May is for Mary

Lady Month, or the month of May is especially marked by catholics with devotion to the God-Bearer (Theotokos).  May 31st, after all, is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth whereby Luke recalls that famous ave and the glorious Magnificat (Luke 1:39-57).  Later this month in Walsingham, the National Pilgrimage will be held.  May is the month of Mary.

There is an old catholic tradition of building and maintaining a "May altar" dedicated to Our Lady throughout the month of May.  The photographs of these May Altars come from the home of my brother, Fr. Robert-James, OPC.  The following excerpt comes from the webpages of The Marian Library/The International Marian Research Institute in Dayton, OH.

To the specific characteristics of the May devotion is to be counted the specially set up May altar - be it as an addition to or specially decorated altar in the church or as a "house altar" in the family circle. Like the May devotions themselves, the custom to highlight this type of May altar stems from southern European countries. A report from France in 1842 speaks of Our Lady's altar in May showing off in rich splendor, while the families also erected and decorated small home altars. 

All of nature awakened to new life in springtime is presented to honor Mary, who is herself "a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys" (Song of Songs 2,1). This form of devotion was influence and furthered, for example, in Treatise on True Devotion to Mary by Louis de Montfort, who, among other things, counted the decoration of Marian altars a chief exercise of Marian devotion.

The development of "home altars" seems to have naturally grown from churches specially dedicating altars within the worship space to Our Lady.  The above citation continues:

When erecting a May altar in a church, one distinguishes between the special decoration of an existing Marian altar, the erection of an altar set up specifically to serve this May devotion, or the transformation of the main altar into a May altar. The Handbook of Church Rituals (Regensburg 1846) notes under May altar that these devotions be held at an altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and decorated "to the full." If there isn't any [altar dedicated to Mary], another  altar is to be set up and furnished with a picture or a statue of Mary.  In Strasbourg, in 1855 for the first time, a special "Mother of God altar" was set up before the chancel.

With the development of May altars in churches, the custom spread to set up this type of "altar" also  in the home. The authors of both private publications and of official publications refer to this practice, encourage them, or assume that there are such.  While some devotional books encourage the user to decorate an image of Mary found there and to pray there--a custom "that belongs anyway in every good Catholic home"--others depict the "prayer room" as "a shrine dedicated to Mary." 

A side altar of this type was drawn into the celebration in that the blessing frequently was given from this altar. By carrying the Blessed Sacrament from the main altar, the precedence of the main altar was clearly visible. 

Pick some flowers, find an icon or statue, and light a candle.  Place Mary as the "spiritual fireplace" of your home this month.  Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us all!   

New Year's Blessings To You

At Last, We Are Official

On the Feast of Saint Andrew, members gathered in the Chapel of the Apostles (Sewanee) to officially establish the Sewanee Society of Our Lady of Walsingham.  What joy there was among those gathered to be able to bring together interests in Anglo-Catholicism and seeking to enrich their prayer lives with Our Lady.  At the founding, we have many non-residential members from as far away as Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.  Members may elect to wear a Sarum Blue scapular over a black cassock to signify membership--though this is completely optional.

The Charter was approved unanimously with the only question regarding whether or not we should incorporate a yearly membership fee as opposed to what is currently stated as a one time $15 fee.

The rules of the Charter were suspended in order to elect officers to serve up until the week prior to Spring Break, and then the newly elected officers will serve a full year term as stated in the Charter.  The election results were: Karen Workman-Booth T'11, Clerk;  Charles Canon T'11, Prior; and Chad Krouse T'10, Superior General.  We had some fun in choosing the titles!  Some dull seminary humour.

We are female, male, black, white, religious, ordained, and lay.  We embrace a broad theology of inclusion, seeking to undo the baggage that has been heaped upon Walsingham by various factions in the Church.  We proudly claim an Anglo-Catholic heritage while also proudly claiming The Episcopal Church.  Our answer is "yes," that it is possible to embrace both and help work to heal a broken world.

Our Lady of Walsingham, I believe, is a source of unity for the Body of Christ. She is the only vision that is highly regarded amongst Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans alike.  If we allow ourselves to break free from the chains that have so wrongly tied down this noble vision, we may find that Our Lady's grace and intercession will help us all.  Thanks be to God!

P.S.  The chains in the new seal for the Society reflect those from the seal of The University of the South, a simple way in heraldry to illustrate our connection to the University's School of Theology.

Founding the Sewanee Society of OLW

This coming Monday, November 30th (the Feast of St. Andrew), we will be founding the Sewanee Society of Our Lady of Walsingham here at The School of Theology.  We are proposing an inclusive devotional group which aims to promote and sustain conversations in our community about the proper role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Church.

We have no formal connection to the Shrine in Walsingham, because we are including women priests and seminarians in our membership and leadership. My own personal goal for this, is to help undo the baggage that has been heaped upon Walsingham by various factions in the Church.

I am amazed at the response from our student body and our alumni, many are very interested in this endeavor and want to be apart of it!  Thanks be to God!  While the idea had been generated last school year, it simply took some time before the seeds could sprout roots.  Hopefully, this new group will be here to stay as a positive symbol of Our Lady in the life of faith for The Episcopal Church.

Sewanee OLW Society Update

The OLW icon is sitting in Fr. Walter's office! We're waiting on the conversations to commence and I suspect that we'll see Our Lady adorning the walls of COTA's Lady Chapel soon.

In the meantime, I'm still looking for some help in putting together a liturgy for the founding of the Sewanee Society of OLW. Please email me at chad.m.krouse@gmail.com to let me know if you'd be interested in helping.

Stay tuned!

Sewanee Society of Our Lady of Walsingham

Our Lady of Walsingham is coming to a seminary near you!  What is a "cell" of OLW?  Well, I'm glad you've asked.  A cell is the Shrine's word for a society or group.  We're forming the Sewanee Society of OLW to focus devotion to OLW as well as awareness.  Our first priest associate is going to be The Rev. Walter B. A. Brownridge, Associate Dean of Community Life for the seminary.  We have several other ordained clergy who are interested and we'll get them signed up as priest associates of the "Holy House" so that Father Walter isn't alone.

Some ideas that are being kicked around include having a monthly High Mass commencing next term that would be on a Sunday evening in Chapel of the Apostles (COTA).  This we would do up right:  subdeacon, deacon, incense, the whole deal!  We're also hoping to have the new icon of OLW blessed and installed in the Lady Chapel inside of COTA directly above the votive candles as site of pilgrimage for prayer and intercession to Our Lady.  The icon will be a permanent gift to the Seminary in thanksgiving for the School of Theology.

In addition to a monthly mass, we're thinking of having a reception or dinner following which could highlight guest clergy and speakers.  We could also put together a booklet of devotions specific for Sewanee and OLW at Sewanee.  So really, the sky is the limit.  We plan to open this up to everyone:  undergraduate students, faculty, alumni, spouses, community members, everyone!

So stay tuned.  If you're on FaceBook, we've created a group, "Sewanee Society of Our Lady of Walsingham" to publish news and events there.  Join and invite a friend or two!