Remona Aly
Monday 21 December 2015 Things Unseen

Christmas: In Search of Mary

Go to Podcast

Christmas: In Search of Mary

Alison Hilliard grew up a Protestant in Ian Paisley’s Northern Ireland, where any devotion to Mary was scorned; Mark Dowd is a cradle Catholic and former friar; and Remona Aly is a Muslim who loves Christmas, but approaches Mary very much from a Qur’anic perspective.

In this Christmas programme, these three very different people go on pilgrimage together to experience the mother of the Christ child. Their destination is Walsingham in North Norfolk, “England’s Nazareth” and its most important shrine to Mary.

All three are Things Unseen presenters and, by background, critical journalists.

Yet as they meet Mary through each other and the people they encounter in Walsingham, astonishing stories emerge: stories of visions and prayers answered, of motherly love and comfort – and of Mary as a strong woman and disciple who has none of the sugary, sentimental qualities so often attributed to her.

“I see you in a thousand pictures”, the Romantic poet Novalis says of Mary, “yet none can describe you as I see you in my soul.” This programme focuses not on what we know about Mary historically or theologically, but on how, in the 21st century, three very different people experience Mary and let themselves be challenged by her.