Beloved Fathers and Brethren,
Our Lady the Theotokos,
for as long as she lived in this life after holy Pentecost and before her
blessed Dormition, led—as she had before—a heavenly life equal to that of
the angels. She sought solitude, silence, stillness, delight in the divine
wonders, in the divine Economy of her Son and God, in the heavenly Mysteries,
and in the heavenly Glory of eternity.
Of course, she did not neglect
participation in divine worship, being the Center of the Church. Her blessed
life was characterized by poverty and worldly deprivation, continual fasting,
simplicity and obscurity, and above all by prayer: continual, ceaseless,
perpetual, unremitting, fiery, full of power, effectual, unerring, prevailing
with God, surpassingly wondrous, surpassingly wise, and surpassingly radiant;
hesychastic prayer, silent, all-abundant, befitting the Mother of God; prayer
of thanksgiving, doxology, supplication, and the heart, of immeasurable depth
and unsearchable height; it shook both heaven and earth and, of course, was
always heard.
Truly, we who are humble and
unworthy cannot enter into this divine mystery of her unique prayer: the
manner in which she glorified the Holy Trinity; her indescribable maternal
converse with her Son and God, the Lord Jesus Christ; and the prayerful
sweetness and fragrance, filled with the Holy Spirit, of her immaculate soul
and all-holy body. We are left in awe, unable to approach the “secret and
hidden things” of her existence!
Our Lady the Theotokos was
wholly a surpassingly radiant Pillar of Prayer, she who constitutes the
“Boundary” between the Creator and creation, between God and man.
It is certain that she
supplicated, as befitted the Mother of God, for the peace of the world, for the
stability of the Churches, for the Holy Apostles—her beloved children—and for
all the faithful: that Christians might have peace, love, concord, repentance,
and unity of spirit; that those dedicated to God might possess spiritual zeal
and self-sacrifice; that affection and understanding might prevail within
families, and that the poison of discord and strife, quarrelsomeness and envy,
might not enter therein.
She prayed for the fruitfulness
of the earth, for an abundance of good things, and for the well-being of the
entire world, so that people might live in faith, righteousness, and
advancement. She prayed for children, for the young, for those of middle age,
and for the elderly, that all might remain under divine grace and protection,
be pleasing to God, not succumb to the temptations of sin, and attain eternal
salvation.
And when the Mother of God
received the good tidings of her Dormition, she blessed the Holy Apostles, who
had been miraculously gathered together, and comforted the faithful with words
of maternal kindness and compassion. She prayed that love, respect, patience,
steadfastness, and above all Orthodoxy of faith and holiness of life might
prevail among all.
Then, peaceful, calm, and
composed, without the slightest anguish or pain, she surrendered her all-holy
soul into the hands of her Son and God, Who received it reverently, accompanied
by countless Holy Angels censing and chanting hymns of victory pleasing to God,
and raised her to the very Throne of the Godhead as the glorified Queen of All!
Her God-bearing body was
reverently buried by the Holy Apostles in Gethsemane, in accordance with her
desire. Subsequently, however, her Tomb was found empty, because she
ascended bodily into the Heavens—that is, she was translated and transferred,
and was clothed in incorruption before the common and general resurrection—she
who gave birth to Christ our God!
This is the greatest and most
solemn Feast of the Mother of God celebrated by the Church—the “Pascha of the
summer,” the triumph of life and holiness!
* * *
Beloved Brethren,
After her all-venerable Dormition
and Translation, the All-Immaculate Mary continues unceasingly in the Heavens her
holy prayer as the Mother of God, especially for all her children, the devout
Orthodox Christians, who are particularly pleasing to her through their
consistent Christian lives, their spiritual struggle, and their faith,
repentance, self-restraint, and virtue.
May we, too, be characterized by
ardent faith and persistent, tireless prayer of repentance, so that we may
avoid the error prevailing around us and, through the intercessions of the
Mother of God, be preserved in the confession of the Truth with patience unto
the end.
May we be numbered among the true
children of our Most Holy Lady and receive her abundant and continual maternal
beneficence, both in this present life and in the life to come. Amen!
With paternal prayers and blessings,
+ Metropolitan Klemes of Larissa and Platamon
Larissa, August 15, 2026
Greek source:
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