Reflection: When Mary’s repose drew near, the Apostles were miraculously gathered "like clouds and eagles" from the ends of the earth. This assembly demonstrates that Christian existence is intrinsically corporate; we are saved within the Community, the Body of Christ.
Practice: Pray specifically for your local parish community and the "universal fellowship of all believers," both living and departed.
Life of the Saint, The Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary - Orthodox Church in America: “The faithful, whose number by then was impossible to count, gathered together, says Saint John of Damascus, like clouds and eagles, to listen to the Mother of God. Seeing one another, the Disciples rejoiced, but in their confusion they asked each other why the Lord had gathered them together in one place. Saint John the Theologian, greeting them with tears of joy, said that the time of the Virgin's repose was at hand.
Going in to the Mother of God, they beheld Her lying upon the bed, and filled with spiritual joy. The Disciples greeted Her, and then they told her how they had been carried miraculously from their places of preaching. The Most Holy Virgin Mary glorified God, because He had heard Her prayer and fulfilled Her heart's desire, and She began speaking about Her imminent end.
Bewailing their separation from the Mother of God, the Apostles prepared to bury Her all-pure body. The holy Apostles Peter, Paul, James and others of the Twelve Apostles carried the funeral bier upon their shoulders, and upon it lay the body of the Ever-Virgin Mary. Saint John the Theologian went at the head with the resplendent palm-branch from Paradise. The other saints and a multitude of the faithful accompanied the funeral bier with candles and censers, singing sacred songs. This solemn procession went from Sion through Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane.”
Festal Menaion, p.22, p.35-36, (Florovsky, “The Worshipping Church”)