Are you holding your own May Crowning or planning one at your parish or school? Find planning tips at www.catholicicing.com and learn how to make an ethereal flower crown with the instructions at www.TheologyofHome.com. Pressed for time? Order a kit from www.PetersSquare.com or the shop at www.CatholicAllYear.com, which also includes a video tutorial on YouTube.
If you missed seeing “Irena’s Vow” on the big screen earlier this month, check out the book of the same title by Dan Gordon, who also wrote the movie’s screenplay. Both works tell the true story of Irena Gut, a Polish Catholic nurse who risked everything to save 12 Jews during the Holocaust. Irena, 19, is promoted to housekeeper in the home of a Nazi officer when she finds out that the Jewish ghetto is about to be liquidated. Determined to help the Jewish workers, she decides to shelter them in the safest place she can think of – the basement of the German officer’s house. The real-life Gut was honored by the Israeli Holocaust Commission as well as St. Pope John Paul II, who bestowed a special blessing on Gut in 1995. Today, her story is featured in a permanent exhibit in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Published by Regalo Press, “Irena’s Vow” can be found at major booksellers while audiences wait for the movie’s availability.