“This account in the Synaxarion tells us that the Mother of God, after joyfully receiving the news that she would depart from this earthly life, fell asleep in the Lord. After her Dormition, they took her to the tomb. Three days after her burial, the Apostle Thomas arrived and also wished to see her tomb. When those present opened it, they found only the burial shroud of the Mother of God. From this, they understood that the Mother of God had been taken up to heaven.
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“the Mother of God received with joy the news of her departure from earthly life and then fell asleep in the Lord
“while death ordinarily brings sorrow, the Church celebrates the Dormition with joy because the Mother of God, having been translated to heaven, continues to intercede with her Son for all humanity
“the Dormition of the Mother of God is not simply a translation to heaven, but above all, a transition from earthly life, which is subject to decay or corruption, to an incorruptible existence. It is her grace-filled translation to the right hand of her Son in heaven, in the light and peace of the Holy Trinity.
“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.
“Although the Mother of God is laid upon the bier, her soul, like a small child clothed in a white garment, is raised in the hands of Christ, on His left side, close to His heart. For just as the Mother of God held her Son on her left arm, close to her heart, when He was a child and showed Him to the world, so now the Son in heaven holds her soul in His hands and shows it to the angels.
“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.'
“In this sense, the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God is placed above the doors of a church in the narthex, so that when the faithful leave the church, they may think about the final days of their lives on earth. For whatever spiritual state death finds them in, when the soul is separated from the body, in that state they will be judged or spiritually assessed.
“At Bethlehem, she receives God into our world. At the Dormition, God receives her into His world. At Bethlehem, the Mother carries the Son. At the Dormition, the Son carries His Mother.