JSOnline: Some say Christmas is perfect time to reflect on Virgin Mary

Today, in every corner of the world, Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, God incarnate, who millions believe died for their salvation and rose to eternal life.
The Nativity, like the crucifixion, is Jesus' story. Born fully God and fully man, he is its center and its purpose.
But it is a story that cannot be told without Mary, a young peasant woman - a girl really - who the Gospels say gave herself to the miracle.
Mary is an icon for the ages, many things to many people: the first and perfect disciple; queen of heaven; the embodiment of humility and faith and mercy.
But she has receded from the consciousness of many - displaced by Protestants after the Reformation and by Catholics in recent decades as Vatican II asserted the primacy of Christ and the Mass over other devotions.
Now many are revisiting Mary - Catholics and Protestants alike - in prayer, literature and theological debate. Christmas, some say, is a perfect time to tell her story.
"Mary is integral to the Christ event, but also to God's plan for salvation," said Cynthia L. Rigby, professor of theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and co-editor of the 2002 book "Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary."
"Christ is the son of God, but also the son of Mary," she said. "And this is the Christmas message. That God is with us - Emmanuel, really with us. . . . That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
As laid out in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, Mary's is the story of a Jewish woman, a poor Galilean, who is engaged to Joseph and chosen to bear the Messiah. She figures prominently in Christ's birth and crucifixion and as a witness to his ministry.
There was little public Mary devotion in the early church, according to theologians[Sorry, but that is idiotic.  I'm pretty sure the Orthodox churches have a major devotion to the Theotokos and it didn't come from the Middle Ages in Europe.], but it blossomed in the Middle Ages as the Catholic Church began to cast Jesus as a just judge who decides the fates of sinners and saints.
"The more the church emphasized sin and the sacrament of penance, the more people started worrying about getting into heaven, and the more they turned to her for mercy because she was a mother," said Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a professor of theology at Fordham University and author of "Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints."
The Reformation brought an eventual rejection of Mary by Protestants, who viewed her as a symbol of what they saw as Catholic excesses. Over the centuries, she would all but disappear from some Protestant theologies and prayers (though Martin Luther and other reformers believed in her perpetual virginity and place as the mother of God, notes Luther scholar and Marquette University assistant professor Mickey Mattox).
In response, Catholics adopted an even more fervent devotion, embracing Mary "almost as a badge of identity," according to Johnson.
That fervor was dampened by Vatican II and, in some ways, the modern feminist movement, which cast Mary as a model of womanhood, sinless and obedient, that no woman could ever attain. [What a bizarre statement.  I don't even know what that means.]
Today, there is a resurgence of interest in Mary, though it's more likely among Catholics to have made its way into the pews.
In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, for example, a Marian outreach program founded in 2003 with the blessing of then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, sponsors conferences, evenings of reflection, retreats and other programs.
"There's been an explosion of grace," said Dick Boldin, co-founder of the Rosary Evangelization Apostolate, whose prayer gatherings have drawn as many as 1,000 people in recent years.
Among Presbyterians, "some pastors are inviting their congregations to take a new look at Mary," said the Rev. Karen Hagen of Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church on Milwaukee's south side.
"More and more theologians are saying we should recover our traditions as Protestants in our belief in Mary," said Timothy Matovina, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.
Historians and theologians point to a number of factors for this growing interest, from the influence of Pope John Paul II, who held a great reverence for Mary, and the burgeoning Latino church, where Our Lady of Guadalupe holds particular prominence. They point to ecumenical dialogue, the growing interest in spiritual practices and a greater willingness to re-examine Mary in the context of the Biblical and historical texts.
That is where Johnson, of Fordham, sees Mary's relevance today. Not as the blue-robed Queen of Heaven depicted in the Renaissance, but the Mary of the Gospels: an impoverished mother, a refugee, who flees an oppressive regime to save the life of her child. As a grieving mother whose son was unjustly murdered by the state.
"When you see her as a real woman with her own struggles in her own life, . . . it becomes very powerful," she said.
Mary will continue to be a point of contention for many. They will debate her virginity, her place in Christianity and her role in salvation.
But she is and always should be a reminder of the great mystery that is Christmas, Matovina said.
"She shows us the wonder of the incarnation - that God fully took on our human condition out of love for us," he said.
"To reflect on Mary as a model of faith for all of us - as a woman who didn't pray the rosary but lived it - can't help but lead us closer to her son."

JSOnline

.... All things considered really not a bad article at all.  I hear again and again that more Protestants have got over the fear mongering of certain anti-papists and actually looked at the theology, the scripture, and the traditions of Christianity.  Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit.  I haven't read Mark Shea's series(I will once I have time), but Dr. Mark Miravalle covers this quite well on AirMaria.