Dear Parishioners,
We begin the month of May. Nature is coming alive all around us, the valley is fresh green and it is starting to get warmer, however slowly. I made some raised garden beds in the back of the Rectory and I am looking forward to planting things and getting my bee hives going again with the help of Lanny Stolp – these are all signs of Spring.
May is also the month of Mary. We want to honor her during this month, she is the Mother of Our Lord and our mother in heaven. I am going to put a statue of Mary in the sanctuary throughout May and invite you to bring flowers to honor her during this special month.
Fresh flowers show we care and make any place beautiful. Our sanctuary is our place of worship and where the Eucharist is celebrated. Our church should show we care and be beautiful by being adorned with fresh flowers. I am going to start a Flower Fund for fresh flowers to keep our sanctuary beautiful for the Lord. Please help us with this fund.
An expression of our love for Our Lady is to recite the Rosary as often as possible. May is that acceptable time to pray the Rosary as a family, a couple or privately. My parents prayed the Rosary together as a couple every day of their married life.
Why do we celebrate Mary in May? (Excerpt from the May 2024 Magnificat)
Mary, our Queen and Mother, receives special honor in the month of May. Saint John Henry Newman gives two reasons for this: first, “because it is the time when the earth bursts forth into its fresh foliage and its green grass after the stern frost and snow of winter...It is because the blossoms are upon the trees...For such gladness and joyousness of external nature is a fit attendant on our devotion to her who is the Mystical Rose and the House of Gold.”
The second reason Newman gives is that May is a month of uninterrupted liturgical joy, usually encompassing part of the Easter season as well as Pentecost and several other feasts. Some feasts have changed since Newman’s time, but the principle remains true. In fact, May now begins with a feast of Saint Joseph, whose devoted labor sustained Mary in her vocation as the Mother of God.
Next Sunday, May 12 we will honor our own mothers with a special Mother’s Day breakfast after 10 am mass at St. Mary’s, from the Knights of Columbus. The Knights will also recognize the graduating seniors at this breakfast as well. Please join us.