CATHEDRAL LAUNCHES FLORES DE MARIA

Fredy D. Pascua

St. Peter’s Metropolitan Cathedral has launched Flores de

Maria. It is an age-old mayflower festival devoted to the

Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ, Mary, in the merriest and most

beautiful month of May. Traditionally, the custom includes

offering flowers before the image of the Blessed Mary, reciting

the Rosary, and holding a procession in Her honor.

This year 2015th, the members of the Legion of Mary, in

close coordination with the catechists and barangay pastoral

coordinators under the Cathedral parish, spearheaded the

activities associated with Flores de Maria that will culminate on

May 30 with the Santacruzan celebration. The legionaries

provide rosaries and lead the daily Rosary prayer in the

afternoon. Floral offering is held only on Wednesdays and

Saturdays in the whole month of May.

This Marian devotion in May has become an occasion to

involve more children from the Basic Ecclesial Communities

under the Cathedral to represent the glories of the Blessed

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Mary and inspire us—the Catholic faithful—to remember Her

virtues of charity, faith and hope.

Six to 12-year-old children have been cordially invited to

join the Flores de Maria activities in the entire month of May.

They register for the orientation seminar that begins at two

o’clock in the afternoon of May 2 at the Pastoral Center.

The Blessed Mother leads us to worship of God, to a

deepening of our discipleship of Her Son Jesus and to greater

love of the Church of which She is also a member. Thus, this

mayflower festival—Flores de Maria—is given pastoral care and

attention to protect it from becoming a merely “socio-cultural

event of the most beautiful and most wealthy” and to insure

that “God remains to be the focus of the event and the praise

of Mary leads us to Jesus her Son.”

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