Meet Mary: Getting to Know the Mother of God

Who do you say Mary is?

She's a simple peasant they call Queen of Heaven. She's the Lord's humble servant, yet an icon of female strength. She's mother of all, yet ever-virgin, lowly and exalted. Sinners fly to her but angels bow. Mary, mother of Jesus, is the most recog-nized woman in history . . . and the most misunderstood.

Non-Christians paint her as an earth goddess. Skeptics say she's a fictional projection of male psychological needs. Many Protestants grudgingly acknowledge that someone had to bear the Savior, but otherwise regard Mary as an ordinary, sinful woman in whom Christians have tragically misplaced the faith and devotion due only to her Son.

Even many Catholics don't know Mary as well as they should. Do you know the Church's five essential Marian doctrines, and how they're rooted in Scripture and Sacred Tradition? Can you explain the difference between the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth?