Our Lady of Grace

Several of us from the Catholic Community of Plurk decided to blog an article in honor of Mary since May is dedicated to her. There are many different directions one can take in writing such an article. Here is mine...

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Somewhere in an old picture album is a photograph of a little girl of about five or six with long straight brown hair, all dressed in white. Her arms are filled with hydrangeas and she is marching with a group of other little girls... and boys too... as they process up the sidewalk beside the church in our annual May Procession.

When I was a little girl, our parish membership was several times larger than it is today. We had many families with young children and many activities for both young and old.

Today, my parish is a shadow of its former self. People, long ago, moved out to the suburbs and built new churches and thus, the membership of my inner city parish declined. Now, we have become a parish of older people with fewer young families with children to fill the pews.

I got to thinking about Mary and her place in the life of our parish community. What immediately came to mind was the annual May procession and the crowning of the statue of Our Lady of Grace, which once stood in the sanctuary to the left of the altar. This statue and several others are long gone; sold off during the 1970's when the church was renovated to accommodate the Vatican II changes.

My thoughts went back to that annual procession with boys dressed in their Sunday best and the girls in their white dresses. My arms were filled with blue hydrangeas from my parents' garden at home; other girls carried roses or whatever else was blooming in their family's gardens. I doubt if anyone had any formal bouquets.

As we climbed the steps to the church, mothers would herd us along to keep everyone moving as we fervently sang the Marian hymns that all of us knew from years past. One of the older girls would be selected to crown Our Lady of Grace, a high honor for the one chosen. The rest of us must have gathered around Our Lady of Grace there in the front of the church, watching the May Queen climb the ladder with the crown made of fresh flowers. I don't remember what we did with our own flowers... perhaps we left them at the foot of the statue and later someone placed them in water.

This is a pleasant memory for me because the tradition of a May procession has been lost in our parish. However, the neighborhood is in the beginnings of a resurgence. The beautiful old Victorian homes are being renovated and affordable housing is also on the drawing board, so there is hope for my parish too. In the years to come, young families with children may once again grace the church... Perhaps, these families will bring along their own May traditions. Who knows, a May procession may one day wind its way up the sidewalk again. And inside, Our Lady of Grace may await her earthly crown once more.