Pond and Waterfall Mary Garden
Sep 9, 2001 Mary Clare Wareham, Lakeville, Minnesota Many years ago a friend gave me your 1960s articles about Mary Gardens which I saved and took out recently as I am one of the head gardeners at our parish, and we are putting in a Mary Garden. I was wondering if possibly you might still be in existence and on the web. My husband did a random search and lo and behold there you were, 40 years later! Our Mary Garden sort of "happened" by means of a stone and pond company (Hedberg Aggregates) donating to our brand new All Saints Catholic Church in Lakeville, Minnesota, a pond and waterfall. It was put in after the primary building wasÊdone, but before we added the rest of our school building. Providentially, the garden then ended up being located between two walkways that go from the parking lot into the school. Our pastor said he wanted to put a statue of Mary near the school entrance, so that was all the inspiration we needed to make this area a Mary Garden. I am preparing a leaflet on the plantings we have done, and would like to use portions of your article, "God's Flowers," by John Stokes, Jr. as background information. It would be portions of the first page, and on the second page, up to where the part about "saints associated with flowers" begins. This phamplet will be available to our parishioners and any others who visit the gardens. Hedberg aggregates sponsored their First Annual Pond Garden Tour this past summer and we would like to be on this tour sometime in the future, so the opportunity to evangelize non-Catholics with Catholic teaching would be entirely possible. I'd be glad to send you a copy of our brochure; I used the latin names of the plants to draw parallels with Mary and basic Catholic teaching. It is amazing how easy it is to do this! There truly is a close association between botanical names and divine truths. I would like to give credit for my use of these portions to your website, and state that it is used with permission. Thank you very much! I greatly appreciate it! Reply, John Stokes, Mary's Gardens, Sep 20, 2001 Thank you for your message of September 9th telling of the new Mary Garden being planted at All Saints Catholic Church in Lakeville. It is a joy to learn of your keeping of our 1960's articles all these years, and of the opportunity which has arisen for you to act on them. While we have ever fresh insights into the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens, each of the old articles seems as fresh to us as the day it was written. And now the Internet has made it possible to bring them all to life again. You have our appreciative permission to reprint any of our materials. Yes, please send us a copy of the brochure, and some photos of the pond, waterfall and Mary Garden, when established, so we can share them with others. One of our special concerns for parish Mary Gardens has been that of planning and organization which will sustain and nurture through the years the initial love and devotion which inspires their planting. Five things come especially to mind as I write: 1) A permanently displayed list of the flower names - religious, common and botanical - and the planting plan, for the instruction of visitors and new parishioners (by way of "take-one" copies) and for fidelity to the planting by the generations of those caring for the garden through the years; 2) A binder of Mary Garden article print-outs and books in the parish (and school) libraries, to inform parishioners of the derivation from medieval tradition; 3) Permanent landscaping, or related structures, of which the Mary Garden is a part - for which your parish pond and waterfall sound superb - and also a specially selected or commissioned focal statue of Our Lady. Exemplary here are the parish Angelus Tower besides which the "mother" U.S. Mary Garden at Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, is planted as adjunct; and the terrace, pond, fountain, and stone engravings of the new Mary's Garden at the Basilica of.the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington; 4) A Parish Mary Garden Guild, Sodality or Society which assumes primary responsibility for the Garden care, and meets to share Marian devotion. 5) Back-up care by professional landscapers (with commitment to maintaining the planting plan) for sustenance of the garden if and when the parish Guild may be temporarily inadequate to the task. With respect to Marian devotion (4), we founded Mary's Gardens with the view that the comprehensive, yet daily experienced, Marian symbolism was a beautiful means for quickening regular recourse to Mary of relevance to our daily lives. In the present time of national and world stress, it is so apparent how our leaders are in need - as all have been since Eden - of spiritual and providential prompting and discernment in how to proceed in moving the world towards the Peaceable Kingdom, in fulfillment of God's purpose for Creation; and of how we should pray for Mary's divinely appointed and blessed pure, universal advocacy, intercession and mediation, in her ability to nudge hearts in their readiness and attunement for this - as our model, nurturer and protector in our communion of sharing, with and through her, as desired and willed by God, in the divine love and action. The daily application of this, as we garden, to the little things of our daily lives, prepares us to pray to Mary for the big things.