Rhapsody in blue.

It is difficult--if not almost impossible--to write about the Virgin Mary without the essay becoming a lyric poem. For as scholar Jaroslav Pelikan reminds us in his extraordinary new book, Mary (Yale, 1996), not only has the "Aye Maria" been repeated literally millions of times a day throughout the world but Mary has been portrayed in art and music more than any other woman in history.

Perhaps more significant is the highly honored place that Mary has in Protestantism through their embrace of the Nicene Creed ("Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary"); in the Orthodox churches, especially in their liturgical homage; and, to the surprise of at least this writer, in the Muslim Qur'an.

The fact that there is virtual unanimity of adulation rather than "competition" among these major religions is one more tribute to the Virgin. Nonetheless, that there is a special kind of devotion to Mary by Catholics goes almost without saying.

"Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy," Pelikan calls to our attention, "speaking near the end about all the tragedies she had endured in her long life, said she had constantly found inspiration and consolation in the Blessed Mother, who had not lost faith in God even when her Son had been crucified and reviled."

Pelikan finds another example of the special devotion of Catholics to Mary in the words of Hispanic American Richard Rodriguez, who he calls "one of the most sensitive commentators on current affairs." Rodriguez suggests that the "Virgin of Guadalupe symbolizes the entire coherence of Mexico, body and soul.... The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (privately, affectionately Mexicans call her La Morenita, `Little Darling') has become the unofficial, the private flag of Mexico."

Again Pelikan points out "secularism or not, this century has . . . witnessed a continuation and probably an acceleration of the phenomenon of apparitions of Mary for which the 19th century became almost a golden age. The Mariological scholar Rene Laurentin estimated that there have been well over two hundred apparitions since the 1930s."

It is not necessary to sort out those apparitions that seem the most credible or to point to those few (Lourdes, Fatima) that have been formally approved by Catholic authorities to recognize the strong faith experience that has generated these events "from the grass roots."

Pelikan speaks of such happenings as well as the rhapsodic tribute to the Virgin by Dante, Verdi, Claudel, and so many more only as the reaching out of people to Mary, the Mother of God. Most of his book, Mary, is a scholarly delineation of her place in the salvation story as he finds evidence of it in the Old and New Testaments and in the teachings of some of the great church leaders. He is well aware of the fragmentary nature of the Marian story in the New Testament, told almost exclusively in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But by painstakingly tracing and analyzing clues from, among other sources, the Old Testament, he is able to place Mary in her unique place.

Pelikan touches on a phenomenon that seems to be challenging Mary's exalted role: the griping (my word) by some feminists who argue that Mary's unquestioning obedience in her life is sometimes used by male, usually clerical, dominators to "put women in their place." (Admittedly an oversimplified version of what may be happening.)

But whatever use some may make of Mary's virtue, especially her obedience, it is hardly her fault. More important, such an argument misses the point that Mary's obedience was not only willing but also sublimely loving.

In another area, it is surely not Mary's fault that devotion to her all too often becomes excessive. Frequently with the best of intentions, devotees of Mary foam over into gross sentimentality. One need only think of hymns so sweet that diabetics should be warned away from them. Or how many paintings and sculptures of Mary have we seen that are not only bad art, but also are theologically offensive?

This misplaced, though well-meaning, devotion to the Virgin should not in any way be an argument against the eloquence and strength of true devotion to her. Think instead of that magnificent prayer, the "Salve Regina," in which we address her as, "O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary," or the Angelus prayers in which we repeat Mary's words, "Be it done to me according to your word," or the line in the hymn, "How dark without Mary life's journey would be."

How dark indeed! And how unnecessarily unarmed we would be. Obviously, our religious faith must be there, but who will say that it need not also be beautiful?

"My soul cloth magnify the Lord," Mary proclaimed. Amen.