As May continues, I am posting a reflection by the French Benedictine priest, Dom Prosper Gueranger (b. 1805- d. 1875), which is titled, May, the Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. This excerpt is from Dom Prosper’s book, The Liturgical Year:
Ever since our entrance upon the joys of the Paschal Season, scarcely a day has passed without the Calendar’s offering us some grand mystery or saint to honour, and all these have been radiant with the Easter sun. But of our Blessed Lady, there has not been a single feast to gladden our hearts by telling us of some mystery or glory of this august Queen. The Feast of her Seven Dolours is sometimes kept in April — that is, when Easter Sunday falls on or after the tenth of that month, but May and June pass without any special solemnity in honour of the Mother of God. It would seem as though Holy Church wished to honour, by a respectful silence, the forty days during which Mary enjoyed the company of her Jesus after His Resurrection. We, therefore, should never separate the Mother and the Son if we would have our Easter meditations be in strict accordance with truth, and that, we surely must wish. During these forty days, Jesus frequently visits His disciples, weak men and sinners as they are: can he, then, keep away from His Mother, now that He is so soon to ascend into Heaven and leave her for several long years here on earth? Our hearts forbid us to entertain the thought. We feel sure that He frequently visits her, and that, when not visibly present with her, she has Him in her soul, in a way more intimate and real and delicious than any other creature could have.No feast could have given expression to such a mystery, and yet the Holy Ghost who guides the spirit of the Church, has gradually led the faithful to devote to the honouring Mary in an special manner the entire Month of May, the whole of which comes, almost every year, under the glad season of Easter.No doubt, the loveliness of the May month would, some time or other, suggest the idea of consecrating it to the Holy Mother of God, but if we reflect on the divine and mysterious influence which guides the Church in all she does, we will recognise in this present instance a heavenly inspiration, which prompted the faithful to unite their own joy with that of Mary’s, and spend this beautiful month, which is radiant with their own Easter joy, in commemorating the maternal delight experienced during that same period by the Immaculate Mother when on Earth.
The May air is all Marian; and, in it, we take delight.
Hail Mary!
May you have a good day.
~SCF
