and being filled with understanding, they saw the presence of the Holy Spirit with them and declared positively that their work was holy and entirely pleasing to the Lord God. That explains why in their Epistles they wrote: It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28). Only on these grounds did they offer their Epistles as immutable truth for the benefit of all the faithful. Thus the holy Apostles were consciously aware of the presence in themselves of the Spirit of God. And so you see, your Godliness, how simple it is!"

SERMON ON THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

St. John of Shanghai (Maximovitch)

When He created the world, God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness(Gen. 1:26). God’s image manifests in man’s mental capabilities, in his authority over nature, his power, and his ability to create. God’s likeness in man consists in his moral perfection, his spiritual strivings, and in his possibility of attaining sanctity.

God’s image and likeness, in which our fore-parents were created, was fully reflected in them before the fall. Sin disrupted both the former and the latter, although it did not entirely deprive man of them.

Significance of the Lord's Transfiguration

by Fr. Seraphim Rose of Platina

Forty days before He was delivered to an ignominious death for our sins, our Lord revealed to three of His disciples the glory of His Divinity.

“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart; and was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light” (Matt. 17:1-2). This was the event to which our Lord was referring when He said, “There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom” (Matt. 16:28). By this means the faith of the disciples was strengthened and prepared for the trial of our Lord’s approaching passion and death; and they were able to see in it not mere human suffering, but the entirely voluntary passion of the Son of God.

Questions About the Transfiguration Answered

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

In the third year of His preaching, the Lord Jesus often spoke to His disciples of His approaching passion but at the same time of His glory following His suffering on the Cross. So that His impending passion would not totally weaken His disciples and that no one would fall away from Him, He, the All-wise, wanted to partially show them His divine glory before His passion. For that reason, He took Peter, James and John with Him and, with them, went out at night to Mt. Tabor and there was transfigured before them: "And His face shone as the sun and His garments became white as snow" (Matthew 17:2). There appeared along side Him, Moses and Elijah, the great Old Testament prophets. And, seeing this, His disciples were amazed. Peter said: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if You will, let us make here three tabernacles; one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah" (Matthew 17:4). While Peter still spoke, Moses and Elijah departed and a bright cloud overshadowed the Lord and His disciples and there came a voice from the cloud saying: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear Him" (Matthew 17:5). Hearing the voice, the disciples fell to the ground on their faces as though dead and remained that way, lying in fear, until the Lord came near to them and said: "Arise and be not afraid" (Matthew 17:7).

An Interpretation of the Icon of the Transfiguration of the Lord

The icon of the Transfiguration constitutes the key to Orthodox theology on the vision of God. The light which appeared to the Apostles was the expression of the Divine brilliance, of the timeless and uncreated glory, the recognition of the two natures of Christ, the divine and the human. At the same time, it was a prototype, an icon of the transfigured human nature and of the theosis (deification) which is granted by the redemptive work of Christ. The Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor is the corresponding event in the New Testament of the event in the Old Testament in which God is revealed to Moses on Mount Horeb.

Already from the first Christian centuries we have indications that the Transfiguration of Christ was celebrated in the Church, while from the end of the 6th century of the Christian era the date of this celebration was fixed to be the 6th of August. It is from the same period that we derive the first examples of the iconographic art.

18 Spiritual Interpretations of the Transfiguration

St. Maximus the Confessor

That The Saints Are Not Introduced into The Mysteries Like Us

But going back to what has already been contemplated, let us turn our attention according to our means to the rest of the meaning of the Transfiguration, so that the excellence of the Saints in everything and their genuine separation from the flesh and matter may be seen. And let us note that they do not contemplate either creation or Scripture like us in a material or lowly way. They do not acquire the blessed knowledge of God only by sense and appearances and forms, using letters and syllables, which lead to mistakes and bafflement over the judgment of the truth, but solely by the mind [nous], rendered most pure and released from all material mists. Since therefore we want to judge reverently and see clearly and intelligibly the meanings of those things perceived by the senses, we must look carefully to the inerrant knowledge concerning God and divine things and rightly proceed along the straight path.

The Dormition Fast

The Dormition fast was established as preceding the great feasts of the Transfiguration of the Lord and of the Dormition of the Mother of God. It lasts two weeks — from August 1–August 14.

The Dormition fast comes down to us from the early days of Christianity.

We find a clear reference to the Dormition fast in a conversation of Leo the Great from around the year 450 A.D.: “The Church fasts are situated in the year in such a way that a special abstinence is prescribed for each time. Thus, for spring there is the spring fast — the Forty Days Great Lent; for summer there is the summer fast [the Apostles’ fast]; for autumn there is the autumn fast, in the seventh month [Dormition fast]; for winter there is the winter fast [Nativity fast].”

The Apostle Peter and the Transfiguration of Christ

His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The prophetic and apostolic texts are not the fruit of philosophical theories and reflections, but the fruit of revealed theology. That is, both the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament saw the glory of God. Whilst the Prophets saw the Word of God before His Incarnation, the Apostles saw Christ after His Incarnation. Hence, it is this experience they recorded in their writings and led Christians with the content of this theology.

We see this in the apostolic reading which we read today in the church, because of the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. It is a section from the Second Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter in which he refers to the experience of the Transfiguration that he had. It is known that the Apostle Peter was one of the three disciples who was worthy to be found at Tabor when Christ was transfigured in front of His disciples, where His face shone like the sun and His clothes were white as light.

The Theological Meaning of the Transfiguration of Christ

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The theology of the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ always moved me, together with the theology of the feast of the Resurrection and Pentecost. Even by reading the hymns of the feast of the Transfiguration, it feels like those who wrote them had the experience of the uncreated light of divinity, which emanates from the Body of Christ.

The Holy Fathers of the Church, especially however Saint Gregory Palamas, that hagiorite saint, not only saw the uncreated light of divinity, but he also developed this great event theologically and then identified the difference between contemplative theology and hesychastic theology. Contemplative theology is associated with metaphysics, while hesychastic theology is associated with the purification of the heart and illumination of the nous. Herein lies the difference between Western and Orthodox theology, and, of course, the difference between the contemplatives - metaphysicians and the Orthodox hesychast Fathers.

On the Transfiguration

St. Anastasios of Sinai

Upon Mount Tabor, Jesus revealed to his disciples a heavenly mystery. While living among them he had spoken of the kingdom and of his second coming in glory, but to banish from their hearts any possible doubt concerning the kingdom and to confirm their faith in what lay in the future by its prefiguration in the present, he gave them on Mount Tabor a wonderful vision of his glory, a foreshadowing of the kingdom of heaven. It was as if he said to them:“As time goes by you may be in danger of losing your faith. To save you from this I tell you now that some standing here listening to me will not taste death until they have seen the Son of Man coming in the glory of his Father. “Moreover, in order to assure us that Christ could command such power when he wished, the evangelist continues: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, and led them up a high mountain where they were alone. There, before their eyes, he was transfigured. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Then the disciples saw Moses and Elijah appear, and they were talking to Jesus.

Transfiguration and the Cross

By George Mantzarides

Professor at the School of Theology, University of Thessaloniki

Are you aware that counting 40 days from today, on the 40th day we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross? It’s not a mistake.

The Transfiguration of Our Savior has a central place in the Orthodox Church and in Orthodox theology.

It is the event that reveals the glory of the Church and of the faithful. It is a witness to the new reality introduced by the coming of Christ in history.

During His Transfiguration, Christ revealed the Uncreated Glory of His Divinity within His human nature. At the same time, He took up those surrounding Him into His Uncreated Divine Glory. Moses and Elias participated in the same radiance as Christ. The only difference is that Christ is the Source of Divine radiance, whereas the others are recipients thereof.