August 2026 Dormition Letter from Father Menas
- Aug 14
- 1 min read
Updated: Aug 15
Dear Friends and Stewards of the Monastery,
As we keep the radiant feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Church presents a mystery both sorrowful and joyful: death filled with life.
The Mother of Life passes through death, yet death cannot hold her. She who bore Christ our Life is taken by her Son from this passing world into the fullness of His Kingdom. Her Dormition teaches us how a Christian is meant to die, and therefore how a Christian is meant to live.
The Theotokos did not become holy through wondrous signs visible to the world. Her greatness was her complete surrender to God: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” From Nazareth to Golgotha, and from the Resurrection until her Dormition, she remained faithful to that first Yes.
And so must we. We say yes every time we give God a little more prayer, a little more silence, a little more obedience, a little less self-love and idle distractions.
And when our own hour comes, may the Most Holy Theotokos teach us to place ourselves peacefully into the hands of her Son. This is what our beloved Saint Joseph the Hesychast prayed for most fervently, and was granted to him as the sun set on the feast of the Dormition of the Panagia in 1959. May we all join them one day in the Eternal Kingdom of Her Son, the King of Peace.
In Christ's Abiding Love,
Father Menas, Superior
And all the Brotherhood
