Christ is risen!
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. (Acts 1:12-14)
When Jesus, dying on the cross told His Mother, “Woman, behold, your son,” referring to the Apostle John, some have taught that He was making her the mother of all disciples. John had a mother of his own, but Jesus is declaring His mother to have a maternal relationship with all His disciples. Thus, we all honor her as Mother. As the Theotokos herself sang, “Behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Mary’s presence with the Apostles, as in the above verses, is thus a good portrait of the Church.
By virtue of the Virgin’s perfect obedience and full communion with the Word of God made flesh within her womb, she made it possible for all her children in the church also to receive and bear God within themselves. This carrying of God who is spirit within each Christian occurs through the paradox of intimate contact with the material. ‘Take, eat; this is my body‘ (Matthew 26;26) can only have real meaning when God becomes touchable in the incarnation. Then, and only then, is it possible for St Symeon the New Theologian to say in his prayer before communion, ‘I partake of fire, being grass, and behold a strange wonder, I am unexpectedly refreshed as was the burning bush, burning but not consumed.‘ (Daniel Hinshaw, TOUCH AND THE HEALING OF THE WORLD, p 14)
Fraternized 