• The Father of Tender Mercies [2 Corinthians 1:3 (ie, God)]
• Jesus, the Lamb whose waters of Mercy issue from his side (Ezekiel 47:1-12; John 19:34; 1 John 5:6-8)
• Mary, the Mother of Mercy and of the Church, as well as the Actual Body of Christ (Jesus) and the mystical Body of Christ (the Church)
• The Church Herself, the sanctuary of Spiritual life.

The Mercy of God is infinite, and transcends both space and time (Ephesians 2:4; Psalm 136). God is surrounded by this Mercy. God the father and God the son is surrounded by this Mercy. Jesus, as God the Son, was also, in fact, encompassed (Jeremiah 31:22) in the womb of Mary, the Mother of Mercy. **

We, as prospective members of the Mystical Body of Christ, likewise are, in a Mystical if not mysterious manner, given spiritual birth (rebirth to be exact), through the "womb" of God’s Mercy. What is interesting is that Nicodemus was actually on the right track, w/r re-entering our mother’s womb (John 3:4), when he asked his question about being reborn. He just didn’t probe long enough or deeply enough for the answer. It turns out that the stem of the Hebrew word for "mercy" (transliterated as "rhm")

is the same word stem ("rhm") used for the Hebrew word for "womb"

.

True, we cannot re-enter our mother’s womb. We can, however, return to the life-giving Mercy of God by re-discovering and adhering to His Truth, Who IS Life (1 John 5:6). We can thus be re-born by re-entering the "womb" of the Mercy of God, the Father of Tender Mercies and the Lord of our Life—Spiritual and physical. We will thus be reborn in the "womb" of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, which was borne originally in the womb of Mary, Mother of the Church, and which was subsequently born at Calvary.

Note also that the woman is the glory of mankind, as mankind, represented by His Church, is the glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7-12; Genesis 1:27; 5:1-2). The Church, characterized also as the Bride of Christ, is the sanctuary and tabernacle of Her Spouse in the same way pre-figured by Eve when she, in being built up from Adam’s Rib and then brought to him, completes the rib cage that encloses or protects him (Genesis 2:22; Jeremiah 31:22). She thus becomes the Tabernacle and Sanctuary of Her Spouse, and thus also the Tabernacle and Sanctuary of Spiritual Life, in a manner that is imaged by women in general, especially when they, with the collaboration of their husbands, conceive children in tender, life-giving love, and in a sensual embodiment of the tender, life-giving Mercy of God (John 3:3-6). This idea is further discussed at the page titled Inviting God Into Your Bedroom and Marriage