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                                               Intro Mary Garden

Announcement: May 1996

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                                  	Mary's Gardens
                                 	http://www.mgardens.org
	                                marysgardens@mgardens.org
                                        May 1,1996


Friends:
 
     For May an important piece of research, "The Blessing of Mary
Gardens as Holy Places" is being added to the Mary's Gardens
Internet Web Site . . . encouraging the sacramental blessing of
garden beds, statuary, plants and seeds as objects of piety for
those who work, meditate or visit in the Mary Garden.

   Such blessings, ecclesiastically administered, extend to the
Mary Garden and its objects the holiness of the Church, such that
the common experience of this holiness in the Mary Garden serves in
turn as a witness to the holiness of the Church and of Mary - 
especially in the context of the symbolical Flowers of Our Lady.

     The article, with documentation, tells the story of the herb,
Ruta graveolens, which still today is known as "Herb O' Grace" and
"Rue" from its widespread use, dating back to the ninth century, in
the sprinkling of Holy water on persons, objects or places being
blest - when it was know as "Graciosa" and "Rauta".

     The "Herb of Grace" was chosen for such use because of its
finely divided leaves which, when dipped in holy water and then
shaken, distributed hundreds of tiny droplets onto the objects
blest; and also because of the bitter, acrid, fragrance and taste of
these leaves, which served as a reminder of the mortification and
penance required if, through the piety engendered through encounter
with the objects blest, one were to be most fully disposed to the
reception of sacramental and gratuitous graces - because of which it
was also known as "Rue".  From this origin the word, "rue", was
adopted into the language with the general connotation of bitter
regret, sorrow and pain of loss, as in the expression: "You will rue
the day."

     Ruta graveolens, itself, was given special blessings for this
use - one for use by the clergy and one for use by the laity - when
it was included in the "Assumption Bundles" of harvest grains and
herbs blest on the altar for reservation as holy objects in a
special liturgical ceremony for the Feast of the Assumption, August
15th - much as today palm fronds are blest for reservation as holy
objects, on Palm Sunday.

     The Rural Life Prayer Book (1956) of the U.S. National
Catholic Rural Life Conference observes that today sacramental
blessings are "riches of the Church which have been long unknown and
unused like a treasure hidden under our very doorstep".

     The importance of these blessings has been reaffirmed for
our times in the Second Vatican Council Constitution on the Sacred
Liturgy (par. 62) which states:

          "The liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals
          sanctifies almost every event in (our) lives . . .
          There is hardly any proper use of material things which
          cannot thus be directed toward the sanctification of
          men and the praise of God."

     Within this context a number of the blessings from the Roman
and other rites appropriate for Mary Garden beds, statuary, seeds,
plants and flowers are given (in English translation) in the
article. Through these blessings, ecclesiastically administered,
those who work in or visit Mary Gardens may be opened to the piety
engendered by them, particularly when meditating with love on the
blest luminous centuries-old flower symbols of Our Lady's life and
mysteries and of her place in the Divine Plan for the salvation of
the world.
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