austraLasia #1834

Clearing up some May liturgical matters

ROME: 30th April 2007 -- As possibly most readers know by this stage, austraLasia is not just a news service, it is a 'clearinghouse' and a range of supplementary 'offshoot' services that we are happy to offer when we can - you would be surprised at all the requests that come in.  One of the regular set of questions is to do with things liturgical - "When do we.....where do we find....", that sort of thing.
    May rivals January as a month for Salesian festivity - usually.  Less so in 2007 it seems.  So to pre-empt a number of questions that are bound to arrive, here is a run down on what is and what isn't this May, in Salesian liturgical terms.
    6th May: St Dominic Savio - the liturgical celebration is simply omitted this year.  It cannot compete with the 5th Sunday after Easter!
    13th May: St Mary Mazzarello - for the SDBs (and for the Volunteers of Don Bosco) this too is skipped liturgically, since it cannot compete with the 6th Sunday after Easter!  For the FMA's it is transferred to the 15th May, while the rest of us on that latter date recall Our Lady of Fatima.
    18th May: Memorial of St Leonard Murialdo
    24th May Solemnity of Mary Help of Christians
    (25th May FMAs regularly remember deceased Sisters)
    29th May: Blessed Joseph Kowalski, Polish martyr.  Note that this is not linked liturgically to the other younger group of oratorians from Poland, Francis Kesy and his companions.  This latter group is now celebrated separately on 12th June).
    For those celebrations above which are being celebrated liturgically this month, know that you can find a renewed, but not publicly authorised/promulgated set of liturgical texts in English on http://sdl.sdb.org and since it is in the reserved collection, you need to give it australasia as your username and nov0797 as your password.
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