Each May, members of Mother of Mercy Catholic Church gather to celebrate with a Catholic tradition honoring Mary, the mother of Christ.

In early May, the children of the church gathered to watch the placement of a crown of flowers on a statue of Mary.

“The children who participated in the crowning of Mary are Sunday school children where they learn to obey God’s laws, obey their parents and the rule of the church,” wrote Carol Montgomery, a member of Mother of Mercy. “Some of the children made their first Holy Communion a week before in May. All of the girls are dressed in white dress and veils, while the boys wear white suits.”

Catholics do not pray to Mary, rather she is known as an intercessor, a role similar to that of King David’s mother in Jewish tradition — those who wished to approach King David had to bring their concerns to his mother first, during which time she would decide whether the concern was worthy of her son’s time, Montgomery said.

“When you put your first dent in your father’s car as a teenager, did you go home, run to your dad and tell him about your accident? Probably not. You ran to your mother and said something like, ‘Mom, I’m so sorry, but I had an accident. There’s a dent in the back fender — Dad is going to kill me!’”

In the Catholic tradition, that’s what Mary does for all of God’s children, by taking on the role of mediator, according to Montgomery.

Montgomery relayed a story as told by American Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, in which the Lord was walking through heaven and saw some people had apparently gotten into heaven quite easily. He went to Peter to ask why, and Peter’s response was, “Don’t blame me Lord. Every time I close a door, your mother opens a window.”

It’s the greatest manifestation of Mary as intercessor, she said.

“Perhaps some of us will get in through a window. George Bernard Shaw said shortly before he died, ‘I think maybe His mother will let me in,’ Montgomery wrote. “We are His children, and as His children, we never grow old.”