Following persistent wet weather, the sun providentially beamed down on St Benedict’s Garforth on Sunday 5 May, as parishioners joined with their Parish Priest, Fr Henry Longbottom and retired priest Fr Peter Rosser, for a procession of Our Lady’s statue.
Taking place in the church grounds after the Sunday Parish Mass, the procession honoured the inauguration of Our Lady’s month of May. Prior to the procession, the statue of St Mary (kindly loaned by St Benedict’s School) had been crowned by eight year old ‘May King’ Nathan whose name had been selected in a ballot, judicially overseen by parishioner Claire who during the week sits as a District Court Judge!
As Our Lady processed, the children scattered flower petals in her path. The statue itself was beautifully decorated with flowers including wild garlic and bluebells – all grown in the church’s gardens and allotment, expressing the parish’s commitment to living simply, sustainably – and simply the best!
In the words of the much beloved hymn: Bring flowers of the rarest bring blossoms the fairest, from garden and woodland and hillside and dale; our full hearts are swelling, our glad voices telling the praise of the loveliest Flower of the Vale …
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