Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
When I was a kid back in the grammar school days of St. Michael’s Parish in South Chicago, May represented an important month. Not only was it spring and closer to the anticipated summer break, but it was the month of Mary, Our Blessed Mother.
Every religious sister carried the name Mary: Sister “Mary” Alipia, Sister “Mary” Liguoria, Sister “Mary” Lucita or Sister “Mary” Calista. It was a sign of tribute to the Blessed Mother, and these religious women always acknowledged her special relationship to us all. So, it was no surprise that the month of May would be greeted with classroom devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The sisters created classroom liturgies, including processions that would rival the great processions in Notre-Dame de Paris. The statue of the BVM would be carried by a few boys and the girls, who were instructed ahead of time to wear their Sunday best, and would be selected as the individuals who would make up the court to accompany the young girl selected to crown the Blessed Virgin Mary. The statue was carried around the classroom a number of times while we would pray the rosary. The statue would then occupy a place of honor in the classroom, and the young girl who was chosen would crown the Blessed Virgin with fresh flowers. The other girls of the court, carrying long-stemmed flowers, would place them in a vase as we sang favorite Marian hymns.
One particular hymn was Our Lady of Fatima (“Our Lady of Fatima, we come on bended knee …”). As the strains of that hymn echo in my memory, I am reminded that this is the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima (1917), and the three children who were visionaries: Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco.
The sisters encouraged us to bring tributes to Our Lady, which was usually spring flowers from our gardens. In industrial areas like the steel mill section of South Chicago, green thumbs were few and far between, but my mother had a lady friend who we referred to as “Auntie Lizzie” (Elizabeth Jachim). She had a floral shop, and my sister Penny and I would bug her for some leftover flowers from her preparation for funerals to take to the Blessed Mother. I wondered if those souls in heaven ever said to her, “Hey, Blessed Mother, did you enjoy my flowers?”
The best tribute we can offer to Mary is, of course, the reciting of the rosary. If there is one prayer that we need to say, it’s the rosary. Mary informed the children of Fatima that if we desire peace, it will come through conversion, which is achieved only through prayer. As we encounter the world of terrorism and threats of war, may the month of May remind us to seek her intercession, and to crown her with our actions that seek to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Note: This blog originally appeared as the May 2, 2017 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.