John 1:23 has John the Baptist quoting Isaiah in regards to his mission as the Voice. In the Greek voice is a feminine word phone. In Hebrew the Voice of God is related to the Bat Kol (Daughter Voice). The words in Hebrew for 'voice' and 'all' are both pronounced as kol and thus Our Lady is the Daughter or Lady of All (Kol) and the Daughter or Lady Voice (Kol).
Our Lady is the Voice of the Word. John the Baptist's whole mission has come to him and been invested in him when the voice of Our Lady greeted his mother St Elizabeth and he leaped as he was sanctified and cleansed from original sin. At the same time he received his mission as the prophet of preparation through this Voice of the Virginal and Immaculate Mother (Luke 1 :41). He prepares the way (hodon) of the Lord. In Greek hodon is in the feminine and this way is Our Lady that leads us the quickest and deepest to the Lord who is her son. This is in accord with the old Catholic saying -to Jesus through Mary.
John's baptism is connected with water and Our Lady is linked to the concept of waters (mayim) in Genesis 1:2 where her name Miriam is hidden in the well of the text beginning with the final mem of mayim counting 26 letters four times (Mem Resh Yod Mem = MRYM=Miriam). These waters also allude to the waters of the womb of Our Lady and Elizabeth in which Jesus and John dwelt. St John of Damascus taught that just as Jesus was not purified by the baptismal waters of John's Baptism but the waters were sanctified by him so Our Lady was not purified by the ritual baptisms of Judaism (mikva) but she purified them (see Fr Christiaan W. Kappes "The Immaculate Conception").
The connection between waters of the mikva and Our Lady also is found in Genesis 1 in the concept of "the gathering of the waters called seas" (Genesis 1:10). In the Vulgate Latin it uses the word Maria for this gathering (congregation/ mikva/ kneset) of waters. She is the Kneset Yisrael as the mother and revealer of Israel and its Messiah. Kneset Yisrael is often identified as the Matronita and the Shekhinah in Jewish mysticism.
In John 1:32 it speaks of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus as a dove. The dove is in the feminine and thus alludes to the synergy of the Holy Spirit united to Our Lady in Eternity as the anointing from on high. John 1:31 reveals that at the heart of the Marian mission is the revelation of the Messiah to Israel. This mission alludes to Elijah as John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah. Carmelite tradition links the water cloud that is foot or hand (yad) shaped with Our Lady manifesting from Eternity and the water from this blessing the Holy Land in order to prepare it for the coming of the Mother of the Messiah and her Divine Son in the fullness of time.
Today Our Lady in synergy with the Holy Spirit is also concerned with this revelation to Israel of the Messiah and the ingrafting of the Jewish people (see Romans 11). Both Catholic and Jewish tradition speak of a "final coming in the flesh" of the prophet Elijah to complete this Marian mission.
End of Part 2- Part 3 coming soon.