Today we celebrate Mother’s Day here in the USA. It’s also the month Catholics celebrate Mary, the mother of God, and today in churches throughout the land, the celebration starts with a May Crowning usually in a ceremony where she is surrounded by roses.
In Western culture the rose represents beauty, the season of spring, and love. As a seasonal flower, it also suggests a temporary death. In ancient Rome the feast of Rosalia celebrated the dead and began the tradition of placing flowers at grave sites; thus the rose also symbolizes the afterlife.
In Christianity, the rose is a symbol for Mary, Queen of heaven and earth. In the mythological Garden of Eden, roses grew without thorns, but became thorny after the fall from grace and came to symbolize Original Sin itself. The Blessed Virgin is often referred to as the “rose without thorns” since she was immaculately conceived. Saint Bernard compared her virginity to a white rose and her charity to a red rose.
We wish all mothers a happy Mother’s Day!
