The idea of the Spiritual Motherhood

[nusaibatara]

of Mary, that is our Mother, is part of the ancient Christian tradition, independent of the Scriptural support. According to Origen the perfect Christ has Mary as Mother: "Every perfect person no longer lives (of himself) but Christ lives in Him; and because Christ lives in him, it is said to him of Mary: Behold thy Son Christ" (Com. in Ioan I 4, 23). St. Epiphanius derives Mary's Spiritual buy phone number list Motherhood from the Eve-Mary parallel: "She (Mary) is she of whom Eve is the prototype, who, as such received the appellation 'mother of the living' ... as to externals the whole human race stemmed from that Eve.. Thus in truth, through Mary, the very life of the world was born, so that She bore the Living One, and became Mother of the Living" (Haer 78, 18). St. Augustine bases Mary's Spiritual Motherhood on the "mystical unity of the faithful with Christ. As the bodily Mother of God, she is, in a spiritual fashion, also the Mother of those who are articulated with Christ" (cf. De s. virginitate 6, 6).