December 18: Mary, the Lord's Servant

Realizing that perhaps most of us will welcome December 18 as the Fourth Sunday in Advent, some Christians will find it a day during which they ponder Mary's role in salvation history. Perhaps you'd like to join them and ask yourself:

How do I understood Mary's place in the Gospels?*
What might we gain from the particular emphases of the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant traditions about Mary?
What do I take from the following sonner, John Donne's poem about Mary's relationship to Jesus?

Salvation to all that will is nigh;
That All, which always is all everywhere,
Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,
Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,
Lo, faithful virgin, yields Himself to lie
In prison, in thy womb; and though He there
Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet He will wear,
Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try.
Ere by the spheres time was created, thou
Wast in His mind, who is thy Son and Brother;
Whom thou conceivst, conceived; yea thou art now
Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;
Thou hast light in dark, and shutst in little room,
Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.

If you interested in musing over the questions and the import of Donne's sonnet, visit Journey with Jesus for a thoughtful commentary on the day. And then let us know what you're saying to youself, to us.