PANAGIA SOUMELA - Vermio, in Veria, Macedonia, Greece. Photo from here
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
π. Θεμιστοκλής Μουρτζανός
Είναι τα δύο πανέμορφα ποιήματα των παρακλητικών κανόνων, του Μικρού και του Μεγάλου, που μας υπενθυμίζουν την πορεία της ζωής, τους πειρασμούς μας, την ανάγκη για φως, για σωτηρία, για βοήθεια, για χαρά που ξεπερνά τα μέτρα και τα όρια του παρόντος. Είναι η Παναγία η μορφή αυτή που μπορεί να μας δώσει ό,τι ζητάμε και σ’ αυτήν απευθυνόμαστε, όσοι ακόμη αντέχουμε να βλέπουμε τον Αύγουστο όχι μόνο ως μήνα διακοπών από τους ρυθμούς της καθημερινότητας, αλλά και ως καιρό, ευκαιρία για αναζήτηση της αλήθειας του μέσα κόσμου μας.
Οι Έλληνες, στην πλειονοψηφία μας, έχουμε χάσει αυτόν τον καθημερινό αυγουστιάτικο σύνδεσμο. Ιδίως οι νεώτεροι είναι πιο μακριά, διότι δεν μπορούν να συμμεριστούν το περιεχόμενο των παρακλητικών κανόνων, όχι μόνο λόγω της γλώσσας, αλλά κυρίως διότι περιγράφουν έναν άνθρωπο που νιώθει την ήττα του από την ισχύ του κοσμικού πνεύματος, της βιοτικής παραζάλης, η οποία τον κυκλώνει όπως οι μέλισσες το κερί, της θλίψης που γίνεται βέλος που τρώει την καρδιά, και οι νεώτεροι το καλοκαίρι δεν θέλουν έγνοιες, θέλουν τη ζωή τους να χαρακτηρίζεται από τη ραστώνη της ανίας, της διασκέδασης, της θάλασσας και των διακοπών, να πηγαίνουν σε συναυλίες, σε εκδρομές, να μην αισθάνονται ότι τους κυνηγούνε βάσανα. Και μοιάζει εύλογη αυτή η προτίμηση.
Όμως ο χρόνος δεν αφήνει τον άνθρωπο να λησμονήσει αυτό που του λείπει. Μπορεί να θέλουμε να αφήσουμε στην άκρη τις ταραχές και το κενό μας, να μπούμε στη θάλασσα για να ελευθερωθούμε από τις εντάσεις μας, να βρούμε φως, να ξεσκάσουμε, να φλερτάρουμε, να απολαύσουμε, να συναντηθούμε με τα παιδιά μας που δεν προλαβαίνουμε να τα δούμε στον ρυθμό του υπόλοιπου χρόνου, όμως το “έτι έν σοι λείπει” και η εύρεση του “ενός ού έστι χρεία” αγγίζει την ψυχή μας και τον Αύγουστο. Κι εδώ η Παναγία είναι και παραμένει η απάντηση.
Στην εικόνα της μπροστά, την ώρα που ανάβουμε κερί και προσκυνούμε, νιώθουμε ότι εκείνη παραμένει η μάνα όλων των ανθρώπων και η δική μας. Και κάνοντας μια προσευχή σ’ αυτήν, δεν μένουμε μόνο στον δικό μας τρόπο. Αφηνόμαστε στη δική της αγκαλιά, για να μας δείξει με τη σιωπή της, το αδιόρατο χαμόγελο που απευθύνεται προς τον καθέναν μας, ότι ο Υιός που κρατά είναι ο Θεός μας. Και όπως Εκείνος μας κοιτάζει, έχοντας την αγάπη της δικής της αγκαλιάς, είναι έτοιμος να μας δώσει, στην παντοδυναμία Του, την απάντηση, που είναι ο Ίδιος. Ο Θεός που μας ενισχύει και μας σώζει. Που μας αγαπά, περιμένοντας από εμάς να μη νιώσουμε οι μεγάλοι που πρέπει να απαντήσουμε στα πάντα με τον τρόπο μας, αλλά τα παιδιά, οι φίλοι Του, που θέλουμε να κουρνιάσουμε κι εμείς στην αγκαλιά της Παναγίας, της μάνας μας που μας δείχνει το φως το χαρμόσυνο.
Ας πάρουμε μέρος στις παρακλήσεις του Αυγούστου. Δεν είναι μόνο θέμα παράδοσης. Είναι και η ανάγκη να βρούμε την δική μας απάντηση στην αγάπη της Παναγίας.
Δημοσιεύθηκε στην “Ορθόδοξη Αλήθεια”
στο φύλλο της Τετάρτης 30 Ιουλίου 2025
At Christmas time, the Virgin Mary gets a bit of attention in the wider culture. A woman gives birth in difficult circumstances: Mother, baby, ox and ass, the manger. It’s a very touching scene. She quickly fades from the scene however, with some five centuries of culture desperately afraid that she will get too much attention.
In that vein, she is pretty much absent from Easter. We have eggs, chocolate, bunny rabbits, and the resurrection of Christ (along with new dresses and such), but Mary has no place in our culture’s Easter imagination. Some of this is undoubtedly the result of 500 years of a dominantly anti-Catholic Protestantism. You have to mention Mary at Christmas, but she can conveniently be forgotten at Easter.
Unless you’re Orthodox.
In Orthodoxy, there is essentially no teaching regarding Christ that ignores His mother. There is no teaching regarding Jesus that ignores His humanity and His humanity requires that we remember her. When the Council of 431 (3rd Ecumenical) declared Mary to be “Theotokos” (“Birthgiver of God”) it was on account of its concern that the full truth of who Christ is not be distorted. The mystery of the Incarnation (rightly understood) makes it possible to speak the paradoxical title of “Birthgiver of God” (not just “Birthgiver of Christ”). Christ is fully God and fully man. The one born of Mary was God and man. God was born of her.
This is echoed as well in the prophetic word that was spoken to Mary when she brought Jesus to the Temple 40 days after His birth (in concordance with the Law). Simeon the prophet, holding the child in his arms, said to His mother:
“Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)
His words speak of a “sword.” This is far deeper than a hint that what is to happen to her Son will make her sad. He didn’t say, “It will cause you grief.” The suffering of Christ on the Cross is equally the sword that pierces the soul of Mary. Mary is the first Christian, the first to believe the word concerning her Son. His suffering is her suffering. His suffering is to be our suffering as well. If you have been united with Christ on the Cross, then, in some measure, your own soul has been pierced by the sword that pierced the soul of Mary. St. Paul says,
“I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, but Christ lives in me, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Mary is the first of those who have been crucified with Christ.
Our ignorance of such things (or our forgetfulness), encourage us to forget that our discipleship is marked by the Cross and defined by our communion with the Crucified Lord. Too easily, the resurrection of Jesus comes to mean nothing more than a promise of life after death. “Jesus died and was resurrected so that I could go to heaven.” While that is sort of true, it represents a serious diminishment of the gospel.
As Christ was on the Cross, His thoughts turned to His mother. He endures the suffering and the shame of the crucifixion. She shares in the shame and, in that, a sword pierces her own soul. Christ gives her to the care of St. John, “the disciple whom He loved.” He does not merely ask John to care for her, but says, “Behold your mother.” John must now be her son. Incidentally, this supports the Church’s teaching that the “brother and sisters of Christ” are not children of Mary. It would have fallen to them to take of her had that been the case.
As the Church enters into the depth of Holy Week and approaches the Lord’s death and resurrection, the Theotokos is ever present on its mind. At what becomes a liturgical climax the Church gathers around the funeral shroud icon (epitaphios) in the center of the Church. Following its commemoration of Christ’s suffering and death, the burial shroud had been placed there for the faithful to venerate. They have offered their lamentations.
At this last moment, as the priest stands before the image, we hear these verses from the choir:
Do not lament me, O Mother, seeing me in the tomb, the Son conceived in the womb without seed, for I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God. I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee!
I escaped sufferings and was blessed beyond nature at Thy strange birth, O Son, who art without beginning. But now, beholding Thee, my God, dead and without breath, I am sorely pierced by the sword of sorrow. But arise, that I may be magnified.
Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee!
By my own will, the earth covers me, O Mother, but the gatekeepers of hell tremble at seeing me clothed in the blood-stained garments of vengeance; for when I have vanquished my enemies on the cross, I shall arise as God and magnify thee.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Let creation rejoice, let all born on earth be glad, for hateful hell has been despoiled, let the women with myrrh come to meet me, for I am redeeming Adam and Eve and all their descendants, and on the third day shall I arise.
Do not lament me, O Mother, seeing me in the tomb, the Son conceived in the womb without seed, for I shall arise and be glorified with eternal glory as God. I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love.
The verses are a dialog between Christ and His mother. It gathers her whose heart had been pierced with the sword of shame and grief into His own compassion. He encourages her with the promise that He will rise and vindicate her. He will be glorified and will magnify her. Her faithfulness, humility, and obedience will be justified before all the world. “All generations will call her blessed.”
She replies, recalling the mystery of her Son’s “strange birth.” Though she now sees His body lying “dead and without breath,” she urges Him to arise.
He responds that He is “covered by the earth” by His “own will.” He is no one’s victim but is doing the very thing He was born to do. And now He is clothed in the “blood-stained garments of vengeance.” Vanquishing His foes by the cross, He will rise and magnify her.
He closes, repeating the initial verse. At the repetition of “I shall arise,” the priest takes up the funeral shroud and bears it into the altar. The doors are shut and every light, every candle in the Church, is extinguished. In silence the Church waits. Mary waits. All creation holds its breath.
Quietly, the priest begins to sing, “Thy resurrection, O Christ our Savior, the angels in heaven sing…” He will shortly come forth bearing the newly kindled light which spreads to all. And the Paschal procession begins around the Church (I’m describing the Slavic practice).
His resurrection is a vindication of His mother. Equally, it is the vindication of every believer. For we, too, have stood silently by the tomb, venerating His dead body. We, too, have had some share in His shame, either from others or cast upon us by our own unfaithfulness and doubting. Was I wrong to believe in, O Lord? Have you forgotten me? I am surrounded by my enemies and they mock me. Where are You, Lord?
“I shall arise,” Christ says.
Mary saw Him. Mary Magdalen saw Him. Peter and John saw Him. Then the twelve. Then James the Brother of the Lord. Then by over 500. And even to St. Paul He appeared, as if to one born out of time.
And they began the procession that continues to circle the earth singing, “Enable us on earth, to glorify Thee in purity of heart.” At the head of our procession is His Mother – now vindicated and magnified by all. She told the truth. She gave birth to God the Word. We call her blessed.
Videos from St. Maximus Orthodox Church Choirs & ORTODOX™ (Vatopedi monastery, Athos)
Ancient faith / Glory 2 God for all things
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ: Μαρία, η ευλογία των εθνών (φωτο)
In my childhood, it was not unusual to hear someone ask, “Who are your people?” It was a semi-polite, Southernism designed to elicit essential information about a person’s social background. The assumption was that you, at best, could only be an example of your “people.” It ignored the common individualism of the wider culture, preferring the more family or clan-centered existence of an older time. It was possible to be “good people” who had fallen on hard times, just as it was possible to be “bad people” who were flourishing. Good people were always to be preferred.
I am aware of the darker elements of this Southern instinct so foreign to today’s mainstream culture. I am also aware that within it, there is an inescapable part of reality: human beings never enter this world without baggage. The baggage is an inheritance, both cultural and biological that shapes the ground we walk on and the challenges we will inevitably confront. Fr. Alexander Schmemann is reported to have said that the spiritual life consists in “how we deal with what we’ve been dealt.” In some families, it seems that no matter how many times the deck is shuffled, the same hand (or close to it) appears.
The Scriptures are rife with this element of our reality. It is a story of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, tribal destiny and inherited blessings. Two of the gospels give a chapter to rehearse the genealogy of Christ. Modern thought wants to imagine each human being entering the world as a blank slate whose life will be formed and shaped by their desires and choices. This is our imaginative version of freedom and we work to maximize its reality.
Nevertheless, human experience continues to be doggedly familial. Those who do family therapy carefully ask questions about the generations that have gone before. The battles of our lives are not about theory, but the cold hard truth of what has been given to us.
The Scriptures relate the stories of families, including their tragedies and horrific crimes. No Southern novelist ever did more than echo the iconic behaviors of Biblical failure.
This familial treatment is intentional and tracks the truth of our existence. There is never a pain as deep as that inflicted by someone who is supposed to love you. Such injuries echo through the years and the generations. The face that stares back at us in the mirror is easily a fractal of someone whose actions power our own insanity. We can hate a parent, only to be haunted by their constant presence in us.
This, of course, is only the negative, darker side of things. Blessings echo in us as well. In the delusion of modern individuality we blithely assume that we act alone in all we do. Life is so much more complicated!
What I am certain of, in the midst of all this, is that our struggle against sin and the besetting issues of our lives is never just about ourselves. If we inherit a burden within our life, so our salvation, our struggles with that burden, involve not only ourselves but those who have gone before as well as those who come after. We struggle as the “Whole Adam” (in the phrase of St. Silouan).
There is an Athonite saying: “A monk heals his family for seven generations.” When I first heard this, my thought was, “In which direction?” The answer, I think, is every direction. We are always healing the family tree as we embrace the path of salvation, monk or layman. Our lives are just that connected.
When the Virgin Mary sings her hymn of praise to God, she says, “All generations will call me blessed.” This expresses far more than the sentiment that she will be famous (how shallow). It has echoes of God’s word to Abraham, “In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). It is in the Offspring of Mary that the word to Abraham is fulfilled. In the Scriptures, God is pleased to be named the “God of Abraham.” That His name is tied to that of a human being brings no offense. Indeed, paradise itself is called the “bosom of Abraham.” It is right and proper that Christians should see the same treatment in the Virgin, the one in whom all these things are fulfilled.
“All generations” is a term that includes everyone – not just those who would come after her. For the salvation of the human race, in all places and at all times, is found only in Jesus, the Offspring of Mary. She is “Theotokos,” the “Birthgiver of God.” Mary is exalted in the bosom of Abraham.
When I look in the mirror these days, I see the unmistakable reflection of my father. No doubt, his reflection is seen elsewhere in my life, both for good and ill. I’m aware that some of my struggles are with “my daddy’s demons.” Of course, my vision is limited to just a few generations. I see my own struggles reflected in the lives of my children (for which I often want to apologize). I do not see the link that runs throughout all generations – throughout all the offspring of Adam – it is too large to grasp. What I do see, however, is the singular moment, the linchpin of all generations that is the Mother of God. In her person we see all generations gathered together. Her “be it unto me according to your word” resounds in the heart of every believer, uniting them to her heart whose flesh unites us to God.
Across the world, the myriad generations of Christians have sung ever since:
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.
For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
To which we add:
More honorable than cherubim,
And more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim,
Without corruption you gave birth to God the Word,
True Theotokos, we magnify you!
We are her people. Glory to God!
Orthodox Holy Church of Transfiguration of Lord, Baltimore, USA
On December 9th (or 22nd = the 9th by the old calendar) the Church commemorates the conception of the Most-holy Theotokos by the righteous Saint Anna.
In the land of Galilee, in the city of Nazareth, there lived the righteous couple Joachim and Anna, who were descendants of kings and high priests. This couple so pleased God with their pious life, that He chose them to become the parents of the Holy Virgin, the fore-chosen Mother of God. But just as the Lord Himself was to become incarnate from a Most-holy Mother, so the Mother of God was to be born of holy and pure parents. By the will of God Joachim and Anna remained childless until a very old age, so that in the conception and birth of their Daughter from barren and aged parents the power of God’s grace would be manifest, and a divine sign would be given to mankind.
For a long time the righteous Joachim and Anna sorrowed and wept over their childlessness, and were subjected to mockery and scorn from those around them, because the Jews of those times, who awaited the coming of the Messiah from the ancestry of David, looked upon barrenness as a sign of God’s punishment. The pious spouses, however, never lost hope in God’s mercy, and for their patience and unfailing faith in God their grief finally turned into joy, and their disgrace – into great honor and dignity.
Once, when Saint Anna in great sorrow prayed to God in her garden, the Lord sent an Angel who foretold her of the forthcoming conception and birth of a Maiden, which soon came to pass. The Church commemorates the conception of the Holy Virgin as being in accordance with God’s pledge, but at the same time springing from a physical union, thus pointing out that the Virgin Mary was born under natural human laws, and that in His incarnation the Lord Jesus Christ fully inherited from His Most-holy Mother the essence of mankind. The conception of the Holy Virgin Mary brought joy not only to Her parents, but to the entire world, because it was the first harbinger of God’s promise of mankind’s redemption through the coming of the Saviour down to earth.
The Conception by Righteous Anna of the Most Holy Mother of God (December 9)
[...] The Orthodox Church does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, sin, etc.) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. Only Christ was born perfectly holy and sinless, as Saint Ambrose of Milan teaches in Chapter Two of his Commentary on Luke. The Holy Virgin was like everyone else in Her mortality, and in being subject to temptation, although She committed no personal sins. She was not a deified creature removed from the rest of humanity. If this were the case, She would not have been truly human, and the nature that Christ took from Her would not have been truly human either. If Christ does not truly share our human nature, then the possibility of our salvation is in doubt.
The Conception of the Virgin Mary by Saint Anna took place at Jerusalem. The many icons depicting the Conception by Saint Anna show the Most Holy Theotokos trampling the serpent underfoot.
“In the icon Saints Joachim and Anna are usually depicted with hands folded in prayer; their eyes are also directed upward and they contemplate the Mother of God, Who stands in the air with outstretched hands; under Her feet is an orb encircled by a serpent (symbolizing the devil), which strives to conquer all the universe by its power.”
There are also icons in which Saint Anna holds the Most Holy Virgin on her left arm as an infant. On Saint Anna’s face is a look of reverence. A large ancient icon, painted on canvas, is located in the village of Minkovetsa in the Dubensk district of Volhynia diocese. From ancient times this Feast was especially venerated by pregnant women in Russia.
Troparion — Tone 4
Today the bonds of barrenness are broken, / God has heard Joachim and Anna. / He has clearly promised them that beyond hope, they would bear a divine child, / by whom the uncircumscribable One was born as a mortal Man, / Who commanded the angel to cry to her: / “Hail, O full of grace, / the Lord is with you!”
(Podoben: “You have appeared today...”)
Today the world
keeps festival / at Anna’s conceiving, wrought by God; / for she bore
her who inexpressibly conceived the Word of God.
See also
(22.8.2021)
در سيناكساريون برای جشن غنودن مقدس ترین تئوتوكوس ، روايتى به خصوص تکان دهنده در آنجا نوشته شده است. باكره مقدس در حدود 50 سالگی، یک پیام الهی دریافت کرد که طی سه روز ، او به آسمان عزیمت می کند. سپس او بستگان و همسایگان خود را به خانه خود دعوت کرد تا این پیام را فاش سازد و با آنها خداحافظی کند. این برای آنها غافلگیرکننده بود و طبیعتاً اشک های زیادی آنجا جاری شد. مریم باکره آنها را دلداری داد و گفت که نه تنها برای آنها بلکه برای کل جهان شفاعت می کند. این امر در بركات بی شماری که شفاعت بانوی ما برای همه کسانی که رنج کشیده اند و از او کمک می خواهند ، آشکار است.
پس از خدا ، واقعاً این مادر متبارک است که می تواند بهتر از هر کس دیگری آنانى را كه در درد و اندوه هستند تسلی دهد. این امر به ویژه در مورد کسانی که عزادار عزيمت عزیزانشان هستند صدق مى كند. بانوی ما ، که به اندازه هر مادری که فرزندش را بر صلیب مشاهده می كند ، رنج کشید ، واقعاً غم و اندوه هر مادری که از فرزند خود محروم شده است - خيلى زودتر از انتظار - و همه کسانی که از والدین ، همسر ، اقوام و دوستان خود محروم شده اند ، را درک می کند.
ما می توانیم فیض ویژه ای را که خداوند به مریم باکره اعطا کرد تا رنج بر صلیب را تحمل کند ، تشخيص دهيم، بدین معنا که او می دانست که پسر او پسر خداست و هر كارى که آنها به او كردند، او بر مرگ پیروز خواهد شد.
بنابراین ما اطمینان داریم که عزیزان ما از دست نرفته اند. روح آنها جاودانه است و پس از جدایی از بدن ، روح با آگاهی کامل از وجود خود (با تمام خاطرات دست نخورده) به زندگی و احساس قبلی خود ادامه می دهد. به دلیل تعمید مقدس ، روح تقدیس می شود و با مسیح و کلیسای مقدس او متحد می شود. تا زمانی که آنها روی زمین زندگی می کنند ، متعلق به "کلیساى مبارز" هستند. با این حال ، پس از ترک بدن در اینجا ، روی زمین ، به سوى "كليساى پیروزمند" آسمانى حرکت می کنند. در اینجا در جهان ما مبارزه می کنیم و دچار آسیب ، بیماری و غم های بیشمار می شویم. در کلیسای پیروز در آسمان ، کسانی که با ایمان و توبه زندگی کرده اند ، از ثمره پیروزی خود لذت می برند ، زیرا مبارزه زمینی خود را با موفقیت به پایان رسانده اند. به طور خلاصه: "اگر ما زندگی می کنیم ، ما برای خداوند زندگی می کنیم ؛ و اگر ما می میریم ، ما برای خداوند می میریم. بنابراین ، چه زنده باشیم چه بمیریم ، ما متعلق به خداوند هستیم." (رومیان 14: 8).
برخی از افرادی که توسط اندوه مغلوب می شوند ممکن است ادعا کنند که روح عزیزانشان "آنها را پشت سر گذاشته است" و دیگر قادر به دیدن آنها نیستند. پاسخ به این با در نظر گرفتن اين مطلب داده می شود كه: همه مسیحیان تعمید يافته با مسیح متحد شده اند و از طریق مسیح با یکدیگر متحد هستند. بین "كليساى مبارز" و "كليساى پیروزمند" هیچ تقسیم بندی یا "جدایی" واقعی وجود ندارد. این امر به وضوح در ارتباط ما با قدیسین ، که بخشی از کلیسای پیروزمند هستند ، مشاهده می شود. در نیازهای مختلف خود، ما از آنها کمک و شفاعت در پیشگاه خداوند می طلبیم و از "معجزه قديس" سپاسگزاریم. اگر قديسين نمی توانند سخن ما را بشنوند ، پس چرا کلیسا اهمیت شفاعت آنها و بیش از آن ، شفاعت مادر خدا را می آموزد؟ درست همانطور که روح قديسين وقتی ما آنها را خطاب قرار می دهيم ، سخن ما را می شنوند ، عزیزان ما نیز به فيض خدا ، وقتی برای آنها دعا می کنیم شاد می شوند.
به طور خاص ، ما با عزیزانمان در آسمان در طول مراسم ليتورگى الهى متحد می شویم. در ظرف مقدس اهداى نان ، كاهن ، هنگام ارائه هدايا ، قسمت هایی را برای مریم باکره و قديسين و همچنین مومنان (زنده یا مرده) که قبلاً نام آنها به او داده شده است، جدا مى كند.
به این ترتیب ، کل کلیسای واحد مسیح با تمام مومنان حاضر هستند ، چه روی زمین و چه در آسمان. در تقديس عشاء مقدس ربانى ، كاهن در جام مقدس بدن مقدس مسیح ، سهم هاى مریم باكره و قديسين ، و همچنین سهم هاى مومنان، چه در زمین و چه در آسمان را متحد مى كند.
بنابراین ، همانطور که کلیسای ما به ما می آموزد ، این است که از طریق خداوند ما عیسی مسیح ، ما با عزیزانمان که در آسمان هستند در ارتباط هستیم و با آنها شادی می کنیم. فراموش نکنیم که دعا یک طرفه نیست و همانطور که ما برای عزیزانمان در آسمان دعا می کنیم ، آنها نیز برای ما دعا می کنند. از طریق این دعاها به خداوند است که ما پیوندهای بین خود را حفظ می کنیم.
برادران و خواهران عزیزم ، برخورد با این جدایی از کسانی که دوستشان داریم بسیار دردناک است. به دلیل کمبود وقت ، اجازه دهید تنها با چند آموزه از پدران کلیسا در این زمینه تمام کنیم:
- هیچ کس از جدایی روح از بدن معاف نیست. بياييد آماده باشیم.
- وقتی عزیزان ما عزيمت می كنند ، طبیعی است که رنج ببریم ، اما احساس غم و اندوه بیش از حد مانند غیر مسیحیان ، که هیچ امیدی ندارند ، مفید نیست (اول تسالونیکیان 4: 13 را ببينيد).
- خدا همه افراد را براى خيريت خودشان به نزدیکى با خود فرا مى خواند، تا در طول زندگی آنها همه چیز به نفع روح اتفاق بیفتد. ما نمی توانیم این را به طور کامل درک کنیم.
- جدایی روح از بدن پایان نیست ، بلکه آغاز زندگی واقعی است.
- روزی ما همه را در آسمان ملاقات خواهیم کرد ، و سرانجام پس از اینکه روح ما با بدنهای فسادناپذیر متحد شد ، همه ما با هم ، تا ابد ، در شادی ملکوت خدا زندگی خواهیم کرد.
آمین
~ متروپوليتن سوتيريوس از پيسيديه
 |
| Icon from here |
 |
