Something About Mary .... Madonelle on Street Corners

It's Saturday, a day the Church ascribes to The Blessed Virgin Mary. And, it's May, Mary's Month.
From Doctors of the Catholic Church-
"On Saturdays in the Catholic Church it is an ancient custom and an honored tradition that the faithful honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus. God rewarded her for her steadfast faith in Jesus’ divinity that did not waver under the cross.

Mary and Christ Prayer, taken from Marian Prayers and Devotions -see doctoral sources.

[As a rainbow lights the heavens
When a storm is past and gone,
May our lives reflect the radiance
Of God’s new and glorious dawn.]

Mary the dawn, Christ the glorious day;
Mary the gate, Christ the heavenly way.
Mary the root, Christ the holy vine;
Mary the grape, Christ the sacred wine.
Mary the wheat, Christ the living bread;
Mary the stem, Christ the rose blood-red.
Mary the font, Christ the healing flood.
Mary the chalice, Christ the saving blood.
Mary the temple, Christ the temple’s Lord;
Mary the shrine, Christ the God adored.
Mary the beacon, Christ the haven’s rest;
Mary the mirror, Christ the vision blest.
Mary the Mother, Christ the Mother’s Son;
Glory and praise while endless ages run."

On this blog, during May, I have offered a series of posts titled Something About Mary in honor of Our Lady.

I'm behind a little in honoring Our Lady, as we've been in Rome but the two will tie together in this post. It was easy to see devotion to Mary, the Blessed Mother in Rome. She was on countless street corners.

Street corners?! Yes.

On our first day we noticed this and thought it was a random home's devotion. Then we began to see more and more of the shrines , called Madonelles and began looking up for them. There's a great history attached to them.

A Catholic's Guide to Rome: Discovering the Soul of the Eternal City by Frank J. Korn

Here are a few of the hundreds...

How lovely would it be to walk around your town and see The Blessed Mother looking down on you? Where seeing her would be a reminder to serve, to surrender,to model her virtues....

She is in our homes and Churches.

She is in our hearts and near it on miraculous medals and scapulars.

But I would like to have her, too, on the street corners.

Hail Mary,Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed Art thou and blessed is the Fruit of your womb,Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners...especially when we are "in" the world and need reminders.