Simply Mary

Book excerpt: The Virgin Mary has appeared to thousands and performed miracles from the early fifth century until now. Millions around the world are devoted to her. But have we wrapped so much elevating imagery around her that we've lost the real woman who gave birth to Our Lord? Was Mary of Nazareth a pain-free, perpetual virgin, a spiritual superwoman, even something of a goddess, floating calmly above the storms of her life? Or was she a woman who experienced the agony of childbirth, the dirt and grit of everyday existence, and ultimately witnessed her Son being tortured to death? What do we really know about her from Scripture, and how have we made this first-century peasant woman into a sort of glowing, semi-goddess? And while we're at it, how has the divinity of her Son obscured our clear sight of her? Simply Mary: Meditations on the Real Life of the Mother of Christ answers these questions in a combination of reflection and biography, exploring things we can know and can surmise from the record that have not been brought up before now. With both the eyes of faith and of a realistic, historical appraisal, this book addresses the most important question that has never been answered: who was the woman, Mary of Nazareth? Before she can be the Mother of God, she has to be a woman.