May, the month of Mary
KNXT PASTORAL MESSAGE, MAY 2004
My dear people of God,
There are many blessings in my own personal life that I experienced being assigned to three different parishes in East Los Angeles, as a young priest. One of those blessings was reciting the rosary every evening in the month of May, with young girls, dressed in white, offering flowers to our Blessed Mother after each decade of the rosary, while a hymn to our Blessed Mother was being sung. It always culminated on the last day of May, the feast of the Visitation, with the crowning of the Blessed Mother.
Recently our Holy Father on the occasion of the feast of the annunciation spoke of the fiat, the “yes” of the Virgin Mary, “let it be done to me as you will,” as echoing the “yes” of our Lord Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, accepting his passion and death for our Redemption. Our Holy Father brought out that in close harmony with the “yes” of Christ and of the Virgin Mary, each one of us is called to say our own “yes,” thy will be done, to the mysterious designs of Divine Providence.
The month of May is dedicated to our Blessed Mother. I encourage individuals and families to pray the rosary each day of May. Again, our Holy Father, on the occasion of adding the mysteries of light to the rosary in 2002, tells us that the mysteries of the rosary are a compendium of the entire gospel. He asks everyone, Christian families, the sick and the elderly and especially young people, to take up the Rosary once again to rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture and in the context of our daily lives.
The family that prays together stays together. And prayer in our families is needed more than ever in our day. A break of 15 minutes from the T.V. to pray the rosary each evening in May can work miracles in our Christian families. May is the month of Mary. Let’s show it in our homes, ending with a coronation of our Blessed Mother as queen of the family. Customs and traditions such as these teach our youth the dignity and sacredness of marriage and the family. God bless you all very, very much.