Catholic.id

Mary & the SaintsIntermediate

How can Mary be God's Mother, but not the mother of the Trinity?

Mary & the Saints

The short answer

"Mother of God" (Theotokos) doesn't mean Mary is the source of Christ's divine nature, or mother of the Father or the Holy Spirit. It means she is mother of the Person of Jesus, who is God — the Father's eternal Son who truly became her son according to the flesh.

What the title does not mean

Rightly understood, "Mother of God" (Greek Theotokos, "God-bearer") does not mean Mary is the source of Christ's divinity, nor mother of the Father or the Holy Spirit.

What it means

Mary is mother of the Person of Jesus, who is God. The one she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second Person of the Trinity. So the Church confesses that Mary is truly Mother of God (CCC 495).