Preparing for Mary's Month of May

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”
~ Saint Maximilian Kolbe~

At our house we are joyfully preparing to celebrate the Mary Month of May, in honor of our Blessed Mother.

As my children are doing their book work on this rainy morning, I am dreaming of a Sunny Spring May Day!  I decided to make a list of the things I wanted to do during the month of May to honor our Blessed Mother.  It always seems like May creeps up so quickly and I feel unprepared.  Maybe in sharing this list, it might help others out there in their own domestic church preparations.  If you are reading this, please share your own inspirations as well!

Things I'd like to do to Celebrate the Mary Month of May:

1.  Do a May Crowning, both at home and at our parish outdoor shrine.  Especially since we are unable to participate in our Little Flowers May Crowning this year:(

Yesterday I picked up these 2 things (Blue silk flowers & straw wreath) at our local Dollar Tree.  While making dinner, I quickly made 2 outdoor crowns for our 2 Marian crownings, via hot glue.  The good Lord knows I am a handicapped crafter:)  Oh, and I added a bit of curly ribbon for the back.

  BEFORE:

AFTER:

Small wreath for home garden crowning

2.  Make a few May Baskets to deliver to a local Senior Care Home for needy or lonely residents.  As I mentioned earlier, I am not a very crafty person, nor am I rich in time or money!  So once again, I picked up a few things from the Dollar Tree to put together 6 Care Home baskets and possibly a few simple baskets (made from doilies) for neighbors and friends.  I have a few ideas brewing so we'll see how things go.  These are a few of the items I picked up, if you have a Dollar Tree near you!  I have also heard about people saving their mini toiletries from travel, hotels, etc.  These are great items for donating.  Our local homeless shelter said they LOVE when people donate those!  

Aren't these cute shabby chic tags to let someone know you are praying for them?  This was a good Dollar Tree treasure find!

These are the doilies that I found at the Dollar Tree to make a simple cone basket for a few friends and neighbors.  Just a simple note, holy card and chocolate, maybe?  I am SO excited to share these beautiful Our Lady of Grace Free Holy Cards.  I downloaded a few on colored card stock paper.  They are just lovely, just like Our Lady!  The second photo (below)doesn't do their beauty enough justice.....

*Disclaimer: Please forgive me if I sound like an advertisement for the Dollar Tree.  This is not my intention.  It just so happens that I stumbled across some good things that I just had to share!*


3.  Renew our Montfort Consecration to Mary.
4.  Replant our Mary Garden that is currently bare from the winter.  Since our first Mary garden, it has become an annual tradition to do this on Mother's Day!  See our previous post from our very first year.

5.  Stay consistent with our nightly Rosary prayers, learn a new prayer, & Study the May Magnificat Poem (Words listed in it's own post).  I'd also like to gather all of our Marian story books in one place to maximize our reading pleasure this month!

Resources:

Women for Faith And Family
Catholic Culture

Mary Garden Explanation

Creating your Mary Garden

Legend of the Lady Bug

Dollar Tree has this wooden lady bug to paint!  Isn't it cute?

Craft Ideas:
Rock painting: Marian symbols or Lady Bugs
Lady Bug Wooden Wall hanging (see above from Dollar Tree)

Coloring:

Rosary Page

Mary with Baby Jesus

Waltzing Matilda

These are just a few things that I was thinking about.  I look forward to discovering any new ideas as well....Please share!

"All true children of God have God for their father and Mary for his mother; anyone who does not have Mary for his mother, does not have God for his father."

~Saint Louis Marie de Montfort~