Some thoughts, in no particular order.
It seems to me if you ask most modern Christians who we're supposed to be like, they'd say Christ. And of course they're not wrong. But if pressed, I think the person we Orthodox attempt to emulate in many ways is the Theotokos. She was blessed, full of grace...not because, perhaps, because she was particularly special genetically or by beauty or intellect but because she was faithful. We celebrate her obedience. When faced with a charge that would inspire people to reject even out of humility or fear of megalomania -- to give birth to God! - she simply acquiesced, saying "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."
St Maximos tells us:
Quote:
Naturally endowed with the holiness of the divine image, the intelligence urges the soul to conform itself by its own free choice to the divine likeness, in this way the soul is able to participate in the great kingdom that exists in a substantive manner in God, the Father of all, and to become a translucent abode of the Holy Spirit, receiving - if it may be expressed in this way - the whole authority of the knowledge of the divine nature in so far as this is possible...
In souls such as this Christ always desires to be born in a mystical way, becoming incarnate in those who attain salvation, and making the soul that gives birth to Him a Virgin Mother...
We are to be like the Theotokos, who's womb contained the uncontainable, became "more spacious than the heavens".
We honor her because she did what we should do. And so, even in her death, we honor her as a great example of piety, grace, and obedience. All of what we say about her is really praise for Him. It is in this context that the Orthodox service on the Feast of the Dormition that we read:
Quote:
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and blessed are the breasts that nursed You." But He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
This is sometimes framed as a rebuke of Mary or of those who honor her. On the contrary, this is the highest praise. She wasn't blessed because of something that happened to her, but because she heard and obeyed.
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We don't have the doctrine of the Immaculate conception in Orthodoxy, and we don't say she's a co-redemtrix or anything like that. So that's about all I can say about those topics, I suppose.
