Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising,
fair as the moon,
bright as the Sun,
terrible as an army set in battle array?

This antiphon, taken from the Song of Songs, begins the Catena Legionis which is said daily by my oldest son and other members of the Legion of Mary.

Today is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

I love this idea at Studeo for Visiting Our Lady around the House.... a kind of personalized litany, with special intentions. I wonder if this could be combined with the idea of the Ten Virtues of Our Lady mentioned by Helen from Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration to Jesus Through Our Lady

"the ten principal virtues of the Blessed Virgin... being: her profound humility, her lively faith, her blind obedience, her continual mental prayer, her mortification in all things, her surpassing purity, her ardent charity, her heroic patience, her angelic sweetness, and her divine wisdom."

Perhaps this Madonna -- it was painted by my sister in law's aunt and hangs by my bedside -- could represent the virtue of sweetness or that of purity. The Infant reminds me of how our Savior is the One who helps us to any kind of virtue, as He did His Mother, and how she is our model as she looks towards her Child in all things. She says it so beautifully:

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!"

Pray for us, Holy Mother of God!

Novena for Purification
(HT: my friend Chari)

O Blessed Mother of God, who went up to the Temple according to the law with your
offering of little white doves, pray for me that I too may keep the law and be pure in heart
like you.

Sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation.

Five Our Father's, Five Haily Mary's and Five Glory be's