You are invited this Wednesday, May 20th, at 1:00 PM, as we livestream St. Margaret School May Crowning.  Afterwards it will be available on our website, as well as all the other Masses recorded.
 
It always started on the first day of May.  Every classroom had to have a Mary Altar.  Every student had a chance to lead the rosary, and every student took turns to bring in some sort of flowers for the altar. Then on the last day of May we had the School May Crowning.
 
Those who attended Catholic grammar school have memories of an elaborate May Crowning.  The school I attended had the May Crowning at night.  We gathered in our classrooms, attendance taken.  The only excuse to miss the event was death, and you still needed a note!  Then as the school bell rang, we marched over to Church singing Immaculate Mary and filed in and sat in our usual spots within the Church.  The eighth grade girls were the honor guard, the 2 ^nd grade girls wearing their First Holy Communion dresses strew flower pedals on the white carpet and an 8 ^th grade girl, chosen by the teachers, who they thought was going to be a nun, with her court went to the statue of Mary and the chosen girl had to climb a ladder and crown the statue, followed by Benediction, with the “holy smoke” of the incense, which was “coughless”.  I also remember the tortuous practices leading up to the Crowning.  Everything had to be precise and perfect for Mary our Queen.
 
The origin of the May Crowning is uncertain.  However, devotion to our Blessed Mother started in the earliest days of the Church. Toward the end of the 1700’s, a Jesuit priest, Father Latomia began the practice of dedicating May to our Blessed Mother. There are a number of feast days in her honor during May.  His desire was to promote devotion to Mary among the students. From Rome, the May devotion spread to the other Jesuit colleges, and eventually throughout the whole Church.

In the Eastern Churches, there was an early custom of showing Mary and Jesus wearing golden crowns.  In the West, the pious practice of publicly crowning an image of the Blessed Mother gained popularity in the 1800’s.  In 1838, on the Feast of the Assumption, Pope Gregory XVI with great solemnity, crowned the popular Roman Icon of the Health of the Roman People, and the practice of crowning the image of the Blessed Mother became popular, especially during the month of May.
Down through the centuries, with all the flowers in bloom, people gathered the flowers and presented them to Our Lady in May.  In the Church’s former calendar, May 31 was the feast of the Coronation of Mary the Queen.   It was on that day, when the May Crowning took place.

This year, as we look at the present situation, we need a deep and committed devotion to our Blessed Mother. This year, we place ourselves at the feet of Mary our Queen, and ask her to watch over and protect our loved ones and us.  Mary, gracious Queen of Heaven and Earth, pray for us.

This Thursday, May 21st is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.  It will be 40 days since Easter.  We will livestream Mass at Noon with Fr. Clarke as celebrant and homilist.