On May 1, 2020, our community went out to the flower garden to honor Mary, whose month this is, with a ritual. A while back, Sr. Julian’s parents donated to us a statue of Mary which had been in their family for some time. Jerry Haupt, a friend of ours who volunteers here, refurbished it and set it up in our garden. Here’s a slideshow of what happened that day, with music titled “Rainbow” by composer Yakov Golman :

May is the Month of Mary in the Catholic tradition. When this statue, given to us by Sr. Julian’s parents, was returned to us after being refurbished by Jerry, our volunteer, we decided to celebrate Mary, Queen of Peace, by crowning her. The crown was made of red azaleas from our grounds.

The Benedictine Sisters of St. Placid Priory continue to stay at home–like so many others in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic–to help stop this virus by doing our part.

Since we can’t have visitors or Mass at this time, each day we sit in silent prayer for all peoples in our world, most of whom have been affected in one way or another by the Covid19 virus. We pray for all the medical and many other personnel who bravely keep doing their jobs so that people may be healed and may have enough food and other necessities. We pray for the many who are at risk of losing their housing and their work.

We ask for God’s mercy on the sick and dying, and we pray for an end to this pandemic. Amen.