A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
This photo from the archives was chosen in honor of many of the first of May commemorations described below! This date has been one of my favorites on the perpetual calendar since I was a small child in Michigan, where the statue of Mary and Jesus in the photo above (by Scottish sculptor Hew Lorimer) was crowned with a garland of flowers by one of the Kirk girls. Maya, providentially born on this day in 2005, was named in honor of Mary, to whom this month is devoted, as well as this month, named after Maia, the bringer of blossoms and growth. Her second name is Karolina, after Karol Wojtyla, who died two weeks before she was born. Her third name, Rosa, is a confirmation name she chose herself. Little Joseph, pictured above, also gets some attention on May 1st, as it is the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker (the Italian equivalent to Labor Day), and therefore his onomastico.
Liturgical: Optional Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker--established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to Christianize the concept of labor and give to all workmen a model and a protector.
"Over all these things put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one Body. And be thankful."
Devotion of the Month- The Blessed Virgin Mary
Sanctoral: Peregrine Laziosi (1260-1345), Italy. Originally a member of an anti-papal political party, St. Peregrine struck St. Philip Benizi, the leader of the Servites, when he was preaching in Forli. Experiencing a conversion, St. Peregrine joined the Servites and was later miraculously cured of leg cancer. Patron saint of cancer and AIDS patients.
Human: May Day! The 19th birthday of Maya Karolina Rosa Assaf, our only Roman-born baby! All about this beautiful month that inspired our first-born's name.
Natural:
Birth flowers of May- Lily-of-the-Valley and Hawthorn
Birth stone of May- Emerald
Full Moon of May- Full Flower Moon on the 23rd
"May Day" by Sara Teasdale
A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere.
Red small leaves of the maple
Are clenched like a hand,
Like girls at their first communion
The pear trees stand.
Oh I must pass nothing by
Without loving it much,
The raindrop try with my lips,
The grass with my touch;
For how can I be sure
I shall see again
The world on the first of May
Shining after the rain?
Comments