The Assumption of The Most Holy Virgin Mary

Her Falling - Asleep Story

After the death of her Son, Jesus Christ St. Mary lived under the care of St. John according to her Son’s commandment. She witnessed the “New life in Jesus Christ” and helped the Disciples and Apostles by her love and prayers.

When she was about 60 years old on the 20th of Tobi, St. Mary, the Disciples and the Virgins of the Mount of Olives were all gathered and the Lord Jesus appeared and greeted them. He told them that he would return back the next day and receive his mother’s soul.

On the 21st of Tobi the Lord returned in the chariot of the Cherubim, accompanied with thousands of angels and David the sweet Singer. The assembled men and women wept, and St. Mary also wept, but the Lord consoled them. He kissed her and blessed them and bade St. Peter to look upon the altar for heavenly garments, which the Father had sent to shroud St. Mary in.  She turned to the east and prayed in a heavenly language and then lay down, still facing eastward.  The virgins stood about St. Mary singing, and Jesus sat by her. David the Singer rejoiced and said “Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”.

 
At the ninth hour the Lord received her soul, shrouded her body in the heavenly garments and they were fastened thereto. He bade the Apostles to take up the body; Peter bearing the head and John the feet, and carry her to a new tomb in the field of Jehoshaphat....

At the Field of Jehoshaphat
The Coptic text says “When we came to the field of Jehoshaphat, the Jews heard the singing and came out intending to burn the body”. The Apostles set down the bier and fled. Darkness came on the Jews and they were blinded and smitten by their own fire. They cried out for mercy and were healed and many were converted.

Ruben and the Bier
Our Synaxarium relates that a Jewish man, called Ruben, tried to upset the bier, but his hands withered to the elbow, He began to weep, asking the Apostles to pray for him that he might be saved and become a Christian. They knelt and prayed, and his hands were loosened and he was healed. He was baptized at once, and began to preach.

St. Mary's Assumption

This feast commemorates the entrance of St. Mary’s body into heaven, as she preceded us and sat at the right hand of her Bridegroom and Son. It bears a powerful witness to the eschatological truth of our faith, i.e. “the world to come”.

❖ In accord with what has been written, ‘You are beautiful’ (Cant. 2:13), and your virginal body is wholly saintly, wholly chaste, wholly the dwelling place of God; with the result that thereafter it is wholly free from dissolution into dust... It was impossible that the vessel which had received God, the temple of the Only-Begotten Son, should be held fast by death....
Fr. Germanus of Constantinople

❖  Today the celestial spirits bring to heaven the Abode of the Holy Spirit, making her enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, to the immaculate Tabernacle, to us inaccessible, close to the Holy Trinity. 

❖  Today the heavenly spirits have carried to heaven the holy body of the Virgin Theotokos, placing it among the angels to share in the unspeakable delights... 

❖  Having lived in this body all-holy life, you are brought by the divine will to the Kingdom of your Son, our God; pray for us . . . 
 
Armenian Liturgical Hymns on the assumption
        
❖  I salute the Assumption of the body which the human heart can never conceive . . . 

❖  O Mary,  your body was like a pearl, and death itself was shamed when with wonder it saw you ascending resplendent through the clouds to heaven . . . 

❖  O Mary, dove of Euphrates shelter me under your wings in the day of judgment, when the earth will give back those whom she had taking into her keeping!

Ethiopian Feast of Assumption 

Her Assumption’s Story 

The Lord did not permit that the body in which He Himself had dwelt and from which He had formed His own humanity become a prey to corruption and dissolution. 
St. Mary as a human being her body died; but ascended to heaven. 
“The assumption according to the narrative of Joseph the Arimathea” (According to Synaxarium), states that Thomas the Apostle was absent in India when St. Mary felt asleep and passed away. On his return he asked about her and was told what happened.

St. Thomas pretended not to believe until he sees the body in the grave. At the grave he told the Disciples that the body is not in the tomb. As they rolled the stone there was no body, they did not know how to explain it, being vanquished by St. Thomas’ words. Then St. Thomas told them how he saw her body assuming to heaven, and St. Mary gave him her girdle, and show it to them.

They all rejoiced and asked the Lord to see her again.

In the seventh month after her death (i.e., on 15th of Mesra), the Disciples reassembled at the tomb and spent the night watching and singing hymns.

At dawn on the 16th of Mesra there were great thundering and a choir of angels were heard. The Lord Jesus came on the Cherubim with the soul of the Virgin Mary seated in His Bosom and greeted them.

Other stories state that till the 16th of Mesra her body was not ascended. The Lord came with the soul of His mother and asked the body to accompany Him. He took her into the chariot. The angels went before them, and a voice called “Peace to you, my brethren”.    

     
Fr. Tadros Malaty 

Mary Blessed Are You Among Women

In the following words St. Mary teaches us how worthless she felt of herself and that she received by the heavenly grace that was lavished on her every sort of good merit that she had. She says, "For He has considered the humility of his handmaid.  For behold from this time on all generations will call me blessed."

She demonstrates that in her own judgment she was indeed Christ's humble handmaid, but with respect to heavenly grace she pronounces herself all at once lifted up and glorified to such a degree that rightly her pre-eminent blessedness would be marvelled at by the voices of all nations.

Bede 

Surrender Yourself Completely To Him

How is it possible that in the face of so many exhortations and promises, we still refuse to accept totally to go to him and surrender ourselves completely to him? How can we refuse, as the Gospel says, to deny all other things, even our own soul (Luke 14:26), and to seek him alone with our love and give it to nothing else?

But, look, all these things and such glory given! Look at all the loving dispositions of God manifested in the times of the fathers and the prophets! What promises! And what exhortations! What great mercy of the Lord has been shown us from the very beginning! Finally, in his own coming on this earth he has shown to us an ineffable kindness through his crucifixion in order to convert us and bring us into life. And yet, we do not will to give up our love for the world nor our evil tendencies and habits.

In this way we show ourselves persons of little or absolutely no good faith. And in spite of all this, he still shows himself kind to us. He protects and cherishes us invisibly, not turning us over (according to our sinful deserts) to the deceits of evil and the world. He, in his great compassion and long-suffering, watches from above, waiting for the time we shall return to him.

St. Macarius The Great
 

Work while it is day

We read in the Psalm: 'My sorrow is always before me.' What sorrow? Brethren, let me speak plainly: we sorrow over our misfortunes, but do we consider why they have happened? A man who suffers loss is more likely to say, 'I did not deserve it', than to remember what he did deserve. To mourn the loss of money more than that of righteousness. If you have sinned mourn over the treasury of your heart. Your purse is empty - perhaps your soul is even emptier. God forbid that we should be sorrowful over our pains.  Let us regret the wound, not the medicine that heals it, for misfortune is the cure for sin.

Listen, brethren: we are Christians. If one of your children dies, you mourn, but if he sins you do not, and yet in your house he is not only dead, but putrefying. Sin is what we must weep for;  we must bear with anything else. The psalm goes on: 'For I acknowledge my wickedness.' Yes, but don't feel secure when you have acknowledged your sins: are you confessing them and going on committing them? A man can weep copiously and do nothing about it.

You want to heal the wound? Then take steps to do so. Redeem your sins by giving alms. The beggar rejoices in your gift, and you in what God has granted you. In your eyes he is a beggar; what are you before God? If you look at him with scorn, how does God see you? That is why I tell you to give him what he needs, so that God may fill your empty heart.

  DAILY READING WITH

St Augustine --- The Heart at Rest 

Prayer of St. Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life,
give me not the spirit of sloth,
meddling, lust for power and idle talk.

But grant unto me,
Thy servant,
a spirit of chastity (integrity),
humility, patience and love.

Yea, O Lord and King,
grant me to see mine own faults
and not to judge my brother.
For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.
Amen.

St. Ephrem The Syrian

IF TWELVE MEN LEAVENED THE WORLD, HOW ABOUT YOU?

For as the leaven converts the large quantity of meal into its own quality (Mt. 13:33)  even so shall you convert the whole world. .. Let nobody reprove us, therefore, for being few. For great is the power of the Gospel and what is once leavened becomes leaven in turn for the remainder. .. Now if twelve men leavened the whole world, imagine the extent of our weakness in that we cannot, in spite of our numbers, improve what is left.

We who ought to be enough for ten thousand worlds and to become leaven to them. 'But', you object, 'they were apostles. So what! Were they not partakers with you? Were they not raised in cities? Did they not enjoy the same benefits? Did they not practice trades? What, were they angels? Did they come down from Heaven?

(in Matt. 46(47),2) 

From The Writing of

St. John Chrysostom 

Sayings of the Desert Fathers

 

About St. Moses The Black

Once the order was given at Scetis, 'Fast the week.' Now it happened that some brothers came from Egypt to visit Abba Moses and he cooked something for them. 

Seeing some smoke, the neighbors said to the ministers, 'Look, Moses has broken the commandment and has cooked something in his cell.' The ministers said, 'When he comes, we will speak to him ourselves.' 

When the Saturday came, since they knew Abba Moses' remarkable way of life, the ministers said to him in front of everyone, 'O Abba Moses, you did not keep the commandment of men, but it was so that you might keep the commandment of God.'

Lift up your hearts

It is foolish to deceive oneself: look into your hearts and acknowledge how often useless thoughts get in the way of your prayer. You want to praise God but you cannot find anything that will restrain your wandering thoughts, so that in all your prayers there is scarcely one that is really prayer.

Only remember that God is gentle and mild and bears with our wandering and waits for us to pray in such a way that he may perfect it. When he gives us that prayer he accepts it and does not remember how badly we have prayed before. If you were before a jude and in the middle of your speech you started gossiping with a friend, what would happen? Yet God puts up with prayers that are interrupted by other thoughts.

When you read, he speaks to you; when you pray, you speak to him.

If this is so, brethren, must we despair, thinking that punishment awaits anyone whose mind wanders at his prayer? No; let us say: 'Rejoice the soul of thy servant, for to thee O Lord I lift up my soul.' How shall I lift it up? As much as I can with the strength you give me; as much as I am able to keep hold of my wandering thoughts. Because you are mild and gentle you do not cast me off; strengthen me and I shall stand firm, and until then bear with me.

  DAILY READING WITH

St Augustine --- The Heart at Rest 

The Power of the Holy Fire

“The power to bear Mysteries, which the humble man has received, which makes him perfect in every virtue without toil, this is the very power which the blessed apostles received in the form of fire. For its sake the Savior commanded them not to leave Jerusalem until they should receive power from on high, that is to say, the Paraclete, which, being interpreted, is the Spirit of consolation. 

And this is the Spirit of divine visions. Concerning this it is said in divine Scripture: ‘Mysteries are revealed to the humble.’ (Ecclus 3:19) The humble are accounted worthy of receiving in themselves this Spirit of revelations Who teaches mysteries.”

St Isaac the Syrian