Mornings with Mary: Project Gabriel Baby Shower

Last Tuesday our Bible Study group

hosted a baby shower 

for the local Project Gabriel. 

It is an organization that provides support

for expectant mothers.

Details about Project Gabriel

can be found here.

The name stems from the angel

Gabriel who announced to Mary

about her role in the birth 

of our Savior.

I think that it is a fitting name,

don't you agree?

Giving thanks to Rebecca
for hosting Mornings with Mary!

Mornings with Mary: May Crowning

The stunning statue of Our Mother
and her blessed Son was crowned with flowers
by St. Mary Parish first communicants
the weekend before Mother's Day.  Then the following
week, an eighth grade girl
laid a crown of flowers on a
 Blessed Mother statue that stands outdoors.
I cherish that tradition.
 

I captured this right after Mass
when the altar servers were extinguishing candles.

Prayer to Mary, Queen of Heaven

Queen of heaven, rejoice. Alleluia. The Son whom you were privileged to bear, Alleluia, has risen as he said, Alleluia. Pray to God for us, Alleluia. Rejoice and be glad, Virgin Mary, Alleluia. For the Lord has truly risen, Alleluia. 

Hail, Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blest is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now, 

and at the hour of death.

Amen

linking to Mornings with Mary 
at Rebecca's  Recuerda Mi Corazon

and entering the word 'royalty'  
  to Roger at ABC Wednesday.

Mother's Day Prayer

 Prayer to Our Mother of Perpetual Help

O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke Thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let Your name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on You, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations, I shall never cease to call on You, ever repeating Your sacred name, Mary, Mary. O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion fills my soul when I pronounce Your sacred name, or even only think of You! I thank God for having given You, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely pronouncing Your name; let my love for You prompt me ever to hail You, Mother of Perpetual Help. Amen

May Mary's Son, our Lord, 

bless all mothers on this day

and every day.

                                                           

linking to Madge's Weekly Top Shot #82

Mornings with Mary: Magnificat Cover

linking to the radiant Rebecca 

at Recuerda Mi Corazon

Can’t We Dream?

(my paraphrase of part of the article 

in the May 2013 issue of “Magnificat” 

by Pierre-Marie Dumont)

Guillaume Dubufe was a master in Symbolism 

at the turn of the 20th century. 

Symbolism developed as a poetic and spiritual reaction

 against materialism, positivism and rationalism.  

These isms were trying to drown out art 

by demolishing all sense of the sacred.  

French poets Baudelaire, Verlaine and Mallarme, 

fathers of Symbolism, predicted that materialism

 would dissolve all ties that provide reasons to live, 

that is vertical ties uniting us to God 

and horizontal ties uniting us among ourselves. 

Ever since the Middle Ages, 

art has been a reflection of society’s soul.  

In present times with the world’s soul being lost,

it is thought that 

art can only survive by battling this society

 so driven by materialism.

“Thus, in this House of the Virgin, 

the vibrations of a white, diaphanous light suffuses the painting 

like an image out of a dream, 

an image wherein all is a mystery waiting to be revealed:’’

To dare utter your praises we need it all,

O virgin Mary, O Mary Immaculate,

White through the wing beats of angels, 

you who set your feet upon our consoled earth.

~Paul Verlaine~

More detail about Pierre-Marie Dumont can be found at this site:

http://www.kathleenbeckman.com/Articles/YearofFaithMagnificat.htm

Art prints of work by Guillaume Dubufe can be found at this site.

Weekend Reflections: Stained Glass Window

'neath the reflection
lies Mother Teresa's face
undetected  here.

more Weekend Reflections here

The bars surround where once
baptisms took place. It is located 
at the right upon entering
the inner side door of our church.
Now the baptismal sacrament
is presented in the area 
near where the cantor stands.

Mornings with Mary

Dear holy Mother,
open my heart to receive
the Word of Your Son. 

sooc

make your way 

to others who honor Mary

this Monday morning

on 

Mornings with Mary

Radiant edit

Burst edit

This lovely statue was my mother's.

It was a gift from her sister-in-law,

it's a Hummel figurine.  Sometime or another

Mary's hand was broken off, probably by a cat

because my parents always had one

after they bought their home.

I, in turn, gave it to my daughter because

she cherishes the fact that it belonged to her grandmother. 

Quotography: Mother Teresa Quote

 “Be faithful in small things 

because it is in them that your strength lies.”

~Mother Teresa~

In some people's lives,
baptism seems to be such
a minor event that it is
deemed not necessary.
But in the minds of believers,
it sets one on the right path to eternity.

linking to Quotography