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 →