VIRGIN MARY

The need for female deities in the worship of the mother, strong defender and helper was in all cultures and religions. In ancient Greece, Demeter was revered in Asia Minor - Cybele, in ancient Egypt - Isis. But in the Christian Virgin Mary for the first time embodied real human principle - the feminine and maternal, understood as divine. Women's purpose was first realized by society as a service to the higher purposes, as its connection with the Absolute. The arrival of a new person into the world acknowledged the mystery, which stood at the origins of Mother. Immaculate Conception was carried deep meaning - the parent mission of women is carried out with direct participation of the Almighty, without the intervention of coarse material forces.

Lord, as you know, looking for the Mother of Jesus, like a normal man chose Mother Earth, who will continue his race. In the canonical Gospels of the image of the Virgin too has the imagination of authors, but in the Apocrypha story of Jacob's birth of Mary "the main character from the beginning chosen one of God's favor. For Father's proved to be important not only to the very sanctity of Mary, but also the dignity of her family clan, and even her national origin. Initially, the Lord said the seal "the people of Israel," then it highlights the branch of David, and waited a long time, until the tree does not bring the fruit of paradise - a decent woman for His divine Son.

The Gospel of James, begins with a description of how the future parents of Mary, the elderly, Joachim and Anna, mourn for their childlessness.

Photo — «Virgin Mary»

Joachim is removed in the desert pasture cattle, and his wife prays to God to send her child. Finally there is an angel, announcing that Anna will be born daughter. Parents vow to dedicate it to God. When she passed three years, Jehoiakim to fulfill a vow took her daughter to the Jerusalem Temple. In the temple, Mary remained twelve years. As befits a holy virgin, she is not fed the usual food, and sky, which gave her angels - in short, to take "vitamins", the status of women to give birth to the divine infant. When Mary came at a time of adolescence, the priests of the temple at the behest of the same messenger God - an angel - called a widower, to select among them a guardian and protector of the Virgin. At this extraordinary meeting of the Staff of the carpenter Joseph dove flew and sat on his head, which felt heavenly sign, and entrusting Mary to this venerable old man.

The subsequent fate of the holy Virgin is known in the New Testament. Omnipresent angel Gabriel, sent by the city of Nazareth, Mary announced that she found favor with God and will soon bear him a son, Adam called him Jesus. Maria asked, how did it happen if she is a virgin. And the angel answered that the Holy Spirit descend upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. Meekness and humility with which Mary accepted her fate, have become a major leitmotif of the iconic images of the Virgin, and femininity and motherhood in Western culture is associated with patience and humility, the holy Virgin.

Photo — «Virgin Mary»

The apotheosis of her life was Christmas. In Bethlehem, where Mary went with Joseph to take part in the census, was born a divine Son. Actually, the whole subsequent life of the Holy Virgin - only Jesus' ministry, and in this Way of the Cross Mary has united all the upright female alter ego - mother, sister, companion. Not without reason in the apocryphal Gospel of Philip emphasizes that Jesus' mother, his sister and Mary Magdalene were one and the same name.

However, the holy Virgin should not be taken as something akin to a vessel, which was moved to land godman. With the advent of a child for Mary initiated the awareness of the world. If her son did not need a spiritual evolution - he came to the people already in a harmonious and self-sufficient - something for the mother this rise to the heights of divine being has become a feat of gaining the person. Why are only these countless prophecies about the future of Jesus? What was supposed to understand her mother, looking at the helpless infant, when the devout old man Simeon took the baby from her hands, declared, referring to Mary: "Here he lies on the falling and rising of many in Israel and a sign bicker, you same soul will sword? What are the feelings experienced a poor woman, seeing the Magi in their own homes, which fell down in front of her tiny dityatey?

Of course, Mary is being God's chosen, but its exclusivity does not necessarily mean easy earthly path, or a gift from God in the form of absolute wisdom.

Photo — «Virgin Mary»

To understand many things, Maria was forced to suffer, and a special divine seal meant only more acute this suffering. Here, Joseph and his wife found on the way back from Jerusalem that Jesus was lost in a big city. They rushed him to search and found one of the galleries surrounding the temple, where you would normally spend time in theological discussions and interpretations of the rabbis and scribes. Jesus sat with the wise men, listened to them and ask questions.

"My child, - exclaimed Maria, - why you did that to us?" That your father and I with the pain you are looking for. "

"What are you looking for me?" - "Jesus replied. - Do not you know that I must be in possession of my Father?"

A child becomes a mysterious, its great mission of persistently manifested in the external world, and with growing up and growing tension over the tragic Jesus approaching day Calvary. Mary was discovered that her son - the Anointed of the Lord. But you can not imagine how much spiritual strength to the mother to keep the faith in the high destiny of the child born to you. Everyday life of Nazareth gave little reason to wait for a miracle. Francois Mauriac, connoisseur of the human soul, wrote: "The child becomes a young man, a grown man. He was not great, it's not called the Son of God, He did not have the throne, but only a stool by the fire in a poor hut. 's Mother could have doubted, but Luke is the testimony: "Mary kept all in her heart" . . . She kept the prophecy of the heart and not tell anyone about them, perhaps, even to His Son.

Photo — «Virgin Mary»

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Luke says that the villagers loved Jesus, but for them it was just a village boy, one of many, maybe just a little bit strange, submerged in their own, no one knows the Duma. When he began to preach, it caused genuine surprise of fellow countrymen. Numerous relatives of Mary and her Son, the little world which is limited to street work, home, too, did not take Jesus as a Messenger of God. Learning about the sermon at Capernaum, his brothers thought of the Son of Mary insane.

Emotional loneliness of Jesus and reflect not recorded in the Gospel of His words: "Those who are near me, I do not understand. " The only relatives were essentially mother.

The deification of Mary was not immediately accepted by the Christian church. In three of the Gospels, even Jesus' mother is not named among those present at the crucifixion. Only in the Gospel of John, Mary is at the cross and instructs her son to his favorite pupil. In the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Virgin is mentioned in prayer after the execution of Christ with his disciples and his brethren. Back in the IV century between groups of believers was a struggle on how to treat the cult of Mary. Bishop Epiphanius of Cyprus, who lived in the middle of IV century, condemned those admirers of the Virgin, who "try to put it in place of God and speak of it, carried away by some crazy and umopovrezhdeniem. As proof of the fact that Maria is not the main person in the Christian cult, Epiphanius referred to the absence of any information in scripture.

Photo — «Virgin Mary»

Only at the end of IV century there were the anonymous author of an essay "On the Assumption of Mary. " It tells of the last years of the Mother of Jesus, her death and ascension into heaven. According to these data, after the execution of the Son of Mary lived for some time in Jerusalem with John. She then moved to the Asia Minor city of Ephesus, where he actively preached the idea of the Son. Before his death, she returned to Jerusalem. The death of her accompanied by various miracles: Jesus himself surrounded by numerous other angels came down to a shimmering cloud and took her soul. By the time of the Assumption of Mary in Jerusalem came all the apostles, except Thomas. They buried her. On the third day after the death of the Holy Virgin came to Thomas and wanted to see the body of the deceased. The apostles at his request opened the coffin, but it was empty. In the evening, when the disciples of Jesus, gathered together, discussed this event, "the heavens were opened and seemed to Mary. Like her son, she resurrected in his human form.

In IV-V centuries, established the cult of Mary. She started to call the "Virgin" and "Lady" in her honor established parties, its image is the only consolation for the suffering among the incomprehension and cruelty of this world.