Day 2 (August 7)
Today the Lord has been seen on the mountain; the nature of Adam has been restored to its former beauty, to the image and resemblance of God, after having been lost on the mountains where idolatry prevailed. Today he has donned a divine vestment wrapped in light as with a mantle, he who had put on himself the skin of our humanity. Today, on the mountain of Tabor has appeared as by a miracle the reality of future life and of the Kingdom of joy. Today, the heralds of the Old and of the New Testaments gather in a marvelous way around God carrying astonishing mysteries. Today, on Mount Tabor the mystery of the Cross has been revealed. As he was crucified between two thieves on the Mount of the Skull, the Lord appeared in all his divinity between Moses and Elijah…. The celebration of Transfiguration is a mixture of joy and of lightheartedness. The people who gather to honor the feast that took place on the divine mountain sing in unison with one heart and one mind together with the angels. The assembly dances with the stars, proclaims with the apostles, prophesies with Moses, clamors with Elijah and makes revelations from the roof-tops of mountains. We thunder in the clouds and to the heavens we give our testimony. We sound the trumpet of the rock and convoke Nazareth, and summon Galilee to join the feast. We brighten the feast, and adorn it with praises. We dance with the mountains and intone melodies with young maidens. In honor of the real God, our God, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (St. Anastasius of Sinai)
The Holy Church solemnly glorifies the honorable Dormition or translation of the Mother of God from earth to heaven. A wonderful translation – she died without serious illness, peacefully. Her soul is taken up in the divine hands of Her Son and carried up into the heavenly abode, accompanied by the sweet singing of angels. And then, her most pure body is transferred by the apostles to Gethsemane where it is honorably buried, and on the third day it is resurrected and taken up to heaven. You see this on the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos. On it is represented the life-bearing body of the Theotokos laying on a bier, surrounded by the apostles and hierarchs, and in the center of the icon the Lord holding in His hands the most pure soul of the Theotokos. The translation of the Mother of God is a paradigm of the translation in general ofWe say that our dead have “fallen asleep” or “passed away.” What does this mean? This means that for the true Christian there is no death. Death was conquered by Christ on the cross. But there is a translation, i.e, a rearrangement of his condition, i.e. his soul is in another place, in another age, in another world beyond the grave, eternal, without end, that is what is meant by “falling asleep”. It is as if it were a temporary dream after which, by the voice of the Lord and the fearful yet wonderful trumpet of the Archangel, all the dead shall live and come forth each to his place: either to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:29). This is what the Christian means by translation. We should be ready for this translation, for the day of the general resurrection and judgment, for this indescribable world event, recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
And so, ye participants in the Christian feasts, and especially the present feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, ye who are brightly adorned with every virtue and translated to the heavenly kingdom, to Her Son and God, proclaim to each and every one about preparing their souls to be the dwelling place of the Lord, about continual repentance, and about the incorruptible adornment of Christian virtue. Let your death also be unashamed and peaceful, serving as the pledge of a good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ. Amen. (St. John of Kronstadt)
Musical Selection
Prayers