During the seasons of Advent and Christmas the Church is steeped in the remembrance and honor of Mary, the Mother of God and the Mother of our Church. As Catholics, we should not only remember Mary as the mother of our Savior, Jesus Christ, but allow her to be our guide in bringing about the fullness of the plan God has for us.
It’s easy to forget just how unique Christianity is. That may be because the world we live in has been so influenced by faith in Christ, so structured and shaped by all things Christian over the past two millennia, that we’re almost always looking at the Jesus narrative from inside it. And that remains true (for now), despite the marked decline in religious belief and practice over the past century that has many calling our era “post-Christian.”