St. Mary the Virgin August 2013

Immaculate Mary, thy praises we sing;
Who reignest in splendor with Jesus our King.
Ave, ave, ave Maria! Ave, ave Maria!
           - “Immaculate Mary” – Marian hymn

It can sometimes be surprising, both to Roman Catholics and many Protestants, to see that our church in Lawrence Park, Erie’s matronal saint is Saint Mary, the Virgin. For the Romans, there is a common misconception that the role of Mary, while maybe not as pronounced in their tradition, is non-existent in the Protestant traditions.

In point of fact, the Episcopal Church, a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, has many churches dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, as well as noted feast days throughout the church year, including the Annunciation, the Presentation, and many of the Sunday’s of Advent. England, once hailed as Mary’s home, has countless shrines and dedicated churches where Mary is revered. Denominations with a more Protestant pathos are confused by our devotions to Mary, our use of hymns and prayers, even the Rosary, in our prayer and worship life. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches even have a shared statement, Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ, stating our shared love and devotion to the Mother of the Lord.

St. Mary’s, Lawrence Park, Erie, has a deep connection to Mary in our prayers and worship, with our Mary altar with etching of Our Lady of Walshingham at the entrance to the sanctuary, and our use of the Rosary in seasons of deep devotion and reflection. Our yearly celebration of our matronal feast includes an outdoor picnic with music and readings dedicated to observing the essential work of Mary in the Gospel and in our world.

However, the devotion to Mary can often cloud the Gospel narrative. We enthrone Mary, even sometimes placing her as an intermediary between ourselves and Jesus/God. We ask for her prayers on our behalf, we pray for her intervention, and we even find ourselves placing her in a position that takes away from her ordinariness, her humanness, her likeness to ourselves.

Mary was an adolescent girl, poor, and uneducated from a place that had lost all significance under Roman imperialism. She was absolutely ordinary, negligible even, in a part of the world from which nothing of value could possibly come. Yet from this simple and ignored life was this young girl lifted from obscurity. It’s hard to remember that for most of the powerful in her time, Mary was non-existent. Putting her in a modern context closer to home, Mary would be like those young, immigrant or minority girls we see sitting on a porch on East 10^th Street, or helping a single mother at the Horan Apartments. Just as we, shamefully, drive by and try not to notice, the Mary of first century Palestine would not have been noticed either.

But Mary was noticed – by God. And she was chosen by God. And she accepted God’s call and invitation to share in salvation’s plan. Mary’s true inspiration to us is not in her glorification and enthronement, but in her election and her promise. If God can call Mary, he can certainly call you and me. And if Mary can say, “Yes!” to God, we can certainly do the same.

In Christ’s Peace,
Fr. Shawn