May is Mary's month, but why?

The practice of dedicating the month of May to our Lady was popularized especially by the Rosary Encyclicals of Leo XIII – beginning in 1883 and concluding in 1889, the Pontiff wrote twelve encyclicals and five apostolic letters on the Rosary. The Catholic Encyclopedia discusses the rather recent origin of Mary Month:

“The May devotion [to our Lady] in its present form originated at Rome where Father Latomia of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, to counteract infidelity and immorality among the students, made a vow at the end of the eighteenth century to devote the month of May to Mary. From Rome the practice spread to the other Jesuit colleges and thence to nearly every Catholic church of the Latin rite (Albers, "Bluethenkranze", IV, 531 sq.). This practice is the oldest instance of a devotion extending over an entire month.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, “Special Devotions for Months”)

Yet, although many Catholics know that May is dedicated to the Mother of God, it may be a bit of a puzzle as to why May was chosen for this special honor. What is it about May that makes it suited to be the Month of Mary?

Ad orientem and Communion kneeling, "Let us break bread together on our knees"

A friend recently pointed out to me that the popular African American spiritual, “Let us break bread together on our knees” – a hymn obviously inspired by the words of our past Sunday’s Gospel, Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35) – advocates both communion kneeling and liturgical celebration ad orientem. How shocking it is that this hymn, which among Catholic churches is heard almost exclusively in rather “progressive” parishes, promotes such traditional liturgical practices. Perhaps there is some hope for the future of so-called “liberal” Catholicism after all! (though we have our doubts)

Let us break bread together on our knees

The text of the hymn follows:

Let us break bread together on our knees,

Let us break bread together on our knees.

When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun,

O Lord, have mercy on me.

St. Cleopas of Emmaus, martyr: The brother of St. Joseph, father of Sts. James the less and Jude, grandfather of the sons of Zebedee

3^rd Sunday of Easter, Luke 24:13-25

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, […] One of them, named Cleopas.

St. Cleopas, one of the disciples who met the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 25 September. While little is known with certainty of either him or his companion, there is a tradition which identifies this Cleopas (or Cleophas) with the wife of Mary (the mother of James the Lesser). Furthermore, some speculate that he was the brother of St. Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary.

We will consider the tradition as expressed by the great biblical scholar Fr. Cornelius a’ Lapide, sj (d. 1637). The Catholic Encyclopedia, however, does not follow the Jesuit on this point, and argues instead that there were two men named Cleopas and that, while the other may have been the brother of St. Joseph, the history of Cleopas of Emmaus is almost entirely unknown.

How did Jesus vanish from the sight of his disciples?, On the Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

3^rd Sunday of Easter, Luke 24:13-25

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

In our commentary on the Gospel for the 2^nd Sunday of Easter, we considered two of the qualities of the resurrected body of Christ: Impassibility and subtlety. Now, we look to the final two qualities of the glorified body: Agility and clarity. Agility describes rapid movement, while clarity denotes a particular brightness in appearance (i.e. the resurrected body shines). Just as impassibility and subtlety were the means by which Christ entered into the locked room by walking through the walls and yet was able to be touched by St. Thomas, so too it is by virtue of agility and clarity that the Lord walked along with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus but then vanished from their sight.

If Jesus had a true, physical body after his Resurrection (and if it was a body at all, it must have been physical), how is it that he appeared in an unrecognizable form to Cleopas and his companion and then, immediately upon being recognized by them, disappeared all together from their sight?

The death of St. Monica and the filial love of St. Augustine

May 4^th, The death of St. Monica

At Ostia, the birthday [into heaven] of St. Monica, mother of blessed Augustine, to whose illustrious life he bore witness in the ninth book of his Confessions.

“And when we were at the Tiberine Ostia my mother died. Much I omit, having much to hasten. Receive my confessions and thanksgivings, O my God, for innumerable things concerning which I am silent. But I will not omit anything that my soul has brought forth as to that Your handmaid who brought me forth—in her flesh, that I might be born to this temporal light, and in her heart, that I might be born to life eternal. I will speak not of her gifts, but Yours in her; for she neither made herself nor educated herself. You created her, nor did her father nor her mother know what a being was to proceed from them.” (Confessions IX, 8)

As we consider, in the month of May, the most intimate communion which existed between the Mother of God and her only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, it will be well for us to recognize the grace of God at work in his saints. How else might we hope to gain insight into the love our Lord has for our Lady than to consider the love of a saintly son for his holy mother? To this end, we look to St. Augustine’s words in memory of his mother St. Monica (Confessions IX, 8-13).

Did Jesus appear first to his Mother after the Resurrection?

But he rising early the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalen. (Mark 9:16)

As we begin the month of our Lady, still early in the Easter season, it will be most profitable to consider whether the Blessed Virgin Mary was the first to be visited by the risen Lord. While it has never been a teaching of the Church that Jesus appeared first of all to his Mother – this fact has not been handed down to us either by Scripture or by Tradition, and hence is not an article of the faith – it has been held by a long-standing and well honored tradition, one which has been confirmed also by many private revelations.

We ask: Did Jesus appear first to his Mother after the Resurrection? And we presume that the answer to this question contains also the answer to another: Did Jesus ever appear to his Mother after the Resurrection? Indeed, if Christ did appear first of all to Mary, then the answer to our second question is in the affirmative. However, if the Lord did not appear to the Virgin Mary first of all, we might suppose that he never appeared to her – since, it would seem unfitting that she would receive her Son only after others. Certainly, a negative answer to the first question does not necessitate a negative answer to the second – it is possible that our Lord would have appeared to his Mother later. Still, if Jesus did not appear to his Mother first, then we might well question whether we should suppose that he appeared to her at all.

We enter now into a highly theoretical and speculative question. We do so with great humility and reverence for the mysteries we contemplate. The relationship between a mother and son is always a matter which an outsider must hand with extreme delicacy, and how much more is this the case when considering the Virgin Mother and her divine Son!

A charismatic moment with Blessed John Paul II

A father with his dear children

In 1979, his Holiness Pope John Paul II visited Madison Square Garden in New York City. Below is a video of a portion of that memorable day. Notice how the great John Paul does not hesitate to humble himself to reach those present – as a good father speaks in a sort-of baby talk to his children, the venerable Pontiff is moved by the Spirit to relate to his audience in a child-like manner, Unless you be converted, and become as little children (Matthew 18:3).