Ahead of Dormition, Metropolitan Gerasimos encourages faithful to 'ask for a maternal blessing on our lives'

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Today, we begin the two-week Dormition fast, in which we prepare ourselves to honor the Dormition or Κοίμησις of the Theotokos, celebrated each year on August 15. “On this day we gather in the Church, symbolically at Mary’s tomb, just as the apostles themselves did according to our Tradition. There, we ask for a maternal blessing on our lives,” wrote His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco in a statement issued in recognition of the fast and the upcoming feast.