Mother of God

"It can be directly asserted, that an authentic and religious attitude towards man in all its extent, with all the particular and personal details, reveals itself only then ultimately, when it is sanctified by the path of the Mother of God, set in accord with Her footsteps. It is in light of Her. 

And herein is the very chief thing -- to have a sympathetic sense, of what the Golgotha of the Son was for His Mother.

He undergoes the voluntary sufferings on the Cross, -- She involuntarily co-suffers with Him. He bears the sins of the world, -- She co-works with Him. She co-participates, She co-feels, co-suffers, His flesh is crucified, -- She is co-crucified."  - Mother Maria of Ravensbruk

There tends to be a division in the Church Universal over the place of Mary.  Mother Maria starts at common ground for all of the Churches within the Universal Church.  We can all agree on this point: As the Mother of Christ our God, Mary bore suffering with Him. If only in attending His life and death, she bore all of the stress and strain any mother bears when her child grows and suffers.

This beginning place is essential.  Another place to land on common ground with the Virgin is in her role as Theotokos.  Theotokos means God-Bearer.  She is the God-Bearer; and as she bore God in her womb, we are to bear God in our hearts/lives.  We are all called to be God-Bearers - Christ-Bearers.

Both of these strains of Mariology have always produce a deep and abiding compassion.  To understand the suffering of a Mother and to bear God in our lives always softens people.  It makes people tender.  These are both great places to begin understanding who Mary is in the life of the Church.

Ciao!

+Tom