a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a poem written by Alice Claire Mansfield entitled, “The Silence of Mary.” We are reminded in reading this poem of the special devotion that Our Blessed Mother had to the Lord and to her Son. We are reminded of her unique role in the world, and how her never-to-be-repeated or replicated chosen status set her apart from others. We are reminded of her deep contemplative connection with the Lord—which grew out of obedience, faith, hope, and love—that allowed her to fulfill her mission and bring the redeemer of the world to life. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and always that we may enter into that silence of yours which unites us to Jesus!




Silence of Mary


Holy Mary, Mother of God, you who treasured all things and pondered them carefully in your heart, teach us that deep, interior silence which enfolded you throughout your lifetime –
· the silence of the Annunciation, of faith, mission and obedience;
· the silence of the Visitation, of humility, service and praise;
· the silence of Bethlehem, of birth, incarnation and wonder;
· the silence of the flight into Egypt, of perseverance, hope and trust;
· the silence of Nazareth, of simplicity, intimacy and communion;
· the silence of Mt. Calvary, of courage, death and abandonment;
· the silence of Easter, of resurrection, jubilation and glory;
· the silence of Ascension, of fulfillment, transformation and new creation;
· the silence of Pentecost, of peace, power and love.
Mary, in your wisdom, teach us that silence which enables us to listen to the small, still voice of our God; which compels us to worship Him alone in spirit and in truth; which empowers us to acknowledge our nothingness and exult confidently in our Savior; which frees us to lose ourselves in unceasing adoration of the God who is Infinite Love.


Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and always, that we may enter into that silence of yours which unites us to Jesus, your Son, in the mystery of His silence before the Father of mercies. Amen.

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a poem written by Peter Heintz, in his book entitled, “A Guide to Apparitions, Part I.” We are reminded in reading this poem of the many times that Our Blessed Mother has appeared on earth, encouraging our daily prayers, teaching the Holy Rosary, advocating for us, inspiring us to grace. Oh, Holy Mother: Draw us closer to your divine Son, that we may become holy and our hearts become one!




Ode to Mary

O Blessed Mary
Immaculate Virgin
Most holy and pure
free of all sin

Mother of God
and all mankind
Loving and gentle
sweet and kind

Full of grace
and merciful
Perpetual help
and prayerful

Our Lady of Sorrows
so sorrowful
Soul eternally spotless
so beautiful

Messenger of God
our intercessor
Perfect human
our protector

To save mankind
reveal Your faces
at Knock, Tre-Fontane
and other places

At La Salette
and at Pontmain
At Rue du Bac
and at Beauraing

Lady of Carmel
and Guadalupe
Lady of Fatima
and Medjugorje

Lady of the Rosary
and of Lourdes' Shrine
Lily of the Valley
Torch of Love sublime

Cape of Juan Diego
Song of Bernadette
Miracle at Fatima
the world dare not forget

Queen of Peace
and of Heaven above
Queen of Earth
And Queen of Love

You gave us the grace
of First Saturday
And specially taught us
the rosary to pray

Please help us convert
and help us to pray
To open our hearts
to do penance each day

To love one another
and do every good deed
To respond from our hearts
Your teachings to heed

Draw us ever closer
to Your Divine Son
That we may become holy
and our hearts become one

For you are the Handmaid
of the Lord
You live eternally
according to His Word.

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a poem written by John Donne, entitled “Annunciation.” These simple and beautiful words remind us that the Incarnation of Christ, Our Lord and Savior, was announced through the message of an angel to Our Blessed Mother—and in announcing it to Mary, it was announced to the whole world. During this month of Mary, we remember her faith, her confidence in the Lord, and her love for not only her Son, but for all of us. And we thank her for her powerful and gracious fiat, one we attempt to mirror in the world today: Let it be done to me according to Thy Word.




Annunciation

Salvation to all that will is nigh;


That All, which always is All everywhere,


Which cannot sin, and yet all sins must bear,


Which cannot die, yet cannot choose but die,


So, faithful Virgin, yields himself to lie


In prison, in thy womb; and though he there


Can take no sin, nor thou give, yet he'll wear


Taken from thence, flesh, which death's force may try.


Ere by the spheres time was created, thou


Wast in his mind, who is thy Son and Brother;


Whom thou conceiv'st, conceiv'd; yea, thou art now


Thy Maker's maker, and thy Father's mother;


Thou hast light in dark, and shut'st in little room


Immensity, cloistered in thy dear womb.

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a poem written by P.J. Coleman entitled “Our Lady of May.” In this verse, we are reminded that all of creation praises Our Lady, imitating her beauty and grace with the dawning of spring. Pray for us, Our Peerless Rose of Paradise, Our Lady of May!




OUR LADY OF MAY

How like a timid virgin comes the May,
In verdure robed and crown'd with chaplets sweet
Rifling earth's choicest treasures, to lay
Rich spoils of beauty at Our Lady's feet!
And, her to honor, from her teeming stores
Of leaf and bud, in greening garths and bowers,
Nature her lavish offering outpours
Of delicate blossoms and of fragile flowers.

The south wind whispers and young grasses stir,
Renascent blooms from crypts of winter rise,
Lily and rose awake to worship her
Who is the peerless Rose of Paradise.

Spirits of Spring - crocus and daffodil
And violet and lilac fresh and frail -
At Mary's shrine their fragrance sweet distill
And in her praise their passionate souls exhale.

Madonna! Mother of our Christ and Lord!
Now in the opening year's auroral prime
Heaven and earth in rapturous accord
Hail thee and hymn with canticles sublime.
All innocent things, and all things pure and fair,
Hasten their homage at thy throne to pay;
And we, thy children, come with love and pray'r-
Oh, hear and help us, Lady of the May!

Touch us to harmony with the gracious hours,
And from our lives all discords harsh efface!
Help us to grow in beauty, like the flowers,
Responsive to the Godhead's quickening grace!
Oh, fill us with the season's peace and love,
And guide our feet in virtue's arduous way
That we may tread the paths that lead above
To thy dear Son, O Lady of the May!

(P.J. Coleman in Robert, Cyril. Mary Immaculate: God's Mother and Mine. New York: Marist Press, 1946)

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a written by Lionel Johnson entitled “Our Lady of the May.” Through this beautiful verse, we are reminded of the birth of man, all the more present during the renewal of the seasons in springtime. O Flower of Flowers, Our Lady of the May!




O Flower of flowers, Our Lady of the May!
Thou gavest us the World's one Light of Light:
Under the stars, amid the snows, He lay;
While Angels, through the Galilean night
Sang glory and sang peace:
Nor doth their singing cease,
For thou their Queen and He their King sit crowned
Above the stars, above the bitter snows;
They chant to thee, the Lily, to Him the Rose,
With white Saints kneeling round.
Gone is cold night: thine now are spring and day:
O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!


O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!
Thou gavest us the blessed Christmas mirth:
And now, not snows, but blossoms, light thy way;
We give thee the fresh flower-time of the earth.
These early flowers we bring,
Are angels of the spring,
Spirits of gracious rain and light and dew.
Nothing so like to thee the whole earth yields,
As these pure children of her vales and fields,
Bright beneath skies of blue.
Hail Holy Queen! Their fragrant breathings say:
O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!


O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!
Breathe from God's garden of eternal flowers
Blessing, when we thy little children pray:
Let thy soul's grace steal gently over ours.
Send on us dew and rain,
That we may bloom again,
Nor wither in the dry and parching dust.
Lift up our hearts, till with adoring eyes,
O Morning Star! We hail thee in the skies,
Star of our hope and trust!
Sweet Star, sweet Flower, there bid thy beauty stay:

O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!
O Flower of flowers, Our Lady of the May!
Thou leftest lilies rising from thy tomb:
They shone in stately and serene array,
Immaculate amid death's house of gloom.
Ah, let thy graces be
Sown in our dark hearts! We
Would make our hearts gardens for thy dear care:
Watered from wells of Paradise, and sweet
With balm winds flowing from the Mercy Seat,
And full of heavenly air:
While music ever in thy praise should play,

O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!
O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!
Not only for ourselves we plead, God's Flower!
Look on thy blinded children, who still stray,
Lost in this pleasant land, thy chosen Dower!
Send us a perfect spring:
Let faith arise and sing,
And England from her long, cold winter wake.
Mother of Mercy! Turn upon her need
Thine eyes of mercy: be there spring indeed:
So shall thine Angels make
A starrier music, than our hearts can say,
O Flower of flowers, our Lady of the May!

(published in: Thérèse, M. I Sing of a Maiden: The Mary Book of Verse. New York: Macmillan, 1947)

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a poem (author unknown) entitled “Greeting Mary.” These simple and beautiful words expand the Ave Maria, the Hail Mary, the prayer which comprises the decades of the Holy Rosary. Reading through this poem, I am reminded of the joy that Mary, sitting in glory in heaven, must feel every time a faithful son or daughter of the Lord prays the Hail Mary—reminding her of the glorious Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel and the joyous greeting of Elizabeth upon her arrival to visit. During this month of May, we pray in a special way that our joy and thanksgiving for the grace and intercession of Our Blessed Mother may, too, fill her with joy as our prayers fly to her most gracious heart in heaven!



Greeting Mary

Hail Mary, hello, how are you?
I greet you with love,
And I thank you for being available.
Deeply, I breathe your roses,
The twelve fresh roses you place in my spirit
Every morning when I say hello to you.


Full of grace are you,
Grace spilling over Heaven's boundaries
Into my world, living water, bread and wine,
The unmerited favor of God
That you come carrying to me,
Your arms always full of gifts.


The Lord is with thee,
Jesus Christ the Messiah is with you,
And you teach me how to recognize
That the Lord is with me.


Blessed art thou among women,
Glowing with love for Jesus,
Pure blessedness never tainted
But alive with holy beauty.


And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
The most blessed of humanity,
Delivered through you, Virgin Mary.
Jesus, the most cursed of humanity,
Who became a curse for me
So that I might be blessed
With his resurrection life.


Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Teach me to value motherhood,
Help me pray for mothers and fathers
To love and support each other.
Show me how God loves you.


Pray for us sinners now
And at the hour of our death.
Pray that I can live each moment
Consecrated to love, to Christ,
That I recognize each now
As the moment of salvation
So that I die prepared for eternal life.
Pray that I can crucify my passions,
Those passions that make me a sinner,
And that I can die to sin on the cross with Jesus
As you look on weeping and praying
But joyous, knowing that resurrection follows.


Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

We continue our celebration of Mary’s month of May with a hymn, “O Mary, We Crown Thee.” During May, many parishes crown their statues of Our Blessed Mother with flower garlands. These ceremonies symbolize our love and thanks for the Blessed Virgin’s heart, the love she lavishes upon us, and the grace of God which is mediated through her. Under her gaze, our hearts and lives bloom like the flowers we present to her, filled with the Holy Spirit, guiding us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.




O Mary, we crown thee
With blossoms today
Queen of the Angels
Queen of the May.


Bring flowers of the fairest
From garden and woodland
And hillside and dale.


Our full hearts are swelling
Our glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest
Rose of the vale.


We honor and praise thee
Please pray that our hearts
Will forever be thine.


In joy and in sorrow
From thee may we borrow
A faith that is trusting
In Jesus thy Son.



(from the 1938 Saint Basil Hymnal)

We continue our celebration of Our Blessed Mother during the month reserved for her veneration with a poem from a Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889).




The Blessed Virgin compared to the air we breathe


Wild air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere,
That each eyelash or hair
Girdles; goes home betwixt
The fleeciest, frailest-flixed
Snowflake; that’s fairly mixed
With, riddles, and is rife
In every least thing’s life;
This needful, never spent,
And nursing element;
My more than meat and drink,
My meal at every wink;
This air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.
I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name.
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe,
Since God has let dispense
Her prayers his providence:
Nay, more than almoner,
The sweet alms’ self is her
And men are meant to share
Her life as life does air.
If I have understood,
She holds high motherhood
Towards all our ghostly good
And plays in grace her part
About man’s beating heart,
Laying, like air’s fine flood,
The deathdance in his blood;
Yet no part but what will
Be Christ our Saviour still.
Of her flesh he took flesh:
He does take fresh and fresh,
Though much the mystery how,
Not flesh but spirit now
And makes, O marvellous!
New Nazareths in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve;
New Bethlems, and he born
There, evening, noon, and morn—
Bethlem or Nazareth,
Men here may draw like breath
More Christ and baffle death;
Who, born so, comes to be
New self and nobler me
In each one and each one
More makes, when all is done,
Both God’s and Mary’s Son.
Again, look overhead
How air is azurèd;
O how! nay do but stand
Where you can lift your hand
Skywards: rich, rich it laps
Round the four fingergaps.
Yet such a sapphire-shot,
Charged, steepèd sky will not
Stain light. Yea, mark you this:
It does no prejudice.
The glass-blue days are those
When every colour glows,
Each shape and shadow shows.
Blue be it: this blue heaven
The seven or seven times seven
Hued sunbeam will transmit
Perfect, not alter it.
Or if there does some soft,
On things aloof, aloft,
Bloom breathe, that one breath more
Earth is the fairer for.
Whereas did air not make
This bath of blue and slake
His fire, the sun would shake,
A blear and blinding ball
With blackness bound, and all
The thick stars round him roll
Flashing like flecks of coal,
Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt,
In grimy vasty vault.
So God was god of old:
A mother came to mould
Those limbs like ours which are
What must make our daystar
Much dearer to mankind;
Whose glory bare would blind
Or less would win man’s mind.
Through her we may see him
Made sweeter, not made dim,
And her hand leaves his light
Sifted to suit our sight.
Be thou then, O thou dear
Mother, my atmosphere;
My happier world, wherein
To wend and meet no sin;
Above me, round me lie
Fronting my froward eye
With sweet and scarless sky;
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God’s love, O live air,
Of patience, penance, prayer:
World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.

"May is

Our Lady’s
month
with all
its lovely
days.

May is
sweet
and heavenly
just like
Our Lady’s ways."
"Mary’s May" by Elywn Rhyl


As we continue our celebration of Our Blessed Virgin Mother during her month, we look ahead to some of the feast days related to Mary which occur during the month of May:
Tuesday, May 4: Our Lady of Laus
Sunday, May 9: Mother’s Day
Thursday, May 13: Our Lady of Fatima
Saturday, May 15: Mary, Queen of Apostles
Sunday, May 23: Pentecost
Saturday, May 24: Mary, Hope of Christians
Monday, May 31: Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (Second Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary)
Monday, May 31: Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces




O Virgin Immaculate, Mother of God and my Mother, from your sublime heights turn your eyes of pity on my. Filled with confidence in your goodness and knowing full well your power, I beg you to extend to me your assistance in the journey of life, which is so full of dangers for my soul. In order that I may never be a slave of the devil through sin, but may ever live with my heart humble and pure, I entrust myself wholly to you. I consecrate my heart to you forever, my only desire being to love your divine Son, Jesus. Mary, none of your devout servants has ever perished; may I, too, be saved. Amen.
(Saint Ephraem of Edessa)

May is Mary’s month.


As Gerard Manley Hopkins writes in his poem May Magnificat, “May is Mary’s month.” While we venerate Our Blessed Mother, Mary, Ever-Virgin, Mother of the Savior, Mistress of the World, and Queen of Heaven and Earth throughout the year, May is particularly special. May signifies the beginning of new life, and as such, it is the perfect month in which to honor Mary, the second Eve, the vessel through which new life—the life of the Savior which leads us to new life—was born.

As Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in Seek That Which is Above, “The mood of springtime informs the church's interior; nature's blossoming, the warm air of May evenings, human gladness in a world that is renewing itself -- all these things enter in. Veneration of Mary has its place in this very particular atmosphere, for she, the Virgin, shows us faith under its youthful aspect, as God's new beginning in a world that has grown old. In her we see the Christian life set forth as a youthfulness of the heart, as beauty and a waiting readiness for what is to come."

May is Mary’s month. It brings with it the return of flowers, the sweet fragrance of new life. Our Mother, Mary, is often referred to as “the Mystical Rose,” a title from which the Holy Rosary draws its name, based upon the tradition of adorning statues of the Blessed Virgin with strands of roses. St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, "our Lord planted all the flowers which adorn the Church in this garden; and amongst others the violet of humility, the lily of purity, and the rose of charity."

"A rose is red, and of a fiery color," echoed Blessed Raymond Jordano, "which denotes love of God and of our neighbor." No man or woman before or since has lived the love of God and neighbor so purely, the charity of which Saint Bernard and Blessed Raymond speak of, than our Holy Mother and advocate in heaven. "We acknowledge," said Saint Augustine of the Blessed Virgin, "that one alone is solicitous for us in heaven."

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, summarized the role of Mary as a source of new life, saying, ”Eve was a thorn, wounding, bringing death to all; in Mary we see a rose, soothing everybody's hurts, giving the destiny of salvation back to all. Mary was a rose, white for maidenhood, red for love; white in body, red in soul; white in her seeking after virtue, red in treading down vice; white in cleansing her affections, red in mortifying her flesh; white in her love of God, red in compassion for her neighbor"


May is Mary’s month. We thank her for her constant intercession. We venerate her for her role in the salvation of mankind. We love her as a perfect mother, not only to Jesus, but to each one of us. We look to her—the source of new life—for rebirth and renewal in our own lives, faith journeys, and spiritual development. As Saint Louis de Montfort would say, “Through Mary to Jesus.”

May seems like the perfect month for such a journey.




Throughout the month of May, I will be posting some of my favorite poems and hymns to Our Blessed Mother, in honor of her grace and Christian virtues—faith, hope, and love. Holy Mary, pray for us!


May Magnificat by Gerard Manley Hopkins

MAY is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season-


Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?


Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?


Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?-
Growth in every thing-




Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.


All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.


Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.




And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all-


This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.