The Statue of Our Lady of Lourdes has been repaired and sanded.  Now she needs to be painted and ready for her Crowning!  We were hoping for a May crowning, but time won't permit it.  We shall crown Her on the Feast of the Assumption or Her Queenship in August.

Her Coronation - Mary is Queen Because Her Son is King! Christ is King not only as God: Christ is King as God become Man!  Mary was crowned by her Divine Son to whom she gave a human nature; for whom she provided all the care and devotion of a loving mother on earth; She was crowned by her Divine Son with Whom she had stood under His Cross on Calvary and finally, by Whom she was taken Body and Soul into heavenly glory.  Our Lady was thus honored in Heaven on her Assumption because she conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ the King of the Universe. She is the Queen-Mother.

Progress continues...  a little at a time.  All for Jesus!

The canopy has to be perfect.  Pin, then sew.  

The Holy Cure D'ars (St. John Vianney) so loved the Corpus Christi Procession!   "He personally trained his altar servers. Corpus Christi was the climax of the liturgical year. On that day he went so far as to forsake his confessional for a few hours. He could be seen walking round the village, admiring and praising the decorations. He himself carried the Blessed Sacrament. No one was allowed to be a mere spectator: strangers were not suffered to line the processional route but everybody had to fall in, and walk in the procession. On his last Corpus Christi day—only forty days before his death—the mayor of the village, Comte des Garets, had secured, unknown to him, the services of a band. At the first crash of the brass and the drums the Saint trembled for sheer joy, and when all was over he could not find words with which to express his gratitude.

The Canopy will be the covering under which the Pastor will carry  the Most Holy Eucharist contained in  the Monstrance.  We hope this covering will last many years.

About the Feast:  On September 8, 1264, Pope Urban IV established the Feast of Corpus Christi as a universal feast of the Church, to be celebrated on the Thursday (some places in the world have moved the Fesat to the Sunday after Trinity Sunday) following Trinity Sunday.   Pope Urban IV asked St. Thomas Aquinas to compose the office for the feast.  This office is widely considered one of the most beautiful in the  Roman Breviary and it is the source of the famous Eucharistic hymns "Pange Lingua Gloriosi" and  "Tantum Ergo" .

Corpus Christi is such an awesome Feast day - a special day in honor of The Most Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
"This is a time when Catholics can show their love for Christ in the Real Presence by honoring Him in a very public way. It is also a wonderful way in which we can show our love for our neighbors by bringing Our Lord and Savior closer to them. So many conversions are a result of Eucharistic Adoration experienced from inside the Church." - 
       - Real Presence Website
     St. Juliana, a Belgian nun in Retinne, lived at the time of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Louis. She received this inspiration from Our Lord because Love for the Holy Eucharist had grown cold and He wanted the faithful to receive renewed strength and Love for Jesus; He wanted reparation offered for sacrilegious and irreverent behavior for this Most Holy Sacrament; and Our Lord desired the Church to know that the institution of this Feast was His Will.
   We are in the process of helping St. Brendan's Parish prepare for this wonderful public demonstration of Love, adoration and thanksgiving for this most precious Gift.  The parish needed a canopy so that Father could carry the Monstrance with a show of great dignity and reverence.  Off to the fabric store!  We found some beautiful gold material that would be perfect for the canopy.  The wheels are set in motion, the "tent-maker" received the commission and has begun the magnificent opus for Our Lord.  The vests were sewn by a very talented parishioner and will be finished with clasps by Sr. Ann Marie.  Our next step will be procuring the necessary helpers, banner carriers, altar servers and flower girls.  After that, we venture on to the wholesale florist shop where we pick up "day-old" flowers and pull the petals to be strewn before The Most Holy Sacrament.  
    How we love Corpus Christi!   Praise be Jesus Christ!

     It was so wonderful to participate in the Divine Mercy Service  at the Mission Church in Roxbury, MA.  The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as the Mission Church, was called "The Lourdes of America" by the New York Herald in the early 1900s because of the astounding number of verifiable miracles.  Entering the magnificent basilica, one immediately senses the presence of our Lady, the Mother of Mercy:
     St. Faustina wrote: Once, the confessor told me to pray for his intention, and I began a novena to the Mother of God. This novena consisted in the prayer "Hail, Holy Queen" recited nine times. Toward the end of the novena I saw the Mother of God with the Infant Jesus in her arms. ... I could not stop wondering at His beauty. ... I heard a few of the words that the Mother of God spoke. ... The words were: "I am not only the Queen of Heaven, but also the Mother of Mercy, and your Mother" (Diary of St. Faustina,330).
     On this awesome Feast Day of Divine Mercy, Jesus extends to the whole world His infinite Mercy and seeks souls who wish to receive this magnificent gift.  Jesus excludes NO soul who desires His Mercy - even if the soul has plummeted to the darkest depths of mortal sin.  He has only to call to His Most Sacred Heart for His help:

 ”There is no misery that could be a match for My mercy, neither will misery exhaust it, because as 
it is being granted-it increases. The soul that trusts in My mercy is most fortunate, because I  myself take care of it.” (1273)