May Crowning
The Crowning of Mary as Queen of
May probably started in the early 1700's in Italy.It varies a great deal but usually consists of adding activities to normal devotions such as singing hymns about Mary, reading scripture passages or devotional books about Mary, praying the Hail Mary, etc. May 31st devotionals usually end with crowning a statue or picture of Mary with May flowers.
Though devotion to Mary is frowned on by many Protestants, when I converted back to Catholicism (I had been baptized Catholic) I found great value in the guidance and
comfort we, as Christians, can receive from Mary as
our spiritual mother.
The rosary, more often focused on in October than May, is a deeply moving and a powerful
form of prayer that helps me connect to a spiritual mother, the most
helpful prayer partner that a person can have, who leads me to her son, Jesus.
Royalty is a term used to describe people who have sovereign rank and power, usually kings, queens and their descendents, but emperors and pharaohs and their like, probably the precursors to kings, could also be a sort of royalty. All royalty are connected to crowns
and a thrones. These bestow allegiance and authority on royalty. For kings and queens the most popular type of royalty, the
type of government formed would be called a Monarchy. Monarchies
developed in the time when religion and state were closely
connected, but are different from forms of government where religion and state are combined, as they are for Pharaohs and Holy Roman Emperors.
In stories, without the crown and the
throne, royalty is
certainly still larger than life, but is often depicted as just heroes or even villains. Without the crown we have Strider
instead of Aragorn, Prince John instead of King Richard,
Prince Hal instead of King Henry, and even Daenerys Targaryen's brother,
Viserys. Though it's not nice to speak unkindly of the dead, since he's
fictional I'll make an exception. He was a villain if ever there was one. I
am glad he never got his crown and throne, since he was one of
George R.R. Martin's early fatalities. (A character I was glad to
see go.)
Royalty is really just a promise of
allegiance and power. It is the crowning that bestows it.
Book Review – The Hero's Guide to
Saving your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy ISBN 976-0-06-211743-4
[To make my book reviews unique, I use
characters from the book series I'm writing, called The
SylFae Trees Saga, to discuss the book I'm reviewing. The
characters are taken from the first book in that series, Into The
Gloaming. I often have more exploration of my characters than
book review, but I think it's fun.]
Caitlynn is walking her dog, Cuchulain,
after school and Jake trots up. “Hey, Cat.” He hands her a thick
book.
“What's this?” She asks, taking the
book.
“To read in the yard. I want to hear
what the trees say about it.”
Caitlynn laughs, “Jake, I'm not
reading this whole book in the yard. Have you seen how big it is?”
“Just read the beginning in the
yard.”
Caitlynn rolls her eyes, “What's it
about? The cover art looks a little cartoony.” She flips it over to
read the back.
“It's supposed to look cartoony, it's
funny. You'll like it! Read it.” He gives her sad eyes, “Please.
I want to hear what...”
Caitlynn frowns at him, “I may not even dream about it you
know.”
“... you think of it.” Jake smiles at her.
“Oh." Caitlynn sighs and continues walking her dog, "Is it about princesses and fairy
tales? That doesn't seem like stuff you usually like.”
Jake grins and follows. “It's not! It's called The Hero's Guide to Saving the Kingdom, by Christopher Healy. It's a remake of the fairy tales
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Snow White, but it's told from
the perspective of the four princes." Caitlynn cocks her head, so Jake keeps describing it. "Especially Sleeping Beauty's prince,
well no, especially Cinderells'a prince, well, I'm not sure which one
is the main character. But they form a group, called the League of Princes because the bards robbed them of their fame and even their
names in the stories." Jake points to the princes as he mentions them. "It's got two sequels, The Hero's Guide to
Storming the Castle and The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw. The fairy tale
kingdoms are all side by side and it tells what happens after the
regular versions of the fairy tales. The princes get together to try to salvage their
reputations and it's hilarious. The princesses are in it too. But
they're more interesting than their Disney versions, especially
Sleeping Beauty. She's a …”
Caitlynn puts her hand up to stop him. “Spoilers! I want to read it! Don't
tell me too much.”
“Okay, I'll just say that the
personalities the author gives these characters from from the fairy
tales are great. And it's fun to see how they interact.”
Caitlynn smiles. “Sounds great. Are there any trees?”
Jake wobbles his head as if he can't decide how to answer. “Not really. Well, they're in the
woods a lot, and there are some woodland animals and
vegetarian monsters. Oh and there is a giant and a witch.”
“I don't the trees will have much
interest, but I'll read it in the yard and see.” Caitlynn tucks the book under her arm.
“Good. You'll like it. It's a fun
book.” Jake smiles. "And I want to hear all about what you thought of it too!"
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