August 13, 2008
HIS EMINENCE METROPOLITAN ALEXIOS ON THE DORMITION
On Friday, we will celebrate the culmination of the month of August - the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Mother of our Lord, the number one intercessor for us with her Son in Heaven. Yet we feel that we are close to her and connected to her, that she is one of us, a human woman, a mother who has felt all the joys and sorrows of life. She experienced joy beyond measure when the Archangel Gabriel brought her the message of God, and also incredible pain and sorrow when her only son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was crucified.

There are many wonderful stories and traditions about the death of the Theotokos, such as the one that tells us she prepared herself through prayer and fasting for her Dormition. Or that the 12 Apostles, who were scattered all over the world, preaching the Gospel, learned of her imminent death and were all able to be at her bedside to pray with her. Except for Thomas, who arrived a few days later and asked to see the body of the mother of our Lord. Imagine their astonishment when her tomb was opened, and her body was not there, that our Lord took His mother up to heaven.
                                   
The older people referred to the Feast Day of the Dormition of the Theotokos as the “Summer Pascha.” So with this, I wish you a a most blessed Feast Day! As we look forward to a new Ecclesiastical and academic year, I pray we will all be spiritually uplifted and inspired by the life and example of our Lord’s Most Pure Mother