The warm air of May evenings

This blog isn’t, by no means, “for Catholics only,” but since it’s May, the month which is both named for and dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, I thought that it would be appropriate to post this literary tribute …

The mood of springtime informs the church's interior; nature's blossoming, the warm air of May evenings, human gladness in a world that is renewing itself—all these things enter in. Veneration of Mary has its place in this very particular atmosphere, for she, the Virgin, shows us faith under its youthful aspect, as God's new beginning in a world that has grown old. In her we see the Christian life set forth as a youth- fulness of the heart, as beauty and a waiting readiness for what is to come.

—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which is Above