During the month of May, my mind always returns to Grade 3 Room 8 at Sacred Heart School in North Quincy. Of course, there was always the big May Procession that traveled around the block through Norfolk Downs wherein all of the First Communion children and the whole parish processed with the statue of Our Lady. In Sister Jude’s Third Grade Class, however, there was also a small procession each day during May. One boy and one girl would be chosen each day. The boy would carry the pillow with the crown and, having arrived at the little table in the left corner of the room, the girl would take that crown and place it on Our Lady. Meanwhile, the rest of us would all be singing full-throatedly the hymns that we knew by heart: “Tis the Month of Our Mother” and “Bring Flowers of the Rarest.” Sister Jude probably did that for school children for over 50 years. She introduced thousands of us to what it means to have devotion. Some kept that devotion and allowed it–like those flowers of the rarest–to grow and flourish. Others undoubtedly let that devotion wither. Sister Jude didn’t know what her success rate would be. She simply and faithfully did the work she was called to do. The Month of May–dedicated to the Blessed Virgin–affords all of us the opportunity to renew, deepen, and expand our own devotion to the Mother of God. Have your Rosary beads grown dusty? Perhaps use the Month of May to begin praying them again. Do you have an image of the Blessed Virgin in your home? If not, why not? I am always touched when I pass by a home and see a statue of the Blessed Virgin in the garden. Perhaps you could have a May Procession in your own home? Place some flowers before an image or statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and sing a hymn. For those of you with little children, I can imagine them someday telling their own children about the May Processions they would have when they were growing up. Marian devotion is a beautiful part of Catholic life. I think one thing about it that is so helpful is that it comes from the heart. Sometimes people want to turn devotions into another thing that you must do. Instead of being an expression of tender love toward the Blessed Virgin, it becomes a rigid requirement that lacks a certain sweetness. Growing up, we had a pastor in our parish, Fr. Neil Heery. Every day, he would place a rose before the statue of the Blessed Virgin in the parish rectory. He didn’t do that has a compulsive and rigid requirement. He did it because he was in love with the Mother of God and his mother too. It was his own private and simple expression of love. During this Month of May, perhaps all of us can cultivate a little more Marian devotion in our life. Let’s do it not as another externally imposed rule on our life, but rather because she is our Mother and we love her. Let’s do it because, as Sister Jude taught me, “Tis the Month of Our Mother.” Your Brother in Christ, Fr. David Barnes