‘May is Mary’s Month’

This year the coming of the month of May holds a particular significance for our parish as we commemorate the centenary of the laying of the foundation stone. The Choir at our eleven Sunday Mass will remind us of the beautiful hymn to Mary which has beguiled us from those earlier recordings of Canon Sydney McEwan.

What a backdrop we had a century ago with our new church begun in a part of Dublin bursting with the hope of a new beginning and a better future.

That year the May flowers must have taken on a special radiance in that month dedicated to Mary. Its verdant colours, its beauty in the greens, the colour of the lilies, the bluebells, the mayflower, the lily of the valley, all colours which remind us of the purity of Our Lady. We remember also that at that time the countryside was only a short step away with farmland and meadowland within the parish boundaries.

May has been Mary’s month since mediaeval times figuring in so much poetry and song. May was also a month when Summer blossomed and for many it was a time of revels, dancing round the maypole, reminding us of earlier pagan times, and the revels of Bealtaine, honouring Baal the pagan god. Today there is much harking back to pre-Christian times about these traditions of this month.

For many of us the rosary during May and Church ceremonies were also part of this tradition some ceremonies and older traditions now, but a memory lost to only the few. Who now remembers the May altar in houses, jam jars filled with bluebells, lilac and early cottage roses. The Maybush was also a feature of those days when people would decorate a shrub or bush outside their house, probably harking back to earlier times as a symbol of a welcome for May and the Virgin with the growth of the Christian message.

In this busy world it is hard to remind ourselves of May as the month of Mary, but this year it has a special resonance, as we commemorate this centenary and look forward to celebrating the Consecration of the Church in 2028. Thank God we still hear the beautiful song so linked to Mary and this beautiful month, still played on RTE Radio, and sung by our choir here in Marino, each Sunday in May.

Do join our choir by clicking on the link below to hear that beautiful hymn, dedicated to our Lady, The Queen of the May, as we echo the poets’ words,

‘Their voices sound to show their pride

In Mary, Queen of all that’s fair

In May’.