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!