Mary Mary

So, explain the deal with Mary... I mean why is she so important in your religion? Aren't you Christians?

First, let me say that yes Catholics are Christians. Christ is the source and summit of our lives and worship. Yes we honor Mary, but one of the biggest misconceptions about the Catholic faith is that we worship Mary, we don't. No Catholic would be Catholic if we worshiped anyone but God.

We honor Mary, because she said "yes" to God in a way that no one else has ever said yes to God before or since. We may never know if the salvation we have received through Christ would have happened if Mary had not said yes, but in a way that thought is irrelevant. Mary did say yes, and endured much to be the instrument of God. In the same way Christ made us family with God by teaching us to call God "Abba", so too Christ's mother is ours.

When we emulate Mary, we become the family of Christ "who ever does the will of the father is my mother and brothers". As we become the family of God we ask each other to pray for us, that includes our mother Mary.

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death. Amen.

"Beginning with Mary's unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God, centering it on the Person of Christ manifested in His mysteries. In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first "magnifies" the Lord for the "great things" He did for His lowly servant and through her for all human beings. The second entrusts the supplications and praises of the children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused." - from the Catechism of the Catholic Church; 2675.