NEBAB #43: The Feast of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary

NEBAB #43

The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine

THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION OF THE VIRGIN MARY 

The Spiritual Education Unit

Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America

FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF CONFUSION:

Assumption: (meaning- the taking up of something/someone)

Ascension: (meaning- someone or something going up)

Excerpt from a sermon given by His Grace Abune Thaddaeus in August, 2024

“When she [the Mother of God] died on 29th January [Tir 21]... the angels took her to Paradise and put her under the tree of life from January to August… Assumption is first… and then she ascended. Assumption- they took her body from under the tree of life, they [brought] her and they buried her again, she ascended finally.”

So that means our Lady Mary:

1. Died (fell asleep)

2. Was assumed (taken up) by the angels to Paradise

3. Was brought back and buried

4. Was resurrected from the dead by her Beloved Son

5. Finally ascended into Heaven

 

In this issue:

    1. The Role of St Mary in Our Salvation

    2. From Controversy to Celebration

    3. Faith and works

    4. “Ask Abba/Kes”

    5. A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

    6. Children’s corner

    7.ይበል ግዕዝ 

    8. Orthodox Q&A

 

The Role of St Mary in Our Salvation

In the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen

“Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live.” Gen. 20:7

God allows the righteous to participate in His divine providence. However, the role of the Virgin Mary in our redemption is different from the saints' participation in His divine providence. The Virgin Mary is mentioned in the first promise of salvation after the fall in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

 The Church has always seen in this verse the prophecy of St Mary as the New Eve, and of her Son, the Redeemer. Indeed, in the Anaphora of St. Mary, the Church also confesses: “You are the hope of Adam, when he was exiled from paradise.” Throughout the Scriptures, St. Mary is prefigured in images and in symbols:

• As the New Eve, whose obedience undoes the disobedience of the first woman.
• As Jacob’s Ladder, by which heaven and earth are joined.
• As the Burning Bush, aflame with the divine presence yet unconsumed.
• As the Ark of the Covenant, the dwelling place of God’s glory.

 Our fathers sing praises of her. In the Harp of Glory or Enzira Sibhat, they sing

"Gladly will I praise you with a new song, And bowing my head I venerate you. Because of you, our ancestors recovered the Paradise of Delight From which they had been cast out after eating the fruit of the forbidden tree"

The Psalms and Prophets sing of her:

“God sanctified His dwelling, He is in the midst of her, God shall help her.” (Ps. 46:5)

“For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired her for His habitation.” (Ps. 132:13)

“At your right hand shall stand the queen in gold of Ophir.” (Ps. 45:9)

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Is. 7:14).

Saint Mary is the vessel through whom the Son of God took on our nature. Chosen before all ages, she humbly accepted the divine will, becoming not only the Mother of Christ but also the Mother of all the faithful:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” (Luke 1:42)

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38).

Her role was not confined to Bethlehem for she shared in the suffering of her Son throughout His ministry, standing by Him in faith even to the Cross. At Calvary, the Lord entrusted her to John, and through him, to all believers:

“Behold your mother.” (John 19:27).

In this moment, Mary became the mother of the redeemed, the spiritual mother of the Church. The early Fathers saw Mary as the one through whom the human story was rewritten. St. Irenaeus (130–202 AD) writes in Against Heresies:

“Just as the human race was bound over to death through a virgin, so was it saved through a virgin: the scale was balanced—a virgin’s disobedience by a virgin’s obedience. … being obedient, she was made the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. … Thus, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. 

Thus, Saint Mary is not merely another righteous intercessor but the chosen Mother through whom God became man. She is the New Eve, the Ark, the Mother of all believers, and the first to taste the fruit of salvation.

From Controversy to Celebration

In the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen

The Church’s veneration of St Mary, expressed in litanies of praise, in theological reflection, and finally in the feast of her Dormition, was never merely about St. Mary alone. It was always, and remains, a deepening of the Church’s understanding of Christ Himself. Historically, the veneration of St Mary and in particular, the celebration of the feast of the dormition, took on a new liturgical, artistic and architectural importance during the aftermath of the controversy between Nestorius and St. Cyril of Alexandria. What this dispute had done was force the church to revisit their understanding of who Christ is and by and large the Church’s relation to St. Mary and her role in the story of salvation. 

The focus on St. Mary was not simply as one who gave flesh to God’s Word but as an object of veneration in her own right. Contemporary with this new relationship to St. Mary came a growing interest in the wonderful character of her life’s end, which seems to have found its first written narrative expression among those communities of Syria and Palestine in the late fifth century which opposed as irreligious the Council of Chalcedon’s confession of a Christ who exists in two unmingled and functioning natures, the human and the divine. (These churches instead defended and retained the tewahedo faith of our fathers- one incarnate nature of God the Word. Most scholars agree that the oldest extant witness to the story (of St Mary's death) is provided by a group of Syriac fragments in the British Library describing the burial of St Mary, the reception of her soul by Jesus and the transferal of her body to Paradise, where it is buried under the tree of life.

It is striking that precisely in the period in which the ancient Church was most engaged in reflection and debate about the person of Christ both doctrine and devotion concerning his Mother seem to have evolved most fully. Love of Mary, attentive focus on her in both private and liturgical (public) prayer, recognition of her God-given roles as mediatrix and queen, ultimately even the attribution to her of a full share in her Son’s triumph over death and bodily entry into the glory of God, all seem to have grown rapidly during the fifth and sixth centuries as a kind of by product of the Alexandrian emphasis on the divine identity of Christ’s person.

 The early Church’s veneration of St Mary, the sense of her unique immersion into the Mystery of salvation because of her unique nearness to Christ, beginning in litanies of fulsome praise and ending in the feast of the Dormition, is really part of this growth in understanding of Christ himself and in drawing out its spiritual and liturgical implications. John of Damascus gave eloquent voice to the Church’s conviction. “If her childbearing was remarkable, if her conceiving was beyond all nature and understanding and was of saving worth for the world, surely her falling asleep was glorious too truly sacred and wholly worthy of praise.”

The feast of the Dormition is not only the Church’s praise of Mary, but the proclamation of its own hope. For what God accomplished in her is the pledge of what He promises to accomplish in all the faithful which is the transformation of death into life and the glorification of humanity in Christ. As we contemplate today's feast (the Ascension of St Mary), we are reminded that the Christian life is not a journey toward decay, but toward glory. In St. Mary, we see our own destiny revealed. The raising up of the humble, the crowning of obedience and the transfiguration of the human heart when it fully belongs to God. 

"And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her." 

Luke 1:38

Faith and Works:

Keeping the Feast

From August 22nd - 27th (Nehasse 16 - 21) we will celebrate the feast of our Lady's Ascension. What can we do to honour her, remember her, and make her feast fruitful for us and those around us?

In the world around you, spread the love of Our Lady this week by giving to at least one person for her sake (and aim to tell one person who is willing to listen about this glorious feast).

Personally, Psalm 45 is an excellent meditation concerning our mother. To memorise this Psalm will allow your heart to overflow with a good matter, and make your tongue the pen of a ready writer. You can learn 1 verse every day, and in a little over 2 weeks, you will know the whole Psalm. Try to savour every word. The aim is to be like our holy mother, who had no other meditation than the words/works of her Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Ask Abba/Kes

"Does Christ's death mean all our sins can be forgiven?"

As Christians, our sins are forgiven by the authority which our Lord Jesus Christ gave His apostles- "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:23). Forgiveness is a process that begins with personal private acknowledgment of sin and a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17), and culminates with confession to a priest, and the absolution of sin. God acts through the priest to forgive sin, it is not a function of the priest himself.

BIBLE QUIZ!

The Holy Bible clearly asserts the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Where in the Holy Bible can the biblical basis of "Theotokos" be found?

 

A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Maryam

A miracle [performed] by Our Lady Mary, may her prayer, petition, and blessing be with her servant Habta Iyasus, forever and ever, amen.  

Listen to the marvel, wonder, and mightily powerful miracle that Our Lady Mary performed for one of her beloved. 

A rich man regularly observed the feast of the Dormition of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Twofold Holy Virgin, the Ark of the Holy Spirit, just as the rich man did for the resurrection of her son. He would feed the hungry, quench the parched, and clothe the naked.  

Word of his deeds were heard everywhere.

Thus, many poor, needy, and destitute people longed for that rich man’s charity and regularly came to him from afar.

Then, that rich man called for a priest to perform [the services required for] the Feast. 

That priest had no eyesight, for he had been born blind out of his mother’s womb. 

But his heart’s sight was brilliant. He would teach many priests and deacons, instructing them about the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

When that priest travelled to perform [the services for] the feast, the ones he had been called to perform, many of his young students, the ones he had taught the Psalms of the prophet David and the books of the holy apostles, accompanied him [as guides]. There were thirty of them.

Only one of those students was of good character. Also, he dearly loved his teacher, as he loved himself, more than all the other students did.

While they were travelling along the road, they came across a large cliff along the road. 

Then, those young students conspired wickedly against their teacher to throw him off that cliff. 

But that one student of good character, begged his friends, saying, “My dear brothers, don’t commit this evil act against our teacher! What bad thing has he done to us? Has he not instructed and taught us the path of God? 

“So, don’t commit this evil act against this good man. Otherwise, God will hold this righteous man’s blood against us. 

“Let’s not be called ‘brother killer,’ like Cain was. Also, let’s not be called ‘the godless seller of his teacher, husband of his mother, and killer of his father,’ like Judas [Iscariot] was.

“Also, we would become like the children who, during the life of Elijah the Prophet, were killed by a bear.”

Even though he was [wisely] advising them [by quoting] from the books of the Old and New Testaments, none were swayed by that knowledgeable student’s words.

For the venom of humanity’s adversary Satan made them dizzy and intoxicated.

When that student of good character saw that the others had ignored his plea and rejected his advice, he stepped back from the students while telling them, “I will leave so that I won’t be a part of your bloody gang.”

Having said this and wanting to leave, the student of good character went to his teacher, kissed him on the mouth and embraced his neck, while weeping bitter tears and wailing loudly for he was unable to free or rescue his teacher from their hands. For he was outnumbered and the place was deserted so they were more powerful.

Because of this, that student of good character hastily fled, saying, “Let’s see if I can find someone who can help me carry my teacher’s corpse.”

He hastily fled, sobbing and crying, until he reached the place where his teacher had been invited to perform the feast. 

Meanwhile, those wicked students began to do just what they wanted to accomplish their plot. In an instant, they set out to throw their teacher over the edge of that large cliff, whose bottom could not be seen and out of which it was impossible to climb. 

As they released him, throwing that righteous man over the cliff’s edge, he placed his hope in the aid of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Twofold Holy Virgin, the Ark of the Holy Spirit. 

He was ceaselessly reciting the Archangel Gabriel’s Greeting[, that is, the Hail Mary,]  as he was being thrown off that cliff.

In the blink of an eye, the Tenderness of Thought, the Mother of the Weak, the Salvation of the Sufferers, the Crutch for Stumblers, Mary, Mariham, came to him with great majesty.

She said to him, “My dear beloved one, don’t be afraid, don’t be terrified! For it was due to your love for me that you set out on your journey. So I too set out on a journey to come quickly to your aid when I saw your suffering. Just as I always quickly come alongside those who love me whole heartedly, in the very moment of their suffering.”

Then, on the wings of the angels who served her, she instantly brought him [all the way] to where he had been invited to perform the feast.

She remained with him, although no one was able to see her except for him. 

Having entered the place dedicated to Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Twofold Holy Virgin, the Ark of the Holy Spirit, where believers celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of Her Body, she blessed that priest who had suffered violence at the hands of those wicked dogs and the Viper’s ferocious sons. 

Mary blessed him, giving him a vow that he would be with her in the kingdom of heaven.

She also blessed the rich man who celebrated the Feast of Her Assumption.

Our Lady also blessed all of the assembled people whom the rich man had invited.

As for that student of good character, who had abandoned that gang of evil dogs, she rewarded him with grace so that he could be together with his teacher in the kingdom of heaven. 

As for those wicked students, she commanded the mighty Angel of Wrath to stab them with a fiery spear until no one survived. They all perished and were destroyed in one day. 

The priest recounted this entire miracle of Our Lady Mary, Mariham, Twofold Holy Virgin, the Ark of the Holy Spirit. He told as much as he knew and had learned from the mouth of Our Lady Mary, Mariham.

May her prayer and her petition and her blessing be with her beloved Habta Iyasus, forever and ever, amen. 

My dear Lady Mary, you are the shield for the consuming fire of divinity.

Just as you quickly travelled to the aid of that righteous man, do the same for your servant, Habta Iyasus, who has made you his sanctuary. 

Just as you made a vow to that priest, show me grace by placing me on the right [of your beloved Christ]. Amen and amen!

O Holy Virgin Maryam, pray for us!

LIJOCH! The Children's Corner

Verse of the Day - Psalm 46:5

God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, God shall help her, and that right early

Find the hidden words below: Dormition, Theotokos, Heaven, Jesus, Queen, Paradise, Faith, Glory, Ark, Cross, Life, Obedience, Bride, Mary

D O R M I T I O N X Z H  
F Q U E E N Y P A R A D  
A J E S U S O R B R I D  
I T H E O T O K O S L E  
T R O A R K V G L O R Y  
H O B E D I E N C E P M  
M A R Y U H E A V E N S  
C R O S S J Q L I F E W 

Which word reminds you most of St. Mary, and why?

ይበል:ግዕዝ (yibel Ge’ez)

Let's reclaim our forefathers’ language

As we read and sing, let us praise our lady forever (Psalm 45:17) with the word:

ወደሰ 

wedese - to praise

ወደሰ wedese means to praise, commend, or eulogise (to speak well of someone or something, from the Greek eu - 'good' and logos - 'word')

From this verb we get the causative አወደሰ awedese - to cause to be praised (Psalm 45:17) and the passive ተወደሰ tewedese - to be praised, or by implication, to be praiseworthy or deserving of praise (ትዌድሶ መርዓት ወትብሎ tiwediso mer'at we tiblo - the bride said to him, praising him).

And of course, from this verb we get ውዳሴ widase - a praise or laudation (noun)- as in ውዳሴ ማርያም widase Maryam - the Praise of Mary.

NOTE: This word is commonly transcribed in English as wudase which leads to some mispronunciation. This phenomenon is not unique to English however, as modern day speakers of the descendants of Ge'ez also commonly make this mistake- likely due to the similarity of the 6th form letter ው wi- to most 2nd form letters like ሉ lu-, ሱ su, and the very similar ሙ mu-.

ORTHODOX Q&A

"What sort of Redeemer is needed to bring us back to God?"

One who is truly human and truly God. 

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

For this reason God the Word became man (John 1:14), uniting the nature of God (divinity) with human nature (humanity), suffered, died in the flesh and rose from the dead on the 3rd day.

Send us your questions at: seu.eotccarla@gmail.com

Short message on behalf the Spiritual Education Unit:

His Grace Abune Thaddaeus, Head Administrator Archimandrite Abba Gebreyesus, and all clergy and faithful- thank you for the opportunity to share this labour of love with you. Thanks also to the team of the Spiritual Education Unit for their hard work.

-Liqe Teghuan Tekle Mariam Greene

References

Daley, B. On the Dormition of Mary. Early Patristic Homilies

Guckin, J. A. Harp of Glory Enzira Sebhat. St Vladimir's Seminary Press

Miracle of Mary: https://pemm.princeton.edu/en-us/stories/362

CONTACT US:

Archdiocese headquarters: Medhane Alem (Saviour of the World), Old Golden Grove Rd. Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago.

Tel. 868-642-4230.

e-mail: eotc.arch.carla@gmail.com

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