Day 125: 5/5/13- May Queen Week- Titles of Mary

Day 125: 5/5/13- May Queen Week- Titles of Mary
New Thing- Reflect on the Titles of Mary and the Titles of Hillary
Inspiration: BVM, Friends, Family                                      
Time: A lifetime of familiarity             
Bottom Line: That is a lot of nick-names

The BVM, The Star of the Sea, The Queen of Heaven, Theotokos, and more.

Reflection: Since I am not a Roman Catholic, it was not until I was an adult when I learned all about the tradition of celebrating the Blessed Virgin Mary through out the month of May. In fact, one of her many titles is the "May Queen." So, I thought that I would take this week to reflect on the BVM and make up for lost time in my celebration of her. 

The first new thing was to reflect on Mary's MANY titles. There is seemingly no end to the number of names that are used for Mary and each one denotes her relationship to Jesus and to those who are honoring her. As Wiki says, "a few of the titles given to Mary are dogmatic in nature. Many other titles are poetic or allegorical and have lesser or no canonical status, but which form part of popular piety, with varying degrees of acceptance by the clergy. Yet more titles refer to depictions of Mary in the history of art." You really should take some time to look through the partial list found here. It is really impressive. One of the things that got me thinking with these names was how many of them (especially the ones in the "popular piety" category) are used to denote the very special relationship that those who use them have with Mary. They are used because of the love that people have for her and giving her a name that they associate with is a matter of familiarity. Mary's names made me start to think about the nick-names that people have given me over the years--mostly out of love. It made me so thankful for the closeness and joy that comes with having people who know you enough to chose a name for you. Here is a partial list of the ones I could remember:

• Hilly (used by family and friends growing up) 
• Hill (was so commonly used in my pre-adult life that I actually dated a person for several weeks before they found out that I had a full name.)   
• Hill-O-Beans/Beans/Beaners 
• Little Indian Girl 
• Hillary-Dillary-Dock (Science teacher in High School) 
• Hilly Bear/Big Fat Woolly Bear
• Snitchy (Mom's name for me as a tattle-tale little girl)     
• Humming Bird (Ken)
• Hill-Billy
• H-Bomb (Sarah) 
• F. Y. G. (Fellow Yellow Girl) (Bonnie & Sarah)
• S.P.F.L. (Sermon Partner for Life) (Jessica) 
• Hill-rey (Ali)
• Hermonie/Harry Potter (Ali)
• Hank
• Churchy McChurch
• The Nun
• The Camel 
• M.I.B. Glowatch (OM Nickname)
• Abbess
• Silly Pants 
• The Cow
• Joan of Arc 
• Friend (Lindsay)
• Hillary Fay/Hey Fay (Kara)
• A-Hilla-the-Hun (Mr. Morgan in 6th grade history)
• Hilly Honey (Dad)
• H-to-the-Ill-ray/Hill-ray (Sarah)
• Cinnamon Girl         
• Cherry Mary Churchy
• Mo. Hill (My rapper name from DJRAM18) 
• The Priestess
• Syprate (A cross between a spy and a pirate)
• Hi Lary (Teacher)
• H
• Sister Mary Hilly
• Bonita Chicka 
• Hilla-Willa (Seminary Friends- Kathryn was the first I think)       
• Dr. Hilarious/Dr. H. (Frank)  

What am I forgetting?