God Ministering
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. The comfort comes in knowing that God isn’t impossible to please as people often can be! God knows and understands what others don’t. Even when it seems that we can’t please anyone else, we can please God as we minister to Him.
God the Father and the Holy Ghost
Mauritshuis – Domenico Antonio Vaccaro
c.1700-1710, 64×42 cm. Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (1678-1745)
The New Testament details a close relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus during his earthly life and ministry. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke and the Nicene Creed state that Jesus was 'conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary'.
Mary has been venerated since early Christianity, and is often considered to be the holiest and greatest saint. There is a certain diversity in the Mariology and devotional practices of major Christian traditions.
The Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her Immaculate Conception and her bodily Assumption into heaven. Many Protestants hold less exalted views of Mary's role, often based on a perceived lack of biblical support for many traditional Christian dogmas pertaining to her. She is mentioned numerous times in the Quran, including in a chapter named after her, and has the highest position in Islam among all women.
In Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that the Holy Spirit impregnated her, thereby conceiving her first-born son Jesus miraculously, without sexual relations with her betrothed Joseph, 'until her son [Jesus] was born'. The word 'until' has inspired considerable analysis on whether Joseph and Mary produced siblings after the birth of Jesus or not.
Among her many other names and titles are the Blessed Virgin Mary (often abbreviated to "BMV" after the Latin Beata Maria Virgo), Saint Mary (occasionally), the Mother of God (primarily in Western Christianity), the Theotokos (primarily in Eastern Christianity), Our Lady (Medieval Italian: Madonna), and Queen of Heaven (Regina caeli; see also here).
The title 'queen of heaven' had previously been used as an epithet for a number of ancient sky-goddesses, such as Nin-anna, Astarte, Ishtar and Astoreth, the Canaanite sky-goddess worshipped during the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah's lifetime.
In Islam, Mary is known as Maryam (Arabic: مريم, romanized: Maryam), mother of Isa (عيسى بن مريم). She is often referred to by the honorific title "Sayyidatuna", meaning 'Our Lady', this title is in parallel to "Sayyiduna" ("Our Lord"), used for the prophets. A related term of endearment is 'Siddiqah', meaning she who confirms the truth, and she, who believes sincerely completely'.
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