Celebrating Death

This morning I wished my husband a happy Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. Being the optimist that I am (get used to sarcasm around here), I added "Happy Death Day!". Today we as Orthodox Christians celebrate the day that Mary, the Mother of God, passed away from this life and entered the next. The Tradition of the Church tells us that she knew in advance that she was going to die and that the Apostles gathered to be there with her. They buried her in the garden at Gethsemane that Christ loved. As my priest mentioned in his sermon yesterday, her death gave us a form of what Christian death and burial ought to be like. It also reminds us that death is not a scary thing (or shouldn't be, anyway) for someone who has faith in God. This life is simply preparation for a much better one that is waiting for us.

After liturgy yesterday we said good-bye to two good friends, one returning home to family on the East Coast and one heading off to begin a whole new chapter in his life - he's off to seminary. We wish them both many blessings. We wished Reader Michael farewell after some delicious calamari at Carabba's yesterday (that's what the photo above is about - Rdr. Michael is on the far left).