If Jesus is God and Mary is his mother, then Mary must be the Mother of God. After being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and until He was born, Jesus was carried in her womb.
Calling Mary the Mother of God reinforces the belief that Jesus is both God and Man. His human nature and divine nature are united in one person. Mary gave birth to that person.
As the Mother of God, one of the oldest and most common titles for the Blessed Virgin Mary is Theotokos, which means “the God-bearer” in Greek. Of all of Mary’s titles, Mother of God is the greatest.
The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God is celebrated on January 1, a holy day of obligation for Catholics.
The angel Gabriel announced that Mary would be the Mother of God:
The Creeds refer to Mary, the Mother of our Lord:
Jesus is God and He has a mother:
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David his father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God”
Luke 1: 31-35
A mother conceives and gives birth to a person:
Mary gave birth to a person:
Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man:
Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus”, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord”. In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 495
God created his own mother to bring him into the world for our salvation:
Truly the Mother of God:
This truth, which Christian faith has accepted from the beginning, was solemnly defined at the Council of Ephesus. In opposition to the opinion of Nestorius, who held that Mary was only the mother of the man Jesus, this Council emphasized the essential meaning of the motherhood of the Virgin Mary. At the moment of the Annunciation, by responding with her “fiat”, Mary conceived a man who was the Son of God, of one substance with the Father. Therefore she is truly the Mother of God, because motherhood concerns the whole person, not just the body, nor even just human “nature”. In this way the name “Theotókos” – Mother of God – became the name proper to the union with God granted to the Virgin Mary.
Pope John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 15 August 1988
The highest title for Mary:
The second most important person in the manger scene:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
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