Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Sarah
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Posted: April 19 2006 at 8:45am | IP Logged Quote Sarah

Since its right around the corner, let's post some Marian ideas! What do you have planned to honor Mary in May?

We have a family May crowning in our yard with a hymn. I feel like we need more, so I'm eager to hear from you all.

Alice, a Marian Tea??

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Posted: April 19 2006 at 9:27am | IP Logged Quote momtomany

I was just about to post this same thing. I was looking for ideas for a Marian celebration for our local homeschooling group next month. I'm sure that some of you women have great ideas!

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Posted: April 19 2006 at 1:25pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM

What do I really have planned? ... or what ideas do I have in general?...two very different things.

I have a dream of taking a different name of Mary from one of the Litanies to our Lady (probably Loreto) each day and celebrating that name in some way. It may be just talking about it and the symbolism, or finding a special prayer to learn or copy, or doing an art activity, etc.

Examples of craft activities:
Tower of Ivory - carve a tower from a bar of Ivory soap.
Mystical Rose - make paper roses and dip tips in glitter OR plant or pick roses
Morning Star- make a decorative paper star OR star 2 OR star 3
MIrror of Justice - get a mirror, put a sign on it that says "Justice" and decorate the border with paper flowers.

We have done some names each year but never manage to actually do one per day. I guess that is better than nothing though.

A great video on Mary is the one from Steve Ray in the Footprints of God series (Scroll down on screen for Mary video summary). It really brings the Marian teachings to life and is enjoyable for children as well as adults. Small segments could be covered through out the month.

Some info on history and ideas for May crowning from Women for Faith & Family

Here are some links from the Catholic Culture website - always a great source for liturgical year celebrations and activities.
May Devotion: Blessed Virgin Mary
Marian Shrine Pilgrimage
May Crowning Activity



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Posted: April 19 2006 at 1:47pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM

Sarah wrote:

Alice, a Marian Tea??


Interestingly Gwen and I were just having this conversation last week at our Lenten Tea. Wouldn't a whole booklet of "Tea Times for the Liturgical Year" be a great idea? Many people could contibute ideas - since Alice has provided such a lovely template and we a have creative bunch here.

I could see a Marian Tea following along the earlier post of using the various names of Mary from the litany.

The teapot could be labeled Spiritual Vessel (or one of the other vessel names of Mary)
Mother Most Pure - pure cane sugar for the tea
House of Gold - the Hershey's Kisses that are wrapped in gold foil
Cookies in the shape of angels or stars
Find foods associated with the virtues or Mary in those names - like cactus for Mother Most Chaste

The table could be decorated with various Marian flowers and their symbolism discussed.

I'm just starting to brainstorm- oh, the possibilities.....


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Posted: April 19 2006 at 2:14pm | IP Logged Quote JennGM

Love the ideas! I wish I could drink tea...I cannot for the life of me hold down any kind of black tea! So herbal teas are the only kind for me.

But there are some Marian flowers that would make some nice teas and foods. The possibilities ARE endless.

Spring dandelion salad...dandelion, lily sandwiches (see My Nameday Come for Dessert), Mint and Chamomile teas....

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Posted: April 19 2006 at 3:07pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM

Michelle M did something really neat with her girls a few years ago that I think would be a great activity for May. Her daughters each got a charm bracelet and as they did different Marian activities or went on Marian pilgrimages the girls would get a medal of Our Lady to add to the bracelet. For example when they visited the Lourdes Marian Center here in Denver they added an Our Lady of Lourdes medal.

Michelle - what other medals and Marian activites did you do that spring?

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Sarah
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Posted: April 19 2006 at 4:23pm | IP Logged Quote Sarah

White foods for her purity. . .

Good ideas ladies

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Posted: April 19 2006 at 4:26pm | IP Logged Quote Dawn

A thread from last fall about the Birthday of Mary had a lot of nice Marian ideas. I especially like Jenn's cupcake rosary idea.



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Posted: April 20 2006 at 1:19pm | IP Logged Quote MichelleM

MaryM wrote:


Michelle - what other medals and Marian activites did you do that spring?


I'm great at generating ideas but not so great with following thru, so we never accomplished all I set out to do. (Perhaps I set out to do too much?) However, we did make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and discussed what the Immaculate Conception is and what a Mother Church is. The children received a Miraculous Medal for their bracelet.

We used the devotional book; "Leading Little Ones to Mary" with the children. They really enjoyed it and received much grace from it. I did notice much fruit from this in their actions. They all wanted to be a "Little Mary"! This is a Consecration to Jesus thru Mary for children based on St. Louis de Monfort's consecration for adults. It's a very small booklet and only cost a few dollars. Quite a gem!

We also learned the Marian names of flowers and plants and visited a nursery with our list of names. When we came across a flower we would look up its Marian name & discuss why we thought it was called that. If we came across a plant that did not have a Marian name the children and I would rename it! In addition to this we planted some Marian flowers in our yard and sketched them in our notebooks.

I remember informally learning about other devotions such as the scapular and the rosary as well as different Marian Apparitions. Our Church, I believe, was just built that year and so we visited it as pilgrims and learned about "Our Lady of Loreto" and the story of Loreto. We also prayed the Litany of Loreto.

For picture study we studied different paintings of Mary as well as the beautiful stain glass images at the Cathedral. My favorite picture of Mary is “The Annunciation” by Henry Ossawa Tanner. He was a black artist who lived around the turn of the century.

One activity that I had planned but didn't accomplish was making rosaries out of rose petals. The nursery we visited had huge bags full of rose petals that they had pruned. I planned on asking them for some.

If I remember correctly, you put the petals in a food processor with a little water (a few drops if needed), blend them to make a thick paste, form into beads the size of peas, poke a straight pin thru them securing them on a piece of corrugated cardboard and let them air dry. When they are dry, you string them onto light fishing wire.

This tradition of rose bead rosaries was popular during Victorian times. They supposedly smell wonderful and keep their scent for quite sometime! Perhaps we will try this in May this year!

100
Marian Flowers


The Annunciation

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Posted: April 20 2006 at 1:52pm | IP Logged Quote Rebecca

MichelleM wrote:
   

This tradition of rose bead rosaries was popular during Victorian times.


A lovely little company that makes soaps, salves and other good selling products sells these rose bud rosaries. They also sell Tasha Tudor prints for those of you who are TT fans.

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Posted: April 20 2006 at 2:32pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM

MichelleM wrote:
   One activity that I had planned but didn't accomplish was making rosaries out of rose petals. The nursery we visited had huge bags full of rose petals that they had pruned. I planned on asking them for some.

If I remember correctly, you put the petals in a food processor with a little water (a few drops if needed), blend them to make a thick paste, form into beads the size of peas, poke a straight pin thru them securing them on a piece of corrugated cardboard and let them air dry. When they are dry, you string them onto light fishing wire.


This is a lovely idea, Michelle! Does that nursery still have bags of petals, I wonder? Let us know where it was or if you get some we'd take some also.

I googled and found these helpful sites.
Making Rose Petal Beads
Rose Beads (w/history)

Thanks so much for posting, Michelle.

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Posted: April 20 2006 at 3:52pm | IP Logged Quote MichelleM

MaryM wrote:
Does that nursery still have bags of petals, I wonder? Let us know where it was or if you get some we'd take some also.


We visited Tagawa on Parker Rd, south of Arapahoe. They have hundreds of rose bushes. They prune off any that are wilted and I believe just throw them away!

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Posted: April 20 2006 at 4:11pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM

MichelleM wrote:
We also learned the Marian names of flowers and plants and visited a nursery with our list of names.


We did this one year at the Botanic Gardens. If anyone has a botanical or other large type garden in their community this can be a very enjoyable activity.

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Posted: April 23 2006 at 6:42pm | IP Logged Quote momwise

We'll be working on the Oatmeal Box shrines if all goes well, in the next couple of weeks.

I bought several of the 18 oz. size oatmeal boxes a few weeks ago (yes, I actually planned it and did it!) and we've emptied them out.

I bet paper flowers would look nice around the bottoms. Our little altar will be decorated for May (I still need to find a blue cover).

We still have one of the May Virtue Calendars from Dumb Ox that we've never used so I suppose I will try to remember that. I love all the other ideas.

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Posted: April 24 2006 at 12:47am | IP Logged Quote Kelly

Don't forget to learn some Marian songs! Daughters of St. Paul have two good cds of Marian songs, "Handmaiden of the Lord". It always irks me when I see how nobody knows the words to "singing" songs any more (like the Olympic athletes who couldn't sing the "Star Spangled Banner!) Grrrrr! What has happened to the American Singing Gene?

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Posted: April 24 2006 at 4:57am | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Michael had a rose petal rosary made for a friend as a graduation gift. I never even considered making it himself--he could have done it, I'm sure, if I'd known it could be done. I mention it here, though, to tuck away in your heads. He took the roses she was given by her parents for her final ballet recital and had them made into a rosary to give to her before she went on a graduation pilgrimage to Rome. I was so glad we'd thought of the idea in advance of the recital. It was really meaningful to use those particular flowers. Of course, her mother was in cahoots with us and helped to pull it off. This is a beautiful graduation gift for all those dancers and musicians out there.

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Posted: April 24 2006 at 2:10pm | IP Logged Quote saintanneshs

After 2 years of planning and dreaming...

We're making a Rosary Garden with the symbolic flowers: Lily of the Valley, Pink and White Old-Fashioned Bleeding Hearts, Forget-Me-Nots, Yellow Perfection Violas and a few others. The plants came in the mail last week, so we've already planted them. Now we have to buy the rest of the small stepping stones (small beads) and make our large-bead cement markers. When we finish we'll have the dedication...a May Crowning in our new garden of devotion! Yea!

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Posted: April 25 2006 at 7:45am | IP Logged Quote marihalojen

saintanneshs wrote:
After 2 years of planning and dreaming...

We're making a Rosary Garden with the symbolic flowers: Lily of the Valley, Pink and White Old-Fashioned Bleeding Hearts, Forget-Me-Nots, Yellow Perfection Violas and a few others. The plants came in the mail last week, so we've already planted them. Now we have to buy the rest of the small stepping stones (small beads) and make our large-bead cement markers. When we finish we'll have the dedication...a May Crowning in our new garden of devotion! Yea!


Kristine,

Could I suggest some marigolds in your garden?
( I am becoming addicted to these garden blogs and questions, I didn't realize how much I missed gardening. )
The flowers you've listed are all spring flowers and won't last the heat of the summer. Other heat tolerant flowers to add would be
gladiolus = ladder to heaven,
petunia = Our Lady's Praises
Corn poppy = Our Lady's Button
Gaillardia = The Virgin's Face
Iris = Mary's Sword of Sorrow

I would love to see pictures of the gardens and May Crownings from all of these talented gardeners and Mothers.

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Posted: April 25 2006 at 9:13am | IP Logged Quote saintanneshs

Jennifer,
Thanks for the suggestions! Since our garden is a shade garden, I'll have to check and see if any of the flowers are shade-lovers. We actually sell flowers and plants in our nursery here on the farm and I was counting on dh bringing me a few annual heat-tolerant flowers as the seasons progress...One of the perks of having a farm market at dh's fingertips! (literally! )

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Posted: April 25 2006 at 9:26am | IP Logged Quote marihalojen

Kristine,
Wow! What a wonderful garden you must have! I worked for years in a rural greenhouse and their gardens were always phenomenal - winners of Yard of the Week, etc... I wonder why???
But really, what else would one do with flats of plants that don't sell, right?

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