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May is a beautiful month, one full of life as the Northern Hemisphere experiences the transition of Spring to Summer.
Flowers are everywhere and Catholics for many centuries have gathered flowers to crown Marian statues in traditional May Crowning ceremonies.
Spiritual flowers
As an alternative or addition to this practice, there is the custom of presenting to Mary a bouquet of spiritual flowers.
Alfonso Muzzarelli wrote a little book called The month of Mary, or The month of May, in which he comments on this devotion:
There cannot be any doubt that the practice most useful and the homage most acceptable to the Virgin in this month is the using of the spiritual flowers heretofore pointed out in a devout and faithful way.
Muzzarelli even suggests keeping track of these spiritual flowers:
A garland of flowers gathered by me NN a very great sinner, to be presented to the Virgin at the point of my death, commenced in the year on the first day of the month of May.
He also quotes an unknown author who wrote a little poem about this practice:
No day shall pass without its flower from me,
Thus wreathing chaplets gracious Maid for thee;
Well am I pleased mid thorns to pass my days,
When roses flowering from them have such grace.
Thou for this wreath (such hope thou hast inspired)
Wilt have thy child with deathless crown attired.
It is fitting to think of presenting to Mary a bouquet of flowers, as even the word, “Rosary,” has a similar idea behind it.
According to the Dictionary of English Etymology, from the Latin “Rosarium … signifying properly a collection or garland of roses, was a title of many works … consisting of compendiums of flowers as it were culled from preceding authors … In the course of time the name was specially appropriated to a string of Paternosters and Ave Marias to be recited in a certain order in honor of the fifteen mysteries of our Lord in which the Virgin was a partaker, and from the collection of prayers the name was transferred to the string of beads used for the purpose of keeping count in the recitation.”
Reciting the Rosary is one way to present to Mary a bouquet of flowers in the month of May, but it could also include any number of sacrifices or prayers made in her honor.
The key is to make this practice an act of love, whereby you show Mary the love you have for her and her Son, Jesus Christ.
It shouldn’t be seen as a contest or something that needs to be checked off. Instead, it needs to come from the heart, showing to Mary the depths of your Christian faith.
And today we celebrate...