What the Mother of God’s image gives us first of all is the image of a woman.
Christ’s first gift to us, the first and most profound revelation of his teaching and call, is given to us in the image of a woman.
Why is this so important?
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The image of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mother, stand against all that has been lost in this world.
She indicts it by her presence alone: 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 what has almost completely been lost in our proud, aggressive, male world: compassion, tender-heartedness, care, trust, humility.
We call her our Lady and the Queen of heaven and earth, and yet she calls herself “the handmaid of the Lord.”
Fr. Alexander Schmemann, “On the Image of Woman”