www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall May: Month of St Mary

don't know about other places but here in Lebanon the month of May is the Month of Mary Mother of God and during this month a lot of people organize Rosaries and special devotion for Our Mother and they do pilgrimage to place of apparitions of St Mary or just to place that has Her name like Harissa...

I find it really helful this month because it reminds us of her sweetness... I don't ask Mary's help myself pr do devotions for her but this is a resolution i took for this May

Do you have the same where you live?

Anyway it is just to share a bit of what we have here to you who are there

Oh and btw a lot of girls wear this month rope of withe and blue and there are a lot of decoration for Her everywhere...

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well i hope this is the right plce to post this. Thanks

Dear Lather,

I think that you will find that the dedication of the month of May to the Most-Holy Mother of God (like the dedication of the Month of October to the Holy Rosary) is not an organically Eastern custom. Where it has come to be so observed (as it is presumably in your Melkite community) it has been adopted from the Roman Catholics. I do not say this to disparage the custom, but to explain why most of your fellow Eastern Christians do not have the same custom. Anything which helps us to draw nearer to God , His Immaculate Mother, and the Saints is certainly good. But I think many Greek Catholics - encouraged by the Second Vatican Council and many recent Papal documents - are seeking to recover their organically Eastern liturgical and devotional life, which is incredibly rich, and which be identical to the Orthodox.

Fr David Straut

That is true what you are saying... It is here celebrated by the Marronites but still i find it nice... This idea of the moth of Mary did made me curious to know what we have in the eastern Chruch devotions for her.. just a context

There is a good article by Father Peter Galadza in Logos
in which - amongst other things - he explores the origins and development of May as "the month of Mary".

There is a lovely mini-Paraklis to the Risen Christ which would be highly appropriate during May in most years.

And there is the time of 1-15 August when we offer services to the Holy Theotokos; this is particularly popular in Greece. During Lent, the Akathistos to the Theotokos is especially popular in Greece and the Middle East.

Fr. Serge

And having agreed with this , you could have knocked me down with a feather this morning as Fr announced that after DL he would be serving a Moleben to the Mother of God since it was now May and traditionally her month !!

And indeed he did

In the 3.5 years I have now been in the UGCC Parish it's the first time he has done this !!

I suppose in the Greek tradition, we have most of Lent to remember the Panaghia (every Friday the salutations from the Akathist is chanting, culminating into the full Akathist on the final Friday), and, as Father Serge noted, the first half of the month of August in preparation for the greatest feast of the blessed Virgin Mary: the Dormition (or 'falling asleep') and Assumption of Our Lady on August 15.

Alice

P.S. To Our Lady's Slave: Any time is a good time for a Moleben to our Lady!!! So, although he is doing it because of the RC custom of May, be glad he is doing it!
My priest in New York serves them every Wed. (except for Lent) ALL during the year!
I don't really know any other parish that does, but it is a great, great blessing for those who attend, those who give their names to be lifted up in prayer, and for him. After all, who doesn't have needs and worries they need to bring to the Theotokos all year long?
I believe that, because he does this, his ministry has been protected and the number who are becoming increasingly devout in the parish have flourished.

That is awesome Alice.

The Catholic Schools here always have the crownings in May. Seems to me, on EWTN, during the Mass we noticed there is a little crown of flowers on her head.

Saturdays in Ordinary time are usually set to honor the blessed Virgin Mary...

But alas it is an optional memorial.

We started Molebens to the Mother of God this evening and will have it for each Wednesday in the month of May. I had a bit of a hard time singing it, both in English and Ukrainian (only a couple words of which I knew). Still it was a nice experience.

In my UGCC parish we had a Sister Servant lead a little group of children all carrying bunches of flower up the centre aisle after the Gospel, while a hymn sung to the Lourdes hymn tune was sung. The children placed their flowers in a semi circle in front of the Icon next to the Holy Doors and a little girl sang something in Ukrainian. Then the Liturgy resumed. The feast we were honouring was the fathers and mothers of the Church (Nicea). Next Sunday being Pentecost. I was not impressed with this interuption to the Liturgy with something that did not seem to belong even as part of the UGCC tradition.

Yes - agreed - but remember the name of the order

I just love it. There is a Mexican restaurant here called Hacienda- the spelling may not be right - but they have a life sized statue of Our Lady of Guadelupe. Today, we were there, they had a vase of red roses and a candle burning with her image on it.

I thank God that they are not afraid to share their faith in the Bible Belt. I wonder how many people pay attention to it, or think anything of it.

Please help out this slightly confused Lutheran who has never before encountered the term "Moleban". I've tried to find a definition on line without success.

A Moleben is sort of a very abbreviated Matins. I like to call it a "hint of Matins". There are introductory prayers, a psalm (often 142), maybe a litany, "God the Lord", a Gospel appropriate for the occasion, Psalm 50 and usually a poetic canon (itself abbreviated) that has a refrain that is very popular to sing: "Most holy Mother of God, pray for us" (or as appropriate), another litany with specific intentions, a closing prayer and a dismissal.

...a Russian Orthodox tradition of the "Moleben" is a supplication prayer service in honor of either our Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, or a particular saint or martyr, and only an ordained priest can celebrate a "Molieben"). In order to celebrate a Molieben service the particular saint must already be canonized.

source: Father Nektarios Serfes

Thank you, John and Alice. Our closest parallel would be an augementation of Suffrages (the briefest of all prayer services) in which Psalms and Lessons are added and a longer Litany is used.