1933

May is often called the Month of Mary.  It is a month traditionally dedicated to Mary, Mother of God, in the days after Easter and a month for finding springtime regeneration.

These themes have acted as inspirations throughout the Society’s history and often featured in its Medical Missionary magazines. In May 1933, for example, the magazine reprinted the article, ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’, including the words: "Always the association of Flowers with Our Lady - the lovely suggestion of eternal spring in Her Heart." 

A few years later in spring 1938, it was recorded:

"‘Tis the month of Our Mother!

During the Month of Our Lady, our Sisters gather every evening at one of Her shrines on the grounds and pay their tribute of love and devotion to Our Mother by singing Her praises. 

With the advent of real spring weather (as we know it in Washington), our novices and postulants have taken to the surrounding woods for picnics whenever the opportunity offers. Fortunately, from their point of view, we have had several Feast Days of late and so they packed their picnic lunch and went off to enjoy the cooling breezes amid heavily foliaged trees. Need we add that the professed Sisters immediately followed suit and enjoyed a few hours of rest and relaxation in God’s great out-of-doors."

Fast forward to the year 1964 when, throughout the year, the magazine ran a feature on ‘Old Testament Symbols of Our Lady’ combining these inspirations with poetry and artwork. 

‘Virgin, be stem, stalk, tree, until your Fruit takes root in me’ is expressed in the poem by Sister Miriam Therese Winter which can be viewed opposite.