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Weekly Bulletin May 9, 2021
by Terrie Evans
Our San Antonio Church community wishes the women of our parish a very Happy Mother’s Day on this 2nd Sunday of May. We honor all mothers on this “Festa della Mamma” to celebrate motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence mothers have in our society. In our Italian culture, parents and family are not only to be honored on their special days, but also throughout the year. The Italian mother is considered the center of the family and the glue that holds her family together. Before the traditional Mother’s Day the Romans celebrated from the end of April to the 1st week in May with lavish banquets. This celebration was called “Floralia” – to welcome springtime, flowers, warmer weather, and the rebirth of a new season.
The 1st actual Mother’s Day celebrated in Italy was in 1933 with the Giornata della madre e del fanciullo “The day of the Mother and Child” to publicly reward a notable Italian woman. In 1957, a Parish Priest, from the town of Assisi, the Rev. Otello Migliosi reinstated Mother’s Day at his church. It became so popular from that year on that the Italian Senate made the holiday official.
We also honor the Blessed Mother today with our traditional procession and May Crowning. In the Roman Catholic Church, Mother’s Day is strongly associated with showing reverence to the Virgin Mary. During our years attending Parochial School many of us recall the month of May being dedicated to Mary and the many May crowning’s we attended. We would gather flowers from our home gardens to honored Mary for the procession to the grotto on the school grounds where the statue of Mary was located. On this day we have another crowning at our church and we appreciate all the children who have participated in the May Crowning this morning and we thank Tina (Roberto ) Kroeger for working with them. The next time we honor the Blessed Mother will be on Sunday, August 15 with the “Feast of the Assumption of Mary”. This feast honors the death, assumption into Heaven and coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; making it the most important of all the Marian feasts.
As we anticipate the feast of our Patron, St. Anthony of Padua on Sunday, June 13th, please remember how important the Franciscans were to the survival of our humble church. We will be donating all monies that are pinned to the blue ribbon adorning the St. Anthony statue to the Franciscan Order along with the monies from the Saint Anthony Bread that will be blessed and distributed on that Sunday after our 9:00 AM Mass.