( statue at Malvern Retreat House)Since I told Rob that I would, this post will include links sites dealing with Marian prayers, devotions, and apparitions.
I'll start with Our Lady of Guadalupe. I learned a lot more about her this past weekend at the Women of Grace retreat. One of the speakers, Dan Lynch has written several books about her, and Our Lady of America, the only appearance of Mary in the U.S. which has been approved. You can find out about Dan, his books, and the missionary images here.
This is another good site for info about the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, as well as prayers, pictures and other links.
Since Rob mentioned it in his post, here is a link to St. Louis Mary de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary. It's fairly long, so purchasing a copy might be a better idea. It's also not a good idea to hand someone a copy of True Devotion to Mary if you're trying to convince them that we Catholics don't worship her, as the language he uses to describe devotion to Mary is rather strong. However, it helped me to understand devotion to Mary as a new convert to the Faith, so I do recommend it.
In a nutshell, here's my version of True Devotion. As Christians we are engrafted into the Body of Christ. Thus as members of the body of Christ we are called to walk the path that He walked, to do in some limited sense, but to the fullest of our ability, what He did while He was on earth. (WWJD?) Jesus began that journey in Mary's womb, entrusting Himself entirely to her care. So how could we go wrong to entrust ourselves to her, and to have her lead us in His path, the same path she walked with him from the manger to the cross?
(Really, you have to read the book for a fuller explanation.)
I think I posted this link before but here it is again. The University of Dayton Mary page. Click on the link on the top left, About Mary, and you'll come to a page full of links to others Marian sites with prayers and info about Mary and Marian devotions. There's even a link to a printable coloring book.
As for what to do with kids, I'm hoping to pray the Rosary as a family more frequently this month (i.e. at least once or twice would make it more frequent for us). Catholic Heritage Curricula has a nice set of rosary prints, showing all the Mysteries of the Rosary, available in two sizes. I think it's nice to have visuals for kids, especially ones that aren't cartoons.
If all those links aren't enough for you, here's a link to the Catholic Encyclopedia's entry on Mary.
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