Elder Efraim, Abbot of the Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi, the Holy Mountain
Every time we celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God it’s as though we have Easter again. The summer Easter. Our Lady the Mother of God prepares Easter for us. A glorious crossing ‘from death to life’. A second Easter, holy, spotless, giving life to the human race, because today, in truth ‘ the laws of nature are overcome’.
Saint John the Damascan declares: ‘How the source of life goes to life, passing through death’. The death of the ‘life-giving Mother’ of the Lord surpasses the notion of death, so that it’s not even called death, but rather ‘dormition’, and ‘divine transition’ and a departure towards or arrival in the Lord. And even if it’s called death, it’s still a death which brings life, since she makes the transition to celestial and eternal life.
This transition of the Mother of God, as an undeniable fact, preserved by holy Tradition, has been…
