In Brief

From among the descendants of Eve, God chose the Virgin Mary to be the mother of his Son. “Full of grace”, Mary is “the most excellent fruit of redemption”1: from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.

Mary is truly “Mother of God” since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, who is God himself.

Mary “remained a virgin in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin”2: with her whole being she is “the handmaid of the Lord”3.

The Virgin Mary “co-operated through free faith and obedience in human salvation”4. She uttered her yes “in the name of all human nature”5. By her obedience she became the new Eve, mother of the living.