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A May Month full of Feast Days and Celebrations

 

Pentecost
by Jean II Restout (1692-1768)
Source: Wikicommons

The Gonzaga Family Worshipping the Holy Trinity
by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Wikicommons
The Ascension
by Benjamin West (1738-1820)
Source: Wikicommons

The month of May immediately brings back fond early memories of schoolyard banner-spectacled parades for our Blessed Mother lead by the nuns singing, ‘Hail Queen of Heaven’. This year, drawing back the curtain, we can see that May is truly the month of Mary and yet we also have other significant feast days and celebrations making May a wonderful month for reflection, prayer and inspiration. In particular we have the Ascension of the Lord, Pentecost Sunday, The Most Holy Trinity, and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us also remember St. Joseph the Worker,(May 1st) in this ‘Year of St. Joseph.

In the Church, celebrations apart from Sundays consist of Solemnities, Feasts and Memorials, with a Solemnity being the highest in rank (The Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Assumption of Mary, the Birth of John the Baptist, and some others) and are sometimes a Holy Day of Obligation, such as Christmas and the Solemnity of the Mother of God (Jan. 1). A Feast, second in importance, marks a mystery or title of the Lord or Our Lady and includes patron saints or saints of historical impact. Memorials, third in importance, may or may not necessitate following a predetermined liturgy.

Some celebrations may be moved to the following Sunday, such as the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (May 16th). The ‘Ascension’ is the departure of Christ into Heaven. It is celebrated forty days after His Resurrection and falls on a Thursday, though in Japan it is moved to the following Sunday.

The Solemnity of Pentecost, ‘the birthday of the Church’, (May 23rd, 2021)occurs fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus and ten days after his ascension into heaven. Pentecost also heralds the end of the Easter season and the birth of the Church. It is here that the Holy Spirit descended in tongues of fire onto the Apostles and Our Blessed Mother, bestowing on them the spiritual and temporal gifts needed to grow the Church and evangelize the world.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (May 30th, 2021) falls on the Sunday after Pentecost. It lauds the central mystery of our Faith, namely, the three persons in one God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (May 31st, 2021) celebrates her visit, though pregnant with Jesus, to her relative Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist.

These special Solemnities and Feasts of the Church provide wonderfully rich opportunities for special prayers, meditation and joy. Combined with the many other Feast days and Memorials of May, this month can be the month for renewed hope, inspiration and re-energizing our spiritual journey, whatever our trials, temptations, and weaknesses may be, and they can certainly be a source of comfort in the face of this virus pandemic.
 

 

 

by Neil Day

 

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