Today we celebrate the great feast of the Dormition, or falling asleep, of the Most Holy Theotokos. At Vespers we sing: “The source of life is laid in the grave and her tomb becomes a ladder to heaven.”
The account of the Dormition of the Mother of God has been persevered in the tradition of the Church, with accounts of how the apostles gathered around her bed as she “passed over into heavenly joy,” and into the Kingdom of her Son.
We believe that the Holy Theotokos shared in the corruption of our human nature, although she was without personal sin. She too needed to be saved by Christ and, like her Son, she experienced the death that all of us will have to face. However, we believe that she also experienced Christ’s victory over death in a direct and immediate way. The Dormition services teach us that the Holy Virgin passed through death to life without going through judgment, for the Mother of Life could not be overcome by corruption.
This feast is ultimately an extension of the Resurrection of Christ and shows us how His victory over death has become effective in His Mother. It has been called a “second Pascha” for in it we celebrate the resurrection of her who is already united to Christ before the Last Judgement and the general resurrection.
However, this feast is also our feast, for in the Holy Theotokos we see that we too are called to share in Christ’s victory over death.
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In birth, you preserved your virginity; in death, you did not abandon the world, O Theotokos. As mother of life, you departed to the source of life, delivering our souls from death by your intercessions.
Apolytikion for the Feast