tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407624264627208128.post5564664294206366303..comments2024-01-26T21:38:25.924-08:00Comments on Duane's PoeTree: Sheila Jacob writesDuanesPoeTreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17053093400086634552noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3407624264627208128.post-33716600291561683722018-11-09T17:07:38.368-08:002018-11-09T17:07:38.368-08:00May is Mary's month. The Greeks dedicated May ...May is Mary's month. The Greeks dedicated May to Artemis, the goddess of fecundity, and the Romans linked the month to Flora, the goddess of bloom and blossoms. The connection evolved into associations with Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the 13th century the Castilian poet/king Affonso X el Sabio wrote the "Cantigas de Santa Maria" in which she was directly associated with several dates in May. In the 17th century special observances consecrating the entire month to her began to be held in Italia. Late in the 18th century Latomia vowed to devote the month to Mary to counteract infidelity and immorality among his students at the Roman College of the Society of Jesus, and the practice spread to other Jesuit colleges and then to Catholic churches. Between 1883-1889 pope Leo XIII issued 12 encyclicals and 5 apostolic letters on the rosary in which the practice was popularized. The Gospel of Luke (1:46-55) portrayed Mary reciting what became known as the Magnificat (Latin for "[My soul] magnifies [the Lord]"); in 1878, 8 months after Gerard Manley Hopkins was consecrated as a Jesuit priest, he composed “May Magnificat.”<br /><br />May is Mary’s month, and I <br />Muse at that and wonder why: <br /> Her feasts follow reason, <br /> Dated due to season— <br /><br />Candlemas, Lady Day; <br />But the Lady Month, May, <br /> Why fasten that upon her, <br /> With a feasting in her honour? <br /><br />Is it only its being brighter <br />Than the most are must delight her? <br /> Is it opportunest <br /> And flowers finds soonest?<br /><br />Ask of her, the mighty mother: <br />Her reply puts this other <br /> Question: What is Spring?— <br /> Growth in every thing— <br /><br />Flesh and fleece, fur and feather, <br />Grass and greenworld all together; <br /> Star-eyed strawberry-breasted <br /> Throstle above her nested <br /><br />Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin <br />Forms and warms the life within; <br /> And bird and blossom swell <br /> In sod or sheath or shell. <br /><br />All things rising, all things sizing <br />Mary sees, sympathising <br /> With that world of good, <br /> Nature’s motherhood. <br /><br />Their magnifying of each its kind <br />With delight calls to mind <br /> How she did in her stored <br /> Magnify the Lord. <br /><br />Well but there was more than this: <br />Spring’s universal bliss <br /> Much, had much to say <br /> To offering Mary May. <br /><br />When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple <br />Bloom lights the orchard-apple <br /> And thicket and thorp are merry <br /> With silver-surfèd cherry <br /><br />And azuring-over greybell makes <br />Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes <br /> And magic cuckoocall <br /> Caps, clears, and clinches all— <br /><br />This ecstasy all through mothering earth <br />Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth <br /> To remember and exultation <br /> In God who was her salvation.DuanesPoeTreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17053093400086634552noreply@blogger.com