Salve Regina
It's that of the year again. You hear the refrains of Marian hymns wafting through the air and strains of 'Our Father' and the 'Hail Mary' from the lips of people gathering to pray either in somebody's house or at a church grotto or thereabouts. There is always something special about the month of the Rosary, where reverence and devotion is given to our Blessed Mother as intercessor and the Mother of God.

What makes all this even more profound is that I am now doing a course in Mariology and the very experience and knowledge gain from that class has helped me appreciate, in a new way, the proper and unique role that Mary has in our lives, the very life of the Church and a tremendous signpost to Jesus our Lord and Saviour. It is certainly true that any devotion or religious piety that do not bring people to Jesus or worse, distort the very reverence of Mary's role in salvation history, is no devotion or peity at all. It then becomes a false front that serves only the interests of the individual.

It has been a while since I really sat down to think about our Blessed Mother's influence in my own life. She has been instrumental in my vocation that sees me here in Singapore. If it had been any other factor, my calling would have taken a different turn on the road. So, praying the rosary this evening with the community at our grotto, was an enriching experience for myself as I continue to entrust my life into her motherly care, asking her to continue to lead me towards the goal God has set me on and to be like her son Jesus in his calling to the ministry of shepherding his people in the here and now.

O clement, o pia! O dulcis, virgo Maria.