Catholic Carnival: Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Truly the Lord cannot be outdone in generosity. I experienced this in preparing today's Catholic Blog carnival. As the posts came in, I was edified by the devotion to Our Lady expressed by the writers. I hope this Carnival is a helpful addition to your May devotion to Our Lady.

Come back frequently during the month of May for many articles by Father Keyes C.PP.S. at Rifugio San Gaspare. You'll find several posts gathered in More for the Month of May: Mary, Woman of the New Covenant; Madonna of the Precious Blood; My paper on Devotion to Mary; and The Rosary as a Prayer of Communion.

For more on our Lady's favorite prayer, check out Castle of the Immaculate's posts on the Christocentricity of the Rosary.

For a real life example of praying the rosary with six kids, let's go to Musings from a Catholic Bookstore for the play by play in Does Praying the Rosary with Kids Count?

Perhaps for the month of May, you might like to have a daily Marian meditation sent to your email address. Read what some of the saints think about the Apostolate of Mary Vitamin.

May Crownings, May altars, May baskets, Mary Gardens all come to mind with the arrival of the Month of May. By Sun and Candlelight shares pictures of her family's Marian crafts in honor of our Lady. Also don't miss By Sun and Candlelight's garden blog Marigolds for Mama and their discovery of a flower named Our Lady's Thimble as well as their search for the right statue of Mary for their garden. For a photograph of a quintessentially Irish statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary look no further than Miss Kelly.

For A Garden that Prays please visit the beautiful blog A Garden of Roses and Lilies. You'll find many posts dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary including this one about tulips.

The family at St. Athansius Academy had the privilege to visit a not so well known Marian apparition site, read their first hand account of what they discovered at La Salette.

At CatholicLand! SWP waxes poetical on the beauty of the Coronation. A very inspiring post.

A beautiful image of Our Lady reminds this family of Our Lady's presence in their daily lives. Join Cottage Blessings for "Innocence."In fact, be sure to stop by during the entire month of May at Cottage Blessings for many ingenious ways to enhance your home May Altars.

Another image from art "The Angelus," reminds us of the importance of reflecting upon the Annunciation and Incarnation of Our Lord every day. Thanks to Sweetness and Light for this post about Jean-Francois Millet and his painting The Angelus.

Hymns are an important way to encourage and sustain Marian devotion. At Family in Feast and Feria, we learn about "Mary the Dawn " a hymn with a haunting melody and a rich text.

For a reflection on the Dominican feast of the Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary over the Order of Preachers, let's turn to HMS for an enlightening post called "QUEEN OF PREACHERS, PRAY FOR US"

From A Penitent Blogger look for
Be a gate a reflection on the expression "Gate of Heaven"

Finally, for the Marian themed entries, at To Jesus Through Mary, a young man with a strong devotion to our Blessed Mother struggles with his discernment to the priesthood and requests the prayers of blog readers and gives a synopsis of his decision thus far in this post.

Some additional posts from the Catholic blogosphere:
Herb Ely reflects on images of God as expressed by some of the greatest biblical texts.
A Catholic Life explores the Theory of Evolution.
CowPi Journal shares a prayer poem All I Have on living in the present moment, God's gifts, and forgiveness.