Ye, therefore, as well as all your fellow travelers, are God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness. Let us therefore do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be his temples.
-Saint Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Ephesians
The Greek word for God-bearer is Theotokos and is a title given to Our Lady by the Eastern Church. The fact that Ignatius uses this title to refer to all believers in his letter to the Ephesians, shows that we, fallible though we are, are called to be holy as Mary is holy. When we say we are "only human" we really should not mean that we are created to sin. In fact, we are created to be fully,sinlessly human as Mary was (and as Adam and Eve were before their fall).
Let's pray, during this Lenten season, for the strength from the Holy Spirit to always say yes to God's will, as our Heavenly Mother did.
Mary, Theotokos, pray for us!
5 comments:
hmm, thinking of this reminds me of what witnesses believe about mary. while they do believe in the virgin birth, they do not believe she had only Jesus. therefore since they do not believe that Jesus is God, they would not call her Theotokos. they miss out on so much! they miss the joy of knowing who Jesus is, and they miss the joy of knowing that mary is the ever blessed virgin mother of God.
And we, apparently, are called to be "God-bearers" as well. What a humbling thought!
I like the icon; it fits perfectly with the idea, and I like how concisely you stated your point... It's a very good point too, and reminds me of how the body is called the temple of the Holy Spirit and how we physically do carry Christ when we receive Holy Communion.
Thanks for this post. Being a "God-bearer" is scary- thank God for Our Lady and her maternal help. I think our entire journey through life is to make more and more room for God in our hearts and less and less of me, myself, and I. Then we can always grow in our Christian vocation of God-bearing. Still scary to me because I have so far to go.
The icon is actually called "Our Lady of Advent" and is a perfect illustration of the Theotokos.
I have a long, long way to go too, Barbara.
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