That is what the East always held and believed. That is why we magnify Theotokos. That is why she is our model and hope to revere and love. That's why she is the Saint of Saints, the cleanest Window in the Church, through which we only see the Light of God, and never the glass.
In our Divine Liturgy we sing:
It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blamelesss, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify thee
When we think what she accepted upon herself, what she achieved in her own humanity, and what she gave to the world, how can we ever thank her properly.
" In our Divine Liturgy we sing:
It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, who art ever blessed and all-blamelesss, and the mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, thou who without stain barest God the Word, and art truly Theotokos: we magnify thee
When we think what she accepted upon herself, what she achieved in her own humanity, and what she gave to the world, how can we ever thank her properly."
The older I get, the more I realize how very important the Theotokos is to me personally. All through my life, in those "dark nights of the soul" we all experience, she has been there for me, comforting and strengthening me, like a mother. There hasn't been a day in many years during which I didn't have a "little talk" with Panagia to ask for her help, maybe a spiritual pat on the head. And I find, again as I am getting older, that when I pray before her icons, I am blessed with the gift of tears. My great grandmother, with her eyes shining, always said Panagia was her best friend. I've lived long enough to begn to understand what she meant by that.
FK, it would be a wonderful thing if you ever came to fully understand and experience what I am writing about.