Ask A Father

Q: St. John Damascene, why do we call the Blessed Virgin Mary, Theotokos: Mother of God?

A: For, as He who was born of her is true God, so is she truly Mother of God who gave who gave birth to the true God who took His flesh from her. Now, we do not say that God was born of her in the sense that the divinity of the Word had its beginning of being from her, but in the sense that God the Word Himself, who was timelessly begotten of the Father before the ages and exists without beginning and eternally with the Father and the Holy Ghost, did in the last days come for our salvation to dwell in her womb and of her was, without undergoing change, made flesh and born. For the holy Virgin did not give birth to a mere man but to true God, and not to God simply, but to God made flesh. And He did not bring His body down from heaven and come through as through a channel, but assumed from her a body consubstantial with us and subsisting in Himself.