Mother Mary Mother of All believers and Mary in Revelation.

By Shaila Touchton The Church Fathers found many foreshadowing or prefigurements of Blessed Mary in the Old Testament. She is the woman who was said in Genesis 3: 15 about the enmity with the serpent and New Eve who will be the mother of all Living in Genesis 3:20.She is also referred as the daughter of Zion in (Psalm 9:14, Isaiah 54:1-10, Zephaniah 3:14, Zechariah 2:10) and the Ark of Covenant in Exodus 40 and Rev 11:9. Mary, the young Jewish virgin becomes a symbol for Israel herself who bore Jesus, the Messiah. By the grace of God, Mary was preserved from the stain of personal sin. She was Chosen by God the Father and the Holy Spirit descended on her. She is the woman described in Revelation 11:19-12:6. She’s is the prime example of a woman of faith where she allowed God to use her and submitted to His will. She is exalted above all the holy angels. And we can see this when Angel Gabriel came to her and said “Hail” in Luke 1:28. (The Greek used for "hail" here is "chairō", which is a title used for a superior). And he came up to Jesus at once and said, "Hail, (chairō) Master!" And he kissed him. (Mattthew 26:49). It is a salutation reserved for royalty such as, "Hail Caesar", or "Hail King of the Jews". Here we have the Archangel Gabriel, sent by GOD, with instructions to greet her as royalty. How many women who were ever born were given such an enthusiastic royal greeting by no less than an Archangel sent by GOD? "If GOD is for us, who is against us?" which says in Romans 8:31. So God was with Mother Mary. we also can see Mary was present with the apostles in the upper room praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). After recalling the presence of Mary and the other women at the Lord's cross, St John relates: "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!'. Then he said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!’" (Jn 19:26-27). This establishes a new relationship of love between Blessed Mary and Christians. Jesus entrusted his Mother to John and by extension to all Christians. John 19:25-27, is used as proof that Mary is the Mother of Christians, and see in John as one who takes Mary into his home, as representing all Christians who take Mary as their mother. Thereby Mary is the mother of all Christians. Jesus commits the care of the Virgin Mary to the Apostle John. This would have been unacceptable if she had other children. If the oldest child dies, the care of the mother falls to the next oldest child. If the oldest child is the only child, it is his responsibility to appoint someone to care for his mother in the case that he dies. We can see that Jesus acts as if He is the only child of Mary. As we can see, there is no indication from the Bible that Mary had other children than Jesus.Compare Mt 10:2-4, Mk 15:40, Jn 19:25, and Acts 1:13 and you will find that James, Joseph, and Jude were sons of Cleophas (Alphaeus) and 'the other Mary', not Mary the Mother of GOD. Simon was the 'Canaanite' of Mk 3:18, and the 'Zealot'. Jesus called her 'woman ' to show us the connection between His mother and the 'woman’ foretold in Genesis 3: 15 and later the 'woman' that He would address from the cross (John 19:26-27), and to the 'woman' with the crown of twelve stars in Revelation 12:1. Jesus does refer to Mary by the word women twice. It is not considered as disrespectful. Adoration is due to God alone. Jesus, the Son of God, gave this as one of His principal commandments: "Honor your father and your mother." Do you think that Jesus, who is God, will contradict Himself and not practice what He taught? That is, do you think that He Himself, who gave the command to honor father and mother, will NOT Himself honor His own mother? It was Jesus’ normal, polite way of addressing women. Calling women during Jesus times was most Honorable word. Mary is also foreshadowed as the king’s mother in 1 Kings 2:19; as the “closed Gate” of perpetual virginity in Ezekiel 44:1-2, and as the Virgin Mother of Emmanuel in Isaiah 7:14 in Mt 1:23. In Revelation 12, Mary is the woman clothed with the sun, about to give birth. She is opposed by the dragon who wishes to devour her son. Now at the end of the passage in Rev 12 we see that the devil makes war with those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. These are all the Christians who bear testimony to Jesus and keep God’s commandments (1 John 2:3-4, Jn. 14:15, 15:10, 1 Cor. 7:19). However, the Christians are the offspring of the woman of Revelation 12. Thus, whoever is the ‘woman’ is the Mother of Christians. Some protestants may say that the women in Revelation 12 is not Mother Mary but Israel. Both New and Old Testament will not find a single reference to Israel either being a ‘woman’, or giving birth to the Messiah. Genesis 37 says absolutely nothing about Israel giving birth to a Messiah. Stephano Manelli gives us some insight of her wearing the Sun, moon and stars as alluded to by the apostle John: Of great importance is the description of the exterior feature of the ‘woman’, rich in a symbolism quite unusual. “Clothed with the sun”, Mary was really flooded by divine grace that consecrated her immaculate from conception and transformed her into the Mother of God. “The moon under her feet” signifies that all things created and passing - symbolized by the moon, which appears and disappears - are under the feet of the Queen of the universe. “on her head a crown of twelve stars” is the symbol of Mary’s reign over the angels (stars), the Chosen People (the “twelve” tribes), over the Church (the “twelve” apostles). Within the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fullness of God dwells. (Colossians 2:9) says For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. what comes out of her womb is also God, because God indwells the body of Christ. Thus, it is proper to refer to her as the “God-bearer” or Theotokos, and, as a “Mother of God.” Luke 1:28 says Mary is the woman of Grace and Lord was with her. She had the favour of God in her life which preserved her from sin. As we know God cannot exist with sin. She is the only women who was Holy and chosen by God among all the women of this world to give birth to Messiah as shown in Revelation 12, Isaiah 7, Matthew and Luke. She is exalted in a magnificent way by Angels, God which is no way detracts from the son who rules the nation and who is King of Kings. She was the most faithful of all. She was there with Him at His beginning all the way and at the foot of the cross at His death. She is the role model of Godly Motherhood and humility.