Is Mary YOUR mother?

[Apples]

OC.net, do the Orthodox consider the All-Pure Mother of the Lord to be their own mother?

 

[kelly]

I think of it this way - I have my earthly mother, and I have my Heavenly Mother. I love them both the same.

 

[Mor Ephrem]

OC.net, do the Orthodox consider the All-Pure Mother of the Lord to be their own mother?

Yes. 

 

[TheTrisagion]

I can't think of any specific hymn that calls her our mother, but I think it would certainly be reasonable to say that the Theotokos is our spiritual mother.

 

[kelly]

"Behold thy mother. "

 

[LizaSymonenko]

I placed roses by her icon the other week for Mother's Day.

 

[minasoliman]

"Behold thy mother. "

This says it all!

However, at times I am inclined to feel I am not worthy to be her son.

 

[kelly]

"Behold thy mother. "

This says it all!

However, at times I am inclined to feel I am not worthy to be her son.

*shrug* Most of us aren't worty of our biological mother either

 

[Luke]

No.

 

[Apples]

I can't think of any specific hymn that calls her our mother, but I think it would certainly be reasonable to say that the Theotokos is our spiritual mother.

Exactly Dan, I haven't seen it in my limited exposure to the prayers and services, so I'm curious about it. Can I call Mary "my mother" in prayer to Her? Or at least once I'm sacramentally Orthodox. At the moment I feel sort of presumptuous and fearful in doing so.

 

[Mor Ephrem]

I can't think of any specific hymn that calls her our mother, but I think it would certainly be reasonable to say that the Theotokos is our spiritual mother.

Exactly Dan, I haven't seen it in my limited exposure to the prayers and services, so I'm curious about it. Can I call Mary "my mother" in prayer to Her? Or at least once I'm sacramentally Orthodox. At the moment I feel sort of presumptuous and fearful in doing so.

Love is not this legalistic. 

 

[Apples]

I can't think of any specific hymn that calls her our mother, but I think it would certainly be reasonable to say that the Theotokos is our spiritual mother.

Exactly Dan, I haven't seen it in my limited exposure to the prayers and services, so I'm curious about it. Can I call Mary "my mother" in prayer to Her? Or at least once I'm sacramentally Orthodox. At the moment I feel sort of presumptuous and fearful in doing so.

Love is not this legalistic. 

What do you mean, Mr. Ephraim?

 

[Alveus Lacuna]

She is the Mother of the Church. I'm a member of the church, so in some sense, yes. But not in the same way that God is my Father.

 

[Mor Ephrem]

Love is not this legalistic. 

What do you mean, Mr. Ephraim?

Without dismissing the importance of knowing, believing, and confessing correct dogma, the Christian life is a relationship.  We are incorporated into Christ's Body, and so things that are proper to Christ are also proper to us, to the extent we are capable of receiving them.  The Spirit is poured into our hearts to cry "Abba", not "Πιστεύω εις ένα Θεόν..."  A relationship is established between the Father and ourselves in and through Christ.  In a similar way (similar, not identical), I think we can say that Christ's Mother becomes ours because we have become not merely his but part of him.   

For me, it's notable that the Gospel doesn't say that Christ looked at John from the cross and said to him "Behold your mother", but that he looked at the beloved disciple.  Tradition tells us that they are one and the same, but following my teachers I take the lack of a name as an indication that all of us are called to take on and fulfill that role, to be the beloved disciple of Christ, and this necessarily involves a relationship with his Mother as our mother, a relationship fundamentally linked to his Passion (i.e., we could say, in a sense, that he died to make it possible, it might not have been so without his death).         

These relationships are fundamentally relationships of love.  We love God because he first loved us.  If we love God, we will love one another.  The Liturgy even bids us love one another so that with one mind we may confess the Orthodox faith of the Church.  If we love God, we will keep his commandments.  It is from divine love, and from relationships established in and flowing from that love, that correct faith, correct practice, and everything else in the life of the Church come forth. 

If this is so, you don't need the hymns and services to tell you that you are God's son by adoption for you actually to be so.  You enter into that relationship by divine grace received through baptismal regeneration.  A baby enters into that relationship even without knowing the alphabet or how to talk because it is love and grace.  The liturgy and teachings of the Church teach him and form him in that relationship, but are not what establish it.  If that is so with the primary relationship, that between God and a man, I don't see why it is not so with regard to the other relationships we have in Christ. 

But while these things are certainly the case with regard to the baptised, I would even say that this relationship exists to some extent even with those who have not yet been united to Christ in the Church but aspire, yearn, and are making progress toward this, because again, what draws them is divine love.           

 

[IoanC]

I consider Her mother because of Her absolute purity which is absolutely unique in all humanity (Jesus, The God-Man being the only other exception). All women are uniquely beautiful and mothers, but Mary has the all-purity or holiness which is more similar to God than to humanity.

 

[Luka]

If through Communion I become a bone of Her bones and a flesh of Her flesh, I am her son and She is my Mother.

 

[Seth84]

Her Son is our brother, so she is Our Mother.  Our Lord said as much when he was speaking to St. John on the Cross.

 

[WPM]

Unless your a blood relative of Jesus more like a Jewish handmaiden.

 

[biro]

Unless your a blood relative of Jesus more like a Jewish handmaiden.

Wrong. She's a lot more than that.



http://orthodoxwiki.org/Panagia

She's the one on the left.

Orthodox Christians honor her as the Mother of God. You should know that by now.

 

[Apples]

The hymns and prayers don't hesitate in calling her more radiant than the fiery seraphim, but won't call her "our mother"? If they're both true, why not? Of course I'm probably wrong and just haven't seen such a prayer.

 

[minasoliman]

Unless your a blood relative of Jesus more like a Jewish handmaiden.

was St. John the Evangelist a close blood relative to Christ?

 

[NicholasMyra]

Yes.

 

[minasoliman]

Yes.

Well Nicholas, if being a son of Israel or even a homo sapien counts, then we are technically all blood relatives.  But I simply wrote "close"...that is unless you're talking about our mystical transformation at the Eucharist.

 

[Mor Ephrem]

Well Nicholas, if being a son of Israel or even a homo sapien counts, then we are technically all blood relatives.  But I simply wrote "close"...that is unless you're talking about our mystical transformation at the Eucharist.

Or maybe he's just answering the OP. 

 

[minasoliman]

Well Nicholas, if being a son of Israel or even a homo sapien counts, then we are technically all blood relatives.  But I simply wrote "close"...that is unless you're talking about our mystical transformation at the Eucharist.

Or maybe he's just answering the OP. 

That's also possible 

 

[NicholasMyra]

I was, indeed. 

 

[minasoliman]

I was, indeed. 

It's okay, you're still my close brother from another mother 

 

[WPM]

Unless your a blood relative of Jesus more like a Jewish handmaiden.

was St. John the Evangelist a close blood relative to Christ?

I don't know. (I know alot about different stuff but can't tell the difference) ...

 

[scamandrius]

"Behold thy mother. "

This says it all!

However, at times I am inclined to feel I am not worthy to be her son.

Same here.