tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post6173090881665489367..comments2024-03-05T06:16:30.628-06:00Comments on Mary and Mariology: "Dormition": Distinguishing Sleep and Death in Transitus MariaeServant of Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-18147626660349386252012-04-16T10:12:35.200-05:002012-04-16T10:12:35.200-05:00AB: Terrific post. I have long been interested in ...AB: Terrific post. I have long been interested in the connection of sleep with death, and you highlight it here in nice detail. I like your statement that sleep “prevents an excess of life,” together with your argument that it also prepares us for a new day of life. A similar paradox is treated in studies of rites of passage in terms of vitality; only living things have vitality, thus it must be the essence or property that also causes death, and must be overcome (thus rites of passage where the initiate symbolically dies and is reborn). St. Andrew of Crete makes a bold (but apposite in terms of your post) statement in saying that dormition is a “passage that leads us on towards transformation into a state like that of God.”<br /><br />The details are what interest me. In this analysis, Mary’s dormition and assumption are morality tales, with the details crafted to teach lessons. Are we willing to see these narratives as entirely literary because of their date, or can these still be considered historical (by the church and/or by scholars)?<br /><br />A final thought on Mary sleeping facing east. I agree with your point about her being awakened. Also, as Mary was a tabernacle to house Christ, so churches often face east (their openings, anyway).<br />~TAServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-56865484781850505172012-04-14T19:08:22.254-05:002012-04-14T19:08:22.254-05:00Lovely comparison! What's interesting, of cou...Lovely comparison! What's interesting, of course, is that Donne was and was not writing from a context that would recognize Mary's dormition as part of the faith. I myself don't know enough about Donne's life in detail to know how this played out, but (going on what I learn from Wikipedia) he was raised by Catholic parents but himself converted to Anglicanism (1615). And yet, as your reading of his post-conversion poetry shows, he was still very much thinking with the imagery of "sleep" and "death" that he could have learned in thinking about Mary's passing. An intriguing example of the persistence of metaphor in expressing such mysteries!<br /><br />RLFBServant of Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13686441055922333147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7155226280212467063.post-60003421696570165182012-04-12T13:54:26.628-05:002012-04-12T13:54:26.628-05:00I was also intrigued by this idea of "dormiti...I was also intrigued by this idea of "dormition" of the Virgin, and kept having the phrase "do not gentle go into that good night" knock around in my head (as well as some half-formed notions about the use of a ten-dollar Latinate word where our humble compound Anglo-Saxon "falling-asleep" doesn't cut it--George Orwell would be horrified, I'm sure). Now, I find myself equally intrigued by the idea of Donne's of sleep as a powerful opiate that you quote. I suppose that because sleep is the closest we can come in our lifetime to the actual, total obliteration of our consciousness that is death, it's a good poetic fit, and I like Donne's interpretation of this as a practice. I wonder if it might be another way for a (medieval) Christian to incorporate devotion into their daily (or nightly) lives--thinking about death before bed and celebrating the literal re-rising-up that each morning brings. And, now that I think of it, it could give a whole new layer of meaning to the childhood prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep," couldn't it?Blair Thornburghhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01982242466959044114noreply@blogger.com