In addition to the myriad feast days honoring Our Lady under her many titles and virtues, the entire month of May is especially given to her praise. In the words of Pope Paul VI, May is “a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God . . . For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God’s merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother’s throne.”
In hope of continuing the Marian traditions long observed by the Felician Sisters in Lodi, New Jersey, and with a desire to ask the Virgin Mary to intercede to God for His mercy during the pandemic, the annual May Coronation took place on Thursday, May 7, in Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel.
The sisters received the program for the Crowning in their rooms and watched it on closed circuit TV. Chaplain Father Sam Frapaul, OFM, Cap., officiated and gave his priestly blessing at the end of the ceremony. Since they were the first to emerge from the COVID-19 isolation Sr. Mary Angela Machowski was the crowner and Sr. Mary Agatha Cebula was the crown bearer. Sr. Maria Magdalena Vallellanes presided over the music ministry while Sr. Mary Juanita Arnister, local minister, led the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
