I have been a front row observer from the beginning of the “March With Mary” project. I’ve overheard hundreds of phone conversations and zoom meetings. Having done so, I was pretty much in tune to the vision the original organizers shared and I watched as the concept began to develop and grow from its’ very beginnings. As it grew so did my own fledging participation in the project. Almost always, my contribution has been in the background, from the sidelines.

Meetings were often held in our home and so I was able to provide some type of welcome/hospitality role. I watched friendships develop from those involved and I was blessed to be included in that circle of camaraderie. As the “rose idea” grew and developed, I like multiple others, was able to help in the prep work. Our home, our closets, our garage became a storage area for multiple needed items for “March With Mary”. My husband and I often arranged and rearranged those areas to better accommodate those items. Loading vehicles and unloading vehicles before and after parades was a need that I could help provide.

I found myself in the midst of this growing vision to bring the love of the Mother to God, literally, out into the public streets of our communities but, except for only once, in “The Cinco de Mayo” parade, did I get to walk the parade route. My worn out knees made such an endeavor a difficulty and I guess I knew, and probably everybody else involved knew, that my walking in the parade routes would probably be more of a problem then an asset.

If you ever attended any of the parades we participated in, you might see me driving a four-wheeler, a golf cart or a white Ram truck in the parade. Mine became a role of providing the wheels needed to transport the roses and some of the rose personnel in the parades. So far, thanks be to God, I’ve only run over one persons’ toes! Sorry Anthony!

As I drove behind the Knights of Columbus Honor Guard accompanying the Statue of Our Lady, behind the strong and perhaps not so strong men but very willing men, upon whose shoulders her platform rode, as I drove beside and in front of the volunteers passing out the roses to moms and sometimes passing out other items to the crowds, I often pondered my role in this worthwhile endeavor. I listened to the excitement of stories told after the parades by those whose feet did the physical work of bringing the love of Our Lady to the crowds and I wondered, why can I not be out there! I knew I was missing the chance to see the joy on the faces of those who received roses, the small children shouting, “Look! There’s Jesus’ Mom!”, those same children begging for roses for their own moms and grandmothers. I didn’t often get to see those things. I did after all, have to keep my eyes on the road, on the image of Mary bobbing before me on those strong shoulders. I had to keep my eyes on Mary.

Wait! I had to keep my eyes on Mary!

Suddenly it all made more sense and I am now better able to appreciate my role in “The March With Mary” project. I have to keep my eyes on Mary, on Our Lady, on the Mother of Jesus!

I remember a story my sister Sue told many years ago as how she tried to daily pray the Rosary. Stacey, Sue’s then small daughter, would always interrupt her mom as she prayed. Stacey would trace the beads of the rosary first one way and then back the other, constantly interrupting her mom as she valiantly tried to keep her focus on her rosary.

“Mama, Mama!”, Stacey would say as she begged for attention.

Finally my sister gave in and asked her persistent daughter, “What? What do you want?”

“Look Mama! Look!”, Stacey exclaimed as her small fingers traced the rosary beads. “Look, whatever way I trace the rosary, it always leads to Jesus!”

From the mouth of babes…..

And so it is for me, and so it is for you, if you only keep your eyes on Our Lady, if only you follow her, trace her path, she will always lead you to Jesus!

My role in our “March With Mary” parades is not truly small, it is not meaningless for me! It is a metaphor for my life, important, one might say critical, that I always look to Our Lady on the many meanderings of my journey through life, my hopeful journey to heaven one day. No matter what direction she goes as long as I follow her, Mary, Our Lady, HIS mother, will always lead to Jesus!