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On the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos - August 15
"If recompense is bestowed according to the measure of love for God, and if the man who loves the Son is loved of Him and of His Father and becomes the dwelling place of Both, and They mystically abide and walk in him, as it is recorded in the Master's Gospel, who, then, will love Him more than His Mother? For, He was her only-begotten Son, and moreover she alone among women gave birth knowing no spouse, so that the love of Him that had partaken of her flesh might be shared with her twofold. And who will the only-begotten Son love more than His Mother, He that came forth from her ineffably without a father in this last age even as He came forth from the Father without a mother before the ages'? How indeed could He that descended to fulfill the Law not multiply that honor due to His Mother over and above the ordinances of the Law? "
- St. Gregory Palamas
"The Holy One (the Word of God) was pleasing to God the Father; the Virgin was pleasing to the substantial Word, begotten from the Father before the ages; the Virgin was pleasing to the Life-giving Spirit, Who gives every being light and transforms them into citizens of heaven. For if Enoch, who pleased God, was taken up 'that he might never see death' (Gen, 5:24; Heb. 11:5), how much more would God have taken up the soul of her whom He had made one body with divine grace, to the Paradise of delight where the divine light shines without end! And if He commanded that Elijah, who was a Prophet, should mount to Heaven in a chariot of fire (I Kings 2:11), how much more she who is foretold and called blessed in the Prophets' writings, who shines in an outstanding way among the Prophets and the Apostles like the moon in the midst of the stars. "
- Theoteknos of Livias
Always Pray
"If you do not feel like praying, you have to force yourself. The Holy Fathers say that prayer with force is higher than prayer unforced. You do not want to, but force yourself. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force (Matt. 11:12). "