“The Mother of God falls asleep, but death cannot hold her.

“their story illustrates that death is like sleep, from which the faithful will awaken at the Last Judgment.

“But if her Son, God Himself, died, was buried and rose again, she too chose to die, like all of us, and to be laid in the tomb. Yet the tomb could not contain her.

“the Mother of God received with joy the news of her departure from earthly life and then fell asleep in the Lord

“For a Christian, death is not annihilation, describing it as a passage from time into eternity. Even amid grief, the light of the Resurrection remains burning.

“The Holy Fathers who spoke about the Dormition of the Mother of God did not try to conceal the reality of death. On the contrary, it was precisely in her death that they saw the power of Christ’s Resurrection revealed.

“«Ζωῆς ἀϊδίου καί κρείττονος ὁ θάνατός σου γέγονε διαβατήριον, Ἁγνή, ἐκ τῆς ἐπικήρου πρός θείαν ὄντως καί ἄρρευστον μεθιστῶν σε, ἄχραντε, ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει τόν Υἱόν καθορᾶν σου καί Κύριον»