THE virgin Mary, known to many as Panagia and Theotokos, has been held in high esteem in the church for centuries. When I think of Mary though, I am reminded of Leonard Griffiths’ very perceptive observation that she was ‘the best supporting character’ in ‘the greatest drama ever played on the stage of history’ the drama of which Jesus was the star!

I find that a particularly helpful image as we step out into the New Year because it challenges me to figure out how I can be a ‘supporting actor’ in God’s wonderful story of salvation too. Mary had a very important role of course and given what she was asked to do and so it’s tempting to think she must have been a very special woman. But the evidence points to something very different. In the words of one well-respected scholar, she was a ‘nobody’, just a young teenage girl living in a small village named Nazareth who was engaged to be married to a local artisan named Joseph. She was not ‘full of grace’; she was as imperfect as the rest of us. But God, in His grace, singled her out and chose to use her in the most wonderful way to be the earthly mother of His one and only Son.

In that sense the most important thing Mary did was to agree to take part in God’s cosmic plan. We could probably sum up her response to God in these words: ‘Here I am God. I am very human and I can’t understand all you have said to me, but I am your servant and will go along with all you are asking me to do’.

I wonder how many of us are prepared to do that in the coming months. We may not be asked to do amazing things of course, but I’ve discovered that when we are prepared to do what God prompts us to do the most amazing things can happen, even when it simply means saying ‘Thank you’.

Let me share a recent example of this. A few nights before Christmas I was called out to visit a dying man. As I left the hospital ward where he was being treated, I felt I should thank the nurse in charge for all she and her staff were doing for their patients. Her reaction amazed me because she responded by telling me that I had no idea how much that meant to her and my words had given her the energy to carry on again for yet another night.

Small things count. We don’t have to make headlines to bless others or to grab His attention. As Saint David famously said, ‘do the little things that you have heard and seen me do".

So let’s make 2026 ‘a year of the little things’ because we can be sure Jesus will be applauding us if we do.