Latest Message from Fr. Paul Cao – May 5, 2024
MONTH OF MAY – May is a busy month with a lot of activities in our parish. Yesterday, May 4, we celebrated First Communion Masses with 77 First Communicants from our parish school and Religious Education program. I am very proud of our First Communicants. They were well-prepared and ready to receive Jesus for their first time. This was a very special moment for them, and let us pray for them that the Lord Jesus Christ always blesses and nourishes them as they grow in His grace and love. We pray that we always appreciate God’s love in our lives, especially in the Eucharist.
I would like to thank Ruthanne Swiatkowski, our Director of Lifelong Faith Formation, the second grade teachers Anna Deavila and Susan Petri, and the catechists Doti Geringer, Nick Kaspar, and Mary Joost for their hard work preparing the First Communion Mass and for helping us pass on the faith to the children.
I also would like to thank the parents of our First Communicants. Your role is very important as the first teachers of your children. Thank you for being good models of faith to your children. Please bring them to church to receive the Eucharist every Sunday.
May is the “month which the piety of the faithful has especially dedicated to Our Blessed Lady,” and it is the occasion for a “moving tribute of faith and love which Catholics in every part of the world [pay] to the Queen of Heaven. During this month Christians, both in church and in the privacy of the home, offer up to Mary from their hearts an especially fervent and loving homage of prayer and veneration. In this month, too, the benefits of God’s mercy come down to us from her throne in greater abundance” (Paul VI: Encyclical on the Month of May, no. 1).
In 1987, in its “Order of Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the precursor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “The month of May is dedicated to the Queen of Heaven, as are all flowers. Early this month, a statue of the Virgin at church is crowned with a wreath of flowers, and flowers are laid at her feet.”
Today, May 5 there is a May Crowning after the 9 AM Mass at St. Cyprian to dedicate our family and parish to our Blessed Mother and to honor her. There is also a May Crowning immediately following the 11 AM Mass at St. Celestine, with a traditional procession of her image through the streets of Elmwood Park, concluding with the crowning of the statue of Mary in front of the Creed Center. An ice cream social will follow in the annex and gymnasium. Please join us for this long–standing tradition. We will pray the rosary for peace in our country, Ukraine, and in the Middle East during the procession.
May our Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, intercede for us! Queen of Peace, Pray for us!
Fr. Paul Cao
Pastor of St. Mother Theodore Guerin Parish