Flores de Mayo for Peace

Photo Source

This title is the Spanish for “Flowers of May”. According to Catholic tradition the month of May has always been known and celebrated as the month of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This practice extends back to the sixteenth century. Pope Pius VII approved it and granted indulgences to devotees. Later Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XII in several documents supported the May devotions throughout the Church.

Three Marian feasts occur in May. One is May 13 the day Mary appeared to the three children of Fatima in Portugal. The other is the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians on May 24. And the feast of the Visitation of Mary is celebrated on May 31.

The Flores de Mayo refers to the ritual in the parish church during which children pray and praise the Blessed Virgin Mary with floral offerings before her image. The children carrying bunch of multicolored flowers, the songs of praise and the fervent petitions for help constitute what has always been regarded as the beautiful and lovely gathering of children beautifying the parish church with flowers and joyful songs to Mama Mary.

Since Mary is Queen of Peace I would suggest to our parish priests together with their religious and lay collaborators to bring many children to participate in the Flores de Mayo for Peace. Aside from the rituals I suggest a brief explanation on why Mama Mary is Queen of Peace. Here are some brief notes.

1. Peace comes from order (Kalinaw gikan sa kahusay). Order can be moral, that is, no wrong-doing in the social, economic, political and cultural life of people. A moral order is virtuous. A moral disorder is sinful.
2. Mary has no moral disorder or sin. She was free from this at the moment of her conception. That’s why she is called the Immaculate Conception. And on this we pray to her as we say, “Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
3. It is imperative and urgent that we have Flores de Mayo for Peace all over Mindanao because there is a lot of disorder now in the region. We believe this is due to the disordered behavior of believers with disordered minds and hearts.
4. Our prayer should be a paraphrase of the prayer mentioned above: Oh Mary of the Christians who is Maryam to the Muslims, conceived without disorder in your body, soul and spirit, pray for us who appeal to you to bring peace to our land and to the hearts and minds of those in the highlands and lowlands of this region. Yes, Blessed Mother, pray to Jesus, God’s Son in the Holy Bible, who is Aisa, the spirit of God in the Holy Qur’an. Amen. Or something to that effect.