aeternus

Oh Mary, we crown you with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.

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.

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.

Oh Mary, we crown you with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May.

We had a wonderful outdoor May Crowning and mass at the children’s school this morning. The sun was brilliant and the Holy Spirit was joyfully blowing through the tall trees. What a favorite day is May 1 when we celebrate our dear St. Joseph and honor his beautiful spouse, our Blessed Mother, throughout the whole moth!

Today, of course, I can not fail to mention how much trust dear Saint Teresa of Avila put in Saint Joseph. I have a many a friend too who places such trust in him. What a wonderful choice of a soul to call upon when you are in need.
Here is what Teresa says:

“I took for my patron and lord the glorious St. Joseph, and recommended myself earnestly to him. I saw clearly that both out of this my present trouble, and out of others of greater importance, relating to my honour and the loss of my soul, this my father and lord delivered me, and rendered me greater services than I knew how to ask for. I cannot call to mind that I have ever asked him at any time for anything which he has not granted; and I am filled with amazement when I consider the great favours which God hath given me through this blessed Saint; the dangers from which he hath delivered me, both of body and of soul. To other Saints, our Lord seems to have given grace to succour men in some special necessity; but to this glorious Saint, I know by experience, to help us in all: and our Lord would have us understand that as He was Himself subject to him upon earth—for St. Joseph having the title of father, and being His guardian, could command Him—so now in heaven He performs all his petitions. I have asked others to recommend themselves to St. Joseph, and they too know this by experience; and there are many who are now of late devout to him, having had experience of this truth.

Would that I could persuade all men to be devout to this glorious Saint; for I know by long experience what blessings he can obtain for us from God. I have never known any one who was really devout to him, and who honoured him by particular services, who did not visibly grow more and more in virtue; for he helps in a special way those souls who commend themselves to him. It is now some years since I have always on his feast asked him for something, and I always have it. If the petition be in any way amiss, he directs it aright for my greater good…

Those who give themselves to prayer should in a special manner have always a devotion to St. Joseph; for I know not how any man can think of the Queen of the angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Infant Jesus, without giving thanks to St. Joseph for the services he rendered them then. He who cannot find any one to teach him how to pray, let him take this glorious Saint for his master, and he will not wander out of the way.” [St. Teresa of Avila, the book of her Life Chapter VI]

– photo of Our Lady in the front grotto of school (a.k.a. “the bowel”)