What is the role of the Church as “the mother of the believers”?

About the motherhood of the Church, Origen says, “According to the Spirit, your Father is God; your mother is ‘the heavenly Jerusalem’ [See Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22]. Learn this from prophetic and apostolic witnesses. This Moses himself writes in a song, ‘Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?’ (Deut. 32:6).”¹⁰⁶⁴

He also says, “But the Apostle says about ‘the heavenly Jerusalem,’ ‘She is free who is the mother of us all’ (Gal. 4:26). Therefore, first, your Father is God who begot your spirit and who says, ‘I have begotten sons and exalted them’ (Isa. 1:2). But the Apostle Paul also says, ‘Let us submit to the Father of spirits and we shall live’ (Heb. 12:9).”¹⁰⁶⁵

St. Cyprian of Carthage also says, “He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.”¹⁰⁶⁶