The
Virgin Mary: A Celebration of Our Faith
Presentation
for Women's Ministries Meeting
“For
behold… all generations will call me blessed.” Luke 1:48
OVERALL
OBJECTIVES:
- Understand
the importance of the Theotokos as an intercessor in our relationship with
Jesus Christ and
- Understand
the importance of the Theotokos as a model for us today.
FOCUS:
- Consider
that there is not single service in the Orthodox Faith which does not contain
one or more references to the Virgin Mary.
- The
Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus (431) established the title of the Theotokos
as the “Birth-giver of God.”
- The
veneration of the Virgin Mary is a necessary component of our faith.
- “The
image of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mother, stands [as] the image of infinite
humility and purity, yet filled with beauty and strength; the image of love
and the victory of love.
- “The
Virgin Mary, the All-Pure Mother demands nothing and receives everything.
She pursues nothing and possesses all. In the image of the Virgin Mary, we
find … compassion, tender-heartedness, care, trust, humility. We call
her our Lady and the Queen of heaven and earth, and yet she calls herself
“the hand-maid of the Lord.” ….
- “Christ
said, ‘Do not be anxious… Seek first the Kingdom of God’
(see Mt 6:33). Beholding this woman – Virgin Mother, Intercessor –
we begin to sense, to know not with our mind, but with our heart, what it
means to seek the Kingdom, to find it, and to live by it.”
-
The above are excerpted from The Virgin Mary: The Celebration of Faith by
Alexander Schmemann, pages 21 – 22.
It is truly fitting to bless you, O Theotokos, ever blessed and most pure, and
the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond
compare than the Seraphim, without defilement you gave birth to God the Word.
True Theotokos, we magnify you!
