Beautiful Queen of May

The Queenship of Mary

From the earliest centuries of the Catholic Church, Christians have addressed suppliant prayers and hymns of praise to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the hope they have placed in the Mother of the Saviour has never been disappointed. They have looked upon Her as Queen of Angels, Queen of Patriarchs, Queen of Prophets, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Virgins. Because of Her eminence, She is indeed entitled to the highest honors that can be bestowed upon any creature. Saint Gregory Nazianzen called Her Mother of the King of the entire universe, and the Virgin Mother who brought forth the King of the entire world.

Our Lady is the first of creatures because she is the Mother of God. No one has had or can have a union with the Most Holy Trinity as close as hers. She is the Most Beloved Daughter of the Eternal Father, the Most Admirable Mother of the Eternal Word, and the Most Faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost.

The queenship of Our Lady is supernatural in character because she is the first and highest of the creatures of God. She is not the first in the order of nature, for the Angels are more than she. An angel is a pure spirit and, therefore, more than a human creature. But she is the first creature in the order of grace. That is, she received incomparably more graces than the Angels. The graces the Angels received are subordinate to the graces Our Lady received.

His Holiness Pope Pius XII, in his Encyclical Letter of October 11, 1954, “On the Royal Dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Institution of Her Feast”, ordaining its celebration throughout the world every year on May 31st, reminds us of what Pope Pius IX had said of Mary: “Constituted by the Lord as Queen of Heaven and earth, and exalted above all the choirs of Angels and the ranks of the Saints in heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, She petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and obtains what She seeks.”

Pope Pius XII adds another ordinance: “We ask that on the feast day be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this is founded a great hope that there may arise an era of happiness which will rejoice in the triumph of religion and Christian peace. Therefore let all approach, with greater confidence than ever before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother, to beg help in difficulty, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow.” In asking this, the Holy Father was responding to the request of the Virgin Herself at Fatima in 1917, that the world and each soul individually be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. She promised that it will be then that “a time of peace will be given to the world.” Do not Mary’s rights as Queen require respect? And will we deny to Her maternal Heart the love it merits, for twenty centuries of uninterrupted intercession on behalf of Her children?

Sources:  Lives of Saints, traditioninaction.org and Heavenly Friends: a Saint for each Day, by Rosalie Marie Levy (Saint Paul Editions: Boston, 1958)

A Short Story: At Least Saint Joseph Will Have Pity on Me!

As a grown man in Paris, Maximin Giraud, one of the seer of the La Salette apparitions, was reduced to such poverty that he was forced to pawn a piece of his clothing. Then, completely broke and without food, he entered the church of Saint Sulpice to kneel before the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. « I’m hungry, my good Mother," he said, "are you going to let me starve? I did everything you asked of me. I communicated to all your people the serious and solemn warnings you came to bring. I’m about to faint from hunger. If you won’t to pull me out of my misery I’ll turn to your husband Saint Joseph, who I'm sure will have pity on me! » 

Weakened by prolonged fasting, he soon fell asleep. A stranger woke him up and invited him to a restaurant, ordering him a hearty meal. When he had satisfied his hunger, the stranger paid the waiter and told Maximin to go to the pawn shop to redeem the piece of clothing he had pawned. He added that he would find in the pocket of that garment a banknote that would get him out of poverty. With these words he was gone and Maximin never found out who the man was. How did a perfect stranger know that he had pawned his garment? How did he know that there was some money in the pocket of that piece of clothing ensuring Maximin’s future? So, unable to give a rational explanation to such an extraordinary experience, he always thought that the stranger was Saint Joseph himself.

***Leon Bloy, Celle qui pleure - The Woman Who Cries (Notre Dame de la Salette), 1908

OUR LADY, HELP of CHRISTIANS

When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth? St. Luke 18:8 

Today is the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians.  Here's a simple prayer to Our Lady!

Pope Pius VII instituted this feast day in honor of the assistance which Our Blessed Mother had accorded to the Church; this was after his returned to Rome in 1815 from several years of captivity imposed by the emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte.  The Pope’s exile and captivity was the emperor’s resistance to the authority of the Vicar of Christ, superior before God to his own.

The sacrilegious seizure of the Pope was executed, and he spent five years in exile in various places, finally at Fontainebleau, France. After 1815 the clemency of the great Pope towards the Emperor and his family is a matter of history; the latter were afforded a secure refuge in Rome itself, when Napoleon was exiled. And for the Emperor himself, relegated to the island of Saint Helena, the Pope pleaded for clemency with the Prince-Regent of England. When Napoleon died, it was with the assistance of chaplains sent to him by Pius VII.

Our Lady, Help of Christians, was made better known by Saint John Bosco, who consecrated his Order of Salesian priests to Her. And in Turin, beginning in 1865, he began to raise in Her honor a vast and magnificent church. Without ever having a penny in advance, always the needed sums of money arrived in time. About three-fourths of the gifts offered were presented in thanksgiving for favors obtained through Her intercession.

We will relate just one of those. A certain Senator of the Kingdom of Italy was ill; Don Bosco went to visit him and found him very discouraged and speaking of his imminent death. “What would you do,” said Don Bosco, “if Our Lady Auxiliatrix obtained your cure from God?” “My cure! Well, I would give two thousand francs a month for Her church, for six months.” “Be of good courage,” said the Saint on rising; “I will see that prayers are said for you.” Three days later, Baron Gotta, perfectly cured, went to Don Bosco to make his first payment, giving more than he had promised; and he did not cease to outdo himself in generosity.


Sources/ref: Prayer to Our Lady, Help of Christians, The Magnificat

May Altar

Source: May Poetry (F.H.W. - Columbia Journal. May 1954.)

In May

(F. Sackett - Robert, Cyril. Mary Immaculate: God's Mother and Mine. New York: Marist Press, 1946.)

Source: May Poetry 

Galilean May

M. Thérèse - Robert, Cyril. Mary Immaculate: God's Mother and Mine. New York: Marist Press, 1946.
Source: May Poetry

The May Queen

Marie Fischer - Robert, Cyril. Our Lady's Praise in Poetry. New York: Marist Press, 1944.

Source: May Poetry

THE MONTH OF OUR LADY

THE MONTH OF OUR LADY

The daffodils dance at the dawning, 

The may bells make clamor and sing; 

What, then, is this season, good mother, 

When flowers such loveliness bring? 

It is the sweet month of Our Lady, 

Whose Son is our Savior and King.

The violets waft their faint incense, 

In glory the gill blooms blow; 

What, then, is this season, dear mother, 

That lilies are sisters of snow? 

It is the rich month of Our Lady, 

When beauty and loveliness flow.

The south wind's a song of love's triumph, 

Twined round a child's laugh in the lane; 

What, then, is this season, O mother! 

When fragrance grows vocal in rain? 

It is the lush month of Our Lady, 

Madonna of bliss and of pain.

Like cordons of honor, the poplars, 

That stand, rigged in green, in the night, 

Let us form, then, for Mary, O mother! 

Our own little pageant of white. 

It is the glad month of Our Lady, 

Earth's fairest, and Heaven's delight!

A Reflection: Our Lady of Fatima

I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. St. John 10:11

Happy Mother's day to all mothers, specially to Our Blessed Mother and to my mother!

*********

Today we remember the first of the six apparitions of Our Blessed Mother in a little town in Portugal. And today is the 9th day of our novena to Our Lady of Fatima. Two kinds of novenas were posted here last May 5. Click this link to pray the Novena to Our Lady.

Because of the Blessed Virgin's singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit, the church loves to pray in communion with Mary, to magnify with her the great things the Lord has done for her and to entrust supplication and praise to her. This prayer to Mary has found expression in the "Ave Maria"; Let us all pray the Hail Mary:

Much has been written concerning the six famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a little town in Portugal between May 13 and October 13, 1917. Later it would be said, and rightly so, that everything She predicted there to the three little shepherds has been fulfilled point by point. The story is too long to tell in detail in a few words, and indeed it is not over yet.

Our Lady of Fatima was sent to warn the 20th century that humanity had not followed the path that had been indicated to it by her Son; humanity had not developed as God intended, and the time of the last and worst enemy was fast approaching. She said that if Her requests for prayer and penance were not heard, Communism would spread its errors all over the earth. She appealed to the Apostles of the Latter Times to come forth, those who lived in humility, poverty and contempt for the world, repeating what She had already said at La Salette, France, in greater detail in 1846.

During the final apparition on October 13th, She appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, accompanied by Saint Joseph and the divine Child. Through Lucy of Fatima, Mary had promised a miracle to convince doubters of the reality of Her presence and the Will of God She had conveyed by Her words, and She fulfilled that promise. On October 13, 1917, the great Miracle of the Sun occurred, witnessed by all who were present at Fatima, an international crowd of 70,000 spectators. The sun whirled about and seemed to be plunging down as it sent off multicolored rays; many cried out that it was the end of the world.

A large shrine was built at Fatima, and in the 1940’s more than a thousand miracles had already been duly confirmed there. The famous “Secret of Fatima,” part of which was disclosed by the Vatican to certain heads of State in 1963, still remains largely a secret for most of the people who have been waiting for it since 1960, the year that the Virgin said it was to be made public.

Source/Reference: The Marnificat: Lives of Saints

Mother to her Son

This poem of a mother is copied from Good Housekeeping Magazine 1928 issue. I just thought it's a wonderful poem of a mother, thinking of her fellow mothers with a son; like Mary Our Mother. It's a beautiful poem to reflect on Mary's life as a Mother to Our Savior Jesus Christ; and to meditate on her life as a role model to us, mothers of this world.

Mother

I wonder if all mother's of small sons, 

Grow as perplexed as I have often grown?

Do they, through lack of wisdom, stand dismayed,

And falteringly face each day alone?

I think of all the mother's of the earth, 

I wonder, sometimes, would they, too, be glad 

To know how Mary of old Nazareth 

With daily wisdom reared her little lad, 

I know God spoke to her through those brief years 

Of all things that concerned their precious One, 

And when the grave eyes questioned, surely God 

Helped Mary answer well her little Son. 

Could I have come some summer afternoon 

And sat on the low doorstep at her feet, 

While Jesus and his younger brothers played 

Upon the bright grass by the shady street, 

I would have learned from her; oh, many things, 

I think i would have grown so very wise 

That I could answer truthfully at last 

The thousand questions in these upturned eyes. 

And here's another poem for Mary; Our Queen of May

Sources: 1. Good Housekeeping Magazine;1928 - by Grace Noll Crowell
              2. May Poetry

Mary Our Mother: The Full Moon

Look at the moon, amazingly beautiful!

Thomas Merton's Poetry: The Evening of the Visitation - Written in 1947; p1 & p4

Like the morning star in the midst of the cloud and as the moon at its full she shines (Eccl. 50,6). 


The blessed Mary is said to be the full moon, because in every way perfect. The moon is imperfect when a half-moon, because it is stained or horned. But the glorious Virgin neither in Her birth had any stain, because sanctified in Her mother's womb, guarded by angels, nor in Her days had She the horns of pride. Hence, She shone fully and perfectly. She is said to be light because. She dispels the darkness.


Source/Reference: St. Anthony of Padua

Novena to Our Lady of Fatima

On May 13, we commemorate the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a little town in Portugal. I am inviting you to join me in offering a nine day Novena to Our Lady of Fatima starting today, May 5. Two versions of the novena is presented in this blog:

First, the same verse or prayer is said once each day for the nine days to come.

Say the prayer for Day 1: Day 2: Day 3: Day 4: Day 5 :Day 6: Day 7: Day 8: Day 9

Second is the Nine Day Novena to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima 
Nine Day Novena to Our Lady of The Rosary of Fatima

Novena source: Prayerbook
Image source: Mary's flowers

Beautiful Story of a Mother

Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them. St. Matthew 18:20

This is a short story about Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine.

Saint Monica was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan; even though she came from a Christian family and grew up in singular innocence and piety. After marriage, she devoted herself to her husband's conversion, praying for him always and winning his reverence and love by the holiness of her life and her affectionate forbearance. She was rewarded by seeing him baptized a year before his death.

When her son Augustine went astray in faith and habits, her prayers and tears were incessant. She once begged a learned bishop that he would talk to her son, in order to bring him to a better disposition, but he declined, despairing of success with a young man at once so gifted and so headstrong. At the sight of her prayers and tears, he nonetheless bade her be of good courage, for it could not happen that the child of those tears should perish.
Augustine, by going to Italy, was able for a time to free himself from his mother’s importunities, but he could not escape from her prayers, which encompassed him like the providence of God. She followed him to Italy; and there, by his marvelous conversion, her sorrow was turned into joy.

At Ostia, shortly before they were to re-embark for Africa, Augustine and his mother sat at a window conversing on the life of the blessed. She turned to him and said, “My son, there is nothing now I care for in this life. What I shall now do, or why I remain on this earth, I know not. The one reason I had for wishing to linger in this life a little longer was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This grace God has granted me superabundantly, seeing you reject earthly happiness to become His servant.” A few days afterwards she had an attack of fever and died at the age of fifty-six, in the year 388.

Reflection: It is impossible to set any bounds to what persevering prayer may do. It gives man a share in the Divine Omnipotence. Saint Augustine’s soul lay bound in the chains of heresy and an illegitimate union, both of which had by long habit grown inveterate. They were broken by his mother’s prayers.

Source:  Lives of Saints

Here's the 4th poem dedicated to Our Blessed Mother

On May 13, we commemorate the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a little town in Portugal. I am inviting you to join me in offering a nine day Novena to Our Lady of Fatima starting tomorrow, May 5. Two versions of the novena is presented:

First, the same verse or prayer is said once each day for the nine days to come.:

 Day 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9

Second, is the Nine Day Novena to Our Lady of The Rosary of Fatima.

Nine Day Novena to Our Lady of The Rosary of Fatima

May: The Most Beautiful Month of the Year

The month of May is the merriest and the most beautiful month of the year. It’s also the month when rain begins to pour after a long dry spell, flowers magically bloom overnight. First rain drops of this beautiful month happened this afternoon while my husband and I were exploring our town on our motorcycle. We got wet but we enjoyed our ride. It was a fun and refreshing afternoon getting wet under the rain.

Since the month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, I will offer each day of this month an honor for our Blessed Mother. Every day for 31 days of May, I will share a poem or prayer in praise and honor for Our Lady.

Here's the second poem this month in honor for Our Blessed Mother who brings glory to the month of May.

Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven. St. Matthew 18:18