This weekend we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Easter and also the arrival of the beautiful month of May! With our long, cold winters, and long, hot summers here in Kansas, how can we not appreciate these beautiful spring days? This spring has been a particularly colorful one here in Leavenworth; our crocuses, daffodils, tulips, and forsythia, native redbuds, pear trees, dogwoods, lilacs, spirea, and irises all proclaim God's glory in the world around us!

With the arrival of May and the assurance of frost-free nights, a lot of folks will begin their spring planting chores. Brother David's red "Confirmation geraniums" from last Sunday's Confirmation ceremony, will be finding a new home at the east entrance to St. Joseph's Kinzler Hall.

With all the beauty associated with the month of May, I guess it is no surprise that this month has been traditionally dedicated to our Blessed Mother. We have a long tradition in the Catholic Church in celebrating "Mary's month" with a special "May Crowning" service.

When I was a young boy in St. Joseph's Grade School in the late 1950s and early 60s, I remember coming to church on balmy Sunday afternoons in early May each year for the big parish May Crowning ceremony. Some sixty students participated in the "living rosary" around the church - each reciting a Hail Mary, Glory Be, or Our Father. I remember the embarrassment of classmates in forgetting the simplest of Catholic prayers, and the worry of hoping I would get through my own Hail Mary without incident! A particularly pretty eighth grade girl was always chosen to have the special honor of crowning the Mary statue. In addition to the recitation of the Rosary, beautiful Marian hymns were sung in honor of Our Lady. Those May Crownings of my youth are a beautiful memory of our parish life that has never quite left me!

This year's Parish May Crowning will be held this Sunday, May 2, at Sacred Heart Church in Kickapoo at 2:00p.m. We will be singing a few Marian hymns, reciting the Rosary, and of course, crowning the statue of Mary with a garland of flowers. Everyone is welcome to bring a bouquet of flowers from your own household to place before the statue of our Blessed Mother. As this Sunday is World Day of Prayer for Vocations, we will be praying for all Christian vocations during our celebration. I invite you to bring your family out to the country and join us in honoring our Blessed Mother. Treat your family to a beautiful devotion whose power can last a lifetime! I hope to see you there!

God bless you always!