Feast Day: May Crowning and Our Lady of Fatima

This year we chose May 13th, Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, as the date to crown our Marian statue. It turned into a very propitious day as we not only sent off all our closing documents for the house in Colorado -- which is good to go for May 18th (John Paul the Great's birthday!) -- but we also got approval for a contract on a house here in Virginia.

What a day!

String Bean made the crown ... with chenille stem roses that perfectly match the real roses in front of Our Lady statues. Note the St. Joseph statue to the right of Mary ... he has been our constant companion throughout all this house rigamarole and we've prayer through his intercessions and now have developed a very deep devotion to the foster father of Jesus.

The cloth is our Easter Cloth, one that I made in 2001 for our Easter table to help us remember, in four different languages, that "Indeed, He is Risen!" We keep it on our table throughout the 50 days of the Easter season, and have a white candle burning whenever we are gathered together at the table.

Here's the prayers we used for the coronation (we got these prayers from the University of Dayton's Marian pages):
Brief Instruction
We have come here to crown this statue of the Virgin Mother of God. As we begin this celebration, let us be attentive and listen to the word of God in faith. This ceremony has a lesson to teach us about the Gospel: that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who are foremost in serving and in love. Our Lord himself came to serve, not to be served; he drew all things to himself when he was lifted up from the earth, and he reigned from the tree by the power of gentleness and love. And our Lady, whose glory we proclaim today, was the humble servant of the Lord when she was on earth: she gave herself utterly to her Son and his work; with him, and under him, she was an instrument in our redemption. Now, in the glory of heaven, she is still the God-bearer to Christ's brothers and sisters: she cares about their eternal salvation; she is minister of holiness and queen of love.

Let us pray:
O God, since you have given us Mary, the Mother of your Son, to be our mother and our queen, grant that we, who have come here to crown her image, may attain the glory of your children in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

SING :
Bring flowers of the rarest, bring flowers of the fairest
From garden and woodland and hillside and vale;
Our full hearts are swelling, our glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest Rose of the vale.
Refrain:Oh Mary, we crown you with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.:
Our voices ascending, in harmony blending,
Oh, thus may our hearts turn, dear Mother, to you.
Oh, thus shall we prove you how truly we love you;
How dark without Mary life's journey would be. (Ref.)

Concluding Prayer:
Dad: Queen of our hearts, your destiny is meant to be our destiny. Teach us to love our God as you did, to love our neighbors as you did and, above all, to love our family as you loved yours. We consecrate ourselves and our loved ones to you with the ancient prayer:
All: My Queen, my Mother, I give myself entirely to you, and to show my devotion to you, I consecrate to you this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my entire self without reserve. As I am your own, my good Mother, guard me and defend me as your property and possession. Amen.

Crowning our Marian statue is such a wonderful annual event ... each year is different and yet the same. We mix tradition with something different every time and the kids love to help with the organizing, decorating and choice of songs.

Let me know when y'all do a May Crowning ... I'd love to see what others do.