NEBAB #49 The Death of St Mary

 NEBAB #49

The Orthodox Tewahedo Magazine

THE DEATH OF SAINT MARY

The Spiritual Education Unit

Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Archdiocese of the Caribbean and Latin America

In this issue:

    1. The Dormition Falling Asleep of the Virgin Maryam

    2. Passing through Death

    3. Faith and works

    4. “Ask Abba/Kes”

    5. Miracle of the Virgin Mary

    6. Children’s corner

    7.ይበል ግዕዝ 

    8. Orthodox Q&A

 

The Dormition Falling Asleep of the Virgin Maryam

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

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” Psalm 116:15

The annual feast of the dormition of the Virgin Mary coincides with the season commemorating the different manifestations of Christ’s glory and divinity, including His Incarnation and His baptism as well as the miracle of Cana of Galilee. The Feast is celebrated in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church on Tirr 21st or January 29th in the Gregorian Calendar. The feast day is also referred to as  Asteriyo Mariam. Asteriyo (አስተርእዮ), a Ge’ez term meaning "appearance" or "manifestation," or "revelation". This is because they were many miracles and appearances associated with the death of Saint Mary.

According to the Ethiopian Synaxarium, When the time for her to depart from her body drew nigh, the Apostles and the virgins who were there weeping asked her to bless them, and she laid her hands upon them, and blessed them.  And straightway our Lord Christ took her pure soul in His Divine Hands, and He wrapped it up in a cloth of light, and took it up with Him to the habitation above.  And her Son, our Lord, commanded the Apostles to bury her body in a fitting manner, and they carried it to Gethsemane.  And before her soul departed, our Lady looked and saw a great light, which it is impossible for the tongue of man to describe.  And our Lord Christ said unto her, “Henceforth thy body shall depart to the Garden of Delight, and thy soul shall dwell in the abode of joy, wherein the angels shall praise [God] before thee.”  

And our Lady said unto Him, “I beseech Thee, in the operation of Thy wisdom, to hearken unto my petition.  Whosoever shall pray unto Thee in my name do Thou in Thy mercy receive his petition.  Whosoever is in tribulation and shall pray to Thee in my name, deliver Thou him from all his tribulation, for Thou art Almighty in heaven and on earth.  Bless everywhere those who shall celebrate the commemoration of my name, and accept the offerings of all those who shall offer gifts in my name.”  And our Lord Jesus answered and said unto her, “Behold, I have done for thee all which thou didst ask of Me.  Rejoice, for every gift and every honor I will give thee from my holy Father.  And everyone who shall pray unto Me in thy name henceforward shall never perish, neither in this world nor in that which is to come, for I will be to him a kindly intercessor with My heavenly Father.”  After our holy Lady the Virgin Mariyam was dead the Apostles prepared her for burial, and they carried her on a bier so that they might take her to Gethsemane, as our Lord commanded.  When the Jews heard of this and they knew that it was our Lady Mariyam [on the bier], they went out to her, and one of them seized her bier with his hand in order to throw her off from it on the ground; and the angel of God smote him with a sword of fire, and cut off his hands, and they remained hanging on the bier.  And then the Jew believed on our Lord Christ, and he entreated our Lady Mariyam with tears and repentance for what he had done, and he wept bitterly, saying, “Verily, O pure Virgin, thou art the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thou God in truth, I beseech Thee to have compassion upon me.”  And through the prayers of the holy Apostles his hands were restored to their former positions.  When the Apostles had buried her they remained there three days; now her death took place on Sunday, the twenty-first day of the month of Ter.   And our Lord Jesus sent angels of light, and they carried her body away from the grave, and laid it under the Tree of Life, which is in the Garden of Delight.  Now Thomas the Apostle was not present at the time of her death, but as he was coming on the cloud, he found her body with the angels.  And one of the angels said unto him, “Make haste and salute the body of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mariyam”; and he made haste and saluted her.  And when he came to the Apostles they told him how our Lady Mariyam was dead, and he said unto them, “I did not know it until I saw her body, even as ye made me to know when I doubted the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And when he came to the grave to see the body of our Lady Mariyam, and they opened the grave, they could not find her body; and they were amazed and marveled exceedingly.  And straightway Thomas told them how he had saluted her holy body as the angels were carrying her up [to heaven].  And the Holy Spirit said unto them, “God doth not wish her body to lie in the earth.”  And God made a covenant with the Apostles that even as He had shown Himself, so He would show her to His servants a second time, and He bade them wait until the seventeenth day of the month Nahase (Aug.-Sept.); and He fulfilled the covenant.  And all the days of her life were sixty years; twelve years she lived in the Temple, three and thirty years she lived with Joseph, and after the Resurrection of our Lord Christ she lived for fifteen years in the house of John the evangelist, even as our Lord commanded her when He said unto her, “Behold thy son,” and to John, “Behold thy mother.”  Salutation to the going forth of thy soul from the body without fear of death.  Salutation to the going forth of thy soul, and to thy death, which was like unto a marriage.

Saint Mary, before the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, requested to Him to inform her of her departure. He replied saying, “My pure mother, Queen of saints, Temple of the living God and most blessed among women, how will I abandon you? You bore me in your womb, nourished Me, endured the was realized. 

We must pray for the Virgin Mary’s intercession and help, asking for her to plead for us and be our safety during our lives.

St. Mary lived on earth for 64 years. She spent 3 years and 7 months in her parents' home before being dedicated to the temple, where she served God for 12 years. At the age of 15, she left the temple and lived in Joseph’s house for 33 years and 3 months, until the Ascension of the Lord. Following this, she lived with St. John the Evangelist for 15 years, as instructed by Christ on the cross: " Woman, behold thy son," and [that] He looked at him and said unto His disciple, " Behold thy mother."

Passing through Death

"Hallelujah to the Father, Hallelujah to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, one united Trinity, how did the Mother of God cry with fear like all humanity when death visited her? John covered her with his cloak

Why do the powerful take pride in their power? And the rich in the surplus of their riches? Christ did not spare His own body from death. Death is due to all mortals, but the death of Mary astounds all

Therefore, know that in order that He might not be biased in His judgment, the Son commanded with His righteous word that His Mother and the mother of all taste death."

One of the great marvels of this feast is that the Mother of God, being holy and pure, tasted death, not in fear as sinners do, but passed through it, as all did. Our God became One of us in order to die, that passing through death He might lead us through it, into the everlasting life on the other side. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because You are with me. Going through the gate of death, our Lord made what had been a one-way street into a U-turn, so that going toward death is not terrible for us, because we know we are going toward resurrection.

It was because our parents Adam and Eve entered into the gate of death that God the Word became flesh, and it was because death is due to all mortals that the Immortal died, undoing the power death had over us. It is by passing through death that the Lord prepared the way for those who follow Him, and did not spare even His own mother, as He did not spare His own flesh which He took from her, but allowed the Mother of All to taste death.

Salutation be to your death, Mother of the Light, Burning Bush of Sinai, who did not fear when the time of your rest approached, but asked your Son to gather your children to you.

Faith and Works:

A Cup of Cold Water

Celebrating the feast day of the death of the Virgin Mary means, among other things, giving to the poor on her day. We do this for several reasons:

Matthew 10

⁴⁰ "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

What we do toward the Mother of God, we do toward her Son, who is always one with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. When we give on behalf of our Lady, we are ambassadors of her (we who are called to be saints and her, the saint of saints), and through her, of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sweet Aroma of the Saints.

⁴¹ He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

By giving in the name of the Mother of God, we receive her reward- that is, we receive the same reward she received from God, andim (and another interpreation) we receive her reward- we receive a reward from her.

⁴² And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward."

Whoever gives to the poor, the widows or the orphans- who are little in status- in the name of the Mother of God, will not lose their reward. If the Lord had said "a cup of wine", or "a fatted calf", it would not be accessible to all, so He said "a cup of cold water", but do not think that the one who has wine or can kill the fatted calf for his guest will receive the reward if he only gives a cup of cold water.

Ask Abba/Kes

"What does it mean to give 'in the name of'?"

First, it means to give on the feast day of (a saint, usually). Secondly, it means to give according to the example of the saint. For example, our St Kristos Semra was a good Christian woman who attended church every week, and was very wealthy, but her one great weakness was anger. One day after the birth of her 11th child, she hit her servant in a bad way such that the servant died. Crying out to the God of St Teklehaimanot, she promised that she would follow St Teklehaimanot's example if God raised her servant. God accepted her prayer, and she took her infant child and went to the monastery. In the example of St Teklehaimanot, she left her door open always, and therefore she received the wings and crowns that St Teklehaimanot got.

BIBLE QUIZ!

Which Psalm says "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints?"

A Miracle of the Holy Virgin Mary

A miracle performed by Our Lady Mary, Holy Twofold Virgin, the Mother of God, may her prayer and her blessing be with her servant La’eka Maryam, in the morning and in the evening, forever and ever, amen.

A poor woman’s husband died and left her with three daughters. The name of the oldest daughter was Mary, the second daughter’s name was Martha, and the third daughter was called Yawahit.

The widow was very poor. She lacked daily food, except when she received charity from other people.

When the daughters grew up and reached marriageable age, no one from that city wanted to marry them because of their poverty. Their mother grieved over this fact. So she went to the Church of Our Lady Mary, Holy Twofold Virgin, the Mother of God, which was in [the region of] Tsenaʿ1 and was called Tayda.2

The widow wept in front of the icon saying, “My dear Lady, I have protected my daughters until today. But I have no one who will marry them because of my poverty. I have no power to do anything about it. But you are the mother of orphans; remove my sorrow.”

That night, Mary appeared to the widow in a dream and said to her, “Your oldest daughter is [now] mine, and I will bring her up to me. As for your two other daughters, I will send Teweg the craftsman, who lives in the city of Maqamas.3 He will take your daughters from you and marry them to his sons.”

When the widow awoke from her slumber, she believed in what Mary had said.

Three days later, her oldest daughter called Mary died. When the people heard of her death, they came to prepare her body to be buried.

But her mother remained joyful and did not weep.

One of the people who had come to comfort her said, “Why are you hardening your heart? Why are you not weeping over your daughter?”

The widow told them what Our Lady Mary, Holy Twofold Virgin, the Mother of God, had said to her in the vision.

They [all] worshiped our Lord Christ and his Virgin Mother, the Intercessor of Mercy for the children of humanity. Then they buried that daughter.

After just a few days, Teweg the craftsman came, took her two daughters, and married them to his sons.

And so, this craftsman led them on a long journey just as Our Lady Mary, Holy Twofold Virgin, the Mother of God, did with her son and with Joseph and Salome when they entered the land of Egypt, passed near ‘Asmunen, and arrived at Dabra Qwesqwam.

Teweg's household continues even today. Teweg’s story is [now] written in the homily of Our Lady Mary, Holy Twofold Virgin, the Mother of God, which is read during the feast of Qwesqwam. His sons and the daughters of that [widowed] woman, whom Teweg the craftsman married to his sons, live even now.

May the prayer and blessing of Our Lady Mary, Holy Twofold Virgin, the Mother of God, be with her servant La’eka Maryam, who loves her limitlessly. Amen.

O Holy Virgin Mary, pray for us!

LIJOCH! The Children's Corner

Draw a picture of John's vision in Revelation 12:1-6

Who is the woman?

ይበል:ግዕዝ (yibel Ge’ez)

Let's reclaim our forefathers’ language

In the hymns of the death of St Mary, we hear the word

ዕረፍታ

irefta

her rest

ዕረፍታ irefta comes from ዐረፈ arefe, to rest, die, give ease or find relief

It gives us the word ዕረፍት ireft, rest, which becomes  ዕረፍታ for her rest..

ምዕራፍ mi'iraf, also comes from this verb and can mean a chapter of a book (a place where the reader can rest), or a punctuation mark for musical notation (denoting a musical rest, where the singer can take a rest).

ORTHODOX Q&A

"I'm struggling to fit into the Ethiopian culture.  Why do I have to do this to join the Church?"

The culture is the culture of the people, but the church keeps and gives you the faith. You aren't joining the church to become Ethiopian, but to become Christian.

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

Miracle of Mary: https://pemm.princeton.edu/en-us/stories/57

 

CONTACT US:

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Tel. 868-642-4230.

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

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