The Marian Award

...Continued from yesterday: 
     All my recent reminiscing about my Girl Scout days jogged my memory to recall something I hadn't thought about for years, probably decades, really.
    

     I wondered if the object in question was still in the back of the bottom dresser drawer,

...where I believed I'd assigned it a spot among the other items designated to that drawer back when  we first acquired the dresser about forty years ago.
      And yes, there it was still, stuffed behind some clothes and wrapped in a plastic bag:

     My Marian Award book.

     The Marian Award was - and perhaps still is - a religious award that Catholic pre-teen and teen-aged Girl Scouts could attain and was meant to be the representation of a girl's personal expression of her devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who in the Catholic religion also carries many titles, among them the Blessed Mother, Blessed Virgin, and Our Lady.

     There were a number of requirements that had to be fulfilled on the road to the Marian Award,     

...such as doing volunteer work,

...making a pilgrimage to a local shrine,

...writing several book reports on the lives of saints,

      (I nearly had an anxiety attack because the priest who checked over my book,  a priest's approval of one's book being required prior to submission,  scratched out a  mistake I'd made and corrected it. I feared the disfigurement of this page would cause my book to be rejected by the Marian Award Committee, whom I was told would reject a girl's book for the slightest imperfection in neatness or penmanship).

...looking into religious vocations available to young women,

...fulfilling prayer and devotional requirements,

...taking a pledge to the Legion of Decency,

...with the commitment to regularly check the Catholic Standard and Times for updates on movie ratings.

   A candidate for the Marian Award was required to know the major  precepts of Catholic doctrine,

(My mother, a wonderful artist, drew this rosary in pastels for me. This was the only parental help I received with the construction of my book).

...as well as all the sacraments, sacramentals,

prayers,

​...the Holy Days of Obligation,

...and the feast days honoring the Blessed Virgin.

...and other more obscure bits of doctrine regarding Our Lady.

     There were also requirements on one's knowledge of the precepts of Girl Scouting,

...citizenship,

...and proper behavior in general.

     And one was required to acquire a relic of a saint.

    And, after one had completed all the previous requisites, one was required to compose an essay summarizing one's experience of working on the Marian Award.

     All of the above requirements along with some others as well had to be written up in an album which was expected to be meticulously and decoratively scrap booked.  My friend Michelle and I who worked on the Marian Award together,

...and ultimately received it together,

 ...used to talk about rumors we'd heard of girls whose books had been rejected and were, thus, denied the Marian Award.
     The thought of being rejected for the Marian Award occasionally filled me with dread, though in truth I didn't dwell on that thought during the better part of the year that I worked on my requirements and assembled my book.  I began my book when I was still twelve years old in September of my eighth grade at St. Christopher's school and submitted it to The Committee when all my requirements were completed and duly written up, I believe the following March. 
     During that time period I worked on my Marian Award book almost every day, oh, so carefully penning each letter of each word, as my normal handwriting at that time of my life was generally considered substandard by my teachers. I crumpled up and threw away more than one sheet that I believed didn't look nice enough to be accepted by whoever it was that did the accepting and rejecting.
      Then, having submitted our books, it was weeks of waiting until the moment that our books were returned to us, a heart-stopping moment, for Michelle and I knew that tucked inside each of our books was a note telling us whether we'd been accepted or rejected.
      Michelle and I were presented our Marian Awards along with all the other Award recipients at special Holy Hour.

     And now, the memories gleaned, inspected, and found good, I guess I'll just carefully re-wrap my Marian Award book and return it to its place at the back of the drawer.

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