The Mystery of May
The wonderful month of May.
For many of us May is our favourite month. Not only does it always contain two bank holiday Mondays, these often feel like a reward for having survived a harsh or wet winter and spring, but it is also invariably shot through with flowering trees, plants and shrubs, the smells of early summer and even a hint of love.
Who can forget the first song in Schumann’s song cycle ‘Dichterliebe’ Im wunderschönen Monat Mai: “In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my suffering and longing”. The poet Heine is mocking the very possibility of love but Schumann with his music restores our faith in it.
For us as Christians this year the month of May contains the mystery of the greater Easter period: the Ascension (10 May) and finally the Sunday of Pentecost (20 May), the seamless transition between dying, rising, departing and receiving the gift of the spiritual breath of life.
May is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season-
Candlemas, Lady Day:
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honor?
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?
Growth in every thing-
All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathizing
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.
Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.
– Gerard Manley Hopkins
Bernhard Schunemann
6 May 2018
