The month of August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so my daughter helped me set up our August liturgical shelf with an aim to focus our prayers this month.
On the base of our display, we chose to use a blue tablecloth with white lace over it, since Mary is traditionally depicted in blue and white. (Blue for royalty and heaven; white for purity.) My daughter, however, also thought we needed red for Mary's Immaculate Heart. So, she got to work with cardstock, cutting out a red heart and attaching it to a handmade origama box.
Initially, we were going to use the box to hold some sort of small item each time we prayed, much like we did with the small chalice in our July liturgical shelf, but, then, we realized that the box is the perfect size for prayer cards. So, it became our prayer card holder.
If you make something similar, though, you could easily place a flower petal, bead, or small object in the box every time your offered a prayer to Mary and her Immaculate Heart.
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Some prayers you could use,might be the ones found on the prayer cards we are using: The Golden Prayer, An Offering to Mary, and the Consecration to Mary.
Statues and images also help focus our prayers, so one one side of our prayer card holder, we placed our Immaculate Heart of Mary statue. (Long-time readers my recognize the statue as she has been in our mini Mary gardens, Assumption celebration tables, and more.)
On the other side of our prayer card holder, we put our peg doll of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (We got this in a Marian swap we did.)
Then, we balanced the corners of our shelf with two mini displays, too.
On one side, my daughter placed a favorite card with an image of our Lady and Our Lord on a wooden easel (almost like this one) and surrounded it with blue and white candles.
On the other side, I put our read together for the month: St. Louis De Montfort: The Story of Our Lady's Slave and surrounded it with a homemade Paschal candle and an Immaculate Heart of Mary prayer candle. We also put some rosaries there for easy reach!
All of the prayer aids on our August feast table, we hope, will help us focus our prayer and turn our own hearts towards virtues and live for Jesus, as Mary's heart is always turned.
We'd love to see pictures of your August liturgical shelf, feast table, or prayer corner and also to hear about your favorite books, images prayers, etc. related to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Please do share them in a comment here or on our Facebook page.
We'd also appreciate if you'd pray with us for a baby we know that had unexpected heart surgery within the past few weeks and may need another surgery if a miracle of healing does not occur.
Thank you for praying with us!
O Most Blessed Mother,
heart of love, heart of mercy,
ever listening, caring, consoling,
hear our prayer.
As your children,
we implore your intercession
with Jesus your
Son.
Receive with understanding and compassion,
the petitions we place
before you today,
especially for the healing
of the heart of a baby named Alex.
We are comforted
in knowing your heart is ever open
to those who ask for your
prayer.
We trust to your gentle care and intercession,
those whom we love
and who are sick
or lonely or hurting.
Help all of us, Holy Mother,
to bear our burdens in this life
until we may share eternal
life
and peace with God forever.
Amen
