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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Michael Kelly

Good morning!

I always loved the month of May as a child. Growing up in rural Northern Ireland, the inclement spring weather was finally giving way and hints of the coming summer were all around.

The gardens were in full bloom, and many wildflowers were appearing in the meadows. The village was pristine after the ‘spring clean’ and luscious hanging baskets adorned almost every house.

In the Christian tradition, May is also the month of Mary – the Mother of God. ‘May altars’ are not as common now as when I was a child, but I would remember as we gathered around ours to pray and sing:

Bring flow'rs of the fairest,
Bring flow'rs of the rarest,
From garden and woodland
And hillside and vale;
Our full hearts are swelling,
Our Glad voices telling
The praise of the loveliest
Rose of the vale.

May has also been described as that month of the year when everything seems possible. And, of course, it was also the month of my birthday and brought the promise of summer holidays ever closer.

Of course, as I grew, May also brought dreaded school and – eventually – university exams. If you’re like me, you’ll still have the occasional panicky dream about sitting in the examinations hall with the smell of freshly-cut grass wafting through the window and knowing absolutely nothing about the subject matter in hand.

It's a long time since I’ve sat in an examinations hall, and as I’ve grown older I’ve tried to take more time to smell the flowers.

So, today I pray for the time to be still and to appreciate the beauty of the world around us.

Amen.

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