The Monthly Note
May 2011
'Tis the month of our Mother ♫♪♫ The blessed and beautiful days ♪♪♫, When our lips and our spirits♫♪♪, are glowing with love and with praise ♫♪♪♫!
by Marcel Dumont, O.P.
Sing! Let us all sing the beauty of the Immaculate Heart of our mother, in this month dedicated to her. Let the perfume of spring and all its freshness perfume our praises and permit the newly received Easter graces to bear fruit in all of our lives.
Did you notice that every year, after Easter, on the liturgical calendar, a litany of liturgical feasts, like a «crescendo» ascend as a praise, a thanksgiving, from the Church to the Father’s heart, ending with the Memory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let us name them so that we may share in the Church’s praise: 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy, the Ascension, Pentecost, Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart of Jesus and, finally, the Sacred Heart of Mary. What a beautiful symphony of praises awaits us!
Usually, most of these feasts are celebrated in May. However, this year with Easter being later, this month we will celebrate only the Divine Mercy Sunday and the feast of the Visitation of Mary(always on May 31st). It is still something. Furthermore, all through the month of May, we will share in a grace, a special joy, coming from the Immaculate Virgin, because it is Her month.
Furthermore, on May 1st, Divine Mercy Sunday, under her maternal intercession, her favourite son will be beatified, the beloved Pope John Paul II. It will certainly be a thanksgiving moment for the universal Church. We know that the Mother of the Church had prepared this saint of Mercy for us, to introduce us in this era of Divine Mercy while the world suffers from a lack of love, of true love: from the Father’s affection in His merciful Heart. We also know of the profound Marian devotion of this holy pope. He strongly galvanized the people of God to entrust themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, through his writings-I am thinking, among others, at his encyclical letter entitled The Mother of the Redeemer-and by the prayer of the Rosary, his special prayer he would say. Let us not forget the legacy he left us with the «luminous mysteries».
Finally, let us be in a spirit of thanksgiving, in this month of May, the blessed and beautiful days. Let us enter in the merciful affection of the Father through the intercession of Blessed John Paul II and under the maternal gaze of Our Mother. Throughout all this month’s Sundays, let us remain in the Paschal Joy. And let’s not forget to finish this month in beauty with the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. Paschal Joy, Marian Joy, joy of a new saint, let us not hesitate to sing:
'Tis the month of our Mother ♫♪♫ The blessed and beautiful days ♪♪♫, When our lips and our spirits ♫♪♪, are glowing with love and with praise ♫♪♪♫!
