The Holy Name of Mary

I remember when I was a little girl being jealous of girls named Mary. It was the highest of honors to share a name with the Queen of Heaven and the fact that Lisa is a derivative of Mary's dear and holy cousin, Elizabeth hadn't hit home for me yet. Dang it all, anyway. I wanted to be named Maria! Alas! It was not to be.

But I was consoled by the fact that my birthday got to be in the perfect spot, right between Our Lady's birthday and the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. And my birthstone is a saphire ~ Ha! Blue is Mary's color! So I had that going for me, too. So, in spite of recent tragic events. September 11th is still a pretty darn good day to have been born.

I love all feasts of Our Lady, but I think today's is a feast especially beautiful in concept and imagery. The Holy Name of Mary. To think of her name, to speak it, is to join in the music of Heaven!

Thoughts on the celebration: Though we aren't going to be able to do it up big today, in past years, we have celebrated this feast day with high tea, including blueberry scones with clotted cream, and other confections in the theme of white and blue. We decorated with white roses, made Our Blessed Mother's statue a special crown for the day and along with the rosary, recited the Litany of Our Lady, honoring Our Heavenly Mother through many of her titles and virtues. One year, we bought an inexpensive plastic white tablecloth for our tea party and wrote on it all of her titles from the litany with a blue sharpie. Today, each of us chose our favorite title of Mary and found a corresponding image on the computer to print out. We backed our pictures with construction paper, found a prayer to go with each, and covered them with contact paper to make our very own holy cards.

The images (at top and bottom) that I posted here today represent two of my most favorite titles for Mary. Do you know what they are?

**Oh, Oh! I forgot to link Charlotte's coloring pages for the day! Thanks again, Diva of the Catholic Crayon Set, for these wonderful Saints' Day projects!

(Repost from 2008)