Icons: Teacher Notes

The Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus (431) established the title of the Theotokos as the “Birth-giver of “God.” The image of the Virgin Mary, the Virgin Mother, stands [as] 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 compassion, tender-heartedness, care, trust, humility. We call her our Lady and the Queen of heaven and earth, and yet she calls herself “the hand-maid of the Lord.” ….“Christ said, ‘Do not be anxious… Seek first the Kingdom of God’ (see Mt 6:33). Beholding this woman – Virgin Mother, Intercessor – we begin to sense, to know not with our mind, but with our heart, what it means to seek the Kingdom, to find it, and to live by it. (The Virgin Mary: The Celebration of Faith by Alexander Schmemann, pages 21–22.)