Record Staff Report
May is the month of Mary, mothers and May crownings.COVID-19 has prevented most of our typical celebrations, but families can still honor the Blessed Mother with a May crowning.
Stephanie and Kenny Longshore and their children Maximus and Makenzie did so with a statue outside their parish, St. Stephen Martyr Church, recently.
“We wanted to have a procession to honor Mary, but knew things were looking a little different this year at church,” said Stephanie Longshore, who teaches at St. Stephen Martyr School.
The family kept it simple, using floral stems they had on hand — baby’s breath leftover from Stephanie’s bridal bouquet.
“We took those stems up to our Mary in the courtyard at church and my children formed them into a circle while I zipped-tied them together in a couple of spots,” she explained. “Once we had the crown completed, each of my kiddos took a turn crowning Mary while they were thanking her.
“After she was crowned, we circled around Mary and said a Hail Mary prayer together as a family,” she said.
The idea for the procession came from another St. Stephen Martyr teacher Carol Carter. She taught her students about May processions during one of the school’s online non-traditional instruction (NTI) days.
Dr. Karen Shadle, director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of Louisville, said the church has a traditional devotional rite called “Crowning an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” which can be celebrated by laypersons.
The rite “is a wonderful way to honor Mary even at home or outdoors,” she said. “The rite itself is very flexible and can be adapted to different circumstances. It includes Scripture, a prayer for the crowning, a litany and Marian hymns.”
A sample order of worship can be found here.
