My earliest memory of devotion to Mama Mary was praying the rosary before bed with my family on my plastic glow-in-the-dark beads. There were many evenings when I would feign sleep so that we would pray a shorter version of it or I could skip it altogether. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember the mysteries nor could I understand why we mentioned them when the entire time we were “Hail-ing” Mama Mary. If there was one thing that didn’t change in our home, it was praying the rosary and when I left home, I left the rosary as well… until I was introduced to the Legion of Mary by my parents. In addition to the five decades, they had added the Catena Legionis prayed by every faithful legionary. It was at this point that my notion of Mama Mary as a docile, quiet and caring mother was turned on its head. Continue reading →

“You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many. On the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!”
~ St. Bernadine of Sienna

What do you think she would converse about? Just like a mother who is never tired speaking about her child, his likes and dislikes, his achievements and all those little details that only she knows about, Mary is eager to reveal her dear son Jesus to us. Continue reading →