I beg to differ she is mentioned starting in Luke 1:27, and is found in a few more references, like Matthew 13:55.
I think this is argument is getting really old really fast. There are two sides to this argument, and both sides are in effect right. One will say without Mary saying yes, Jesus would not have been born into this world. The other camp says without God there would have been no birth in the first place and so Mary had nothing to do with it. Now I fall into the court that it was mostly God, as it was His idea, and His son that was sacrificed. But I do not deny that Mary was important in that act. Her response to the angel is also important:
So Mary said, Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.
Had she said no, would Jesus have been born in that time and would we at this point be saved from our sins? Could God have found another person? Yes He could. But He didn't have to. God in His infinite wisdom chose Mary a humble girl to be the bearer, and earthly mother of His Son Jesus. I really think it does her a dishonor by portraying her as a mere vessel of the action that God wanted accomplished. If that is the case then so are we, so was Paul, Moses, Abraham, and even Peter. We hold what these men did as great and we honor them, why can't we do the same with Mary?
But what does all this mean to us now?
Some Protestants tend to focus on God, and sometimes deny the fact that Mary did play a very big role in God fulfilling His plan through her. I do believe as do the Catholics, that we can learn alot from this woman, and when the Lord calls us to serve we should do what she did and let it be. She is a true example of what a totally selfless act can do to the lives of many. And to be honest I do not think it a bad thing to try and imitate her response to God.
Many have tried to allegorize and create doctrines to further state what I stated above. Some have even tried to say that she was sinless, which to me does her another great dishonor. Sin is by definition, the active rebellion against God. If Mary was free from all sin (or rebellion against God), then she had no capability to say no to God. In effect it would seem that God stacked the deck by asking her to do what she did, if he removed the ability to say no, or to rebel. It seems to me that this is a dishonest thing to do, and not one I would associate with God. In every instance of asking someone to do something for Him, God gives the chance to say no. He did the same for Mary.
To me it seems that Mary was a wonderful child, and God saw fit to use her as the person in which His child would be born. That is a great honor, as God does not offer to use everyone to bear His child into the world, and she will be forever known as blessed because of it.
That is where the story of Mary ends for me, because that is where the story for her really ends in the Bible. She is mentioned at the wedding, and in passing at the cross, and at Pentecost. She very well may have been a great Saint while here on earth but anything written after the fact or any doctrines created about her are at this point all conjecture. I will instead stick with what I know, and I will always call her what she was:A saint and Blessed among women.
JMHO