Saturday, May 31, 2008

Mary Mother of God

On this, the final day of May, I am posting a picture of Mary.

This statue was a Mothers' Day present from my parents. I placed it in the copse of trees visible from my kitchen window and planted blue and gold flowers at her feet.* It makes makes me smile (and pray) each time I glance out the window.

In case you didn't realize it, Catholics like Mary.** We do not pray to her like a god; we pray with her.*** The statue is a sign of respect and a reminder to us of the most excellent model of human virtue.

This area of the yard will need to be landscaped in the next year because the trees are beginning to lean toward the house. When we do, I think I will have the children help me plant a Mary garden.

Then we can have a May Crowning on May 1st.
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*Yes, the blue and gold reference is to notre dame -- our Lady, not the university. Blue and gold have traditionally been associated with Mary, and many Catholic schools use this color scheme to honor her. These include my elementary school as well as colleges like Notre Dame, Merrimack, St. Edward's University, College of St. Elizabeth, St. Joseph College (x2), St. Mary College (of Kansas San Antonio, and Maryland, but not the one in Indiana [which is blue and white also in honor of St. Mary]), College of St. Mary, St. Scholastica, St. Theresa, and St. Thomas (x2). If I had included all of the schools that use blue and white to honor Mary this list would go on for pages.****

**Sounds like a future post for Stuff Catholics Like?

***Sister Mary Martha has a post on this very topic.

***
Yes, I did do a search for "Saint" on a sports uniform site to find most of the schools on this list.

4 comments:

Garden State Kate said...

I was going to leave a slightly snarky comment about what we called the ones in all of our front yards growing up Roman Catholic in New Jersey, but your other gentle readers might not take offense rather than see the humor, so another day.;-)
Come play..we left a Meme for you.

Garden State Kate said...

PS- She is lovely.

reprehriestless warillever said...

That is exactly the reason that the statue is located in the backyard -- so that I can see it, but the neighbors do not.

It isn't that I am embarrassed by it (if I was it wouldn't be on my blog), but because Marian devotion is so easily misunderstood.

Rockin' Moroccan Mama said...

Beautiful!!! A Mary Garden. How wonderful