Bi-Monthly Magazine July - August, 2005 3 rd Issue “I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11: 25) “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8: 12) (Troparion, tone 1) it should not trouble us, for the veneration of Mary is based not on folklore, but on Tradition, which complements and in- In giving birth, you preserved your forms us of the true Scripture given by God. virginity! Indeed, Tradition is the living memory In falling asleep, you did not forsake of the Church, a memory which is trans- mitted from generation to generation. the world, o Theotokos! Ever since the time of the Apostles, we keep in our memory the certainty that You were translated to life, 0 Mother Mary, like her Son, has passed through of Life and by your prayers you deliver death and that like Him she has risen. This is why the feast of the Dormition is a sec- our souls from death! ond Pascha, a passage from death to life, according to St John’s Gospel: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent Me, has eter- nal life; he does not come into judgment, but he Church reserves a very special has passed from death to life. (Jn 5:24) T place among the saints for Mary, the In the Tradition of our faith we also Most-Holy Mother of God. Through her, keep the vision of Mary’s ascent to heaven the Son of God became the Son of man. with the body. We call this mystery the Her virgin womb is more spacious than “Assumption.” Like her Son, who as- the heavens, we say in our hymns, be- cended to the Father, so Mary was taken cause it has contained God. The infinite, by angels and transported into heaven limitless God has allowed Himself to be with her body. contained in the womb of a mother. The There were witnesses to the Ascension body of the Most-Holy Virgin was the of Christ, the Apostles and the Mother of physical envelope, which assisted the In- God; but there is no proof of Mary’s as- carnation. cent into heaven. However, the Fathers of This is why the liturgical year, which is the Church have always venerated Mary the image of the life of Christ, is also cir- as being glorified in her body. Their holy cumscribed by two events in the life of consciences dictated to them the following Mary, her birth and her death. In fact, the revelation: she who contained God in her first feast of the liturgical year is the Na- womb is a virgin before, during and after tivity of the Virgin (8th September) and her childbirth. ends with the last feast of the church year, Her ever-virgin body has served as a the Dormition, celebrated on the 15th Au- vessel for the Incarnation. It is from her gust. To mark the significance of this day, most-pure flesh that Christ’s body was it is preceded by a two-week fast, 1st-14th made. She, just like her Son, was not tar- August, a period of preparation needed to nished by corruption, for she remained glorify this event. What event then do we sinless. Can we then assume that this is commemorate at the Dormition? the Immaculate Conception? (the Roman Catholic teaching about the Virgin Mary). The Memory of the Church As Orthodox Christians we do not say that Mary was conceived without sin. She We have no historical documentation was born from the lineage of David and about Mary’s death; no scriptural text bears the mark of sin, which weighs on all mentions her end. Only the apocryphal humanity ever since the fall of our first gospels contain a detailed account of the parents (Adam and Eve). She is not apart Virgin’s death, placing it at Jerusalem. It is from fallen humanity; who Christ wanted these writings that inspired the icon and to save. But we venerate Mary as the one the liturgical text of this feast. who, because of her faithfulness to God, But these accounts, very late in origin committed no sins, through her holy life, the Church has not accepted as canonical, Saint Nestor July - August 2005 Issue, page 2 The Dormition of the Mother of God made possible God’s coming on the Immaculate Lady. are all gathered around Mary’s earth. Because of her sanctity, Mary The composition of the icon is tomb? Soon after Pentecost, they was able to receive the Holy Spirit interesting: it has two axes, which scattered throughout the whole and to conceive the Son of God, be- bisect each other and form a cross. world to evangelise the nations. So cause the power of the Most High The body of Mary is the horizontal they could not have been present overshadowed her (Lk 1:35). axis, which shows us her death and that day. Answer: This is true; his- Through the Incarnation, Mary is burial. torically, it is not possible. The apoc- bound to the Holy Trinity: the fruit Christ, standing, is the vertical ryphal writings provide the answer. of her womb is the Son of the Father, axis, which indicates to us the tri- The Apostles were miraculously conceived of the Holy Spirit. umph over death. Christ is risen, He brought to the burial of the Virgin We can legitimately ask why the is the victor over death. The child He Mary. On some icons of the Dor- Word of God took so long to de- holds in his arms is Mary, newly- mition, you can see the Apostles car- scend to earth and become incarnate born in heaven. She enters into the ried by angels on small clouds, gath- in order to save fallen humanity. But glory of Her Son. ered from the ends of the earth to only after the middle of the sixth The Dormition icon expresses the assist at the burial of the Mother of millennium after Adam’s sin did He hope o f the Savior. find on earth a virgin pure not only These marvelous accounts, often in body, but also in spirit. There express a truth which the Church would only once be such a wants to teach us. This is why woman, unique in her spiri- both the Liturgy and the tual and bodily purity, who icon have used and illus- was worthy to become the trated these texts. church and the temple of the What is the meaning of Holy Spirit. this image? The Apostles assembled on the icon rep- The Icon of the Feast resent, the consensus of the Apostolic college (gathering Having looked at the theo- together of all the Church) logical meaning of the feast, about the veneration which let us study the icon, which the Church renders to the expresses the same theology Mother of God. Their pres- in images. “What do we see ence around Mary’s body is on the icon?” not so much a historical Mary is lying down, event as the expression of a asleep in death. Her Son, the conciliar act. Lord Jesus Christ, appears These same apocryphal behind the bier (coffin). His accounts, in parallel to the appearance is bright and He life of Jesus, tell us that St is surrounded by a halo of Thomas arrived late and glory. In His hands, He did not assist at the burial. holds the soul of His He asked to see and to mother. every Christian who waits for the touch the body of Mary, just as he A mandorla is spread above hour of death as the passage into had once asked to touch Jesus, out of Christ’s head. Its presence indicates life, because of the victory of the great love and faith. When the tomb the celestial world to which Mary Resurrected Christ. Each death is a was opened, the Apostles saw that it now belongs. new and personal Pascha. was empty. The Apostles, gathered around As we contemplate the Dor- This story about St Thomas is the body of the Virgin, seem dis- mition of our Most-Holy Mother of closely imitating St John’s Gospel. tressed as they bow in sorrow. The God we may have certain unan- We are able to see that, since the first bishops of the Church, among swered questions arising in our time of the Apostles, the Tradition of them St James, the brother of the mind, perhaps similar to the ones the Church remembers the glorifica- Lord, are also present at the burial of which follow, hopefully we can pro- tion into heaven of the body of the Mother of God. St Peter presides vide answers to some of these: Mary. at the funeral and leads the bier of Question: How is it that the Apostles We can ask ourselves, in support Saint Nestor July - August 2005 Issue, page 3 The Dormition of the Mother of God of this affirmation, why have there “Wisdom has built her house” (Mid-Pentecost matins, canon, ode 5, troparion) never been any relics of the Mother (Prov 9: 1-11) of God. In fact, the veneration of The Reading from relics was practiced by Christians God chose a people, Israel. From from the earliest days of the Church. among this people, a tribe was set the New Testament apart, the tribe of Judah.