Mother Church

“ If any man is to have his foolish way, in a short time the whole organisation of the Church will be reduced to nothing. Brethren and beloved children of the Church do not put your mother to shame, do not rend her to pieces. Receive her teaching through me. Listen to what God says of her: ‘Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee.’ Let us worship and adore our God and Creator as alone worthy of worship by nature, and let us worship the holy Mother of God, not as God, but as God’s Mother according to the flesh. ”

“ In the Old World I have seen venerable men, strong men, and women kneeling together at the shrine of Mary pouring out their sufferings into the mother heart of the Virgin and rising refreshed and solaced. What Catholicism has done for its church, Protestantism must do for Christianity everywhere, by revealing the mother-life and the mother-spirit of divine nature. In the lesson of life there is not only a father but a mother-love. ”

“ I have ever maintained that our Mother the Holy Church is a far more merciful and gentle and tolerant mother than those who seek to uphold her authority, and who use her name as a cloak for much maliciousness and much ignorance. ”

“ Should not the image of the God-inspired mother,—even as Eve, the first mother, is seen listening to the inspiration of the evil-spirit (the spirit of self) , should not Mary, the second mother, thus be seen listening to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?—ought not the image of ‘the mother and the child,’ which is reproduced in every Catholic church, become a type to the female sect—the educator of the child? and ought not the church very justly to devote some of its festival days to the contemplation of this deep, primeval relationship? ”

“ Holy Father—As it has pleased God by His divine providence so to ordain, that in His Church under His Son Jesus Christ crucified, all those who should believe in Him and be baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, should recognise one universal and Catholic Church as Mother, whose commandments together with the ten of the Law we should keep under pain of damnation, it is requisite that each one who aspires to eternal life should fix his eyes upon her. ”

“ The Church is our Mother, because she spiritually nourishes and feeds us: she is our mother in the same sense in which it was shown before that Divine Truth is our mother. In explaining the spiritual sense of this Commandment, it was shown that Love or Good is our spiritual Father, and Truth our spiritual mother; for it is only from these united that we are born anew or regenerated. So the Church is our Mother, because by the Church is meant a System of Doctrinal Truth, revealed from the Lord. By the Church, in a true sense, is not meant merely a building or place of worship ”

“ Further, it is evident that men may be of holy mother church in two ways—either by predestination to life eternal, the way all who are finally holy are of holy mother church, or by predestination to present righteousness only, as are all such who at one time or another accept the grace of the remission of sins but do not persevere unto the end. ”

“ COMMUNION SERVICE AND DEDICATION
Five thousand people kneeling in silent communion; a stillness profound; and then, rising in unison from the vast congregation, the words of the Lord's Prayer! Such was the closing incident of the dedicatory services of the extension of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, at the corner of Falmouth and Norway Streets, yesterday morning. ”

“ Consecrated the child to God in his baptism, his sense anointed by the priest with holy oils, as consecrating a living temple to God our Lord, the mother continues that consecration and is considered, rightfully, a continuation of the priest, in the same way as the angel destined by God guards the infant, she, the mother, communicates to him those heavenly influences that religion approves and our Mother Church sanctifies. ”

“ When men speak lightly of Thy Blessed Mother and mock at the power of Thy Church: I will renew my love to the Mother of God, hailing her as 'Our life, our sweetness, and our hope,' and will again give thanks for the Church that is founded upon the rock. ”

“ All the health and life of Sacraments, all the virtue and grace of my Word, all the Goodness that is ordained in Holy Church for thee, it is I. The Mother may lay the child tenderly to her breast, but our tender Mother, Jesus, He may homely lead us into His blessed breast, by His sweet open side, and shew therein part of the Godhead and the joys of Heaven, with spiritual sureness of endless bliss. ”

“ The Holy Virgin of the Roman Catholic Church is, in this play, from first to last, only the mother of Jesus,—the mother whom all lovers and followers of Jesus, wherever they place him or her, however they define his nature and her relations to him, yet hold blessed among the women who have given birth to leaders and saviors of men. ”

“ The members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., in annual meeting assembled, hereby convey to you their sincere greetings and their deep love.
They desire to express their continued loyalty to your teachings, their unshaken confidence in the unerring wisdom of your leadership, and their confident assurance that strict and intelligent recognition of and obedience to the comprehensive means by you provided for the furtherance of our Cause, will result in its perpetuity as well as in the ultimate regeneration of its adherents and of mankind. ”

“ O God, our refuge and our strength, look down with favor upon Thy people, who cry to Thee; and through the intercession of the glorious and immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of her Spouse, Blessed Joseph, of Thy Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, and all the Saints, mercifully and graciously hear the prayers, which we pour forth to Thee, for the conversion of sinners and the liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother Church. ”

“ Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. ”

“ The Mother Church shall not make a church By-law, nor enter into a business transaction with a Christian Scientist in the employ of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, without first consulting her on said subject and adhering strictly to her advice thereon. ”

“ That is why We have wanted to address mainly you, mothers, to exhort you to the upright and christian education of your children, and of your young dependents and servants, for all of these, according to the doctrine of our holy Mother Church, form the family. The Church, when praying for its pastors, asks the Lord for them to be able to rule the people with word and example. ”

“ The mother becomes the very type and image of the Love that has loved us with more than a mother's love, borne with us with more than a mother's patience, suffered for us, in the Cross and Passion, more than a mother's pangs, to bring us into a higher life. The love of brothers and sisters becomes the first faint beginning of the universal Church and the brotherhood of man; and the sweet babble of their voices grows choral at length in the songs of the Church triumphant, the unbroken family in heaven; while the Christian home shadows forth the eternal home which awaits us hereafter. ”

“ The children are "the heritage of the Lord;" the parents are His stewards. Like the church, the Christian home has its ministry. Yea, the church is in the home, as the mother is in her child. We cannot separate them; they are correlatives. The one demands the other. The Christian home can have existence only in the sphere of the church. It is the vestibule of the church, bound to her by the bonds of Christian marriage, of holy baptism, and of the communion of saints, leading to her in the course of moral development, and completing her life only in the church-consciousness. ”

“ It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: "Thy kingdom come;" let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them! ”

“ In the church of God I feel secure; because God has appointed salvation for her walls and bulwarks (Isaiah 26:1) , and through these neither evil spirits, nor even the devil himself can penetrate.
I was educated to believe, and in this way I often expressed myself, that the M. E. denomination was my spiritual mother. This idea remained with me until I got light on the sin of division and was spiritually able to discern the bride of Christ. Then I saw that "Jerusalem from above is the mother of us all." I saw plainly that if I had two mothers, one must be a stepmother. ”

“ Never has Holy Church forgotten,—abhorrent, as she is, from the Pantheistic tendencies which in all ages have surrounded her,—never has she forgotten the interests of that mighty mother on whose bosom we feed in life, [Pg 115] into whose arms we drop in death; never has she forgotten that that mother is the special creature of God, and to be honoured, in leaf and flower, in lofty tree and pleasant stream, for His sake, as well as for our own; that while it is our primeval penalty to till the earth, she lovingly repays us for our toil ”

“ As in John Wesley's day, the great Church needs new life infused into it. Rather than ask Methodists to come and be absorbed by herself, as has of late been suggested, better that the venerable Mother Church go and dwell with the Daughter ”

“ The church, as a mother, is spoken of as nursing her children at her sides and dangling them on her knees, and the members of the church are spoken of as her children, sucking and being satisfied with the breasts of her consolation. ”

“ The pious woman who praised the Mother of Jesus is a figure of the Catholic Church, whose children love, honour and bless the Mother of God. Now, our Lord, in answering this holy person, said that all those are blessed who hear the word of God and keep it But no one, either among angels or men, ever had a faith so great, or virtues so many, as the Mother of the Redeemer. ”

“ They began to pour out into the long corridors, and in tumultuous groups passed this, way and that, seeking the Mother Superior. But the Mother Superior had gone to the church with the same impulse that in all ages has brought the human heart to the altar of God when stricken by peril or disaster; and into the church they also gathered. Into the church likewise came the white flock of the novices, who had burst from their isolated quarter of the convent with a sudden contagion of fear. ”

“ There are those belonging to what is called the Mother Church who say give them the care and training of children at from three to seven years old, and they could so ground them in their faith, that they for ever afterwards, would remain good Catholics. The secret of their great success is no doubt in their strict observance of outward ordinances and ceremonies. ”

“ Only members of The Mother Church are qualified to approve for membership individuals who are known to them to be Christians, and faithful, loyal students of the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. ”

“ She has been speaking of the Divine Wisdom being as it were the Mother of the soul, and now she seems to lead us to the Church as to the Nursery where He tends His children. "For one single person may oftentimes be broken, but the whole Body of Holy Church was never broken, nor ever shall be, without end. And therefore a sure thing it is, a good and a gracious, to will meekly and mightily to be fastened to our Mother, Holy Church, that is Christ Jesus. ”

“ In the worship of the Church of God a place apart is assigned to the honour to be paid to the blessed Mother of our Lord. As the highest of all creatures, as highly favoured above all, as she whom God chose to be the Mother of His Son, the devout thought of generations of Christians has felt that their recognition of her relation to God in the Incarnation called for a special degree of honour rightly to express it. ”

“ O dear Mother! how powerful is the Divine Master of our hearts. If you could see the effects of His interior operations on our Canadian band, you would bless His goodness a thousand times. Every soul is on fire with love, and, at the same time, annihilated in its own unworthiness and abjection.... Madame de la Ville aux Clercs has presented us with some rich ornaments for our future church in Canada; she is, then, our first benefactress next to you, most dear Mother, who will always rank before all others, since, not to speak of other gifts, you have bestowed ourselves. ”

“ The Readers of The Mother Church and of all its branch churches must devote a suitable portion of their time to preparation for the reading of the Sunday lesson, — a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends. They must keep themselves unspotted from the world, — uncontaminated with evil, — that the mental atmosphere they exhale shall promote health and holiness, even that spiritual animus so universally needed. ”

“ She had once been a Catholic, but discovering that priests were infinitely more attentive when she was in process of losing or regaining faith in Mother Church, she maintained an enchantingly wavering attitude. ”

“ A member of both The Mother Church and a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, or a Reader, shall not report nor send notices to The Mother Church, or to the Pastor Emeritus, of errors of the members of their local church ”

“ It is also frequently called Mid-Lent Sunday. In several parts of England it is known by the name of Mothering Sunday, from an ancient practice of making a pilgrimage to the Mother Church, usually the Cathedral, of the neighbourhood on this day. The comparatively modern and local custom of young men and women going home to visit their parents on this day is probably a survival of the older practice.
REGENERATION. A Latin word meaning new birth, or being born again. The catechism teaches us that the grace of Baptism is "a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness..." ”