The priest explained the spiritual meaning of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin

The Feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary gives believers hope for a future resurrection. This was reported to Izvestia by the dean of the Baltai district of the Saratov diocese, Priest Oleg Zhilyakov.

The main prayers for the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary: words that believers pronounce with special hope

The holiday is dedicated to the righteous death of the Mother of God

"The name of the holiday, Dormition, reflects the Christian attitude towards death. Death is not the end of our existence, but a dream: the deceased temporarily leaves the world in order to return to life after the universal resurrection. In the ecclesiastical sense, it is death, death. The word comes from the verb "to fall asleep", "to fall asleep" and is used in the meaning of "peaceful death, like a dream," the priest explained.

Zhilyakov also noted the special connection of the Assumption with Easter.

"The feast of the Dormition of the Virgin is popularly called "little Easter." Just as Christ awoke from his mortal sleep on the third day and rose bodily, so the Dormition of the Virgin turned out to be just a short-term dream. Christ called her from death to eternal life, and on the third day the apostles became convinced that she was not just alive: now she is with us always and everywhere, comforting and supporting us on the way to Christ," he said.

The priest reminded that this is far from the only case when death was called a dream in the Gospel.

"The Gospel tells of several cases when Christ resurrected the dead, and he called death precisely the dormition. "She is not dead, but she sleeps," the Savior said of the deceased daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus (Matthew 9:24). And about Lazarus, who fell ill and died.: "Lazarus, our friend has fallen asleep, but I am going to wake him up" (John 11:11). On Easter days, a chant is heard in the temple: "Having fallen asleep in the Flesh, you are dead..." — and here the death of Christ himself is likened to sleep," Zhilyakov explained.

Read more about the history of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Izvestia article:

"It is called the feast of hope: the true meaning of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which few people know about"