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“And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the low estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations
will call me blessed…'” (Luke 1:46-48)

On August 15, the Orthodox Church commemorates a feast called the Dormition – the Falling Asleep – of the Mother of God, honoring the day that she died and entered into glory with her Son.

“The feast of the Dormition is the sign, the guarantee, and the celebration that Mary’s fate is, the destiny of all those of ‘low estate’ whose souls magnify the Lord, whose spirits rejoice in God the Saviour, whose lives are totally dedicated to hearing and keeping the Word of God which is given to men in Mary’s child, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.” (Fr. Thomas Hopko)

The very name of this feast tells us everything that we need to know about the Christian understanding of death – Dormition, a falling-asleep. In Greek the word is “koimesis,” and this is where we get the English word “cemetery” from. A cemetery is a place where the faithful rest in the hope of the resurrection.

We need to be mindful of death, but we do not need to fear it. We simply need to prepare for that moment when we will go on to be with our Lord. Our hope and prayer is that, like Jesus’ most-holy Mother, at that moment each of us will find rest from the struggles of living a godly life in this world, and that we will rise in glory in the age to come.

Love in Christ,
+FrAJ