As we begin “Mary’s Month”. Let us Follow the example of our Blessed Mother by imitation and prayer, that we might serve her Son Jesus with fidelity and generosity.
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On Mary’s day in the May
The flowers and the children play
Happily in her warm light
All come to know their own birthright
Children brothers sisters all
In paradise as before the fall
Now glad again, rejoice and sing
the peace and hope her child did bring
And how she calls us in the spring
To make our own love offering.
Happy May Day!
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Friends, in our Gospel passage today (John 15:1–8), Jesus declares that he is the vine and we are the branches, adding that “anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither.”
It’s odd that we accept this sort of language very easily when it comes to our bodily health, while we balk at it when it comes to spiritual or supernatural health. Doctors and health specialists can say, with a clarity and matter-of-factness, that certain practices and behaviors are absolutely essential if one wants to maintain physical well-being. Unless you eat a balanced, nutritious diet, you will get sick and unfit. If you smoke, drink to excess, and never exercise, your body will become unhealthy, and if these practices (or negligences) become exaggerated, you will die. It just isn’t that complicated.
Jesus is not engaging in charming poetic imagery. He is laying out the spiritual facts. The spirit is a living thing, and it derives its life from the vine. If, therefore, you are separated from the vine, you will die spiritually; you will stop living a supernatural life. And it’s just not that complicated.
-Bishop Robert Barron
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For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The season of glad songs has come.
- Song of Songs 1: 11-12
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Happy May Day!
Month of Mary
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today! Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
Some great ways to celebrate and honor the Blessed Mother at home:
-Pray the rosary
-Set up a May altar in your home to prompt prayer and spiritual reflection
-Visit the Mother of Compassion statue in the prayer garden, and other places/churches etc. that honor her with a devotional shrine
-Read/reflect/share the scriptures about our Blessed Mother
-Attend or celebrate in your home a May Crowning
-Plant a Mary Garden
📷Sacred Heart May Crowning circa 1950
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Friends, we see in our Gospel reading (John 14:21–26) that the Holy Spirit’s principal sign is love. The night before he died, Jesus told his friends the deepest truths. He spoke of himself, his Father, and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. From all eternity, he is breathed back and forth between the Father and the Son, and hence he is nothing but love. When, therefore, he comes to dwell in you and me, he turns us to the path of love. “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father.”
God has created a dynamic universe, moving restlessly and relentlessly toward a goal, and this goal has been disclosed to us in Christ: the sharing in the love between the Father and the Son. Therefore, if we wish to know the creaturely realm in all of its complexity and multiplicity, in both its coming and going, we must immerse ourselves in the stream of the Spiritus Sanctus.
-Bishop Robert Barron
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The Ascension is a joyful icon painted in bright colors and is a Feast celebrated 40 days after Easter and 10 days before Pentecost. It is often linked with the Icon of the Pentecost , as like the Pentecost, it also represents the beginnings of the Church.
The composition of the icon is divided into two parts: the top as the ordered heavens and the bottom the earthly realm with the Apostles in disarray.
Christ is enthroned above within the mandorla (a circle or almond shape) which denotes holiness in iconography. He holds the scripture in one hand and blesses with the other. The icon reminds us that Christ is always with us in his teachings and blessings, regardless of our inability to “see” him.
In the lower area, Mary is the central figure, encompassed by two powerful angels and surrounded by the Apostles. She is the only person with the halo of a saint and maintains an ineffable serenity as she stands in prayer looking out at us. The Apostles are agitated and have not yet understood what is happening.
Mary and the Apostles are depicted in that moment when Christ ascends and disappears from sight. The Church now awaits in hope for the descent of Holy Spirit(Pentecost).
Mary, the Mother of God , is holding all in prayer and through her prayer is a dynamic link between earth and the heavens . She is the model of stability and grace for The Church.
Although the icon depicts the event described by Saint Luke, it is not meant to be a historical picture, but a representation of the Church. The icon includes St. Paul who would not have yet been part of the Apostles but is a crucial part of the Church’s beginnings.
Icons often will contain images from different time frames. It is a spiritual space for reflections on the scriptural mysteries being envisioned and how these dynamics continue within our own life of faith.
- Maidie Weisbarth
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Who’s filled with the Holy Spirit? These friends, these ones who Jesus loves !
Our community art piece turned out to be fantastic - come see it at the Mass of Inclusion May 18!
#OpenHeARTS #ExceptionalFamiliesMinistry #HeCallsUsFriends
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