san francisco, california 1971

holy virgin cathedral, outer richmond

One, two, Freddy’s comin’ for you... Three, four, better lock your door... Five, six, grab a crucifix... Seven, eight, gonna stay up late... Nine, ten, never sleep again!

A portrait of the character Nancy Thompson, from A Nightmare On Elm Street, as “the virgin martyr”. I’ve always liked this film, and it will always have a special place in my heart, since it was the first slasher film I saw in its entirety, when I was 14 (and it scared the hell outa me! LOL)

The Moscow school of icon painting is one of the historically biggest and most significant icon painting schools in Russian iconography. Lasting about two centuries, it has produced quite a few talented icon painters who shaped holy art throughout their careers. The featured icon of Our Lady of the Sign was painted by an anonymous painter from the Moscow school back in the early 1600s. Nowadays, it is held in the collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Orthodox icon of the Dormition of Theotokos. Fresco of 14th cent. Monastery of Chora, Constantinople. The feast of the Dormition or Falling-asleep ...

Diormition feast sermon from Archbishop Kyrill 

The event of the death of the Mother of God was not only physical, but as the philosophers would say, metaphysical. That is, something that is not subject to the laws of nature and belongs not so much to the physical world as to the spiritual world.

In Church Tradition, which goes back to deep antiquity, to the second to third centuries, the great mystery of the Theotokos’s ascent to Heaven in her most pure flesh was included in her veneration.

Thanks to her especial purity of soul and flesh, she was vouchsafed to become the vessel that contained the divine Spirit, so that from her was born the Son of God and Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. Why did it happen this way? It was by no means random. In the Epistle of Apostle Paul to the Philippians that we read today (Philip. 2:5–11), we find these words: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.' The apostle speaks of the great task that the Virgin Mary resolved in full measure, and by her sanctity and purity was made worthy to become the Mother of the incarnate Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, few there are who can fulfill this commandment in full measure. And even those who were saved and became saints did not achieve this by their own merits, but by the power of God’s grace, the power of the Holy Spirit—that Spirit, the seal of Which each one of us receives through the Sacrament of Chrismation. Therefore, all of us ordinary people who bear upon ourselves the seal of human limitation, who commit sins, nevertheless have the opportunity to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit—on the condition of our sincere repentance.

The example of the Most Holy Virgin Mary should be a guiding star for each one of us.