Who's our mother?

[Guest Wondering]

Is Mary our mother? or is the Church? And is Jesus like our older brother, or like our father, and his Father is our grandfather?

And just so I get this straight...

The Church is Jesus' bride... and Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and Mary is Jesus Mother, but God the Father is Jesus' dad.

I'm just confused about how all this works... anything to help would be appreciated... sorry if its a stupid question.

[Cam42]

[quote name='Wondering' date='Nov 14 2005, 07:41 PM']Is Mary our mother? or is the Church? And is Jesus like our older brother, or like our father, and his Father is our grandfather?

And just so I get this straight...

The Church is Jesus' bride... and Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit, and Mary is Jesus Mother, but God the Father is Jesus' dad.

I'm just confused about how all this works... anything to help would be appreciated... sorry if its a stupid question.
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Mary is our mother. This is the Catechetical teaching:

[quote name='CCC #495']Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus", Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the mother of my Lord".  In fact, the One whom 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 Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos).[/quote]
[i] Lk 1:43; Jn 2:1; 19:25; cf. Mt 13:55; et al.
Council of Ephesus (431): DS 251.[/i]

and

[quote name='CCC #501']Jesus is Mary's only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: "The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother's love."[/quote]
[i]LG 63; cf. Jn 19:26-27; Rom 8:29; Rev 12:17[/i]

This is the best explaination of what the Church is:

[quote name='CCC #772']It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery as the purpose of God's plan: "to unite all things in him." St. Paul calls the nuptial union of Christ and the Church "a great mystery." Because she is united to Christ as to her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in her turn. Contemplating this mystery in her, Paul exclaims: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."[/quote]
[i]Eph 1:10.
Eph 5:32; 3:9-11; 5:25-27.
Col 1:27.[/i]

and

[quote name='CCC #773']In the Church this communion of men with God, in the "love [that] never ends," is the purpose which governs everything in her that is a sacramental means, tied to this passing world. "[The Church's] structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ's members. And holiness is measured according to the 'great mystery' in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the Bridegroom." Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church's mystery as "the bride without spot or wrinkle." This is why the "Marian" dimension of the Church precedes the "Petrine."[/quote]
[i]1 Cor 13:8; cf. LG 48.
John Paul II, MD 27.
Eph 5:27.
Cf. John Paul II, MD 27.[/i]

And this answers your question about God's role in our lives:

[quote name='CCC #959']In the one family of God. "For if we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity - all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ - we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church."[/quote]
[i]LG 51; cf. Heb 3:6.[/i]

It is not a stupid question. What you are asking deals with analogy. These are analagous views of God, Christ, and Mary. They are various ways of explaining what our relationship with the God and Christ. Mary enters into the conversation because of her unique relationships with both the Father and the Son.