MARY, MOTHER 0F GOD, MOTHER AND MODEL 0F THE CHURCH

68 Mary is united in an ineffable manner with the Lord, being his Ever-Virgin Mother, who "occupies in the Holy Church the place which is highest after Christ and yet very close to us"

(1G, 54).

The gift of Christ's Spirit is manifested in hem in an altogether singular manner, because Many is "full of grade" (Luke 1, 28), and is "a model of the Church" (LG, 63). in hem, who was preserved from ail stain of original 5m, who was freely and fully faithful 10 the Lord, and who was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory, the Holy Spirit has fully manifested his gift. For she was compiebely conformed "to hem Son, the Lord of lords, and the Conqueror of 5m and death" (LG, 59). Because she is the Mother of God and "mother to us in the order of grade" (1G, 61), the type of the virginity and motherhood of the total Church (cf. 1G, 63-65), and the sign of a secure hope and solace for the pilgrim People of God (cf. LG, 69), Many "in a certain way unites and mirrors within herself the central truths of the faith," and she "summons the believers ho hem Son and 10 his sacrifice, and to love for the Father" (LG, 65). Therefore, the Church who honors the faithful and the saints who are already with the Lord and are interceding for us (1G, 49, 50), venerates in a most special way Christ’s Mother, who is also her mother.