Encyclical for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos
August 15, 2024
Today is the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, beloved brethren, and we rejoice, because we celebrate the Mother of God, the "Holy Virgin Theotokos", as Saint Cyril of Alexandria, among other things, calls her. We honor her, because from her the Son and Word of God assumed human nature and from her He was born, as a man, to regenerate us spiritually.
Today everything is joyful and blessed, showered by the Grace of God and everything theologizes. Theology is not an intellectual knowledge, but the experience of the living God. And he who tastes the joy of God does not find rest in physical and worldly things, which come and go and cause sorrow.
In the written sermons given every Sunday during this period, we presented the weekly festal cycle, i.e. the festive theme of each day of the week. We know from our tradition that on Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, on Monday the Angels, on Tuesday the Honorable Forerunner, on Wednesday we remember the decision of the Jews to arrest Christ and the betrayal of Judas, on Thursday we celebrate the Holy Apostles together with Saint Nicholas, on Friday we remember the Passion, the Cross and the Death of Christ, on Saturday we celebrate all the Saints of the Church and remember our reposed brethren.
However, we celebrate the Mother of God throughout the year, every day of the week with the troparia that refer to her, with the theology of the Church. You will surely have noticed that every time we, the Clergy, do the dismissal of the Divine Liturgy and the other services, we place the Most Holy Theotokos immediately after Christ and before all the Saints. We say:
You see, then, the glory and excellence of the Most Holy Theotokos, who is between our Lord Jesus Christ and all the Saints. No one else has as much honor as the Most Holy Theotokos has as the Mother of Christ. In fact, in the prayers we address to God and during the Divine Liturgy and other sacred services we say: "Commemorating our Panagia, Immaculate, Most Blessed, and Glorious Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God."
This is the supreme theology of our Church, to commend ourselves and others and our whole life to Christ our God, after we ask for the intercessions of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints. Christ is not diminished by this prayer to the Panagia, because Christ Himself loves the Panagia as His Mother. She is Immaculate, Most Blessed, Lady, Theotokos and Ever-Virgin. No one else, after Christ, has such great holiness and grace.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria describes her as a "revered treasure of the whole ecumene", "Holy Church", "much-praised Mary", "scepter of Orthodoxy", "container of the uncontainable". In his text he writes: "Rejoice Mary Theotokos, for whom the prophets sing ... shepherds glorify ... angels dance, archangels leap, uttering hymns that will make you shiver, ... magi venerate ... the twelve-rayed beauty of the apostles is chosen ... John who leaped while in his mother's womb and the lamp kindled with the unsleeping light worship ... through her came unspeakable grace ... through whom the true light came, our Lord Jesus Christ."
You see the great honor and glory that the Panagia has, because she was the woman from whom Christ assumed human nature, and freed us from the bonds of sin, the devil and death. This means that today we are not rejoicing for the summer holidays, for the opportunity given to us to spend a few days outside in the nature of Greece for rest and recreation, but we are rejoicing for the cause of our salvation, for the one that became "the cause of the theosis of all things."
We celebrate theologically and not worldly, divinely and not humanly, spiritually and not just physically. And the Most Holy Theotokos prays for those who honor her, as a preparation for the feast, with fasting, prayer, repentance and confession and participation in the sacred services, especially in the Divine Liturgy, and in the Divine Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. This is how we Orthodox Christians celebrate and this is how we honor Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, and His holy Mother. Every other celebration is deficient and does not give rest to our soul, which seeks true peace, true love, true sensitivity and true freedom. Any other search is false and does not give rest to the human soul.
We must know that hate, which we often encounter in our lives, is not the opposite of love, since what we define as hate is impassioned and selfish love, while real love is selfless. Violence, murders are expressions of a selfish love that evolves into hatred. Therefore, the feasts of the Church are offered to us to acquire selfless and pure love.
I wish you many and blessed years, and that the Most Holy Theotokos, the "Holy Virgin Theotokos", to intercede with her Lord and her God for all of us to have physical and psychic health.
Today everything is joyful and blessed, showered by the Grace of God and everything theologizes. Theology is not an intellectual knowledge, but the experience of the living God. And he who tastes the joy of God does not find rest in physical and worldly things, which come and go and cause sorrow.
In the written sermons given every Sunday during this period, we presented the weekly festal cycle, i.e. the festive theme of each day of the week. We know from our tradition that on Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, on Monday the Angels, on Tuesday the Honorable Forerunner, on Wednesday we remember the decision of the Jews to arrest Christ and the betrayal of Judas, on Thursday we celebrate the Holy Apostles together with Saint Nicholas, on Friday we remember the Passion, the Cross and the Death of Christ, on Saturday we celebrate all the Saints of the Church and remember our reposed brethren.
However, we celebrate the Mother of God throughout the year, every day of the week with the troparia that refer to her, with the theology of the Church. You will surely have noticed that every time we, the Clergy, do the dismissal of the Divine Liturgy and the other services, we place the Most Holy Theotokos immediately after Christ and before all the Saints. We say:
"Christ our true God, through the intercessions of His all-pure and all-immaculate holy Mother; the power of the honorable and life-giving Cross; the protection of the honorable, bodiless powers of heaven; the supplications of the honorable, glorious prophet and forerunner John the Baptist; of the holy, glorious, and praiseworthy apostles; of the holy, glorious, and triumphant martyrs; of our righteous and God-bearing fathers; of (name of the saint of the church); of our father among the saints John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople; of the holy and righteous ancestors of God Joachim and Anna; of (saint of the day), whose memory we celebrate today; and of all the saints; have mercy on us and save us, for He is good and loves mankind."
You see, then, the glory and excellence of the Most Holy Theotokos, who is between our Lord Jesus Christ and all the Saints. No one else has as much honor as the Most Holy Theotokos has as the Mother of Christ. In fact, in the prayers we address to God and during the Divine Liturgy and other sacred services we say: "Commemorating our Panagia, Immaculate, Most Blessed, and Glorious Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God."
This is the supreme theology of our Church, to commend ourselves and others and our whole life to Christ our God, after we ask for the intercessions of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints. Christ is not diminished by this prayer to the Panagia, because Christ Himself loves the Panagia as His Mother. She is Immaculate, Most Blessed, Lady, Theotokos and Ever-Virgin. No one else, after Christ, has such great holiness and grace.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria describes her as a "revered treasure of the whole ecumene", "Holy Church", "much-praised Mary", "scepter of Orthodoxy", "container of the uncontainable". In his text he writes: "Rejoice Mary Theotokos, for whom the prophets sing ... shepherds glorify ... angels dance, archangels leap, uttering hymns that will make you shiver, ... magi venerate ... the twelve-rayed beauty of the apostles is chosen ... John who leaped while in his mother's womb and the lamp kindled with the unsleeping light worship ... through her came unspeakable grace ... through whom the true light came, our Lord Jesus Christ."
You see the great honor and glory that the Panagia has, because she was the woman from whom Christ assumed human nature, and freed us from the bonds of sin, the devil and death. This means that today we are not rejoicing for the summer holidays, for the opportunity given to us to spend a few days outside in the nature of Greece for rest and recreation, but we are rejoicing for the cause of our salvation, for the one that became "the cause of the theosis of all things."
We celebrate theologically and not worldly, divinely and not humanly, spiritually and not just physically. And the Most Holy Theotokos prays for those who honor her, as a preparation for the feast, with fasting, prayer, repentance and confession and participation in the sacred services, especially in the Divine Liturgy, and in the Divine Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. This is how we Orthodox Christians celebrate and this is how we honor Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, and His holy Mother. Every other celebration is deficient and does not give rest to our soul, which seeks true peace, true love, true sensitivity and true freedom. Any other search is false and does not give rest to the human soul.
We must know that hate, which we often encounter in our lives, is not the opposite of love, since what we define as hate is impassioned and selfish love, while real love is selfless. Violence, murders are expressions of a selfish love that evolves into hatred. Therefore, the feasts of the Church are offered to us to acquire selfless and pure love.
I wish you many and blessed years, and that the Most Holy Theotokos, the "Holy Virgin Theotokos", to intercede with her Lord and her God for all of us to have physical and psychic health.
The Metropolitan
+ of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou Hierotheos
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.