May is the month of Our Lady, and it is nearly impossible to visit a church, especially for Mass, and remain oblivious to the outpouring of devotion to Mary during this time. Nearly all Sunday Masses will at least conclude with a hymn in her honour.
Marian veneration is so popular that a revival of the crowning of statues of Mary in May is under way in Britain and elsewhere. If your parish has not yet joined the trend, why not suggest it to your priest?
May might also be the month when the faithful say additional Marian prayers privately, such as an Angelus or five mysteries of the rosary each day.
Another way to honour Our Lady is to make a pilgrimage to a Marian shrine. If there is no shrine locally, a visit to a church dedicated to Our Lady (sometimes referred to as St Mary) would suffice.
Ultimately the purpose of such devotions is to bring the faithful closer to Jesus. In his 2017 book Marian Veneration, Cardinal Francis Arinze says that Marian devotion “helps us to do this, to live as authentic Christians, to be renewed in Christ, and thus to see produced in ourselves characteristics of Christ”.
