Sharing Mary - New Evangelizers

Sometimes, it’s far easier for me to talk about my faith than it is to live my faith.

Take Mary, for example.

I have a huge and ever-growing devotion to the Blessed Mother, and I’ve even written quite a bit about her. Most weeks, at my blog, I do a whole post about her or inspired by her.

So you might have the (false) impression that my kids know all about Mary. You might assume (wrongly) that my family prays the rosary. You might (mistakenly) think we do all sorts of Marian things in May every year.

Truth is, this year is the first time I’ve actually set up a May altar.

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by the grand ideas I get, so I kept it simple. One (hopefully) unbreakable bust of Mary, two vases (with a tiny third one thrown in when the apple blossoms proved irresistible). That’s it.

This simple act of reorganizing a cluttered zone in my house and repurposing it for Mary has made a big impact on all of us, though, even just in the last few days.

There’s no danger of running out of flowers (we have plenty of dandelions if all else fails). My four-year-old daughter has made it her special duty to move Mary to face in different directions. My seven-year-old daughter likes smelling the flowers and making sure there’s enough water.

My son has tried some pretty ingenious climbing maneuvers and my husband’s not immune either. That section where Mary and the flowers are is right by his recliner. I often find the remote perched beside the flowers.

Will this one small thing change a lot in our home? I know this: it’s given me the impetus to try to do more to live my faith (moving ahead with baby steps, of course).

Copyright © 2012, Sarah Reinhard

Sarah Reinhard

Sarah Reinhard continues to be shocked and delighted that her life as a grown-up involve horses, writing, and sparkly dress shoes. In her work in the New Evangelization as a Catholic wife, mom, writer, parish employee, and catechist, she’s learned a lot of lessons, had a lot of laughs, and consumed mass amounts of coffee. She’s online at SnoringScholar.com and CatholicMom.com, and is the author of a number of books.