Rejoice, O Virgin Mary!

Rejoice, O Virgin Mary!  Rejoice a thousand times!

Those are words from St. Louis de Montfort's Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  So often we see images of the Blessed Mother with tears in her eyes and a sorrowful expression on her face as she mourns and grieves over the sinfulness of her children.  But on Sunday, May 13th, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima and Mother's Day, I believe that the Blessed Mother had just cause to wipe away her tears and rejoice, for on this day she was offered the loving prayers of over 250 of her children in the Milwaukee area who gathered together for a traditional May Crowning and outdoor Eucharistic Rosary Procession sponsored by Roses for Our Lady.

We began our day in expectant joy while the statue of the Blessed Mother at the Marian Shrine was crowned by a member of Roses for Our Lady, and our statue of Our Lady of Fatima on our  vara was crowned by a First Communicant.

Following the crowning, those who were able processed throughout the shrine neighborhood with our Eucharistic Lord while praying the rosary.  Our procession covered a ten block radius and for the first time in many, many years, we processed in the streets rather than on the sidewalk.  Use of the streets required a door to door campaign in the shrine neighborhood late last winter to gather signatures of the majority of the neighbors.  With three visits to the neighborhood I received enough signatures to qualify for a permit from the City of Milwaukee police department which allowed our group to really take our Lord to the streets and publicly share our faith.  Fr. Matthew Widder had the honor of carrying our Lord in procession for the second year in a row.

Following the procession we were treated to a beautiful homily by Bishop Hying and then Fr. Jim Kubicki led us in consecrating ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Fr. Christopher Klusman completed the day with benediction.

The Lord blessed us with gorgeous weather and we all rejoiced with the Blessed Mother on a day set aside to honor not only our mothers here on earth, but above all, our Blessed Mother and Queen of Heaven, the Virgin Mary.

Rejoice, O Virgin Mary!  Rejoice a thousand times!