Some early traditions tell of a great plot to protect her from birth so that she would be a pure vessel for the conception of Jesus. Some say that her parents were Anna and Joachim, ordinary folk of modest means, yet devoted to the Temple and YHWH the god of Israel. To ensure that no sin besmirched the handmaid of God, even her conception had to be special, pure, without any trace of sin. So and angel participated in Anna and Joachim's love making and Mary was conceived free from any sin - an Immaculate Conception as the tradition goes.

There is a tradition that at an early age, Mary was offered to the Temple. She lived in the Holy of Holies, the most sacred part of the Temple. She was waited on and taught by the priests of the Temple, unsullied, pure, holy beyond any other human holiness.

The priests, when it was time for her to leave the Temple lest her puberty defile the sanctuary, they called all the eligible men together and asked God's sign. A dove landed on the head of a widower named Joseph and just to be extra sure, his walking staff blossomed. And so this carpenter would be guardian for the Holy Virgin.

There is also a tradition that Mary never died. At least not like you or I will. She fell asleep and was carried to heaven by angels - the Dormition or Assumption of Mary.

These are beautiful traditions, and some people get great joy and comfort from them. They failed to make it in to the canon of scripture, yet have grown to nearly scriptural authority among perhaps a majority of Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

The Reformation stripped this all away, leaving us to only the Mary of the Scripture. That, perhaps was good. The more human and normal Mary appears, the more spectacular the events are that lead up to the birth of our Lord.

So, who is this Mary?

I think Mary was a regular, ordinary teenage girl. She was too old to play with dolls, but too young to bear the role of a woman in Palestinian culture. She lived at home with her parents and, probably sisters and brothers. If she had older siblings, she probably tattled on them and tried to sneak to catch them in some infraction. If she had younger siblings she, no doubt, complained to her mother that they were sneaking and tattling.

As she entered puberty with all the associated events and problems, her parents would have tried to find her a husband. So, while in our culture, she was just a girl, in her culture, she was a woman. Barley out of dolls, she finds herself with a fiancé and a future laid clearly before her.

And then that incredible morning, in the midst of her private prayers, she is astounded by the appearance of an angel. "Hail, Mary, full of Grace. The Lord is with thee." And this child is told that she will bear a child herself. With no man to help her conceive. No marriage bed in which to consummate a love still growing. A pregnant teenager, alone. Frightened.

And why wouldn't she be frightened? Adultery was a sin, punishable by death. She was engaged to Joseph. They both knew that they had never been together. She could be stoned. Least ways she'd be disgraced. Her parents disgraced. And, she'd be seen as either a liar or a lunatic. Conception without a man. Made pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Her future was as dark as anyone's could be.

Who is this Mary?

When she learned that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, she said, "I am the handmaiden of the Lord." She had a choice. Even then, there were ways to terminate a pregnancy. She could have run away and hidden in the woods or join one of the various sects that didn't ask too many questions. But, this Mary, said yes. The most profound yes ever spoken.

That to me is the most remarkable thing about Mary. She said yes. That's why I like the simple, everyday Mary so much more than the extra-holy Mary of legend. She was just like any other girl. Then or now. And she listened to the angel of God and gave herself, literally, her body, to be used by God for nothing less than the salvation of the world.

God asked this frightened little girl to face the possibility of rejection, derision and even death so that a Holy Child could be born of God and of woman uniting at once the human an the divine.

Who is this Mary?

She is the one who said Yes.

May all of us, who, like her, are just plain everyday folk offer our profound Yes when God calls us to bear his Son to this broken and sinful world.