May!

Honoring our Blessed Mother who has taken me by the hand though life in her motherly love. 

 

Marian Garden

Since I received a small statue for the front door from Number One, husband had the idea to use the older one for a backyard garden. With Number Four’s help it wasn’t hard to put it together! I just love the prayerful corner of the backyard now. The deems and flowers have been very happy since they were planted. Ave Maria…

 

Garden

 First salad! Flower boxes… And a crown for the Blessed Mother.

Mother’s Day tomorrow

A lovely card from Sister Maria Perpetua and loving memories of my mother…

 

May, the month of the Blessed Mother

 There is a visiting statue at the parish, given to the diocese in 1977 from Portugal, carved in Brazilian wood. Ready for the beginning of the month of May! Our Lady, ora pro nobis!

Novena to Our Lady Aparecida

 https://www.acidigital.com/noticias/hoje-comeca-a-novena-a-nossa-senhora-aparecida-padroeira-do-brasil-56864?fbclid=IwAR17o3hNbPphKV9rluqEGI92em-HmxnT9y2_tzeoIDfEq-yl-bbXsYDSg-U

Ave Maria

One of summer's many delights: caring for flowers, and placing them in front of the Blessed Mother in the front entrance. Ave Maria...

 

Little backyard bouquets

One of the reasons I LOVE gardening! 

and more flowers!

Flowers!

Praying for dearest Camila

I've added a second rosary since she asked for prayers last year... she sent me recently photos of a trip they took to the Shrine of Aparecida. She said it is so empty, and even more welcoming and prayerful. I don't think I had ever seen the most recent wall paintings, and I like them! 

Our Lady of Confidence

A new-to-me title of the Blessed Mother! 

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of Confidence can be traced back to Sr. Chiara Isabella Fornari who was a Poor Clare in Todi, Italy. The image is especially noteworthy in that Christ points to his mother, and Mary’s intercession is typically invoked through the short prayer “Mater Mea, Fiducia Mea” (My Mother, My Confidence).

That Abbess, today Venerable Sister Clara Isabel Fornari, embraced a severe life of penance and was favored with many mystical graces; she even received the Sacred Stigmata of Our Lord’s Passion. Sister Clara Isabel had a great devotion to the Blessed Mother, like all the saints, and a very special attachment to this maternal image of Our Lady with the Divine Infant.

For Our Lady had made a remarkable promise to Sister Clara Isabel that would win special graces for herself, her sisters and all those through the ages who would venerate this image.

Our Lady of Confidence

O Mary Immaculate, the precious name of Mother of Confidence, with which we honor you, fills our hearts to overflowing with the sweetest consolation and moves us to hope for every blessing from you. If such a title has been given to you, it is a sure sign that no one has recourse to you in vain.

Accept, therefore, with a mother’s love our devout homage, as we earnestly beseech you to be gracious unto us in our every need. We pray that you will make us live in constant union with you and your divine Son, Jesus.

With you as our guide, we are certain that we shall walk in the right way and that it will be our happy lot to hear you say on the last day of our life those words of comfort: “Come then, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”

Amen.

Reed of God

I’ve been reading, or listening to, The Reed of God for book club. Number Five has joined a chapter of the Well Read Mom Book Club as well, so we are both enjoying the same book. Caryll Houselander writes in a personal way, like words she would write down daily without excessive attention to density or professional editing. After reading, or listening to, three Bill Bryson non-fiction books, this feels more like a conversation than a book. Her reflections are very personal, intimate, they reflect the development of her thoughts and imagination on the presence of the Blessed Virgin life on earth. She wrote it in London while the world was at war, and she brilliantly juxtaposes the Life brought by the Blessed Virgin into a world so full of death. Advent is the underlying theme, but she expands the idea of advent, or patiently waiting and letting something grow—to many different aspects of human life.

Yum! First raspberries

There are also beautiful flowers from weed plants

and these two serene friends on a break from daily full time work at Husband's office

Sunday flowers

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, 
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish 
but might have eternal life.”
From today’s Gospel of Saint John, chapter 3

I continue bringing flowers to the Blessed Virgin every week--perhaps my favorite parish "job" among many.