Chat and Photos

          
Nebraska Home Mary Garden

    


Aug 31, 2002 - Ted & Nancy Langenfeld, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Parish, Omaha, Nebraska

Greetings from Omaha, Nebraska!

My husband and I planted a backyard Mary Garden, this summer.  We
found the perfect spot, in the corner of a brick wall, between two
ash trees.

We planted many of the flowers mentioned in the article about the
1968 Philadelphia Exhibit Mary Garden, on the Mary's Garden website. 

Our statue of the Immaculate Conception was a Mother's Day gift to
me, from our sons, Brian and Joe.  We plan to have the garden
blessed by our pastor, Fr. Joe Hanefeldt, on the Feast of the
Nativity of Mary, September 8th.

Here are the 'before' and 'after' photos.  (Our dog, Kid, enjoys
the garden, too!)

    



Sep 4, 2002, John Stokes, Mary's Gardens

Thank you for your message of 31 Aug and the 'before' and 'after'
photos of your lovely backyard Mary Garden, for our website
Chat/Photos Room - now posted.

We keep learning of Mary Gardens from those who have seen them, but
without names, locations and photos - so we very much appreciate
the thoughtfulness of those, such as yourselves, who send us
photos.

We will be happy to add any further information you send us, such
as of the charming little anecdotes of the things which always
happen or are said in home Mary Gardens.

Perhaps you could send us a photo of Fr. Joe Hanefeldt blessing the
garden on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, September 8th.

This is a very special date for us, as we put up our website on
Sept. 8, 1995 (and officially announced it on Oct 7th.)   Also, the
sculpture of Mary of Nazareth of the St. Mary's Parish in Annapolis
was blessed on that date in 1991 - on the website see

     Dedication and Blessing             

See also

     The Blessing of Mary Gardens as Holy Places


Sep 14, 2002

Thank you for sharing our pictures with other Mary Gardeners.

As you requested, here is a picture of the blessing of our Mary
Garden, which was held on Sunday, September 8th.  Fr. Joe
Hanefeldt used the rite for blessing a Mary statue, and
substituted the word 'garden'.  The rite included a sprinkling of
Holy Water, and we finished by saying a 'Hail Mary' together.  It
was a lovely service, with Ted's brother and parents, and our son
Brian, also in attendance.

  


That evening, as the sun was lower in the western sky, it shown
directly on Mary, and she simply glowed with radiance.  I had
never noticed that before. I believe it was a little 'thank you'
message.  I wish I had a picture of that to share, but we were out
of film.  I'll have to keep that memory in my own heart.


Sep 14, 2002, John Stokes, Mary's Gardens

Thank you for the picture of Fr. Joe Hanefeldt blessing your Mary
Garden

Thanks also for your description of the statue glowing in the
setting sun the evening after the blessing - which brings to mind a
sim ilar experience of my own, per the following excerpts from my
website articles, "Gardening With Mary" (1960) and "Mary Garden
Summer Solstice" (1996)',

     "In 1956, after planting a Mary Garden in a new location, I
     noticed that, in mid-June, just at sunset, the sun broke
     through the shadows to bathe the central garden sculpture -
     Mary, Seat of Wisdom - with a beam of warm, glowing sunlight.
     In examining how this came about, I saw that, in these few
     longest days around the time of the summer solstice, the
     sun emerged below the foliage of some trees several hundred
     feet to the west of the garden; just clearing the corner of
     a house which blocked it in the weeks before and after, and
     "threading the needle" of a two foot space between the trunks
     of two trees at the side of the garden to shine through on
     the sculpture."

The accompanying photograph captures this moment, showing the
illumination of the west-facing sculpture from the front, and also
catching the glow in the setting sun of the June-blooming biennial,
Giant Mullein - Our Lady's Candle, and perennial Rose Campion
Mary's Rose.

         


It has been mentioned by a number of gardeners that illuminations
or providential surprises experienced in the Mary Garden, such as
this one of the summer solstice, engender corresponding interior
illuminations or movements of love which we then pour out on the
flower symbols of Our Lady.  After this experience I wrote:

     "Awed by the solstitial illumination of Mary's image, I
     lifted my heart and mind to Mary in contemplation in the
     peace and quiet of her garden.  As I did, her flowers
     seemed to glow about her image, filled with the radiance of
     her virtues and graces and permeating me with a sense of the
     unfolding of spiritual life and growth.  Plunged, as it were,
     into the interior of Mary in contemplation, I began to take
     root and sustenance in her as my Spiritual Mother and Earthly
     Paradise."