During the month of May, all across the world, images and statues of Our Lady have received, and are receiving, flowers of the rarest. Catholics refer to these actions as May crownings. There is a mysterious joy which fills the heart during a May crowning, and of that joy, we shall have our part. Speaking of such, I received a brief note from Marian I, who told me that she, now, well into her eighties, remembers singing Bring Flowers of the Rarest every May in her Baltimore, Maryland Catholic grade school. The second part of her note lamented the fact that such beautiful hymns had been put aside after the Second Vatican Council.
Yes, they were.
There were approximately fifty dry years following the council where whoever, or shall we say whatever?, deprived us of our rightful Catholic inheritance; specifically, that of a great, wide, and deep love for Our Lady. Even now, I occasionally hear a Catholic prelate attempt to diminish the Immaculate Conception, but of such types, I simply ignore, as they tell me by their words that they are possibly Modernists. We, in contrast, must know our Catholic Faith, and know what is ours; and one of the most beautiful gifts that God has ever gifted us with is the Immaculate Conception; the unshakable white pillar who bore Our Lord; and we shall honor her, and love her despite all opposition, even if the opposition be from within our own ranks.
So, today, I continue to lay flowers at Our Lady’s feet, carrying on the tradition that our Catholic ancestors so loved; and I repeat:
“Bring flow’rs of the fairest,
Bring flow’rs of the rarest,
From garden and woodland
And hillside and vale;
Our full hearts are swelling,
Our glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest
Rose of the vale.Chorus:
O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May,
O Mary! we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.Our voices ascending,
In harmony blending,
Oh! Thus may our hearts turn
Dear Mother, to thee;
Oh! Thus shall we prove thee
How truly we love thee,
How dark without Mary
Life’s journey would be. (Chorus)O Virgin most tender,
Our homage we render,
Thy love and protection,
Sweet Mother, to win;
In danger defend us,
In sorrow befriend us,
And shield our hearts
From contagion and sin. (Chorus)Of Mothers the dearest,
Oh, wilt thou be nearest,
When life with temptation
Is darkly replete?
Forsake us, O never!
Our hearts be they ever
As Pure as the lilies
We lay at thy feet.” (Chorus) (source)
How dark without Mary, Life’s journey would be: how true.
In conclusion, I repeat what St. Maximilian Kolbe said in 1937:
We cannot take rest as long as there is in the world one soul in danger, who does not yet know the Immaculata. Our human frailty, limited resources or any other worldly difficulty must not restrain us; let us confide in the Immaculata, let us place ourselves truly in Her hands and She will continue to win the battles of God, as at Lepanto, as at Vienna. We must place our Lady in every soul so that from every soul sin be expelled and Jesus introduced. Whoever finds the Immaculata, finds Jesus.
The Immaculata is the conqueress of the devil, she is the Mother of God, always united to God, the full of grace, the masterpiece of grace with every holiness and perfection attainable by a human creature. The Immaculata is the one who in Her unbounded and respectful love wills the glory of God, fights the battles of God for overcoming evil, for the triumph of good, crushes the head of hell’s monster and destroys all heresies in the whole world. …
May all nourish themselves on this truth so as to enter into the thought of God who willed the Incarnation to give us much more than what we had lost in Adam, and who in the Incarnation willed the Immaculata to remind us of the innocent man created by God and of the vision of an innocent world, according to the plan of God.
To God all glory, to God our respectful love and our praise, who willed thus to exalt and glorify the Immaculata, Mother of this dismembered and sinful humanity, our Hope, always.
“The Immaculata, Mother of this dismembered and sinful humanity, our Hope, always.”
Let us give the next generation the gift of finding Mary, for if they find Mary, they find Jesus. How do we teach them of Mary? Never underestimate such traditional Catholic actions as May crownings, and the singing of Marian hymns. As Marian I attests: such Catholic traditions remain in the soul. Such traditions teach a child in ways that we do not understand; hence, why opposing forces wish to remove such traditions in order to destroy the Faith. Reminder: we are in a battle. We are the Church Militant.
Let us be part of the restoration of the Faith by participating in such activities in Church, and in our homes.
There was good news from Italy this weekend: a Catholic Italian politician, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, publicly professed his Catholic Faith, read here. During his speech, Salvini held up his Rosary, and kissed it; a very Belloc thing to do, and highly to be praised.
It was a heartening moment in history.
Hail Tradition!
Hail Mary!
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~Image: a May crowning, image by Tressa Maciag Photography. I would like thank Mrs. Tressa Maciag who gifted The Marian Room with a cache of beautiful images. Mrs. Maciag resides and works in upstate New York, and is a gifted artist.
