Marta and Mary
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
28 He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
The Mother of the Lord
Saint John Casian, Spiritual talks, About the Incarnation of the Lord, The 2nd Book, Cap. V, 2-3, in Church Fathers and Writers (1990), vol. 57, pp. 784-785
„(…) Saint Paul, God`s vessel, (…) says : The Grace of God our Saviour has appeared (Titus 2, 11). This teaches us that this Grace is that of divine generosity, not of the human weakness. Even if it was not enough the holy testimony, it stood as witness of this fact the truth itself; the ephemeral earthly things can`t be eternal immortal goods and nobody can give to another one what he lack himself or what he needs. Therefore do not deny that Grace had to be given to us by God. God is the One Who gave and what He gave us is through our Lord Jesus Christ; thus our Lord Jesus Christ is God. If He is God, the one who gave birth to God is Theotokos, meaning the Mother of God. Or maybe you want to ridicule yourself with your blasphemy to say that she is not the Mother of God the one who gave birth to God as long as you can`t deny the One who was born God.
Saint John the Casian, Spiritual talks, About the Incarnation of the Lord, The 5th book, Cap. V, 1, in Church Fathers and Writers (1990), vol. 57, pp. 821-822
`About Him David the prophet says referring at His person: ` from my mother’s womb you have been my God.` (Psalm 21, 10), showing that this divine man has never been without the union with God in whom it lived in the womb of the Virgin in person the fullness of divinity. The same prophet says in another place: Faithfulness springs forth from the earth and righteousness looks down from heaven. (Psalm 84, 12), to make us understand that He was born from the body of the Virgin not a fancy of the body but the truth when God looked down from heaven meaning when He came and righteousness descended. He is the Truth according to that testimony of the truth itself: I am the truth and life (John 14, 6) Therefore as in the previous books I showed this truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is God born from the Virgin, as I settled in the last book, we will preach that the One who was to be born from the Virgin has always been prophesied as God.`
Source: http://ziarullumina.ro
