MAY
Flowers
in Mary's month tie us closely to the reawakening earth. The time of
Resurrection and expectant Pentecost is one of buds, blossoms, wildflowers, and
greening of meadows and lawns. Days lengthen and we welcome the warmth of the
sun after the long winter. Jesus is risen and is present in our midst, and so
we rise and ascend with him.
The entire
month falls within the liturgical season of Easter, which is represented by the
liturgical color white — the color of light, a symbol of joy, purity and
innocence (absolute or restored). As Spring blossoms forth and we are
surrounded by new life, we spend this month full of the joy of our Easter celebration
and in anticipation of the coming of the Holy Spirit, our Consoler and
Advocate.
·
The
world is resplendent with Spring's increased light and new growth. It is Mary’s
month in the Easter season and all of nature rejoices with the Queen of heaven at
the Resurrection of the Son she was worthy to bear. During the remainder of
Easter time, let us endeavor through the prayers of the Holy Liturgy and the
Holy Rosary to deepen our gratitude for the mystery of our Baptismal rebirth in
Christ.
·
"The
month of May, with its profusion of blooms was adopted by the Church in the
eighteenth century as a celebration of the flowering of Mary's maidenly
spirituality, with its origins in Isaiah's prophecy of the Virgin birth of the
Messiah under the figure of the Blossoming Rod or Root of Jesse, the flower
symbolism of Mary was extended by the Church Fathers, and in the liturgy, by
applying to her the flower figures of the Sapiential Books-Canticles, Wisdom,
Proverbs and Sirach.
·
"In
the medieval period, the rose was adopted as the flower symbol of the Virgin
Birth, as expressed in Dante's phrase, 'The Rose wherein the Divine Word was
made flesh,' and depicted in the central rose windows of the great gothic
cathedrals-from which came the Christmas carol, 'Lo, How a Rose 'ere Blooming.'
Also, in the medieval period, when monasteries were the centers of
horticultural and agricultural knowledge, and with the spread of the Fransiscan
love of nature, the actual flowers themselves, of the fields, waysides and
gardens, came to be seen as symbols of Mary…" – John S. Stokes
·
Pentecost,
the birth of the Church, is also among the celebrations of May. Though sprung
from the side of Christ on the Cross, the Church marks as her birthday the
descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles. At the 'birth' of the
world, the Holy Spirit — the Breath of God — was the "mighty wind [that]
swept over the waters" (Gen 1:2); at the birth of the Church He is present
again "like the rush of a mighty wind" to recreate the world in the
image of Christ through His Church (Acts 2:2).
We, the members of Christ’s Mystical Body,
are the present-day disciples sent by the Holy Spirit to bring Christ to the
world. May we go forth as did Mary, who set out in haste to assist St.
Elizabeth (feast of the Visitation, May 31). Come upon us, O Holy Spirit, so
that, with Mary, we may proclaim the greatness of the Lord who has done great
things for us — for his mercy endures forever!
It is a very old tradition to make pilgrimages during the
month of May to shrines dedicated to Mary. Although this author is writing
about the country of England, even in America there are shrines, basilicas,
cathedrals or churches that one can visit in a pilgrimage.
Renewing the Consecration of the United
States to the Care of Our Blessed Mother[2]
As the world continues to face the ongoing effects of
the global pandemic of the coronavirus, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles
and president of the USCCB has announced that the U.S. bishops will join the
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on May 1 in renewing the consecrations
of the two nations to the care of our Blessed Mother.
Through a collective dedication or entrustment of a
nation to Mary, an act of consecration is meant to be a reminder to the
faithful of the Blessed Mother’s witness to the Gospel and to ask for her
effective intercession before her Son on behalf of those in need.
The consecration
on May 1. . . follows a similar action
of the bishops’ conference of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) who
consecrated their nations to Our Lady of Guadalupe on Easter Sunday. This
prayer reaffirms and renews previous Marian entrustments, and it unites us in
solidarity with our Holy Father, who recently established the Memorial of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, as a source of protection and
strength.
Archbishop Gomez will lead a brief liturgy with the
prayer of re-consecration on Friday, May 1 at 3:00 pm EDT and has invited the
bishops to join in from their respective dioceses and asked them to extend the
invitation to the faithful in their dioceses for their participation. A liturgy
guide will be available to assist the faithful who may join in by tuning into
the USCCB’s social media platforms: Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram. . . .
MAY 1 First Friday
ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER-
Jeremiah, Chapter 10,
Verse 5-7
5 Like a scarecrow in
a cucumber field are they, they cannot speak; They must be carried about, for
they cannot walk. Do not FEAR them,
they can do no harm, neither can they do good. 6 No one is like you,
LORD, you are great, great and mighty is your name. 7 Who would not FEAR you, King of the nations, for it is
your due! Among all the wisest of the nations, and in
all their domains, there is none like you.
Our idols are not real they are like scarecrows
appearing real but are not. Yet, even in our foolishness the Lord our God calls
us to His service. This is the message of St. Therese of Lisieux that we are
all called, and we should have great confidence and humility seeking to bring
the kingdom in small ways and asking our Lord to multiply our efforts. The greatest
way we can bring about the Kingdom is in our own families. This is the reason
Pope Francis made such efforts to attend the family symposium in Philadelphia
in 2015.
Yes, families are under attack from a secular world, a
media that continually pushes instant gratification and sensuality and of
course Satan and his followers.
The final battle between the Lord and the reign of
Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid because Our
Lady has already crushed his head and anyone who works for the sanctity of
marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way. (Sister Lucia of Fatima)
Our Lord will not abandon us and tells us to trust in
him.
Entrust everything to Me and do nothing on
your own, and you will always have great freedom of spirit. No
circumstances or events will ever be able to upset you. Set little store on
what people say. Let everyone judge you as they like. Do not make
excuses for yourself, it will do you no harm. (Diary of Sister
Faustina, 1685)
First
Friday[3]
The
prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus .
. . which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins." To
those who show him love and who make reparation for sins, however, our Lord
made a great pledge: "I promise you in the unfathomable mercy of
my heart that my omnipotent love will procure the grace of final penitence for
all those who receive communion on nine successive first Fridays of the month;
they will not die in my disfavor, or without having received the sacraments,
since my divine heart will be their sure refuge in the last moments of their
life."
To
gain this grace, we must:
·
Receive
Holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays.
·
Have
the intention of honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of reaching final
perseverance.
·
Offer
each Holy Communion as an act of atonement for offenses against the Blessed
Sacrament.
Considerations
The fullness of God is revealed and
given to us in Christ, in the love of Christ, in Christ's heart. For it is the
heart of him in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."
Were one to lose sight of this great plan of God-the overflow of love in the
world through the Incarnation, the Redemption and Pentecost-he could not
understand the refinement with which our Lord deals with us. So, when we talk
about the heart of Jesus, we stress the certainty of God's love and the truth
of his commitment to us. When we recommend devotion to the Sacred Heart, we are
recommending that we should give our whole selves to Jesus, to the whole
Jesus-our souls, our feelings and thoughts, our words and actions, our joys.
That is what true devotion to the heart of Jesus means. It is knowing God and
ourselves. It is looking at Jesus and turning to him, letting him encourage and
teach and guide us. The only difficulty that could beset this devotion would be
our own failure to understand the reality of an incarnate God. But note that
God does not say: "In exchange for your own heart, I will give you a will
of pure spirit." No, he gives us a heart, a human heart, like Christ's. I
don't have one heart for loving God and another for loving people. I love
Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit and our Lady with the same heart with
which I love my parents and my friends. I shall never tire of repeating this.
We must be very human, for otherwise we cannot be divine. . .. If we don't
learn from Jesus, we will never love. If, like some people, we were to think
that to keep a clean heart, a heart worthy of God, means "not mixing it
up, not contaminating it" with human affection, we would become
insensitive to other people's pain and sorrow. We would be capable of only an
"official charity," something dry and soulless. But ours would not be
the true charity of Jesus Christ, which involves affection and human warmth. In
saying this, I am not supporting the mistaken theories-pitiful excuses-that
misdirect hearts away from God and lead them into occasions of sin and
perdition. . .. But I have still a further consideration to put
before you. We have to fight vigorously to do good, precisely because it is
difficult for us to resolve seriously to be just, and there is a long way to go
before human relations are inspired by love and not hatred or indifference. We
should also be aware that, even if we achieve a reasonable distribution of
wealth and a harmonious organization of society, there will still be the
suffering of illness, of misunderstanding, of loneliness, of the death of loved
ones, of the experience of our own limitations. Faced with the weight of all this,
a Christian can find only one genuine answer, a definitive answer: Christ on
the cross, a God who suffers and dies, a God who gives us his heart opened by a
lance for the love of us all. Our Lord abominates injustice and condemns those
who commit it. But he respects the freedom of each individual. He permits
injustice to happen because, as a result of original sin, it is part and parcel
of the human condition. Yet his heart is full of love for men. Our suffering,
our sadness, our anguish, our hunger and thirst for justice . . . he took all these
tortures on himself by means of the cross. . .. Suffering is part of God's
plans. This is the truth; however difficult it may be for us to understand it.
It was difficult for Jesus Christ the man to undergo his passion: "Father,
if you are willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but
yours, be done." In this tension of pleading and acceptance of the
Father's will, Jesus goes calmly to his death, pardoning those who crucify him.
This supernatural acceptance of suffering was, precisely, the greatest of all
conquests. By dying on the cross, Jesus overcame death. God brings life from
death. The attitude of a child of God is not one of resignation to a possibly
tragic fate; it is the sense of achievement of someone who has a foretaste of victory.
In the name of this victorious love of Christ, we Christians should go out into
the world to be sowers of peace and joy through everything we say and do. We
have to fight-a fight of peace-against evil, against injustice, against sin.
Thus, do we serve notice that the present condition of mankind is not
definitive. Only the love of God, shown in the heart of
Christ, will attain our glorious spiritual triumph. Devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus is of great antiquity in the Church. It was St. Margaret Mary
Alacoque, however, who made this devotion widespread. In 1675, within the
octave of the feast of Corpus Christi, our Lord appeared to her and said:
"Behold this heart which, notwithstanding the burning love for men with
which it is consumed and exhausted, meets with no other return from most
Christians than sacrilege, contempt, indifference and ingratitude, even in the
sacrament of my love [the Eucharist]. But what pierces my heart most deeply is
that I am subjected to these insults by persons especially consecrated to my
service." The great promise of the Sacred Heart is most consoling: the
grace of final perseverance and the joy of having Jesus' heart as our sure
refuge and Infinite Ocean of mercy in our last hour. Almighty and everlasting
God look upon the heart of your well-beloved Son and upon the praise and
satisfaction which he offers to you in the name of all sinners; and grant them
pardon when they seek your mercy. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, your
Son, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever.
1. Love
is revealed to us in the Incarnation, the redemptive journey which Jesus Christ
made on our earth, culminating in the supreme sacrifice of the cross. And on
the cross, it showed itself through a new sign: "One of the soldiers
pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and
water." This water and blood of Jesus speak to us of a self-sacrifice
brought to the last extreme: "It is finished"-everything is achieved,
for the sake of love. . .
2. Let
us realize all the richness hidden in the words "the Sacred Heart of
Jesus." When we speak of a person's heart, we refer not just to his
sentiments, but to the whole person in his loving dealings with others. In
order to help us understand divine things, Scripture uses the expression
"heart" in its full human meaning, as the summary and source,
expression and ultimate basis, of one's thoughts, words and actions. One is
worth what one's heart is worth.. . .
3.
Jesus on the cross, with his heart overflowing with love for us, is such an
eloquent commentary on the value of people and things that words only get in
the way. Men, their happiness and their lives, are so important that the very
Son of God gave himself to redeem and cleanse and raise them up. "Who will
not love this heart so wounded?" a contemplative asks in this connection.
"Who will not return love for love? Who will not embrace a heart so pure?
We, who are made of flesh, will repay love with love. We will embrace our
wounded One, whose hands and feet ungodly men have nailed; we will cling to his
side and to his heart. Let us pray that we be worthy of linking our heart with
his love and of wounding it with a lance, for it is still hard and impenitent.
. .."
The
earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the Floralia,
festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, held on April 27 during the
Roman Republic era, and with the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic
countries. The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian
European pagan cultures. As Europe became Christianized, the pagan holidays lost their
religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration. A
significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of several
days on which St. Walburga, credited with bringing
Christianity to Germany. The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe
and America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the maypole
and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the
late 20th century is the giving of "May baskets," small baskets of
sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbors’ doorsteps. Since the
18th century, many Roman Catholics have observed May – and May Day – with
various May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In works of art, school
skits, and so forth, Mary's head will often be adorned with flowers in a May
crowning. May 1 is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of
workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and
surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph,
this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the
Communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day.
May
Day Facts & Quotes[5]
·
Roman
Catholics celebrate May as Mary's month, and May Day is celebration of the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
·
May
Day is also recognized as International Worker's Day, or Labor Day. This
day commemorates workers’ rights and the labor movement. One popular
cause that this day commemorates is the eight-hour workday.
·
During
the Haymarket Affair of 1886, more than a dozen people were killed after a
3-day strike and rally. US Labor Unions had agreed upon a general nationwide
strike on May 1, 1886 in support of an eight-hour workday. One such rally, held
outside the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, Chicago, Illinois, became
violent when police fired into the crowd of striking workers. Outraged, the
worker's organized another rally the next day at Haymarket Square. The
rally became violent when a bomb was thrown into a crowd of police. Seven
officers were killed. A very public trial ensued which ended in the
public hanging of four anarchists.
·
In
France, it is customary to give a sweet-smelling flower called the spring of
lily of the valley (a symbol of springtime) on May 1st. The tradition started
in 1561 when King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky
charm.
·
All
labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken
with painstaking excellence. – Martin Luther King Jr.
May
Day Top Events and Things to Do
·
Dance
around a Maypole. Decorate a tall pole with garlands of flowers and ribbons.
Have a group of friends each take a ribbon and dance around the pole,
interweaving the ribbons to form a braided affect. The braid can be undone by
retracing one's steps.
·
Have
a picnic outdoors in the sunshine.
·
Attend
a May Day Festival.
·
Visit
a local fresh air market.
·
Watch
a film relating to worker’s rights. Our favorite films on the topic:
1) The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
2) Office Space (1999)
3) Caesar Chavez (2014)
"May Day" has long been dedicated to labor and the working man. It falls on the first day of the month that is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius XII expressed the hope that this feast would accentuate the dignity of labor and would bring a spiritual dimension to labor unions. It is eminently fitting that St. Joseph, a working man who became the foster-father of Christ and patron of the universal Church, should be honored on this day. The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to Christianize the concept of labor and give to all workmen a model and a protector. By the daily labor in his shop, offered to God with patience and joy, St. Joseph provided for the necessities of his holy spouse and of the Incarnate Son of God, and thus became an example to all laborers. "Workmen and all those laboring in conditions of poverty will have reasons to rejoice rather than grieve, since they have in common with the Holy Family daily preoccupations and cares"(Leo XIII).
Things to
Do
·
May
1 is celebrated in Communist countries as the Day of the International
Solidarity of Workers. Today would be a good day to pray for atheistic
Communism's influence to cease and a proper application of the principles
explained by Leo XIII in Rerum novarum and John Paul II
in Centesimus annus to be the guide
used by nations.
Daily
Devotions
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