My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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DOGMAS CONCERNING THE MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
[According to the Holy Orthodox Christian faith]
By Father Michael Pomazansky

Two dogmas concerning the Mother of God are bound up, in closest fashion, with the dogma of God the Logo's (Word's becoming man.) They are a) Her Ever-virginity, and b) Her name of Theotokos. They proceed immediately from the dogma of the unity of the Hypostasis of the Lord from the moment of His Incarnation--the Divine Hypostasis.

A. The Ever-Virginity of the Mother of God

The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ from a Virgin is testified to directly and deliberately by two Evangelists, Matthew and Luke. This dogma was entered into the Symbol of Faith of the First Ecumenical Council, where we read: "Who for the sake of us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man." The Ever-virginity of the Mother of God is testified by Her own words, handed down in the Gospel, where she expressed awareness of the immeasurable majesty and height of Her chosenness: "My soul doth magnify the Lord...For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed... For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His Name" (St. Luke 1:46-49).

The most Holy Virgin preserved in her memory and in her heart both the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel and the inspired words of righteous Elizabeth when she was visited by Mary: "And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to Me? (St. Luke 1:43); both the prophecy of the righteous Symeon on meeting the Infant Jesus in the Temple and the prophecy of the righteous Anna on the same day (St. Luke 2:25-38). In connection with the account of the shepherds of Bethlehem concerning the words of the Angels to Her, and of the singing of the Angels, the Evangelist adds: "But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart" (St. Luke 2:19). The same Evangelist, having told of the conversation of the Divine Mother with the twelve-year-old Jesus after their visit to Jerusalem on the Feast of Pascha, ends his account with the words: "But His mother kept all these sayings in her heart" (St. Luke 2:51). The Evangelists speak also of the understanding of the majesty of her service in the world by the righteous Joseph, her espoused husband, whose actions were many times guided by an Angel.

When the heretics and simple blasphemers refuse to acknowledge the Ever-virginity of the Mother of God on the grounds that the Evangelists mention the "brothers and sisters of Jesus," they are refuted by the following facts from the Gospel:

a) In the Gospels, there are named four "brothers" (James, Joses, Simon, and Jude), and there are also mentioned the "sisters" of Jesus-- no fewer than three, as is evident in the words: "and His sisters are they not all with us?" (St. Matthew 13:56).

b) On the other hand, in the account of the journey to Jerusalem of the twelve-year-old boy Jesus, where there is mentioned of the "kinsfolk and acquaintances" (St. Luke 2:44) in the midst of whom they were seeking Jesus, and where it is likewise mentioned that Mary and Joseph every year journeyed from faraway Galilee to Jerusalem, no reason is given to think that there were present other younger children with Mary: it was thus that the first twelve years of the Lord's earthly life proceeded.

c) When, about twenty years after the above-mentioned journey, Mary stood at the Cross of the Lord, she was alone, and she was entrusted by her Divine Son to His Disciple John; and "from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home" (St. John 19:27). Evidently, as the ancient Christians also understood it, the Evangelists speak either of "half" brothers and sisters or of cousins. (Please note: The generally accepted Orthodox Tradition is that the "brothers" and "sisters" of the Lord are the children of Joseph by an earlier marriage. See Saint John Maximovitch, The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God". St. Herman Brotherhood, Platina, Ca.)

[Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George