In the fourth week of Advent, Sr Patricia Rumsey reflects on the person at the centre of this period of waiting and preparation: Mary, the mother of Jesus

This time of waiting, of expectancy, is Mary’s season par excellence. But – which Mary? The Mary we find in the Advent lectionary readings is very different from the Mary that has been created in our imaginations.

The Mary of the Gospels is a peasant girl from a tiny village in a Middle Eastern backwater. When we first meet her in Luke’s Gospel, she is poor, devout and engaged to be married. The Mary-idol that has been created is partly inspired by a text from the mid-second century: the Gospel of James, or Protoevangelium Jacobi. This little-known but highly influential text presents Mary as “different” from the first moment of her existence. She is born into a wealthy and highly respected family in Jerusalem to an elderly, pious and barren couple. She is conceived miraculously; her feet never touch the ground lest she be contaminated; she is fed by an angel with heavenly food.