The entire Orthodox world celebrates the Dormition of the Theotokos Mary, the Mother of the God-Man, the Lord. The heavens rejoice and the earth delights in this event. The world does not mourn, as happens with every death, but feels joy, because our Panagia (All-Holy), as Mother of the Son and the Word of God the Father, goes to stand beside the throne of her Son, to be there continuously, as long as this world exists, as an intercessor for mankind.
The Theotokos Mary is understood not merely as a simple girl from Nazareth, but as the Ever-Virgin Maiden, who gave birth, according to Saint Cyril of Alexandria, "to a Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, clearly the Word of God the Father, incarnate and made man."
Nestorius and other heretics, because they studied Ancient Greek philosophy, did not understand how the union of two natures, the Divine and the human, occurred in the Person of the God-Man, the Lord. The Church, through the Fourth Ecumenical Council, overturned the teaching of these heretics, proclaiming the "unchangeably, unconfusedly, indivisibly, and inseparably" union of the two natures in the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, "so that He is the same God and man, and of one, all things both divine and also human." We therefore proclaim the truth, salvific for the human race, that our Panagia gave birth to perfect God and perfect man and was proclaimed Theotokos.
Our Panagia is Theotokos in a dual sense. On one hand, because she "bore God incarnate," and on the other, because the human nature, which was united with the Divine nature in the Person of her Son Jesus Christ, was seen within her all-holy womb. In this way, the members of the Orthodox Church are able to live in communion with the God-Man, the Lord, and to be divinized by Grace.
Humanity rejoices for the Theotokos Mary, because She is the cause of the change in the course of human history. Through the Theotokos Mary, the event of the Divine Economy is accomplished, and with the arrival of the God-Man, the Lord, on earth, human history takes a new course toward eternity. Man, from the realm of corruption and death into which he had entered, now has the power and the possibility to move toward incorruption, the Resurrection, and eternal life in Christ.
In today's turbulent and dangerous era in which we live, all these things seem foreign and inconceivable. This happens because man, having distanced himself from God his Creator, has also ignored the Divine Revelation, which is contained in the Holy Scripture and the Patristic Teaching, which is the authentic interpretation of the Holy Scripture. Modern man studies anything else besides these, through which he would know who God his Creator is and who the Theotokos Mary, whom we celebrate, is. By studying, we will know the person of the Theotokos Mary and, at the same time, we will understand for what reason God chose her from all the human race to become His Mother.
It is a fact that our Panagia was possessed by infinite and absolute love for God, and she demonstrated this through her words and deeds, which were completely identified with His will. With this love toward God and also toward her fellow human being, with her ontological faith, her purity and cleanliness, her gentleness, and her humility, she drew God, so that He might exalt her to the point of making her His Mother and the Mother of all the human race.
As a Mother of us all by Grace, the Panagia loves every soul and worries for each one of us; therefore, she constantly intercedes for us to her Son. We, however, how do we respond to this love? To approach the Theotokos and venerate her icon, while persisting in our passions and following the world and its sinful desires, is not an indication of love toward Her, but a formal act of displaying a superficial gratitude. Love toward Her is revealed by following her in her purity and cleanliness, in her humility, and in all her virtues. Even ontological love toward our Panagia is to listen to her exhortation, "Whatever He says to you, do it" (John 2:5), and to obey, as She did, the will of God. Only in this way will we live peacefully and lovingly with our neighbor in this life, and in the life to come, we will find ourselves eternally near Her, within the eternal Kingdom of her Son.