Mary's Minions

Somehow two boys turned a conversation about clothes into a lesson about our Blessed Mother Mary.

My sons Paul, 10, and David, 6, had just changed clothes, and both were wearing striped polo shirts. Paul casually mentioned that he thought his shirt was the color of angels: blue, white and yellow. He said those were the colors he typically saw in artwork of angels.

David, wearing green stripes, said he was wearing Mary's colors.

Wait a minute. What? Paul and I looked at each other, both confused. I told David that blue is traditionally associated with Mary, that she is often pictured wearing it, that sometimes mothers dress their children in blue out of devotion to our Lady, and there's even an old  song and poem about a "Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue."

 So I had to ask, "Why is green Mary's color?"

"Mary wears green, not blue," he said, pointing to a painting behind me. Sure enough, in an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary was wearing green. 

"OK, green can be Mary's color too."

Then David said, "I could be Mary's minion."

That comment dazed me. Later I realized he probably said that because he was imitating her in wearing green. And of course minions are popular among 6-year-olds now because of the "Despicable Me" movies.

But at the moment I thought, "Wow, where did he get that from?"

I told David that actually Mary has minions. Sometimes they call themselves her children, her servants, even her slaves. And when we place ourselves at her service, we serve Jesus at the same time.

But I kept thinking about minions. What a perfect word. One dictionary has this definition: "a favorite or dependent, especially a servile or fawning one." It's good to be one of Mary's favorites, dependent on her, serving her, even fawning over her. I think her Son would like that.

I'm going to encourage David to be Mary's minion. And I want to be one, too.

Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.