OUR PARISH CELEBRATED ONE OF THE MAIN FEASTS IN CHURCH CALENDAR

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Dormition of the mother of God is one of the main Twelve Great Feasts and is celebrated according to the new style calendar on 28^th August. The festive Service was held in Govan Church last Saturday. Archpriest Gennadiy Andreev conducted The Dormition of Mother of God Liturgy.

With this Service Eastern Orthodox Church remembers pious decease (Uspenie) of Mother of God. This event is sad and joyful at the same time, sad because it is end of her life here on earth and joyful because it is the day of her reunion with her Son.

The Gospel does not tell us anything about life of Mother of God after Ascension of the Savior. Church kept information about her last days, according to which, the day of her death was revealed to her by Archangel Gabriel. Nobody was around when it happened, apart from Apostle John (other Apostles went away for preaching around the world), but in some miraculous way they all gathered in Jerusalem by that day. Only Apostle Thomas was absent. They buried Holy Mother of God with candlelight and psalms singing in the garden of Gethsemane, in a cave.

On the third day Apostle Thomas, who was late for funeral, reached Jerusalem. Wishing to say good bye to the Holy Virgin, he entered the cave and found it empty. Apostles came back home and prayed to God to let them know what happened to the body of Mother of God. On the same day in the evening Mother of God appeared before the Apostles and told them " Rejoice! I am always with you!"

Why we are not sad on that day, but happy? We celebrate this event with joy not only because The Holy Virgin said to do so, but also because her death was unusual. This was as a short sleep, after which the birth into eternal life followed. Holy Church tries to inspire in us fearless attitude towards Death and calls deceased, "fallen asleep".

Translated by Julia Klein