On the Gospel story of the healing of the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter   ( http://oca.org/readings/daily/2016/02/07/3 )

And that to heal the Centurion’s servant, and the daughter of this Cannanite woman, He does not go to their houses, signifies that the Gentiles, among whom He Himself went not, should be saved by His word. That these are healed on the prayer of their parents, we must understand of the Church, which is at once mother and children; the whole body of those who make up the Church is the mother, and each individual of that body is a son of that mother.
(St. Augustine)