May is the perfect time to celebrate Mother’s Day because it comes in the month dedicated to the greatest mother of all — the Blessed Virgin Mary. Considering both together, the Register asked some Catholic mothers to share their favorite Marian devotions.

 

Flowers for Our Lady

While the Cowden home loves to honor the Blessed Mother with flowers year-round, they have a special floral-themed custom specific to the month of May.

“As a mother, the most meaningful Marian devotions for me are the Mary Garden and May Crowning,” says Debbie Cowden, senior manager of social media at EWTN and co-author, with her husband David, of The Prayer Book for Tired Parents.

“What mother doesn’t love flowers plucked and presented by her own children?” she asks. “It’s one of the greatest joys I find as a mother when my children pick flowers for me, whether they bring blooms from our own flower bed, or even clover or dandelions from the yard. In fact, it seems to be embedded in the fabric of children’s DNA to present their mothers with flowers!”

She explains of the family’s floral focus, “My husband has planted roses all around our home, and every year, usually in May, the Blessed Mother gets the first rose as a symbol of our devotion to her.” Cowden well remembers the first year they began the custom. She had been waiting patiently for the first rose to blossom.

“But then a thunderstorm rolled through and tore the bloom right off the bush!” she says. “I found it on the ground covered in mulch, but still placed it at the feet of our statue of Mary. For me, this was a reminder that the Blessed Mother wants our hearts and our love more than anything. Would I not have accepted such a gift from my own children?”

This Marian devotion brings in the whole family and continues throughout the year, Cowden explains. “Even when we don’t have fresh stems, we give flowers to Mary — silk flowers, tissue paper flowers or the kids’ drawings.”

“In our home, we do a May Crowning every year,” she adds. “We wove a wreath for our Mary statue out of small silk flowers and bound it using floral wire. All our children will carry flowers — fresh or silk, including my silk bouquet from our wedding 11 years ago, and we’ll parade around our home singing, my husband leading with the Mary statue and the children and I following.”

“When Dave places Mary on our altar, all the children will present their flowers,” Cowden says joyfully. “This is a simple, tangible way for our children to celebrate their Heavenly Mother and practice devotion to her.”

Rosary and Salve Regina

Spiritual mothers also have a deep devotion to Mary.

For as long as Dominican Sister Mary Madeline Todd can remember, she has had a close relationship with Mary. “This was rooted in having a very strong bond with my mother, who loved to pray the Rosary,” she shared with the Register.

“My mother was raised by her grandfather, who prayed the Rosary every day,” adds the sister, a member of the Dominican Sisters of the St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee. “From my childhood, I saw Mary as a strong, loving and protective mother, as someone to whom I could turn when things were challenging in life. Whenever difficulty arose, I saw my mother turn to prayer, especially to the Rosary, and this gave me a very living and real relationship with Mary.”

Now in the Dominican Order, which has a great love for Mary, she says this “built on the foundation of my early love for her.” Tradition holds that Our Lady entrusted the Rosary to St. Dominic, she points out, and the order is “especially tasked with promoting the prayer of the Rosary.”

The order has many other devotions to our Blessed Mother, including one of her favorites, which is ending every day with chanting the Salve Regina in procession, Sister Mary Madeline says. “Our first vocal prayer of the day is the Angelus, and our final prayer of the day is entrusting ourselves to the maternal prayer of Our Lady. In a sense, our whole day is framed by her maternal love.” In a way, it becomes a continuous Mother’s Day.

Bringing this Marian devotion and Mother’s Day together, Sister Mary Madeline sees in her “the model of a life given totally to Christ and of how to intercede, as she did at Cana and at Pentecost, for the whole Church in a way that allows me to live my spiritual maternity as a consecrated religious woman more fully.”

Memorare 

In Connecticut, Clorinda Gulino shares how, on Mother’s Day and every day, her favorite Marian devotion is praying the Memorare “because of the words — I have that trust in what that prayer consists of.”

As a mother and grandmother, she sees the importance of the maternal relationship because Mary is a mother and knows what a mother always prays for. “My prayer is for her to intercede on my behalf to Our Lord and that Our Lord will put faith into my children’s hearts,” Gulino says.

The Memorare is “a prayer of request,” she notes. “Remember, Blessed Mother, Mother Mary — she knows that I’ve been praying for this.”

As a member of the prayer line in her parish, when praying for people, she reflects, the Memorare “is a prayer that I go to because Mary brings our needs to her Son.”

“It’s a very powerful prayer,” she adds. “It’s my go-to prayer for family, friends, people that ask me to pray.”

She is also devoted to the Rosary, whether praying with her church prayer group or her grandchildren. When praying with the children, “at the end of the Rosary, it’s always a Memorare.”

Many Favorites

Marian moments are plentiful at the Warner household, too.

“When it comes to favorite Marian devotions, I suppose I have to echo the words of St. Thérèse of Lisieux — ‘I choose all!’ I don’t know how I could ever choose a favorite,” says Catholic home-schooling mother of five and children’s book author Katie Warner. “The Holy Rosary, Brown Scapular and Miraculous Medal are a daily part of my life and our family prayer. I can’t imagine growing in holiness without Our Lady leading the way to Christ’s Heart.”

She continues, “In marriage, motherhood, and ministry, I lean on devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots.” She believes she first came across this title of the Blessed Mother through art and continues “to cling to her because of her most powerful intercession in situations, ranging from ordinary to extreme, and the torrent of graces she bestows whenever called upon.” 

“She’s undone so many knots in my children’s book work, in particular,” she adds, “that you’d think it wouldn’t surprise me anymore, but every time I am re-amazed at her generosity of aid!”

Warner adds to her list yet another devotion to our Blessed Mother. “Perhaps my most recent beloved devotion to Our Lady has become the practice of Marian consecration,” she says. 

“I walk each of my children through preparation for consecration to Our Lady as they prepare to receive their first Holy Communion. It has led to the most beautiful conversations, prayerful encounters, special memories — they always bring flowers to Our Lady on consecration day! — and opening of hearts leading up to receiving Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament for the first time.”

And this devotion continues to blossom. “That consecration continues to bear fruit in their lives afterward,” she says. 

“I am amazed to see Our Lady’s hand in their growth in prayer, genuine desire for virtue, and thirst for knowledge, love and service of the Church. As a family, we make an effort to renew our consecration to Our Lady each year in May, particularly during our family May Crowning.”

Looking over all these favorite devotions that make every day a Blessed Mother Day, Warner quotes one of her children’s saint namesakes, St. Maximilian Kolbe. “Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”