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by Brian Wehrle
May is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season –
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, The May Magnificat
The month of May has traditionally been a time of popular piety and devotion honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary, the “Queen of May”. This custom is believed to have arisen in the 13th century; Alfonso X of Castile acknowledges the tradition of honouring Mary in May, in Ben vennas, Mayo, one of his Cantigas de Santa Maria:
Welcome, May, with Joy;
Please pray to Saint Mary
To pray to her son
That he keep us from the error of folly.
Welcome, May, and with joy.
...
Read more: May Festival of Our Lady 2019By Rev. Canon Stewart Murray, Incumbent at St. Barnabas, Ottawa
(published in the February 2019 issue of Crosstalk)
The period between the end of Christmas celebrations and the beginning of the holy season of Lent goes by a variety of names in the Church. In the Anglican tradition, the current practice is to number the Sundays only as Epiphany II, III etc. Gone are the days that saw a countdown to Lent/Easter with the wonderful Sundays entitled Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. At seminary one professor called this the “Lenten creep”, when Lenten purple and other Lenten customs crept into the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday, effectively expanding the Lent/Easter cycle from 40 to 70 days. Although by default I am suspicious of any liturgical changes, the...
Read more: Courage to ShareBy Rev. Canon Stewart Murray, Incumbent at St. Barnabas, Ottawa
In the midst of a busy morning, sitting in traffic, I was behind a car with a wonderful collection of bumper stickers. They ranged from one proudly proclaiming “this car climbed Mt. Washington” to a collection of stickers on the back window showing a family of Star Wars fans with a mom, a dad, two children and even the dog depicted as stormtroopers! But one sticker, rather faded and torn read “Wise men still seek Him.”
This refers, of course, to the story of the coming of the Wise Men to Jesus that we celebrate on Epiphany. This simple one line sticker speaks about the very human search for meaning and purpose and a longing to make sense of the crazy and wonderful world that we live in.
The Gospel of...
Read more: The Wise Still Seek HimLatest newsletter
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