“I think not only the Apostles were ignorant of “Mary_wife of God”, but i am as well. Please explain who teaches this.”
Pope John Paul II.
” In the light of the marital covenant, Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, is the preeminent “virgin-Israel” of the prophet Jeremiah. In her the marital love of God announced by the prophets is perfectly and definitively focused. She is also that virgin-spouse to whom it is granted to conceive and bear the Son of God: the special fruit of God’s marital love towards humanity, is represented by and almost summarized in Mary.
5. The Holy Spirit, which comes down upon Mary during the Annunciation, is the one who, in the Trinity’s relationship, expresses in his person the marital love of God, the “eternal” love. In that instant he is in a special way God-the Spouse. In the mystery of the Incarnation, in the human conception of God’s Son, the Holy Spirit maintains divine transcendence. Luke’s text expresses that in a precise way. The nuptial quality of God’s love has a completely spiritual and supernatural character. What John will say regarding the believers in Christ is valid all the more for the Son of God, who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin “not by natural generation, nor by human choice, nor by man’s decision, but of God” (Jn. 1:13). But it especially expresses the supreme union in love, brought about between God and a human being by the power of the Holy Spirit.
6. In this divine marriage with humanity Mary answers the angel’s announcement with the love of a spouse who is able to respond and to adjust to the divine choice in a perfect way. For this reason, especially since St Francis of Assisi’s time, the Church calls her “the spouse of the Holy Spirit”. Only this perfect marital love, deeply rooted in her total virginal self-gift to God, could have brought it about that Mary became the “Mother of God” in a conscious and worthy fashion, through the mystery of the Incarnation.
In the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater I wrote: “The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation, welcoming the Word of the true God, offering ‘the full submission of intellect and will ... and freely assenting to the truth revealed by him’, indeed abandoning herself totally to God through ‘the obedience of faith’, whereby she replied to the angel: ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (n. 26).”
L’Osservatore Romano May 7, 1990
http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/hs130.htm
Here’s the entire piece. It is a stunning exposition of God’s love and “espousal.” The Latin word “SPONSALIA” means one betrothed, one promised rather than married.
Latin is the language of the Church.
God’s ‘Marital love’ For Humanity
At his General Audience (2 May) the Holy Father continued his series of instructions on the Holy Spirit.
1. The revelation of the Holy Spirit in the Annunciation event is linked to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and Mary’s divine motherhood. In fact Luke states that the angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Lk. 1:35). Once again it is the action of the Holy Spirit which prompts in her the response through which a conscious act of human freedom was expressed: “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38). Thus in the Annunciation event we find the perfect “model” of the personal God-man relationship.
Already in the Old Testament this relationship offers a characteristic element. It comes to life within the sphere of God’s Covenantwith the chosen people (Israel). And in the prophetic texts this Covenant is expressed through wedding symbolism: that is, it is presented as a marriage relationship between God and humanity. This fact must be remembered if we are to understand in its depth and beauty the reality of the Son’s Incarnation as an especially full manifestation of the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. According to the Prophet Jeremiah, God tells his people: “With age-old love I have loved you: so I have kept my mercy towards you. Again I will restore you and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel”(Jer. 31:3-4). Historically this text is to be seen in relationship with Israel’s defeat and deportation to Assyria; that humiliated the chosen people who were reduced to thinking they had been abandoned by their God. But God reassures them by not hesitating to speak to them as a father or as a spouse to a beloved maiden. The marital analogy becomes clearer and explicit in the words of second Isaiah, directed to Jerusalem during the time of the Babylonian exile as to a spouse even though she did not keep fidelity to the God of the Covenant: “He who has become your husband is your maker; his name is the Lord of hosts ... Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, the Lord calls you back, a wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; but with enduring love I take pity on you, says the Lord, your redeemer” (Is 54:5-8).
3. In the texts cited, it is stressed that the marital love of the God of the Covenant is “eternal”. Even though God, faced with the spouse’s sin, the infidelity of the chosen people permits sad experiences to befall them, he still reassures them through the prophets that his love does not cease. He overcomes the evil of sin, in order to give himself once again. With still more explicit wording, the Prophet Hosea declares: “I will espouse you to me forever, I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I-will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the Lord (Hosea 2:21-22).
4. These extraordinary texts of the Old Testament prophets find their true fulfillment in the mystery of the Incarnation. The marital love of God towards Israel but also towards every person, is carried out in the Incarnation in a way which goes beyond the measure of people’s expectations. We discover this in the Annunciation passage where the New Covenant becomes known as the Covenant of God’s marriage with mankind, of divinity with humanity. In the light of the marital covenant, Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, is the preeminent “virgin-Israel” of the prophet Jeremiah. In her the marital love of God announced by the prophets is perfectly and definitively focused. She is also that virgin-spouse to whom it is granted to conceive and bear the Son of God: the special fruit of God’s marital love towards humanity, is represented by and almost summarized in Mary.
5. The Holy Spirit, which comes down upon Mary during the Annunciation, is the one who, in the Trinity’s relationship, expresses in his person the marital love of God, the “eternal” love. In that instant he is in a special way God-the Spouse. In the mystery of the Incarnation, in the human conception of God’s Son, the Holy Spirit maintains divine transcendence. Luke’s text expresses that in a precise way. The nuptial quality of God’s love has a completely spiritual and supernatural character. What John will say regarding the believers in Christ is valid all the more for the Son of God, who was conceived in the womb of the Virgin “not by natural generation, nor by human choice, nor by man’s decision, but of God” (Jn. 1:13). But it especially expresses the supreme union in love, brought about between God and a human being by the power of the Holy Spirit.
6. In this divine marriage with humanity Mary answers the angel’s announcement with the love of a spouse who is able to respond and to adjust to the divine choice in a perfect way. For this reason, especially since St Francis of Assisi’s time, the Church calls her “the spouse of the Holy Spirit”. Only this perfect marital love, deeply rooted in her total virginal self-gift to God, could have brought it about that Mary became the “Mother of God” in a conscious and worthy fashion, through the mystery of the Incarnation.
In the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater I wrote: “The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation, welcoming the Word of the true God, offering ‘the full submission of intellect and will ... and freely assenting to the truth revealed by him’, indeed abandoning herself totally to God through ‘the obedience of faith’, whereby she replied to the angel: ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (n. 26).
7. In Mary’s act and gesture which contrast as a mirror image with Eve’s behavior, she stands out in humanity’s spiritual history as the new Spouse, the new Eve, the Mother of the living, as the Doctors and Fathers of the Church will often say. She will be the type and model of the New Covenant as a nuptial union of the Holy Spirit with individuals and with the human community, far beyond the sphere of ancient Israel: the totality of individuals and peoples will be called to receive the gift and become its beneficiary in the new community of believers who have received “the power to become sons and daughters of God” (Jn. 1:12) and in Baptism are born again “of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:6) by entering into and belonging to God’s family.
L’Osservatore Romano May 7, 1990
Reprinted with Permission
Beautiful imagery.
Just as i thought, i don’t see anywhere “Mary_wife of God”. Do you deny Mary conceived a Son by the power of the Holy Spirit? Just more false accusations designed to give the unlearned a false picture of what the Church, the Bride of Christ, teaches. Doesn’t it bother you?