PRESENTATION

Francisco Palau always shunned the routine and the conventional. All his apostolic undertakings were countersigned by novelty in order to break away from stereotyped moulds. As soon as he became aware of the inefficacy of methods and uses, he looked for change or renewal. His initiative along this line started with the “School of Virtue” and continued until the end of his life. His first contacts with the religious environment of Ibiza allowed him to confirm the attachment to preaching in the traditional way and to stagnant pious practices in existence. They were not according to his taste. He was not disposed to support deeply-rooted customs devoid of real efficacy. His first step in the island, behind his forced confinement in it, was to put up a chapel to Mary in Es Cubells. He succeeded in transferring there the image of Our Lady of Virtues that presided over the “School of Virtue” in Barcelona. It was the start of a renewal of the Marian piety in Ibiza. From there, he would project and propagate it to the other islands of the Baleares Archipelago. The celebration of the “Month of May” was the most peculiar expressions of the Marian devotion. During the years of his stay in the island, he had the occasion to verify that it was practiced more as a “pious exercise,” without serious effect on the life of the people. Therefore, it needed renewal, a new sap, so that it would give it practical vitality. In Es Cubells, in Santa Eulalia, in other churches of Ibiza and also in Majorca, he tried varied formulae up to the point of finding a method that would seem more adequate in making the “Month of Mary” somewhat truly useful to the Christian life. When its efficacy and the excellent support of the good islanders were proven, he decided to formulate it in writing in order to facilitate its practice and dissemination among the devotees of Mary. Thus, the prayer book entitled, “Month of Mary,” or “Flowers of the Month of May” was born. It was a prayer book distinct enough from the others in circulation. It aimed at helping glorify Mary, but at the same time, it intended to teach people to imitate her virtues, the best way to honour her. Guided by his practical sense and his habitual pedagogy, he resorted once again to the force of the evocative. Engravings corresponding to the days of the month would accompany the text of the prayer book. Letter and laminae formed an entire harmonious unity. The central idea was linked to that of the “School of Virtue.” Mary is for all Christians a paragon and model of virtues, and “in the garden of the Church,” Fr. Palau wrote in 1852, “the virtues symbolized in the plants are almost infinite in their species and number.” Starting from this affirmation, he tried to choose plants or flowers that would symbolize better the virtues of Mary. The Palautian prayer book was woven on this embroidery canvas. Each day of the month of May its lamina featured a virtue. The text describes briefly the flower. It explains the virtue symbolized in it and clarifies how Mary had lived it. The offering of that flower-virtue to her demands a serious commitment of imitation. Although the prayer book of the Month of Mary could serve for particular or private use, the author intended it for communitarian celebration in scenic form. He himself indicated in the introduction the guidelines to be followed. The daily celebration, according to his indications, would be developed thus: after the entrance prayer or preparation, the “eulogy of the flower” of the day follows, then the “eulogy of the symbolized virtue.” The celebration continues with a reflection on that same flower-virtue in Mary. The act is closed by an offering or presentation of the flower to Mary. The celebration is concluded by “the crown of twelve stars,” the litany and Marian songs. It is enough to open this small book through any of its pages in order to notice this simple structure that is accommodated to the popular piety and the mentality of the people to whom this prayer book is addressed. It was ready for printing by the middle of 1861. The ecclesiastical censure of Majorca raised its objection to it, and he had to suspend the publication of the book that he had already practically composed and illustrated with lithography. He was not discouraged by the setback. He was convinced of the goodness and the validity of his work, and so he decided to go ahead. He took advantage of the delay imposed by the censure to produce a new series of laminae to replace the old ones and to make light finishing touches in the text. Thus improved, the book appeared in Barcelona in 1862, “with the permission of the Ordinary.” In order to facilitate the acquisition by all classes of persons, even the most economically in need, he made a print out of several copies without the laminae or designs. Those who were interested could also have them together, but separated from the text. They could even serve as substitute for another. The author himself designed much later another complete series of lithography that circulated in this way without the accompaniment of the text. Copies of all these phases are known and preserved by the ones who passed on the prayer

book while the author was still alive. In this volume the new edition was reproduced according to the one that appeared in the series of “Palautian Texts” (no. 7) in 1981.

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INTRODUCTION

1. The month of May is the month of flowers and the month of Mary. The holy and laudable practice of consecrating it entirely to her cult had already prevailed throughout the Catholic sphere. The veneration consists in offering to Mary the flowers of this beautiful season in representation of her virtues. The good order of these pious practices claims these two things:

1st. Enter in our gardens, gather flowers and aromatic herbs, limit the number that grow in this season to 30 distinct species, forming out of them several other bouquets: offer them, one for each day, on the altar to the one we proclaim as queen, teacher, model of all virtues, and the 30 different bouquets will form a great crown on the 31st day.

2nd. The flowers symbolize our virtues. To present flowers to Mary is to commit ourselves to practice the virtues the flowers represent. Let us, then, enter into ourselves: our soul is a garden. Let us limit to number 30 all the different species of virtues that moral theology names. And since the 30 bouquets of flowers represent them, one for each day, we would have on the 31st day a complete work, crowning our queen with the garland of all our virtues. The nature of these holy practices requires that they be divided into four points as follows:

1st. The flower of the day.

2nd. The virtue it symbolizes.

3rd. The virtue practiced by Mary.

4th. The flower of the day in the hands of Mary or the presentation of this flower.

2. In the application of the flowers to the virtues we have observed these rules:

1st We take the flowers and the aromatic herbs proper of this beautiful season, for the others are not of the month of May.

2nd The flowers that are rare and difficult to cultivate will be placed in the pot of heroism and we would present only the virtues that are within easy reach of everybody and of the multitude: the heroic is an exceptional case.

3rd. The proper qualities of our flowers are: beauty in its form, variety in its colours, fragrance, abundance and facility in its cultivation.

4th. We would proclaim as queen of the flowers the one that possesses these qualities with more perfection.

5th. When the nature of the true virtue is known and all the species that are divided and subdivided

according to the principles of sound philosophy and of moral theology, and seeing the properties of the flowers of the month of May, comparing flower with virtue, quality with quality, we have made the

application. If there is something to be improved in this, which are so many, it will become perfect in time.

3. Let us put together these 32 laminae; we will see in them Mary’s lover represented by the flowers of the season, the gardens, the streams, the fountains and irrigations: all analogous to our object. Do not see in the sketches and drawings the artistic merit but what they symbolize. I wish that in this little work the figures would be designed and printed in all its complete and perfect painting; others will perfect what we present in designs and unrefined outline.

Explanation of the sketches and drawings

4. The garden is the Church, the garden is the soul: enclosed garden. Christ is the fountain that fertilizes it constantly, the fountain and the gardener. We entrust to Mary, our beautiful and skilful gardener, the cultivation of our garden who will do it with skilled care and good taste. The flowers are the virtues, its different species are the species and variety of these virtues. The water symbolizes grace; the streams, irrigation ditch and grooves represent the Holy Sacraments; the rain symbolizes the gifts of the Holy Spirit corresponding to the virtues; the wild herbs are the vices opposed to the virtues through excess and defects. The wild beasts that devastate the virtues represent the world, spiteful persons and the devils. The wind, the storms, hurricane, ice, cold, excessive heat of the sun represents the atrocious passions. Through these metaphors the plants that adorn and embellish our gardens are developed in the sketches and drawings that follow.

5. The practices of the month of Mary, arranged under this similitude, are in itself very simple, analogous and proper to the season of spring. They are based on two compromises: one is on our part and the other is on the part of our mystic and beautiful gardener. We, on our part, commit ourselves with the end in view and holy resolutions to the practice the virtue corresponding to the flower of the day. Without virtues we will not be received in paradise. We could not cultivate our garden not even cultivate it without the presence of Jesus, the gardener, without his assistance, without water, without grace and gifts, without the beneficial influence of the many heavenly bodies that revolve around the surrounding of our moral world. Mary commits herself in her quality as gardener to shower on us, at the opportune time, the rain of grace, gifts and infused virtues. . . Mary, having received in her hands our flowers, takes charge of presenting it to God and its cultivation remain entrusted to her maternal love.

VIGIL OF THE MONTH OF MARY

THE DAILY RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES

1st. Act of Contrition.

2nd. Preparatory prayer for everyday

6. Most beautiful and skilful gardener, here you have before your feet a heart through whose fault is converted into a forest full of thorns and thistles, where it has its burrows that breed the ugliest and most shameful passions: there are many workers waiting for your order to uproot from it everything that is perverse and vicious and to sow and plant what is holy, good and virtuous. I entrust to you the soil of my soul; command, Lady of the world, command, Queen of the Angels, and it would be transformed into a paradise of delight for you and your Son; command and your orders will be faithfully executed. I promise to cooperate to my conversion with the end in view and firm resolutions; but, ah! these would be fruitless if you will not fertilize them. I am an arid, dry, barren soil consumed and embraced by the ardour of my concupiscence; in your hands are the keys of that crystal clear and pure fountain closed because of my faults; open it and the torrent of favours, graces and gifts of heaven will flow upon me; I am a garden without walls open to all the illusions of the bad angel, to the world and its vanities. You are its guardian, help and protect it, you, oh most amiable Gardener, I ask you this during this whole month of flowers and aromatic herbs, bouquets, garlands and crowns. Poor me. There is no other thing in my soul than confusion, disorder, shame, thorns and disorganized forest. Dear Lady, put it in order, cultivate it and sow in it the seed of all the virtues; plant in it the flowers that you are looking for and put them in order according to their species. I am here as your property, I will not resist nor oppose but will cooperate to the holy work which in these days is dedicated to your glory and for the good of my soul. You proposed to undertake it, begin it, perfect it and finish it. I offer these practices to your honour and for the glory of your Son. Amen.

3rd. Meditation for each day.

4th. The little crown of twelve stars.

5th. Homily or sermon.

6th. Presentation of the flower.

7th. Litanies of Our Lady.

Activities of the day

MEDITATION

I. The flowers of the month of May

1. During the season of spring nature is dressed in gala, and it offers to its Author and to the person who contemplates it dressed like a bride for the wedding day, beautiful, charming, cheerful, happy, pure; the greater the outburst of its leaves and flowers the more virgin it is. The rose-bush, the lilies, the carnations, the wallflowers, the jasmines and all other flowering and aromatic plants fertilized by the fountains and the streams flowing at her feet, all of these announce to the human heart a day of glory, of joy and of happiness. Our gardens speak to the person in silent but eloquent voice telling “put in order your heart, sow in it, plant in it, take care and nourish the virtue.”

II. What is virtue?

2. This is the first question that asks for explanation. Practice it, love it, search for it, and it will be revealed and unveiled to you by the same love: love it and you will recognize it; and if you don’t love it, all the definitions and so many explanations about it will be unfruitful, and you will not understand whatever may be said. It is a disposition or quality of the soul that makes good the one who possesses it as well as all his works. There are virtues given by God as Author of the natural order and they grow in us without much care on our part; other virtues in the supernatural order are infused by the Author, which we call infused virtues. All the others are acquired through our work and cultivation. The given, the acquired and the infused virtues are divided into human and divine; the human are the intellectual and moral virtues and these in turn are divided and subdivided into many species; the divine virtues are all those that gaze and behold God as its aim. Through the virtues our soul is transformed into paradise. “You are an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain and the fragrance you emit is like the perfume of paradise.”

III. The virtues in Mary

3. No one better than Mary could take care of the garden of our soul; she would be our gardener. Predestined by the fullness of grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit, Mary possessed all the virtues in a very extraordinary degree, superior to that of all the angels and all men together; and for this reason she was chosen Mother of God. Surrender today to this Lady the keys of your heart; give her the garden of your soul, and entrust it to her maternal solicitude and care.

IV. The formation of a great crown of flowers to Mary

4. God has formed a great circle with his finger: it is the crown of our glory. Let us adorn this circle with flowers that symbolize our virtues. We have already resolved: we would place in this sacred circle all the flowers of the month of May, that is, all the virtues, one or more each day, a bouquet each day until we complete our work.

DEDICATION OF THE MONTH OF MARY

Dear Lady, prostrated at your feet, we dedicate this

month to the formation of the great crown that fills you

with immense glory in heaven and on earth. We would

put on this holy circle, flowers and clothe them on

these days with virtues that we promise to practice. It

is the greatest offering that you ask of us your children

and which we are going to give.