Can God be called a Mother Too?

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This is one of those things that is fine as a limited spiritual metaphor (see below for an example), but we shouldn’t take it too far. Christ has revealed God to us as a Father (“Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father…”) and He gave us Mary as our Mother (“Behold your Mother”).

St. Anselm wrote a Prayer to St. Paul (Prayer to St. Paul 10), which is all about God, Christ, and St. Paul as mothers. It’s pretty long, but here is a portion:
And you, Jesus, are you not also a mother? Are you not the mother who, like a hen, gathers her chickens under her wings? Truly, Lord, you are a mother; for both they who are in labor and they who are brought forth are accepted by you. You have died more than they, that they may labor to bear. It is by your death that they have been born, or if you had not been in labor, you could not have borne death; and if you had not died, you would not have brought forth. For, longing to bear sons into life, you tasted of death, and by dying you begot them. You did this in your own self, your servants, by your commands and help. You as the author, they as the ministers. So you, Lord God, are the great mother.
 
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Scott Hahn points out that the Person of the Holy Spirit in particular intervenes and works with man in a way that is strongly maternal, but it would be against Tradition to ever refer to God as “Our Mother”. It is and always will be “Our Father”.

The people at Confirmation were being innovative and their example should not be followed. This likely happened because of pride.
 
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“Ususally”? I don’t recall any passages at all in the Bible which refer to God as ‘She’, ‘Mother’, '‘Lady’, ‘Goddess’ or any other female noun or pronoun.

Where a gendered noun or pronoun is used in reference to the Deity, it is exclusively male.

God not only chose to be incarnated as male rather than female or genderless, but chose to refer to both the First and Second persons using exclusively male nouns and pronouns. And never to any person using female. So there seems to be a clear preference.
 
No, those are analogies and metaphors and similes. Figures of speech. God is not literally a bear or a chicken, neither is He literally female or mother.

There are no direct literal non-figurative references in scripture to the Deity as female or mother.
 
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True, God isn’t literally female; but, as the Church teaches, God is also not literally male.
We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman : he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 239 (emphasis added).

God has used “Father” repeatedly in the Scriptures; but God has also used female descriptions. God has attributes of both sexes, because God is neither male nor female. God transcends gender. Trying to limit God with “masculine” or “feminine” traits or identity improperly attempts to limit God.
 
Jesus Christ is God, being the second person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ is very literally male.

At least in a limited sense, God is therefore quite literally male, given that His humanity and divinity are not separate but hypostatically united.

More importantly, God has taught us from His own.mouth exactly what He wants to be called - and it is NOT as Mother or woman or goddess but Father and male if it must be gendered.
 
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Happy the one who finds wisdom,
the one who gains understanding!
Her profit is better than profit in silver,
and better than gold is her revenue;

She is more precious than corals,
and no treasure of yours can compare with her
Long life is in her right hand,

in her left are riches and honor;
Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace;

She is a tree of life to those who grasp her,
and those who hold her fast are happy.

The LORD by wisdom founded the earth,
established the heavens by understanding;

By his knowledge the depths are split,
and the clouds drop down dew.

Proverbs 3:13-20
 
I am not sure if there is an official teaching of the Church on this matter. However, tradition and Scripture call God Father. As well as the Incarnate Word, Jesus, calls God Father - “I and the Father are one.” and “This is how you are to pray -” Our Father, who art in heaven… "

One way to look at it might be like this. Every description we have of God is an anology. God is not technically a Father. But he could be compared to one. He is less like a Father than he is like one. Because God is infinitely much greater than any earthly father could be. But He is more like a Father than He is like a Mother. And He is more like a Mother than He is a Sister. And He is more like a Sister than He is like a dog. So analogies made between God and things of our everyday experience can be made. But God is less like them than He is like them. And some anologies work better than others.

We shouldn’t think of God being called Father as some kind of male chauvanistic agenda like modern people might envision it. Or we will miss what God is telling us about himself. Remember God is less like our analogies of him them He is like them. God chose the image of the Father for a careful reason, not because He is literally male or masculine. And not because He literally fathered the universe like a human father.

From a philosophical and theological perspective we call the earth mother earth because we are in it and we come from it. It mothered us. It gave birth to us. You could call the earth father earth but that does not sound right to us. Why is that? Is it female chauvanism that we call it mother earth? No, instead it tells us something about the earth. It is more like a mother than a father. God on the other hand did not give birth to us or make us from himself. But instead He created us not from himself but entirely outside himself, from nothing. Thus, He is wholly other. He stands apart from His creation (yet able to enter into it) . This is a masculine image, not like mother earth or some pantheistic vision of God where He is called Mother, and is creation itself.

The masculine image is distant, whereas the female image is immanent. (How many women could attest to this image of their boyfriends or husbands being at times distant? And how many men could attest to their wives or girlfriends being almost at times too close and personal? This is part of the difference of their natures of masculine and feminine). God is distant from his creation, yet is able to be present in it. Whereas a pantheistic view has God being immanent, in creation, or being creation itself.
 
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Here is an article from EWTN on this subject that goes into more details. I used the terms distant and immanent (based on a teaching I heard by Dr. Brant Pitre). The article uses the terms transcendence and immanence. Transcendence means to highlight God is wholly other or apart from his creation.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/theology/notmothr.htm
 
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