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In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My congratulations to you, dear brothers and sisters.
Today, my dear, is the feast of Dormition of Our Holy Lady. Before her death the Holy Virgin came to the Mount of Olives, where Jesus prayed and she also prayed there. She lived about 20 years after her Son's crucifixion . It is clear, that it was difficult for mother to live after her Son. But it was her mission. She lived in Jerusalem, in the house of Apostle John. It was little house with two rooms. In one room the Holy Lady lived, in the other - John. And also some women lived there, who helped the Holy Lady; they embroidered vestments for church, for clergy, for apostles.
During that time, when she prayed, she worried about her soul. She thought: when my soul leave the body, will devil take it to hell. She had such prayer. God heard these prayers and He consoled her. As it is said in the Holy Story that Archangel Gabriel appeared to her with the palm branch form the God's Kingdom and he gave her that branch. He said that God's Son would come that day and take her in the God's Kingdom that she did not worry. When she returned, she said that her Son, God, Jesus Christ would take her soul that day. It is clear that maids started to cry and Apostle John started to cry, because she said goodbye to them.
And when apostle John came out from the house a great miracle had happened. Apostles being in different countries during 20 years in their servings after Jesus Christ. And God gathered them with His power and brought them from the places where they sermonized. We know that Apostle Andrew sermonized on the mountains of Kyiv, after that he went to Novgorod and then returned to Greece. We know that Apostle Thomas sermonized in India. So in one word: all of them were took and put near John's house. It is said so in the Holy Story. And he went out and saw all of them and they saw John. They were very happy to see each other, but when they saw him crying, they asked: "What has happened?" And he said: "God's Mother leaves us. Mary says goodbye to us." And then Apostles started to come one by one into the room to get blessing from God's Mother, who blessed everyone and said goodbye.
When she said goodbye to them her soul started to leave her. During that time there were such spiritual vision that the roof of the house was opened and God with His Angels started to get down to the Holy Virgin. He wasurrounded by Angels, who were like clouds, He got down to the Holy Lady. And she asked: "Oh Son, take my soul." And He answered: "Come to me, my darling."And it was so in the spiritual vision that her soul was taken by Son and she fell asleep. And the grace had started to spread out in the house, as it was the smell of frankincense. And it meant the presence of Angels. We can feel the presence of Angels with our nose very often. Nobody burn the frankincense, but we smell it, it is the presence of many Angels. This is a result of their presence.
A lot of Christians gathered then. Jesus' brother Jacob was Apostle and bishop of Jerusalem. A lot of people came and a very splendid funeral took place there. Apostles carried the body of the Holy God's Mother. And at that moment the Jews found out about funeral and saw such great procession of Christians, there were a lot of them. So the Jews became embittered, they took stones and started to throw them in the Christians. They are still aggressive and they still do it. But God sent His Angels on them and they became blind. The Jews became blind. That one who was spiritually blind became physically blind. They started to beat their heads upon stones, upon each other and they didn't know in what way to throw, because they were blind. And then the chorus of Angels rose up, like a foggy cloud, like a fog and the procession moved on. But at that moment one more Jews Aphthoniah saw the funeral of God's Mother. He exclaimed: "This sinful woman gave a birth to that awful man, who broke up our fathers' faith." And he ran to the coffin to overturn it. He caught the coffin with his strong hands and wanted to overturn it that the Most Pure Virgin fall out of it. Ant at the moment he touched the coffin, his hands were cut by some invisible power. He became afraid very much, he fell down with amputated hands near Apostles and he started to beg. He started to beg Apostle Peter: "Please, heal me." And he answered: "Why do you ask me? You have offended The Holy Lady. Ask the Lord, Her Son, Jesus Christ. He will forgive you. " And Aphthoniah started to ask and he said: "Oh Lord, forgive me. We knew that you are God's Son, but our jealousy to your spiritual talents does not allow us to say it, to show it, we were spiritually blind." So he did sincere confession. And Apostle Peter said then: "Put your hands to your amputated hands." And he did it and his hands knitted at once. And only some marks were left. Later he became good Christian and bishop. He showed his marks on his hands as an evidence of what had happened with his. That Archangel Michael cut his hands because he treated with the Holy Lady without respect.
The funeral moves along, they put God's Mother in the same entombment, where was the body of Jesus Christ. It means that the entombment was empty. They just saved this entombment, but did not use it. It was the entombment of Nicodemus, which he made for himself in his garden. He was rich. And they asked to put the body of Jesus there. When He rose, and Our Holy Lady had a rest in peace - her body was placed in the same entombment, covered by the large stone and people prayed. They prayed one day, the second one, and the third. The apostles prayed, read psalms. They prayed day and night, that was a tradition. And this time, by disposition of God, Thomas came from India, only on the third day. God wanted so, because Thomas did not believe one day, he said that he would not believe until he saw. Thomas was very upset that the Holy Lady passed away. He asked them to open the coffin.
When the apostles opened the coffin, there was nobody there. They were very shocked and did not understand how the body disappeared. But, they were very tired, hungry and began to eat. According to their tradition the apostles sat on the periphery of the table, because Jesus always sat in the middle and the place near him was not occupied. They put bread and wine for Jesus near His place. Six apostles sit to the right and six of them to the left, because another apostle was chosen instead of Judah. When they finished eating, they raised the bread and wine and said: "God, bless us". And they broke the bread, and gave it to everyone - in commemoration of Jesus Christ. This time they just finished a meal, raised bread and wine and said, "God, bless us". And they saw the Holy Mother in the air. They saw her said with glad: "The Holy Mother, bless us." And she answered: "My son resurrected and did not let me to lie here; He did not let my body molder. He also transformed and resurrected my body. So I will be with you, by the end of this world, I will help you. Only contact me in your prayers and I will help you." Because Our Holy Lady is an earthwoman, she loves the Earth, and she suffered a lot on here.
In such a way the Assumption occurred.
We know in some countries this holiday is known as the Resurrection of the Holy Mother. I think that it will be enough if we name it The Dormition of Our Holy Lady. In such a way the Lord shows the image of Him and His mother, how the body raised, how they change the shape and they change the organic structure. So the bodies of all who love God will resurrect. They will resurrect and will be exalted to heaven. We will live in Heaven; will live longer in three-dimensional and multidimensional space. Christ lives in multidimensional space, while He appears in this dimension and disappears again, so He appears in any part of the Universe.
Let's work to be redeemed. Pray to Holy Mother and ask her help in difficult moments. She will be very happy and will help us with great love. Many people in many countries of Latin America pray to Holy Mother, in some way, even more than to Jesus Christ. You should not do such worship as others do, you should not forget about Jesus. You should treat reasonably - with respect to the Holy Mother, with love to our Lord, Jesus Christ. Our Holy Lady is a mediator between us and her son - our God. If we have problems, we appeal to her: "Mother of God, forgive us, have mercy on us, pray to your Son, and ask Him to forgive us." And she asks, "Son, forgive him, because he does not know what he does. Son, forgive him." And the Lord says: "I can not longer tolerate the sins of this man, but for the prayer of my Mother, I forgive him again."
Do you understand? Mother of God is the mediator between people and God, as well as Jesus is the mediator between people and God's justice, because He bleeds for our sins in order we do not suffer. Our Holy Lady begs the Lord to forgive our sins. They sing in Orthodox Church: "The Holy Lady, save us." Protestants do not understand it. They asked why the Mother of God has to save you, but not Jesus Christ. You should be able to explain the logic of this prayer to Protestants. She does not save us in such a way, that we are able to go to the Kingdom Of Heaven. She helps to be redeemed from the temptations, sins, evil. "Save us from our enemies, from their malice, from their evil power." She covers us with her omophorion , she protects us. "Our Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us" - it's means that we ask the forgiveness of our sins. "Holy Mother, pray to your Son, our God, that God helps us to redeem and receive the resurrection, as you received it."
In the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
My congratulations to you, dear brothers and sisters.
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