Our Lady of the Bees: An Invitation to Community, Care & Joy

The world is so nuts and the last 6 months in the US – crazy town. I’ve felt every flavor of flight, fight, and freeze, sometimes cycling through them all in a single day. I ask myself “what can I do?” “is it enough?” over and over.

If like me, you often feel helpless in the face of the many atrocities, there is a Blessed Mother for our times: Our Lady of Bees 🍯.

She has been showing up for a while now and in the last few months I’ve been sitting at her feet and listening. “Be like the Bees” she says. And bees, they be tiny BUT they be mighty!

She reminds me that small acts done in community—tiny flights from flower to flower—create honey. And honey is more than sweetness. It is nourishment. Medicine. Memory. Connection to ancestors.

Bee energy is committing to the collective labor of care, of devotion, of the joy of working together and building something sacred even in chaos.

This time around is not about just resisting but building the world we want to live in, contributing to community, finding joy in connection and connecting to Mother Nature like never before. And sharing this kind of connection in a way that brings honey to those who need it most! Selves included.

And the symbology of Bees is epic! So layered, so feminine, so powerful and so joyfully necessary for our times. And so instructive! I’ll post more about Our Lady of Bees and bees as a symbol in a future post. This this post has some bee wisdom about mental health.

And I’m not the only one vibing with the bees! A new book on bee inspired living just came out from Sounds True: The Wisdom of the Hive: What Honeybees Can Teach Us about Collective Wellbeing.

Over time I composed a prayer to Our Lady of Bees and am creating a line of Our Lady of Bees rosaries and prayer beads. Sign up to receive announcements about the new beeeeds and honey 🍯.

Being me, I didn’t want an image of Our Lady of Bees to be the generic white lady that I grew up with. She’s lovely, but so is diversity. She has SO many faces and aspects! The first image I generated (with the help of Ai) is a brown skinned woman of middle eastern heritage. More versions below.

Our Lady of Bees devotional for Peace in the Middle East

My heart is broken over what is happening in Gaza, the soul killing wrath and the cruel destruction of so many lives that sends ripples of pain across the world. Again, how can I help?! As Our Lady of Bees arose in my consciousness an opportunity to do something came forth. A dear friend of mine here on Maui belongs to a peace building group and let me know that a friend of hers is working to support the children in the village of their Palestinian colleague who lives in the West Bank. It’s a small GoFundMe started by an Israeli Artist to provide direct support.

Here is the prayer to Our Lady of Bees, feel free to copy it and share it. Prayer cards will be included with any Our Lady of Bees items in my shop. I hope to have the first one’s available by mid-june. Sign up for updates! And/or follow my shop on Etsy.

with love and 🍯, Rev Julienne

Prayer to Our Lady of Bees

Oh Our Lady of the Bees,
Mama honey,
Queen of community,
may your humming call me home—
from the tremble of worry to loving work,
from silent fear to sweet communion.
Guide me to those who need
my light, my laughter, my hands.
Let our labor be joyful,
our rest be deep,
our honey abundant.

Help us rise together
caring and defending
tiny, mighty, and just.

Sweet Mother of Community
Connect us.
Protect us.
Bless us.
Blessed Bee.

The Many Faces of Our Lady of Bees

Bee in touch!

“For bees, the flower is the fountain of life;
for flowers, the bee is the messenger of love.”

— Kahlil Gibran