Every year some parishes like to award and acknowledge an outstanding mother as “Mother of the Year”. You can imagine the reaction from the Greek mothers and their families that do not get this achievement each year. I chose to put an end to this dispute when I nominated the Mother of the Year to be the Virgin Mary. She is the Mother of God and the Mother to us all. No one challenges this recipient and everyone agrees that this honor belongs to the woman who is full of grace.
Why do we have such a devotion to the Panagia? Because she changed the course of the entire human race and its relationship with God by accepting her calling to become His mother. No one else in the history of humanity has or will have this relationship to Christ as does the Virgin Mary. She holds her Son in her arms and in her Dormition her soul is held by her Son. This is why when we celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos it is not a sad event for the Panagia, but a joyful one as she meets her Son again.
Our love, respect, and honor to the Theotokos is great and inseparable from our Liturgical life. The Liturgical calendar begins with the Nativity of the Theotokos on September 8 and ends with the Dormition of the Theotokos on August 15. Every service in the Orthodox Church commemorates and honors the Theotokos. She has countless icons attributed to her different miracles and is depicted as the Directress, Joy of All Who Sorrow, the Unfading Rose, and the Glykofilousa (sweet kiss). She is faithful, sweet, compassionate, and meek, yet she is the Protectress of all nations and the Mighty Defender or Ti Ypermaho (Akathist Hymn) of every city. The title Mighty Defender was once the title the Athenians gave to Athena, the mighty Goddess of War, to protect the city, but this same title is used for the Panagia. Though the Panagia is not a soldier, she is ceaselessly defending our Mother Church and protecting our faithful through her fervent prayers and intercessions. She is powerful because of her faith and love for her Son. She is the example of what it means to put our pride, fears, anxiety, pain, and our doubts aside and follow what God calls us to do, and thus changing the entire world and giving it hope. Like in the Wedding of Cana, Mary never stops telling Christ when the sweetness and joy in people’s lives runs out and needs to be transformed.
As we prepare to celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos on August 15, let us emulate the obedience, humility and devotion of the Panagia, and let us honor her as our Mother of the Year.