Disclosure: Joyfully Domestic may earn a commission for purchases made after clicking links on this page. View our disclosure policy for details.
In this post, I wanted to share a few simple ways that we honor Our Blessed Mother in May and how we incorporate these ideas inside of our morning homeschool time.
I’m writing and sharing these ideas to help spread devotion to Our Lady in our Catholic homes.
With Mary in May: Cultivating Wonder and Devotion
In the month of May, we draw close to Our Lady, learning from her gentleness, her humility, and her love of God. Join us as we cultivate a home filled with wonder, beauty, and simple Marian devotion.
What does it look like to live the month of May with Mary in a Catholic homeschool? In this post, I am sharing a few simple, meaningful ways we honor the Blessed Mother in our days.
These are done through daily rhythms, nature study, prayer, and family traditions, while nurturing a spirit of wonder and devotion in our children.
I’m also sharing a little peek at our monthly liturgical board, spiritual readings, and more.
"MAY MAGNIFICAT"
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—
Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?
Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested
Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.
Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.
Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.
When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfed cherry
And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—
This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.
Our home altar is kept fairly simple. We adorn it with holy images/statues, flowers, blessed candles, store our rosaries in a glass container, and keep the mysteries of the rosary that we put together on a book stand. And a few small prayer books are hidden in the back.
May morning time
I’ve shared in the past about how we usually spend our morning time lessons. Things do flex and change with the liturgical season in our home. And during May, the focus is moved towards Our Blessed Mother.
We also begin our mornings with prayer. In the past, we’ve prayed the Morning Offering together, but now that my children are older, they pray this on their own as soon as they wake up.
We now pray the Consecration to Our Lady of the Trinity and Memorare before we begin morning lessons. This is followed by hymns and folk songs.
And during May, I choose some specific hymns to Our Lady from this playlist.
We also have the children take turns each day with crowning Our Lady with a homemade flower crown while singing the “Bring Flowers of the Rarest” hymn. (It is linked in the playlist shared above).
In addition, we read poetry in honor of Mary, short stories, devotionals, and other lessons. A great collection of these can be found compiled in The Mary Book.
May Readings and Devotionals
There are so many lovely books on devotion to Our Blessed Mother. I’m only sharing a couple of favorite finds that we are currently enjoying.
The Mary Book by F.J. Sheed is a lovely treasure trove of a collection of works. We randomly found this book at a used book shop. I pull selected stories and poetry from this book to read aloud in the mornings during the month of May.
Other favorite books to enjoy during May:
- The Imitation of Mary — we love to read through these short meditations together each morning of May.
- Mother of Fair Love
- The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary: From the Visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich
- Crown of the Virgin
- The Secret of the Rosary
- True Devotion to Mary with Preparation for Total Consecration
- The Glories of Mary
- Mary Was Her Life
We also like reading through this book, Leading the Little Ones to Mary, together — especially when the children are young. It seems to be out of print, but I’ve seen used copies online inexpensively. Definitely worth searching for!
May Liturgical Board
Each month, we change out our liturgical board with a new painting, hymn, virtue of the month, and an indulgenced prayer. These are all set up based off of the Church’s theme of the month.
Below are images for the month of May.
Flowers for Our Lady
Something new that we put together just this morning is creating a “Flowers for Our Lady” board. It’s fairly simple and I just cut out a heading and placed an image of Our Lady in the center on our classroom bulletin board.
Then, we cut out roses on colored card stock and placed them in a small mason jar. The children will fill up the board with flowers for Our Lady during the month by making sacrifices, performing good deeds, and saying special prayers.
The board is kept low to the ground for the children to reach easily. It’s really simple and nothing extravagant, but it does the job! And it really helps foster love and devotion to Our Heavenly Mother.
I hope that you found this post helpful! Please share your favorite May devotions for your Catholic home!
More May Themed Posts:
- Mary-like Modesty in Dress
- May Devotions in the Catholic Home – older post, but also contains some ideas for the whole family!
- Celebrating the Liturgical Year in the Home
