Also, I was never picked to be May Queen (I didn’t fit the dress!), so I made my own little crown of aluminum foil for Mom’s statue, and crowned Mary every night in May, followed by a how-fast-can-I-get-this-over-with? Rosary. It seems my devotion lasted as long as my short attention span!

And did anyone else do this? We couldn’t receive Communion at the Mass before school started, but we still had to attend (Our Communion service was held every day at 11:50AM instead). So, as the adults went to Communion, we knelt backwards on the kneeler, spread out our holy cards on the seat of the pew, and traded with our classmates. When Communion time was over, we’d collect our cards, cross out the names of the previous owners, then sign our own name. I once had a card with six different names on it!

However, the Sisters of the Precious Blood have a monastery near where I grew up (althoughthat process is still ongoing). I remember clearly the smell of their chapel: beeswax candles and the faint remnant of incense. There remains in that chapel a graphic statue of Jesus at the pillar. As a child, and even now, I did not find it off-putting in the least. Rather than fear, it instilled in me a sense of wonder, compassion and love that remains to this day.

Necco waffers and beeswax candles…a great title for a memoir, methinks!