Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

C'est le mois de Marie

by Norm Léveillée

C'est le mois de Marie - It is the month of Mary
C'est le mois le plus beau! - It is the most beautiful month!
À la Vierge chérie, - To the dear Virgin,
Disons un chant nouveau - Let us sing a new song

Ornons le sanctuaire - Let us decorate the sanctuary
De nos plus belles fleurs - With our most beautiful flowers
Offrons à notre Mère - Let us offer to our Mother
Et nos chants et nos coeurs - And our songs and our hearts

Fais que dans la patrie - Let it be known in our country
Nous chantions à jamais - We sing always
O Divine Marie - Oh Divine Mary
Ton chant et tes bienfaits - Your song and your kindness

As a youngster in Catholic school, I remember vividly that we sang this melody on May 1 in honor of Jesus' mother, our Blessed Virgin Mary. As Christians, we owe so much to Mary's "fiat", her yes to God, celebrated in our church liturgy on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation of Our Lord. Part of the celebration included our placing bouquets of flowers around the various statues of Our Lady - in church, in school, in front of the convent of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary.

For the past several years, I have subscribed to an excellent Missal - Prayer Booklet, called Magnificat, published by Magnificat on a monthly basis, with extra editions for Holy Week and Christmas. There are daily Morning, Evening and Night Prayers, as well as the Daily Mass Prayers.

For the month of March, there was a section "Angelus Meditations". As a youngster living in Harris Village, a French-Canadian-American mill village, within earshot of the Catholic church, Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil (Our Lady of Good Counsel), I would hear the church bell ring at 6h00AM, 12h00noon and 6h00PM. We were taught by the nuns to say the Angelus in honor of Mary at these times. The workers in the fields and in the mills, would stop their work and say the Angelus. The reason that I mention the "Angelus" is that there two paragraphs from this "Angelus Meditations", written by Father Ricahrd Veras, in the Magnificat. I would like to quote these as a premise for the main part of my article this month.

Mary said Yes. She allowed God to be God. She offered no resistance. She allowed God the freedom to do as he pleased as no one before her had ever done. All those before her (Ed. men) had kept something of them for themselves, afraid of losing something to God. But she allowed God to be God... and God became unimaginably, intimately, humanly close to her...

Everything good that has ever happened in the Church and through the Church goes back to Mary's Yes. (Ed. to a woman's Yes) Every beautiful piece of art and architecture, every act of charity and sacrifice in Jesus' name, every marriage sustained by Christ, every sacrament (Ed. even Ordination of priests) ever received, all the friendships, the hospitals, the universities, (Ed. the all male celibate hierarchy), all that is Christian traces itself back to this Yes. His Mother, our Mother, has shown us that all of reality is pregnant with his presence. There is no passing moment that is not pregnant with eternity.

Mary's Yes was not the Yes of duty. It was not saying Yes to a task, to a burden, to a role. Her Yes was the Yes of a woman being proposed to by the man that she loves, by the lover for which she longs... The promise, the hope of two thousand years was entrusted to the freedom of this young woman of Nazareth...

My question now is really addressed to the all male, celibate Catholic hierarchy. Why have you given women a secondary role in our Catholicism? Why did the Catholic hierarchy over the years continue the middle eastern culture of subjugated a woman to a lesser role? God did not choose a man to bring His Son into this world. He chose a woman and she unequivocally said Yes. Why has the Catholic hierarchy continued to say No to the woman? Her role has been as a helper, as a Sister of an order; some who wait on priests and bishops, and even the pope. But she can not bring Jesus to the people by celebrating the various sacraments, such as the Eucharist, as her model Mary did two thousand years ago. By her Yes, Mary brought Jesus Christ to our humanity. Why can't a woman do that in the present hierarchy?

There was an article in the Providence Visitor several months ago indicating the division between the Catholic Church and the Episcopalian Church was growing wider because the Episcopalian church had ordained women as priests and as bishops. It is true that the gap is widening, but from my point of view, it is not the Episcopalians who have caused this gap, but it is the all male, celibate Catholic hierarchy.

Have you ever wondered who cooked, who took care, who ministered to Jesus and His disciples? Who do you think prepared the meal for the Last Supper? Who met Jesus on His way to Calvary? Who cared so much for Jesus on His way to Calvary that they cried? Who wiped His face on that journey? Who did not abandon Jesus on Calvary? In whose arms was Jesus placed when taken down from the cross? To whom did Jesus first appeared at His Resuurection? I haven't read in any of the bible readings that it was a man. Have you?

Isn't it time that this hierarchy start to look at the equality of man and woman? Isn't it time that this hierarchy start to appreciate how Jesus came into this world? God and His Son gave this privilege to a woman, not to a man. Shouldn't this hierarchy do the same today?

I realize that my opinion is not shared by many; even women will not agree with my observation of our religious hierarchy. But, I hope that it contributes to a serious discussion of equality. Remember, it was a woman, Mary, who introduced Christ(ianity) into our world.

Take a look at this website www.melodiedelamer.com/c_est_le_mois_de_marie.htm for a person's recollection of the celebration of the Month of Mary. It is in French, however.

With your permission, I will reprint your reaction in an article to be published in the June issue of Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines. Please, let me hear from you.

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Created 1 Feb 2003