In honor of Mother's Day, I couldn't resist laying down this gauntlet from the honorable Mr. Ambrose:

"As Christ born had a Father in heaven and a mother on earth; so in our new birth we must look on God as our Father in heaven, and on the church as our mother on earth; it was usually said, "Out of the church no salvation," and to this the apostle alludes, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all," Gal 4:26.

Indeed out of the church, there is no means of salvation, no word to teach, no sacraments to confirm, nothing at all to hold forth Christ to a soul, and without Christ how should there be salvation of souls?

So that we must look on the church as our mother, and on God as our Father."

Looking Unto Jesus, p. 223. (Paragraph spacing added)