But it's okay, because Mary is the other mommy. When I was tiny, and learning my prayers, which my mother heard every night, she told me that Mary was my other mommy who was in heaven. And that long after she [my mother] had died and left this earth, I would always still have Mary there for me as mom.
Fr, Blake today has some beautiful reflections on Mariology today. I think love for the Blessed Mother is best inculcated when young, well before school age. It is wonderful that God gave her to us as our mother too. We can all in truth say "I have the most wonderful mother in all the world."
I don't know if most parents still teach their children the Memorare and the Hail Holy Queen, but they were some of the first prayers I ever learned. The latter was part of the Leonine prayers said after Mass when I was little. I must say, that for a long time, though I knew that "Christ" referred to Jesus, as a toddler I associated that word with buttered toast. I always smiled when I came to that word, because I knew that nightly prayers were over, and my own mom would tuck me in.
(The above right photo is a little dog earred, because that's the one my dad always carried in his wallet.)
5 comments:
Awwwwww - what a sweet story!
I love it when I am in church, and I see some mother holding her under school aged child quietly whispering prayers with her youngster, or explaining things in sanctuary. I mentioned before once when I was at adoration, a young child pointed to the monstrance and said "Is that Jesus in there?" and mommy, delighted said "yes." Best memories of earliest days are praying with my mother. I enjoyed and loved it then, but I had no idea how very lucky I was. For a while I thought *everyone's* mother did this, but sadly, among my own contemporaries, I found it was not always the case. PArticularly with devotion to the Blessed Mother. Which saddens me.
what a wonderful photo of you and your mum. Karen, so often i have had it said to me that Catholic converts have a passion for the faith and breathe new life into their parishes etc, and that may well be true to some extent, but i tell you, i know it wasn't meant to be for me, but i greatly admire that you grew up knowing the prayers of the Church, the Liturgy etc, even though oftentimes catholics take a hike for a while..they have a strong foundation already planted, something, perhaps hidden inside, but something that can not be taken from them.
okay, that is possibly the longest sentence in history!
:-D Thanks ukok. I think may good people come to the Blessed Mother later in life, some converts, and some who just didnt necessarily get it at home, even if their parents were catholics (a dear friend of mine and ferverent Catholic's mother was not particularly devoted to Mary, so she came to it late, ditto the rosary - but many are drawn to her.
As for the longest sentence...well, I don't know if you've ever heard that bloviating fool Ted Kennedy. "A VERB, senator, we need a VERB."
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