TODAY, Friday, 8/15, Dormition of the Holy Theotokos is a Holy Day. We will bless flowers and fruits in honor of the feast. Bring flowers and fruits for blessing.
9:00 a.m. +Adrian Lodynsky (Pan.) requested by Emilia Iwaniw –Liturgy in Ukrainian
7:00 p.m. For the people of the parish –Liturgy in English
Join us for prayer.
THE PARADOX OF THE DORMITION
(Friday, August 15)
“In you the laws of nature (τῆς φύσεως οἱ ὅροι, естества уставы) are defeated, O pure Virgin: from virginity comes childbirth, and life is introduced by death. After bearing, a virgin, and after dying – living, ever saving, O Mother of God, your inheritance.” (Ode 9, Byzantine Canon of Dormition)
The Theotokos defies our usual expectations of physical reality, which is why we can call her life ‘paradoxical.’ The word ‘paradox’ (from the Greek words ‘para,’ meaning ‘beyond,’ and ‘dokeo,’ meaning ‘expect’) means something beyond our expectation; a kind of thing we would not expect, like a virgin giving birth, or life springing from death.
We would also expect that she, as a Jewish woman of the first century, would necessarily be subject to some man, either her father or her husband. But this was not quite the case. Sure, she was assisted in her vocation by certain people, (as are we all), at different stages of her life. There were her parents, by whom she is led into the Temple, but really it is her vocation that *led them* to parent this daughter in the way that they did, in their old age. Then there were the priests in the Temple, by whom she is led to be betrothed to Joseph, in the earlier years, but we see that Joseph is led by her vocation, not the other way around, and not because she is bossy. God was leading the way. Finally, there is John the beloved disciple, whom she is told by the crucified Lord henceforth to “mother,” which is a position not of subjugation but of authority. No merely-human being ‘had’ the Mother of God in the sense that women at the time belonged to someone, which is a thing we would not expect. One sees in her cross-carrying journey, throughout which she is *obedient* to the vocation that came not from men but from God, that she remains free in her obedience, which is also a paradox, because we might think that freedom and obedience don’t mix. Even after her dormition, we don’t ‘have’ her body to venerate as holy relics. It was taken up or ‘assumed’ (as the Roman Catholics call this) into heaven by her Son, because even death could not hold her physically.
Today, August 1st, those on the Byzantine Liturgical calendar begin the Dormition Fast. This fast begins August 1st and ends on August 14th and is a time of preparation for the Feast of the Dormition – Falling Asleep of the Mother of God on August 15th.
O Lord, our God, look down with merciful eyes upon our humble and earnest petition which we fervently offer to You today in behalf of all of our mothers. Shower Your heavenly graces upon them. Grant that they may always behold the joy of their children and their children’s children. Fill them with that same maternal love that our most holy Lady, the God-bearer, and ever-Virgin Mary showed to Your Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. And, grant that all of our mothers may ever be sustained in the image of our heavenly mother, the Most Pure Virgin Mary. We pray to You, O heavenly Master, on this special day honoring our mothers to graciously hear us and have mercy on them.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Today on the liturgical calendar of the Byzantine Church, we have the Synaxis (Gathering) of the Virgin.
The day after the Nativity of Christ, December 26, the Byzantine Church celebrates an important holy day. On this day, the Church addresses with praise and thanksgiving hymns to Our Lady, who became the chosen person, who gave birth to the Savior. We remember and love mother. So, today is set aside to honor her as way of extending the feast of the Nativity of the Lord.
Some THOUGHTS ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (Sunday, December 8 ) by Sister Doctor Vassa Larin
“…And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him. Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’” (Lk 2: 33-35)
Today December 8 my Roman Catholic friends usually celebrate the “Immaculate Conception of Mary.” This feast is based on a teaching officially recognized by the Catholic Church in 1854, when Pope Pius IX declared: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”
While the “immaculate conception” is not a thing in Orthodox Christian tradition (the whole point is moot, because we have no clear teaching on “original sin”), tomorrow, on December 9 (a day following the Roman Catholic feast), the Orthodox celebrate a feast called, perplexingly, “The Conception *by the Holy Righteous Anna* of the Most Holy Theotokos.” In the Slavonic liturgical books, it is also called simply, “The Conception of the Holy Righteous Anna.” It’s a perplexing title, I think, because the Orthodox Church certainly does not teach that *only* Anna conceived the Theotokos, without Joachim. But there is an accentuation of St. Anna’s role in this picture, which we also see in the iconographic tradition, which more often depicts St. Anna holding the Theotokos (in the same position we see on icons of the Theotokos holding the Christ-child) than both Joachim and Anna with the Theotokos. I’ll also note this is different from the way the Conception of St. John the Baptist is traditioned, – it’s never called “The Conception of (or by) the Holy Righteous Elisabeth.”
Join us for the Divine Liturgy on Monday, March 25th at 9:00 am to celebrate this Mystery of the Incarnation –the feast of the Annunciation to Mary.
We celebrate the Dormition of the Virgin as the transitus of Mary, the Holy Theotokos from death to Life. Mary who willingly gave her human nature to God, now receives the perfection of eternal life. In beholding her, we can see our own future.
With the Church we pray Troparion (Tone 1):
“In giving birth you preserved your virginity. In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life O Mother of Life, and by your prayers you deliver our souls from death.”
In his Homily on the Dormition, St. John Damascene makes the Tomb of Mary talk:
“Why do you seek in the tomb what has been assumed into heaven? Why do you exact from me an account of her dissolution? I had no power to go against the divine command. Leaving the wind ing sheet, that holy and sacred body, which filled me with myrrh, sweet fragrance and holiness, has been caught up and has departed with all the powers of heaven accompanying it.
“Now the Angels keep watch over me. Now the divine grace dwells in me. I have become a well of healing for the sick, a defense against demons, a refuge to those who fly to me. Draw near in faith, you people, and you will receive grace in streams.” (cf. Hom. on Dorm. II, 17)
Our parish is celebrating today’s feast with the Divine Liturgy being offered at 10 a.m. with the Blessing of Herbs
Fresco from Gračanica Monastery in Kosovo, Serbia c. 1321
