“the Church does not say a final “goodbye” to the departed, but rather “until we meet again,”

“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 Church does not regard this moment as one of despair, but as a testimony to the victory of life

“not to corruption, but to life; not to despair, but to Resurrection; not to isolation, but to eternal communion in the Kingdom.

“At the centre of today’s feast stands a tomb, yet the Church does not call us to sorrow, but to joy. The Apostles are gathered around the body of the Mother of God, yet the feast’s hymns speak of life. A separation takes place, yet the Church proclaims a reunion.

“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.

“following the Resurrection of Christ, death can no longer be regarded as the ultimate end of human existence

“Today, the Church does not mourn a death, but celebrates a translation from death to life; the Church does not lament a separation, but rejoices in the passage from the temporal to the eternal, from earth to heaven, from corruption to incorruption, and from the vanity of this world to the true life. For this reason, the Dormition of the Theotokos is for all of us a feast of hope, consolation and joy, since we feel that, through her translation from death to life, Panagia is even closer to us and remains beside us. As the Apolytikion of the feast proclaims: ‘In your Dormition, O Theotokos, you did not abandon the world.'