Happy Birthday Mary, my mother and patron

Some of my earliest memories of the spiritual life involve Marian devotions. Our family sometimes said the rosary together.

My mother organized a neighborhood May crowning every year. All the kids who rode in our carpool to the local Catholic school would come. We had candles and a little homemade crown. Once my mother put the statue on a shelf and nearly set the house on fire when the candles started scorching the shelf above. We sang Marian hymns and all the moms would come to watch the procession.

I remember praying at Mary's side altar at St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Happy birthday, Mother Mary. Thank you for giving us your son. Thank you for being our mother. Thank you for your love and for all the times you have interceded for us. What a gift the Lord Jesus gave us from the cross.