Nicholas Cabasilas, a Byzantine theologian of the fourteenth century, said, ‘The Lord allowed men, separated from God by the triple barrier of nature, sin and death, to be fully possessed of Him and to be directly united to Him by the fact He has set aside each barrier in turn: that of nature by His Incarnation, of sin by His death, and of death by His Resurrection.' This is the reason why St. Paul writes: ‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (I Cor 15:26) For St Maximus, the Incarnation (sarkosis) and deification (theosis) correspond to one another; they mutually imply each other. God descends to the world and becomes man, and man is raised towards divine fullness and becomes god, because this union of two natures, the divine and the human, has been determined in the eternal counsel of God, and because it is the final end for which the world has been created out of nothing…as we have seen, when examining the teaching of St Maximus the Confessor on creation, Adam was destined to unite in his own being the different spheres of the cosmos, in order that deification might be conferred upon them, through union with God. If these unions or successive corrections that heal the natural divisions are now brought about by Christ, it is because Adam failed in his vocation. Christ achieves them successively by following the order which was assigned to the first Adam. 

By His birth of the Virgin, He suppressed the enmity in human nature between male and female. On the cross He unites Paradise, the dwelling place of the first men before the Fall, with the material world where the fallen descendants of the first Adam now dwell; indeed, He says to the good thief, ‘today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,' yet He nevertheless continues to relate to and guide His disciples during His sojourn on earth after the Resurrection. At His Ascension, first of all, He unites the earth to the heavenly spheres, that is to the material heaven; then He penetrates into the empyrean, the very highest celestial sphere, passes through the angelic hierarchies and unites the spiritual heaven, the world of mind, with the material, perceivable world. Finally, like a new cosmic Adam, He presents to the Father the totality of the universe restored to unity in Him, by uniting the created to the uncreated. In this conception of Christ, as the new Adam, who unifies and sanctifies created being, redemption appears as one of the stages in His work, a stage conditioned by sin and the historic reality of the fallen world, in which the Incarnation has taken place…St Maximus the Confessor writes that God had foreseen the fall of Adam and the Son of God was ‘the Lamb slain before the ages’ in the pre-existent will of the Trinity. That is why we cannot expect to understand anything whatsoever apart from the cross of Christ. ‘The mystery of the Incarnation of the Word—said St Maximus—contains in itself the meaning of all the symbols and all the enigmas of Scripture, as well as the hidden meaning of all material and immaterial creation. But he who knows the mystery of the Cross and the Tomb, knows also the essential principles of all things. Finally, he who penetrates yet further and finds himself initiated into the mystery of the Resurrection, apprehends the end for which God created all things from the beginning…'

Unceasingly God ‘descends into the world’ by the acts of His providence, by His economy, which literally means the ‘construction’ or ‘administration of a house’. In the ‘fullness of time’ the Wisdom of God, already acting in the world as power, energy, providence, entered the historical process in person. The underlying, foundational Wisdom of the Father ‘built Himself a house’—the most pure flesh of the Virgin assumed by the Word…

          —Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church,  Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1976,  pp 136-7,139.  Edited for clarity.

An Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven (full text) 
by St. Innocent, Bishop of Alaska

A Timeline of Church History

There is much for a person or family to do to prepare for death and burial. In addition to receiving counsel from one’s priest, it is imperative that adults prepare for their repose so that they may receive health care and a funeral in accordance with their wishes and Orthodox Christian belief. Also, specific instructions for making health care decisions, known as Advance Directives, should be completed. It is very important to designate a legal Power of Attorney for all business and financial matters. When one’s family is not Orthodox, the desire for an Orthodox funeral should be specified in writing with copies of these instructions given to the parish priest, family members and attorney. Once completed, a file with all of the documents that have been prepared including but not limited to Advance Directives, funeral plans, Will, and any other estate related forms, should be kept in a place that may be easily accessed by your family or designated trustee at the time of death. This file should include telephone numbers of your parish priest, health care provider, attorney, family members, and the funeral home and cemetery you have chosen to provide burial services.