Spirituality | Orthodoxy

Awake, O my harp, your chords,
in praise of the Virgin Mary!
Lift up your voice and sing
the wonderful history of this Virgin,
The daughter of David,
who gave birth to the Life of the world!
--St. Ephraim the Syrian

Introduction
During my youth in an ever growing and expanding church in Shoubra, it was counted an honor to have service requested of any individual. So much so, that a reply of consent to such an honorable request was often deemed redundant. To have been asked to serve God in any capacity was considered the ultimate, golden standard of honors, not a deed to be performed as "should I or shouldn't I do it?", "an extra work" that could possibly be scheduled in, a task to hurriedly be completed without giving priority to God through one's best efforts; nor did it fall behind in importance to work, social activities, collegiate aspirations, computers and TV programming, and fun times with friends and family gatherings. Rather, Service came as a guaranteed, readily understood, accepted–as–first-place in the life of those who were asked to serve. Service was viewed with anticipation and quiet humbleness, and fore mostly considered and counted among one's greatest blessings in life.

Having felt the need to regain this fervor for service and to rededicate oneself to it I felt obligated to write about serving the Lord, the church, and one another. The Biblical representation that immediately emerges is the Blessed Virgin Mary and her life of complete devotion and service to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Blessed St. Mary did not once say let me think about this manner of conception planned by God, foreign to her usual way of thinking, in which many will doubt my good name. The humble St. Mary did not question the role selected for her but replied that she would willingly serve as the handmaiden of the Lord, she did not offer up excuses such as if I don't have to give up my regularly scheduled activities, my one day off, if it doesn't take too much time of my personal time, or if it somehow fits into my hectic over extended schedule.

Rather, St. Mary replied...

"Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).

As with all those counted by historians as "Greats among Greats" St. Mary achieved her greatness through her manner of obedient service to the Lord. Her true greatness was derived through her willingness to serve not through the use of affluence having born the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather St. Mary used her influence to serve God and others.

"But Jesus called them to Himself and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant'" (Matthew 20:25-26).

St. Mary became great through her service, through her quietness, her willingness and readiness to serve, and putting God first in her life's situation. It is very doubtful St. Mary desired greatness which made her even more endearing as the subject of this article related to serving.

This article and three others will tackle St. Mary's life of service:

• Part I: Who is St Mary,
• Part II: St. Mary's Young Adult Life of Service
• Part III: St. Mary's Adulthood
• Part IV: St. Mary's Late and Heavenly Life

Part IV: St Mary's Late and Heavenly Life

After the death of St. Mary's only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, St. Mary lived under the care of St. John the Beloved according to her Son's commandment. She served the disciples and apostles by her love and prayers.

When St. Mary was about sixty years old, while keeping vigil, praying in the Holy Sepulcher, an angel announced to her that she would depart this earthly vain world following three days. The disciples of the Lord and many faithful gathered around her such as the virgins of the Mount of Olives-Zeitoun. St. Mary, while lying on her bed, stretched forth her hand and blessed each of the believers and the room which contained her earthly body shone in heavenly glory. It is said that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself surrounded by thousands and thousands of angels came to receive His mother's blessed and pure soul. The Lord Jesus Christ came for His blessed mother's soul and ascended her soul to Heaven.

The disciples prayed upon her pure and unblemished body, shrouded it and prepared it according to custom for burial. Upon traveling to the grave yard in Gethsemane with her body, a Jewish man named Rueben, tried to deter them and disturb the body within the coffin. The Jewish man's arms were severed from his body upon touching the Mother of God's coffin. Screaming with pain as his arms detached from his body, the apostles prayed for his weakness, his pain, and most probably his soul and he was healed having his arms reattached to his body. From that period of time on, this man was counted among the faithful. Rueben was baptized at once and began to preach. Thus in her departure, St. Mary's service rose to the occasion.

Following the burial, the disciples turned their travels back to Jerusalem meeting St. Thomas on the way who was absent at the time of burial of St. Mary. The disciples informed St. Thomas of St. Mary's departure at which St. Thomas insisted they must take him back to see her blessed body as St. Thomas said, "I will not believe, unless I see her body, as you all know how I did doubt the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ before." When the disciples took St. Thomas to the tomb and opened the coffin of St. Mary they were perplexed, amazed, and once again uncovering a non-existent body that had ascended into Heaven, because St. Mary's body was missing. St. Thomas explained to them all that while on his journey to Jerusalem, he saw the body of St. Mary being transported by heavenly angels ascending into Heaven. One of the angels had allowed St. Thomas to "hurry and kiss the pure body of St. Mary" as it was transcending. The blessed St. Mary did not allow St. Thomas to have any doubts of her love for him.

The Holy Spirit told the apostles "The Lord did not will her holy body on remain on earth." The Lord had promised His apostles that they would see her in the flesh at an appointed time. On the sixteenth day of the Coptic month of Mesore this promise was fulfilled.

The disciples saw St. Mary sitting on the right hand of her Son and her Lord, surrounded by the angelic Host, as King David the Prophet prophesied and said,

"At your right hand stands the queen" (Psalm 45:9).

Surely, the body of the blessed Virgin could not remain upon this earth, nor return to the dust thereof. Especially, since it must be noted that the Son she so willing bore was not of the dust of the earth. The Dormition of St. Mary is celebrated on the 29th of January and also on the 21st of each Coptic month.

As the Second Heaven on earth, the Mother of God, provided a vessel for the Son of Righteousness to shine.

St. Mary's life on earth was sixty years. She spent twelve years of her life in the temple, thirty years in the house of the righteous St. Joseph, and fourteen years in the care of St. John the Beloved, as the Lord commanded her saying, "Woman behold your son" (John 19:26), and to St. John, "Behold your mother" (John 19:27).

Heavenly Age
On the twenty-first day of the Coptic month of Paone, the Coptic Church celebrates the commemoration of the first church to be built in the name of the blessed St. Mary. When the two apostles St. Paul and Silas preached among the Gentiles, many believed and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior in the city of Philippi. They built a church there in the name of the St. Mary, the Mother of God, and its consecration is on this twenty-first day.

On April 12, 1968 at 8:30 pm, the workers of a nearby Public Transit System garage across the street from St. Mary's church in Zeitoun, saw a young girl dressed in ethereal white walking over the dome of the church. Startled, since the dome's height made casually walking upon it impossible, they thought the young girl would surely fall. They called the police.

As people were gathering witnessing the occurrence, the news rushed to the church priest Abouna Constantine who immediately sent word notifying His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI, the one hundred sixteenth Pope of the City of Alexandria and See of St. Mark. A young girl described as having a halo of light encompassing her, holding an olive branch in her hand, and bowing down in worship in front of the cross on top of the dome of the church.

Pope Kyrillos sent a delegation of bishops to witness the event, scientifically explore the occurrence and then issued a declaration of the miraculous apparition of the Blessed Virgin. The beloved pope stated, "We thank the Lord for his great compassion. The Blessed Virgin is still appearing in a very clear way, and for long periods of time, that could extend to two hours without interruption. She has been seen by thousands, by Christians, and non-Christian alike. This event has caused many people to return back to their faith, and many others to convert. Numerous miracles have accompanied the appearances. People come from all walks of life came to record the different miracles that happened to them. Also, doctors testified about the miraculous healings which occurred to their patients."

St. Mary's church in Zeitoun is located on the way to Matareia, which is on the same path that the Holy Family took when they arrived in Egypt.

The apparition of St. Mary was also witnessed within the church of St. Demiana. On March 25th, 1986, the appearance of St. Mary continued in St. Demiana's church in Shoubra, Cairo. Thousands of people also witnessed this great and glorious event. Abouna Pishoy said, "The apparition has already cured the blind and the handicapped."

St. Augustine summarizes the life of St. Mary's service in stating,

"Mary, sprung from Adam, died on consequences of sin;
Adam died in consequence of sin,
and the flesh of the Lord, sprung from Mary,
died to destroy sin."

May the intercessions and the prayers of the Mother of God, the Ever Virgin and pure in spirit St. Mary be with us all. Amen.

http://www.coptichymns.net/