[Forest Keeper]

Priest: O God of spirits and of all flesh, You have trampled down death and have abolished the power of the devil, giving life to Your world. Give rest to the soul of Your departed servant in a place of light, in a place of repose, in a place of refreshment, where there is no pain, sorrow, and suffering. As a good and loving God, forgive every sin he has committed in thought, word or deed, for there is no one who lives and is sinless. You alone are without sin. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your word is truth. (emphasis added)

What about Mary?

[Kolokotronis]

“What about Mary?”

+John Chrysostomos said she did indeed commit sin. Panagia was born as human as you and me. Her nature was as fallen as all mankind’s. In other words, she had the same propensity to sin as the rest of us. If she were different from us in that regard, her Son, Christ, would not be True God and True Man. She, however, attained a state of perfect theosis by her cooperation with and total submission to the grace of God. Because we and she are not God, while we Orthodox believe that she committed no voluntary sins in her life, she may very well have committed involuntary ones for which we Orthodox Christians also ask for forgiveness. Thus we have the line, “...for there is no one who lives and is sinless. You alone are without sin.”