Blessed art thou among women: 

Why do we neglect the role of Mary?

Why do we neglect the role of Mary so much in our Protestant traditions? Apart from Christmas cards, Mary is often a forgotten figure in our Protestant tradition? We tend to say that it is part of our Protestant, Reformation tradition in order to highlight the central place of Christ. But even Martin Luther, the great leader of the Protestant reformation continued to have a very high view of Mary.

Is our devaluing of Mary yet another sign of our devaluing of women in general as somehow less important and less capable and less valuable than men?

In this passage we are encouraged to restore Mary to her rightful place in our faith. In this passage, Elizabeth, Mary's relative, moved by the Holy Spirit exclaims in a loud voice: "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me."

The words of this exclamation from Elizabeth form the heart of what Catholics call the "Hail Mary". In fact most of the "Hail Mary" is rooted in scripture...

While as Protestants the idea of asking Mary to pray for us, might be foreign to us (see below for further thoughts on this), we see that the honouring of the central place of Mary in the Christian faith as expressed in the Hail Mary, is already rooted in scripture.

May we so honour Mary this Christmas as an example of a life submitted in devotion to God and as the bearer of God incarnate in Jesus that the same love and devotion to God that we see in Mary might dwell in us, that we too might give honour and glory to God Incarnate in Jesus her Son and that Christ might be Incarnate in us too this Christmas!