Any Catholic should know who the Blessed Virgin Mary is. She is the mother of Jesus—God incarnate who came to Earth to die for our sins, so that we may rise to new life with him for eternity. In the Scriptures, Mary first appears as a young woman who is visited by the angel Gabriel and is offered a daunting yet important task: to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God (Lk. 1:31). She had the freedom to say no, but she said yes: “let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk. 1: 38). This “yes” changes the entire tide of the history of the world. Mary is widely associated with the Christmas story, but she also appears at fundamental points in Scripture. Besides the birth stories, she is present at the first miracle of Jesus: the wedding at Cana. She is seen informing her son that they have run out of wine—expecting him to do something about it (Jn. 2:3). Jesus did not feel ready to perform his first miracle, but Mary instructs the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you,” and all those big cisterns of water were turned into wine (Jn 2:4-5). Another appearance of Mary is at the Crucifixion. She is shown standing at the foot of the cross of her Son. She is given away by Jesus to John to be his mother, and he is to be her new son (Jn. 19: 26-27). From that moment, Mary and John were linked, and they stayed together for the rest of Mary’s life, taking care of him and all of the Apostles as their mother. By extension, she is given to be our mother as well. Mary also appears in New Testament literature outside of the Gospels. She is seen in the Upper Room praying and supporting the Apostles, the first members of the Church, until Pentecost (Acts 1:14). She is helping them understand how to live as a Christian. She also makes an appearance in the Book of Revelation where she is shown as a “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev. 12:1). She is shown to be giving birth to a son, but the beast is wishing to capture and devour the child. Her child is thankfully saved by God, and she was sent off to a place prepared for her by God (Jn. 12: 5-6). We have examined where Mary has appeared in the New Testament, but did you also know Mary was foretold about in the Old Testament? One big location is the creation story. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, God punished them and the Serpent for their wrongdoing. But he also made a promise. God says to the Serpent that he will “put enmity between [him] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (Gn. 3:15). This is referred to as the “proto-evangelium.” It is foretold that a woman and her son will be at odds with sin and death. They will crush the serpent of sin thus saving humanity. Another location is in the Prophet Isaiah. King Ahaz asks for a sign of the Lord’s power. He is told that “a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). Tradition identifies this as the foretelling of the birth of Christ by the Virgin Mary. Although we did not go into the deeper, symbolic meanings of these passages, the hope is to show the role of Mary and the impact she has throughout the Scriptures. There is so much more that can be discussed, but hopefully we can take these passages, reflect on them, and appreciate the significance of Mary in the Scriptures. Out of many of these passages, we are able to say so much about the Blessed Mother which is the topic of the next reflection…