MAY CROWNING
Music for our Holy Mother, Mary
Music for our Holy Mother, Mary
It has been a long-standing Catholic tradition to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary during the month of May. Our tradition at Holy Family has been to celebrate “May Crowning,” by presenting Mary with flowers and a crown made of blossoms or other hand-crafted materials to signify her queenship as the mother of Christ, the King. I'm sad we will not be together for this beautiful celebration.
I wanted to share with you some of my favorite Marian songs. Some are traditional Catholic prayers to our Mother, and others are songs written out of love for Holy Mary. This is by no means a complete list, and it certainly leaves out some important and well known Marian hymns. My hope is that you will perhaps discover some new music to listen to, and that you will pray with these song together as a family as you honor the Blessed Virgin Mary in your own homes this month.
The "Hail Mary Echo Song" uses a simple call and response form that is excellent for teaching young children to pray the Hail Mary. I am teaching this to our primary students this month in zoom classes and on my website. Click HERE for my lesson with this song.
"Hail Mary Gentle Woman" by Carey Landry is found in many Catholic Hymnals and is a favorite of ours at Holy Family. The 2nd verse is especially appropriate for Mother's Day: "Blessed are you among women, blessed in turn all women too. Blessed they with peaceful spirits. Blessed they with gentle hearts."
The Ave Maria is possibly one of the most well know and widely recorded Catholic songs. Most people are familiar with the Franz Schubert version , but here is a very young Jackie Evancho singing the Bach/Gounod version of the Ave Maria, which is sung in Latin.
Many contemporary Catholic songwriters have composed some beautiful songs that honor our Mother, Mary. Danielle Rose and Matt Maher wrote this arrangement of the Hail Holy Queen, which is typically prayed at the end of the Rosary. "Hail holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope....pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ."
"My Soul Rejoices," written and performed by my good friend Jackie (Francois) Angel, is a musical setting of the MAGNIFICAT (also known as the "Song of Mary.") The text is taken directly from the Gospel of Luke 1; they are the words spoken by Mary during the Visitation to her cousin, Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist.)
ALL MOMS... for Mother's Day you need to listen to this song! It is written by the lovely Sarah Hart, and it is such a perfect expression of what it means to be a mother. Our Holy Mother, Mary, understands better than anyone the joys and struggles of motherhood. Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful mothers of Holy Family!