Matthew Schmitz on Mary Among Evangelicals

"When I was three years old, I asked my pregnant mother whether Jesus could come into me as my baby brother had come into her. It was my inept way of saying that I wanted to accept Jesus into my heart as my personal lord and savior, an idea to which my Evangelical church had already introduced me. But it was also my first moment, however unwitting, of Marian piety. In that moment I took Mary as my model in faith. I asked to become a God-bearer as she was, to be made pregnant with Christ.

"Eighteen years later, I was received into the Catholic Church. As I wrestled with Catholic claims, nothing caused me more difficulty than the issue of Mary. ­Newman confessed that Mary had been his 'great crux as regards Catholicism,' and so it was for me.

"Growing up as an Evangelical, I was trained to mistrust all Marian devotion. Like Calvin, I declined to call Mary the Mother of God (though I could not really deny her the title). I rejected her Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption. When my Catholic friends asked for Mary's intercession, I charged them with idolatry. I believed that anyone who showed love for the ­Mother harbored contempt for the Son.

"Yet something in my upbringing gave me an inchoate attraction to Mary. . . ."

In a recent commentary, Matthew Schmitz, senior editor of First Things, reflected on his experience considering Mary as the model of Christian faith and on journey into the Catholic Church.

To access Mr. Schmitz' complete essay, please visit:

First Things: Mary Among Evangelicals (November 2018)