Popular Piety

One of my favorite childhood memories is that of participating in the Flores de Mayo during the month of May. It is a popular local custom where, on every day of the month, children gather in the church to offer bouquets of flowers to the Blessed Virgin. I still remember the Tagalog song we sang as we lined up for our turn to lay our flowers at the foot of the statue of the Blessed Virgin:

Ang bulaklak na tanging alay
Ng aming pagsintang tunay,
Palitan mo, o Birheng Mahal
Ng tuwa sa kalangitan.

(Translation: The flowers which we offer/as a special token of our true love/please exchange them, beloved Virgin/with happiness in Heaven.)

In my country the Philippines, the month of May is rich with popular piety. In addition to the Flores de Mayo, we have the Santakrusan processions, which honor the Blessed Virgin as well as the finding of the True Cross by St. Helen. We also have regional fiestas, like the Pahiyas in the town of Lucban, Quezon in honor of the town’s patron saint, St. Isidore the Laborer.

The Pahiyas Festival in Honor of St. Isidore the Laborer (By Bibliosensei [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis spoke of the evangelizing power of popular piety. He wrote,

“Each portion of the people of God, by translating the gift of God into its own life and in accordance with its own genius, bears witness to the faith it has received and enriches it with new and eloquent expressions. One can say that “a people continuously evangelizes itself”. Herein lies the importance of popular piety, a true expression of the spontaneous missionary activity of the people of God. This is an ongoing and developing process, of which the Holy Spirit is the principal agent.”

I, too, am convinced of the evangelizing power of popular piety. For bystanders, these practices of popular piety may be no more than tourist attractions. But for the participants, they are opportunities to explain and demonstrate the Faith in a tangible manner. They show how the Faith is both universal and at the same time suited to all diverse cultures existing on earth.

It is true that some practices of popular piety have lost their meaning through time and need to be re-Christianized. To give an example close to home, in many places the Santakrusan processions have degenerated into beauty contests among the Reynas Elenas. It is also true that external participation in practices of popular piety does not necessarily imply mature faith, although these practices do not exclude it either. Nevertheless, we should recognize in popular piety an opportunity for evangelization that would be a pity to waste.

More importantly, we should also realize that while practices of popular piety cannot replace the sacraments, they too can be used by God as a means to touch us with grace and we would be foolish not to avail of any opportunity to receive graces.

I should know. As an adult, I am far from being a model of Marian piety. I try to imitate the examples of the saints who were, but I struggle, for example, with distractions while praying the rosary or with wanting to listen to music instead of pray the rosary during a car trip. While I know that the Blessed Virgin is a powerful intercessor, I sometimes feel shy approaching her for my needs – like a growing teenager ashamed to admit that she still wants her mother to hug her.

But the Blessed Virgin has never abandoned me, has never taken my lack of daughterly affection against me, and has interceded for me at moments of my life when I needed her most. Perhaps in her eyes, I am still the little girl in her best Sunday frock offering her a bunch of flowers picked from the garden and asking her to exchange them with happiness in heaven.

Cristina Montes

Cristina Montes

Cristina Montes, from the Philippines, is a lawyer, writer, amateur astronomer, a gardening enthusiast, a voracious reader, a karate brown belter, an avid traveler, and a lover of birds, fish, rabbits, and horses. She is a die-hard Lord of the Rings fan who reads the entire trilogy once a year. She is the eldest daughter in a large, happy Catholic family.

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