It's hard to believe we've made it to May! The highlight of our week was our May Crowning mass. We also had our Tuesday Virtues assembly to lift up those students who personified the Virtue of the Month, which for April was
self-control. The virtue for the month of May is perseverance. I encourage you to speak with your children at home about what perseverance means to them. Beyond academics and our Catholic faith, virtues such as these are what we all hope our children will maintain as they move forward in life.
I would attempt to say something eloquent about the meaning of May, as Catholics, but since Father Gabriele offered his own words, who am I to reinvent the wheel? Please note what Father mentions about May 14th, when we will be privileged to have the statue of Our Lady of Fatima here, on the St. Therese campus! Make note of the other upcoming events. I urge you to look at the June 1st Fishing Event!
From Father Gabriele:
On May 1st, we had some big celebrations here at St. Therese: Most importantly, one of our 2nd Graders made her First Communion at the school Mass. In addition, we celebrated the feast of the St. Joseph the Worker. In Europe, where I have spent the last 28 years, May 1st is a national holiday - the equivalent of our Labor Day. In 1955, Pope Pius XII instituted this liturgical memorial to give the secular celebration a religious overtone since the dignity of work was being distorted by communism. God’s original plan with Adam after his creation was to “settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it.” (Gen. 2:15) Before Original Sin, work was intended to be a joy and a privilege – true stewards and lords of God’s creation. Now, not only is work the cause of “the sweat of [our] face” (Gen. 3:19) but all too often a place of ruthlessness, dishonesty and personal ruin.
If we return to Nazareth though, we return to God’s plan of paradise: Working with God and for God in the person of Jesus as St. Joseph did brings peace, happiness and fulfillment to our heart, our home and the world around us. St. Joseph wants to teach us who we are working for: for our families and for the Kingdom of God on this earth. When we return home tired in the evening, let us find Jesus and Mary waiting for us. That is the other element of the month of May – the month of Mary.
You might consider setting up a table or a corner of your home as a little Marian “altar”. This could be a place where you gather as a family to pray the Rosary, the Litany of Loreto or another favorite Marian prayer. We did a May Crowning here at St. Therese on Wednesday at the school Mass and will do another on May 14th when the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima is visiting us. Let us especially crown her in our hearts, then we give her the attention and devotion that St. Joseph did. And before St. Joseph, it was the Heavenly Father who thought about her from all eternity, endowing her with every grace and blessing to be the Mother of the Divine Son and our own Mother too! We will be praying the Rosary together as a school on May 10th at 12:45, May 14th at 2:00 pm and May 24 at 2:30. You are more than welcome to join us!
I wish you a blessed beginning to the month of Ma(r)y!
Fr. Gabriele M.
