Rosary Garden Elements
John Newman Parish, Annapolis, Maryland Rosary Garden
Apr 12, 2007 - Kathy Hodges to John Stokes, Mary's Gardens
(Volunteer, St. John Neumann Catholic Church Rosary Garden)
Your website and information has been a tremendous support to me
personally. Thank you for publishing all the information about
flowers (religious names), Mary gardens, etc.
We at the St. John Neumann Catholic Church on 620 N. Bestgate Road
Annapolis, MD are in the process of completing a "Rosary"
(meditation) garden. It will be surrounded by plants and colorful
flowers. And is our special tribute and devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
The garden was created as a quiet outdoor place for prayer and
reflection for the parishioners as well as the enjoyment for
visitors who will come to the church. The Rosary garden will
contain a statue of "Our Lady of Lourdes" which will greet all who
visit. (It is presently being shipped – at sea. Installation is
estimated for the last week of April). The Statue was handcrafted
by a master carver in Vinconza, Italy and purchased thru Cordori
Memorials, Gettysburg, PA. A granite pedestal will hold the 5 foot
statue which is of select Carrara marble quarried also in Italy.
The statue will be placed in the center of a Pennsylvania
flagstone walkway constructed by McHale Landscaping, Annapolis,
MD. The circular walkway has been divided into four sections –
which denote the 4 mysteries of the rosary. The mysteries
(Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous) are beautifully etched
into the flagstone.
There will be also be 4 engraved plaques depicting the 20
Mysteries: 5 Joyful Mysteries Annunciation, Visitation, Birth of
Jesus, the Presentation and Finding Jesus in the Temple ; 5
Sorrowful Mysteries are the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at
the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Carrying of the Cross and the
Crucifixion; 5 Glorious Mysteries are Resurrection, Ascension,
Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of Mary and the Coronation
of Mary; and 5 Luminous Mysteries are Baptism of Jesus, Wedding of
Cana, Proclaiming the Kingdom, Transfiguration, and Institution of
the Eucharist and the Bible verse for each.
Around each engraved plaque, we will plant flowers the color of
each Mystery. The religious names will also be attached to the
flowers that will be used.
Again, thank you for your web site – it has helped me greatly
getting this project started. The project was funded by the
generosity of our parishoners.
Apr 19, 2007 - John Stokes to Kathy Hodges
Thanks for your message of 12 April telling that your St. John
Neumann "Rosary" Meditation Garden is nearing completion, with all
its components, as envisaged in your message of 29 Jun 2005. (Is
St. John Neumann's a separate parish now, or still a Mission
Church within St. Mary's?)
As time has gone by it has become clear that parish Rosary Gardens
provide an opportunity to consolidate the extension of the lay
initiative of home Mary Gardening to the parish.
While increasing numbers of home Mary Gardens are being
established every year out of a love of Our Lady and flowers, and
the rediscovery of the symbolic Flowers of Our Lady - which
flowers expressed, supported and taught Marion devotion to Christ
in oral traditions of the medieval countrysides - parish Mary
Garden and shrine plantings have all too often been short-lived,
as the parishioners establishing and originally caring for them
move on, and others have not emerged to share the initial devotion
to the symbolic flowers sufficiently to care for them, and refresh
them in the parish garden on through the years.
A exemplary exception to this, of course, is your own St. Mary's
Parish Mary Garden in Annapolis - described and pictured on our
website, under:
OVERVIEW
Representative Mary Gardens - Descriptions, Photos
Parish Mary Garden
established in 1989 on the initiative of Nanette Sears, after some
thirty years of home Mary Gardening; carried on with her, and then
after her death in 2003, by Laura Van Geffen and other first
generation volunteers; and now extended by parishioners who are
Master Gardeners. I have a number of photos of the garden in its
present beautiful condition sent by Dorothea Oliff in 2005.
Another exemplary garden is the Home Schoolers' Mary Garden
project at St. Theresa's Parish in Douglasville, Georgia - as
described and illustrated in the Sep 3, 2003 entry in the website
CHAT & PHOTOS Section. Here, the flower symbols are learned by
the children as part of their schooling, as is the garden praying
of the Rosary with the abbreviated stepping stones of this smaller
garden.
What is added by the Parish Rosary Gardens, to give them
permanence - or in your case what is incorporated in an
"offspring" Mary Garden - is first of all the Pater and Ave
stepping stones - to be traversed while meditatively praying the
Mysteries, as in fingering Rosary beads. These are immediately
understood and followed by first time garden visitors, who also
will have been familiar with making outdoor Stations of the Cross.
Importantly, the stones also have the quality of permanence,
independently from the care given or not given to flowers.
In your St. John Neumann garden an additional permanent, and also
instructive, element is that of the four engraved plaques you
describe - illustrating, respectively, the five Joyful, Sorrowful,
Glorious and Luminous Mysteries. Importantly, each mystery
engraving is accompanied with a biblical text - demonstrating the
derivation of the Rosary from the Gospel.
Then, the placement of each of the four plaques in a planting of
flowers of its associate color - Joyous white, Sorrowful Red,
Glorious gold and Luminous blue-purple - introduces the concept of
flower symbolism in its simplest form, of color. As one
approaches the garden, or even walks or drives by, the four
patches of color bring to mind that this is a Rosary Garden.
In keeping with the practice at some parish Mary Gardens of
posting the name "Mary Garden" and a descriptive phrase on a sign
at the entrance, a sign for your garden could say something like
"Rosary Meditation Garden - Stepping Stone Path - Flower Symbols
of Mysteries". This would inform of the general planting of
symbolic Flowers of Our Lady, throughout the garden.
Interestingly, the praying of the Rosary and the perception and
naming of religious flower symbols in nature both emerged around
the same time, in the 12h and 13th centuries - now united in
contemporary Rosary Gardens.
As persons walk generally through the Rosary Garden, admiring the
beauty of the individual flower species, they note that each
species is accompanied by a marker giving its name, Mystery and
symbolism. Thus, "Madonna Lily, Annunciation, Immaculate purity";
"Christ's Back, Flagellation, Bodily Suffering"; "Mary's Gold,
Coronation, Heavenly Glory"; "Holy Spirit, Christ's Baptism,
Spiritual Guidance"
The potential contribution of each flower, as its symbolism is
thus learned walking through the garden, is its quickening in
memory for meditation on the aspect it symbolizes of its
associated Mystery - as the Mystery is announced (by self or group
leader) in praying the stepping stone Rosary . . .or in praying
the Rosary at any time, in any circumstances, anywhere. Those
newly visiting the Rosary Garden are guided in learning
intuitively to discover the symbolism of form and color of each
flower species from its accompanying plant marker.
(In this I hope you are considering the use of small smooth light
grey stone markers with waterproof black ink lettering, as used in
some beds of the Annapolis St. Mary's Parish Mary Garden. These
stone markers have a quality of permanence, as well as attractive
appearance, as compared to the more conventional and fragile
wooden or plastic markers. In the University of Dayton "Serenity
Pines" Memorial Mary Garden the lettering on such markers has
stood up like new after five hot summers and freezing winters.)
For regular visitors to the garden the symbolism of the flowers
becomes instilled in the heart, for envisioned recall when, on the
stepping stone walk, praying the Mystery with which each is
associated. And, on informally visiting the garden, or working in
the garden beds, reflection on flower symbolism comes to be
quickened even in seasons when the flowers themselves may not be
in bloom - by the viewing of their familiar foliage, by just
knowing their positions in the garden beds, or by noting the
markers when plants are withered down by frost.
A further suggestion, which you probably already have in mind, is
to compose leaflets, to be available from a protected rack or
enclosure near the garden entrance, for taking by first-time
visitors.
One would be a simple guide for persons to take in their hands as
they walk through the the garden for the first time - consisting
of a little layout or map of the garden with a list of plants by
their common and religious names and mystery associations.
For this purpose the plants would be listed and numbered in the
sequence in which they are encountered in walking through the
garden, with these numbers posted to the layout to indicate their
garden positions. In the Garden each plant species would be
identified by markers giving its common name, its medieval
symbolism and its Mystery association. Thus, the verbal
announcing of each Mystery as we pray the Rosary Walk through the
garden brings to mind, in addition to a general image of the
Mystery announced, reflection rising from its recalled and
envisaged flower symbols, wherever they may be planted in the
garden mosaic.
For the "The Annunciation", we reflect on the white Annunciation
Lily of Mary's immaculate purity, on the lowly Violet of her utter
humility, and on the pendant Eardrops (Fuchsia) envisaged as
adorning her ears which "heard the Word of God and kept it".
These, and others, make the meditational contribution of
quickening reflection on the virtues implicit in each Mystery.
"...that while meditating on these mysteries...we may imitate what
they contain and obtain what they promise".
The second printed resource would be one of general background
information for your garden, and Rosary Gardens generally, for
study away from the garden, with a fuller listing of the symbolic
plants by their botanical names, with comments regarding their
symbolism and how it augments meditation on their associated
Mysteries.
The foregoing, Kathy, is an outline of potentials suggested by
your garden components, as I envisage them. Actually, of course,
you and others will make as much or little recourse to them as
suits spiritual modes - and present them more simply.
Anyone familiar with praying the Rosary using prayer beads
intuitively sets out on the Ave and Pater stepping stone bead path
of the Rosary Garden. What is special about the Rosary Garden, as
mentioned, and has to be learned, are the accompanying Flowers of
Our Lady of the medieval countrysides traditions. Some sixty of
these flowers are described, with click-links to their photos, in
the website article:
RECENT
Parish Rosary Gardens - in depth study
which is one of the most accessed articles on our website - 14,844
acceses last year - and contains click-links to articles on the
parish Rosary gardens at St.Ann's Parish in Arlington, Virginia
and Mary, Mother of the Redeemer Parish in North Wales, of
suburban Philadelphia.
Another related article:
HOME & SCHOOLS EDUCATION
Background Reference/Index for Teachers
contains extensive teaching suggestions in Rosary Mystery sequence
(4 2, 1 6 9 accesses).
Three Rosary Gardens are describe and illustrated in CHAT &
PHOTOS:
J u n 2 2 1 9 9 8 - C a r o l y n O ' B o y l e . N e w t o n , N C - S t . J o s e p h ' s
P a r i s h R o s a r y W a l k; photos and
M a y 2 6 , 2 0 0 1 - D e b o r a h P e i n , P o c a t e l l o , I D - N e w S t .
A n t h o n y ' s P a r i s h M a r y G a r d e n ; photos
M a y 2 7 , 2 0 0 3 - D e b o r a h P e i n , P o c a t e l l o , I D - S t . A n t h o n y ' s
P a r i s h M a r y G a r d e n U p d a t e ; P h o t o s
One of the largest Rosary Gardens is at a convent in Wisconsin
based on a five decade garden with pipe mounted, chain connected,
bowling ball "beads". At their request my late partner, Bonnie
Roberson, designed and personally planted a Large Mary Garden bed
at the entrance, comprised of flowers symbolic of the Mysteries.
Finally. I should mention the huge stepping stone Rosary Garden at
the mammoth Our Lady of the Universe Shrine at Orlando, Florida,
per the attached photos - attended by thousands of tourists
visiting Disneyland, etc.. The unique feature of this garden is
its size with 6 or 8 ft. paved brick stepping circles, enabling
large groups to move through the Rosary. Also, from its size, the
planting, in this sub-tropical climate, of trees of Our Lady; and
her aquatic plans in it several pools.
.
.
.
From the Shrine booklet's desciption of the garden:
o O o
"Carved from the overgrown marshland, the Rosary Garden emerged
from the singular vision of eminent landscape architect, Laura I.
Ierena. An artist who uses the open spaces as her canvas, and
nature - the trees, stone, water plants, and even the earth itself
- as the palette, Ierena I. dedicated herself to create not simply
a beautiful garden, but what she termed "a living rosary of
faith."
"The garden's walkway of multi-hued bricks and concrete pavers
form the cross, centerpiece and beads of a rosary, and leads
visitors through a landscape rich in greenery, stately oaks and
tall pines, pools of gathered water and colorful flower beds.
Centered within the quiet garden stands a historic statue of Mary,
holding the Divine Infant in her arms.
"Indeed the Shrine's Rosary Garden is a place for all peoples to
meditate on God's central role in the world, and their lives. It
is a place to reflect on the glories of his Creation...The rhythm,
harmony and balance of nature...even the garden's own cycle of
birth, death and renewal, made manifest for us in the salvic
mission of Christ Jesus."
o O o
It is to be hoped that in time the planting will be augmented to
include flower symbols of the Mysteries, although this is a
challenge in the sub-tropical climate of central Florida, which is
too hot in the summer for the many perennial Flowers of Our Lady
native to temperate Europe (such as many in our list of 60 -
suitable for farther north temperate U.S.) yet too cold, with its
light freezing, for the many tropicals from Central America and
northern South America. This places an emphasis on annuals. which
require the special dedication and work of re-starting from seed
and re-planting each year; and limits perennials to those
available from local nurseries.
So, Kathy, your message has prompted this extensive exposition of
my current thinking on Parish Rosary Gardens, for whatever may be
informative and helpful. As you can see from the referenced
articles, there are as many different approaches as there are
gardens.
I look forward to a full article on the St. John Neumann Garden
when you have had an opportunity to take photos of all its
elements, and some flowers in bloom.
Blessings to you and your co-workers,
John