Chat & Photos

Mother's Day

Apr 24, 2002, . . . , NJ

. . . . .

For Mother's Day, I'd like very much to do a story on Mary's
Gardens, and would like to get some background information  . . .

Thanks very much for your consideration.


Apr 30, 2002, John Stokes, Mary's Gardens


Thanks for your message telling you would like to do a Mother's
Day article on Mary's Gardens, and requesting background
information.

As I have not written about this before, I will take this
opportunity to get a number of thoughts which come to mind out my
head into written form - for you, for the website and for our
archives.

Here is an overview of a Mary's Gardens perspective of Mother's
Day "off the top", from which I hope you can make some selections
to develop in your article for appeal to your readers.

First, a little background as to the origins of our present
Mother's Day celebration, as the context for its Catholic
celebration.

I see from an Internet search article ("A history of Mother's
Day", By HOLLY HILDEBRAND, Houston Chronicle Interactive) that,
"The first celebrations in honor of mothers were held in the
spring in ancient Greece. They paid tribute to Rhea, the Mother of
the Gods.  During the 17th century, England honored mothers on
"Mothering Sunday," celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent"
(presumably in Anglo Catholic tradition, although there may have
been precedents in pre-Reformation Roman Catholic tradition.
Research could be undertaken here).

This same article then goes on to say that the present celebration
of Mother's Day - on the 2nd Sunday of May - started in the U.S in
West Virginia in 1910, after which it was adopted in all the
states; was officially proclaimed a national holiday by President
Woodrow Wilson in 1914; was almost immediately commercialized; and
then was adopted world-wide.

Another article states that the presidential proclamation of
Mother's Day followed on a proclamation by Congress, which
included the specification that carnations (distributed at the
first Mother's Day by it's founder, Anne M.Jarvis, as her mother's
favorite flower) be employed in the celebration.  Red carnations
were seen to honor mothers who wee living, and white those who
were deceased.

Further from the Internet (Captain Zeb), I see that "Mothering
Sunday is celebrated on the 4th Sunday in Lent (and that) a
special Mothering Sunday service is held, where bunches of wild
flowers such as daffodils and primroses are blessed and then given
by children to their mothers."

It is stated that Mother's Day is now the third most widely
celebrated holiday in the U.S., following on Christmas and Easter.

I cite the foregoing  because the adoption by Catholics of
doctrine and customs pre-existing in other traditions (such as in
the case of a few of the namings of flowers for Mary adopted from
Venus) is so often set forth as a supposed demonstration that
Christianity is "really" derived from these other traditions - as
distinct from what we hold to be the truth: that in the unity of
all things, created by the one God, various truths and customs
occurring previously (or perhaps continued, garbled, after the
confusion of tongues following the Tower of Babel) anticipate
their incorporation in the fullness of Catholic revelation,
tradition and custom.

Thus Catholics have elevated Mother's Day, a celebration of all
mothers in congregations, to a celebration additionally and
especially of the motherhood of Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our
spiritual mother.

Happily Mother's Day occurs in Mary's month of May - the month (in
the northern hemisphere) of the blooming of flowers - a Marian
devotion which was popularly adopted by the Church in the 18th
century.

See our website article, "Mary's Month of May", accessed from the
Home Page by successively clicking the hot-links:

     OVERVIEW
          50 years of Mary's Gardens Articles
               1996 - Mary's Month of May

See also "Flower Sermons for Each Day of Mary's Month of May"

     RESEARCH
          Mary Flowers in...Germany
               Flower Sermons for Each Day of Mary's Month of May

In the U.S. the celebration of Mary's Month of May in schools was
widely practiced until recently, with a daily placement of flowers
on classroom May altars, and culminating with parish May
Processions and Crownings, associated with the Feast of Mary's
Queenship on May 31st.

But now, with the transfer, since Vatican II, of the feast of
Mary's Queenship to August 22 (and the substitution on May 31st of
the Feast of the Visitation), and perhaps for other reasons, the
celebration of Mary's Month of May - with May altars and May
processions and crownings - has substantially declined.

In browsing "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding
Catholicism" in a book store, I noted the following (p. 69)"

     "Several practices once considered an integral part of
     Catholic faith and ritual either have been eliminated or
     their importance has been diminished....

          . . . .

          "May Day - On a spring day in May near the end of the
          school year, everyone gathered for the May day ceremony.
          The boys wore white pants, shirts and white ties.  The
          girls dressed in beautiful white dresses with veils. One
          girl would be selected to climb the ladder and place a
          crown of flowers on a statue of Mary while the entire
          congregation sang, "Oh, Mary we crown you with blossoms,
          today. Queen of Angels, Queen of the May..."

and (p. 169):

     "In a Catholic schoolroom during the month of May you might
     still find a May altar.  A few years ago, it would have been
     a sure thing to find one.  May altars were built in
     classrooms and in the homes of Catholics as part of the May
     devotions to Mary.  May altars featured a statue or picture
     of Mary prominently displayed...and surrounded by fresh
     flowers."

However, with the removal of the May 31st feast of Mary's
Queenship -  the celebration of the beauty of Mary's holiness, and
of her motherly and queenly mercy, through the giving to her and
the crowning of her statues with flowers - Mother's Day is now
coming to serve as a new focus for intuitively desired May Marian
devotion.

In the commercial promotion of Mother's Day, as with other
holidays, a special flower has been adopted - the carnation, of
the original Mother's Day celebration; as poinsettias have been
adopted for Christmas, red roses for Valentine's Day and Easter
lilies for Easter.  Thus, the employment of carnations as symbolic
expressions of love of mother, has been adopted by Catholics as
symbols of love of Mary as spiritual Mother.

This adoption of a secular custom and symbol as an expression of a
corresponding religious devotion thus corresponds to the Catholic
adoption of other customs, as previously mentioned.

In the fullness of religious flower giving, the 18th century
introduction of May devotions, and now the 20th century
introduction of Mother's Day and its application to Mary, both
draw on the general rich traditional prayerful giving of flowers
to Mary at her altars; on the offering of spiritual bouquets to
her in praying the Rosary; and on the popular tradition of
reflection and meditation on her through her flower symbols

In this general context, our Mother's Day offerings to Mary take
on, as it were, the character of a feastday of Mary as our
Spiritual Mother - supplementing our celebration of her as the
Mother of Jesus on the feast of the Nativity, and as the Mother of
God on January 1st.  In the fullness of Mary's union with God in
her Divine Maternity of Jesus, the divine Word Incarnate, Mary is
also Co-Creatrix and Universal Mediatrix between God and Creation,
and therefore indeed the Spiritual Mother of our created and
infused souls.

In this, the giving of flowers to Mary before her altar or statue
is an expression of our love and veneration for her as our
Spiritual Mother, as the giving of flowers to our natural mothers
is an expression of our love for and appreciation of them on
Mother's Day.  But the giving of flowers to Mary is also the
offering of spiritual flowers or bouquets of prayers to her in
thanksgiving for and the beseeching of her protection, mercy,
caring, consolation, nurturing and counsel, and for her
intercession for and mediation of, in union with her Divine Son,
the divine graces, Spirit and Providence assisting us in working
for the coming of the Father's Kingdom, according to his will, on
earth as it is in heaven.

Actually, while the special use of carnations as expressive of
love for Mary has been adopted from its employment for expressing
the secular love of mother, its employment in veneration of Mary
has parallels in earlier association of carnations with Mary,
wherein they, along with peonies and several other flowers, were
often used, for reasons of bloom season, as substitutes for the
rose as symbols of Mary's Divine Motherhood.

As elaborated the article, "Mary's Month of May", the rose in
medieval times was adopted as representing the "Blossoming Rod of
Jesse" - Isaiah's prophetic symbol of the Virgin Birth of
Emmanuel, the Redeemer, which was seen by the Church Fathers as
revealing all flowers as "signatures" of Mary, and from which all
further flower associations with Mary, the "Flower of flowers" -
in scripture, in tradition and in nature - were evidently derived.
Thus the rose as the Rod of Jesse symbol of Mary's Divine
Maternity is celebrated in Dante's "Behold the Rose, wherein the
Divine Word was made incarnate"; in the Central Rose Windows of
the Gothic cathedrals; and in the Christmas Carol "Lo, How a Rose
'ere Blooming".

In Europe the rose symbolism was extended, depending upon what was
in bloom at various times of the year, to other rose-like flowers,
including the Peony and Carnation.  Thus the selection of
carnations for use in Mother's Day celebrations in fact
corresponds (whether consciously intended or not) with earlier
traditions.

Then, for Mary Gardeners, there are, for the quickening of Marian
reflection, meditation and prayer, other flowers of old
symbolizing aspects of Mary's Divine Motherhood.

The associations of flowers with Mary as the Mother of Jesus, the
Mother of God, and our Spiritual Mother, was evidently well
grounded in medieval tradition, as we learn from old flower names.
In this we turn especially to popular Catholic traditions in
Bavaria and Southern Germany, where such traditions have continued
unbroken from the medieval period to the present, and thus were
written down with the introduction of printing, books and literacy
in the 16th century - as distinguished from England where Roman
Catholicism and Marian devotion, etc., were suppressed in the
Protestant Reformation, such that Marian flower names were largely
excluded from English gardening and religious books.

While we say, "Pray for us, O holy Mother of God - the prayer
adopted by he Church following the dogmatic definition of Mary's
Divine Motherhood at the Council of Ephesus in 431, English
medieval flower names refer to Mary as "Mary's...". "Our
Lady's...", or "Virgin's".  However, in Germany many flowers refer
to Mary by their "full" names of "Mother-of-God's..."
("MutterGottes-..."), and "Heavenly Mother's... (
Himmelmutter-...) - followed by particular symbolisms, based on
their forms and colors, of  "slippers", "mantle", "bedstraw",
"hair", etc.  Also, for example, "Sorrowful Mother of God"
("Schmerze Muttergottes") - for Iris germanica, German Iris, known
in English as "Mary's Sword of Sorrow", (from its spear-like
foliage), in reference to Simeon's prophecy at the Presentation of
the Child Jesus in the Temple.

In regions of Germany the flower, impatience, Patient Lucy, bears
the name, "Mother Love" because - folklore researchers tell us -
the constancy of its bloom from spring planting to fall frost, was
seen to symbolize the constancy of mother love, and therefore, for
Mary Gardeners, the constancy of Mary's Mother Love for Christ.
With last year's warm fall (in Philadelphia) this constancy of
bloom was extended from April planting until the time of the first
city frost in mid-December.

The beholding of these flowers daily through the months serves,
"for those who have eyes to see", to quicken extensive reflection
on Mary's mother love - at first of her love for the infant Jesus
(also, as one sees also all the mothers with baby carriages in the
park).  But as one reflects, one considers in time also the
continuation of Mary's mother love in heaven where, like all
mothers supportive of the success of their sons' life's work, she,
through her intercession and mediation, etc. seeks to be
supportive of her Son's work of the building and coming of the
Father's Peaceable Kingdom, according to his will, on earth as it
is in heaven.  Mary's motherhood of Christ, continuing in heaven,
thus serves to augment our confidence in her intercession with God
the Father with and through her Divine Son.

(I cite this as a small example of the food for reflection
quickened by flower symbols as one daily works in a Mary Garden,
or beholds the Flowers of Our Lady while walking through a city
park.)

It is our hope that with the general restoration of the teaching
and quickening of reflection on Mary, her virtues and her
mysteries through classroom windowsill or dish Mary Gardens - of
symbolic Flowers of Our Lady planted around her figurines - these
little gardens, and the parish outdoor Mary Gardens which are
increasingly being planted, will serve to dispose children
generally for the restoration of special veneration of Mary during
May, now finding special expression in Mother's day.

A group of Our Lady's Flowers which has a special attraction for
children, as symbol's of Mary's Nazareth motherhood is described
by Johanne Nathusius in "The World of Flowers - According to their
Names, Sense and Meaning", 1869 (translated from the German):

     "According to long-established folk outlook, the flower
     kingdom was given over to the household articles and the
     apparel of the Mother of the Child Jesus.  In order that
     in the loving eyes of children looking backwards in time
     to where Jesus was born in the flesh, nothing associated
     with the Mother of the Heavenly Child, no matter how
     insignificant would fail to excel everything else on earth,
     or would appear too insignificant for the Mother of the
     Heavenly Child not to have the best before all others, it
     was seen as fitting that she thus be served by the direct
     creations of God.

     "Legendary stories often provide the explanation for these
     and other names: and if legends, and also the outlook,
     generated by a childlike sense, which we no longer find much
     room for - or which, rather, are like flower petals blown
     away from the stems - if the sweet fruit of evangelical truth
     begins to ripen on these stems, then the blown away petals
     still have at least as much right as each bloom and each
     children's game to bring us joy.  Many of the names are
     explained by legends and associations to which, alas, the
     key is missing.  Is itindeed possible to find it again?"

In general, the Flowers of Our Lady are best introduced through
these which have a simple, direct association with her, such as
those symbolizing her features, garments and household articles in
the Nazareth home of the Holy Family - a symbolism which is
readily and delightfully recognized, especially by young children
- while at the same time the beauty of the flowers is seen to
mirror the beauty of Mary's holiness.

A partial listing of Nazareth Flowers includes those symbolic of:

     Mary's features     - her face, eyes, smile, tresses,
                           hands, fingers;

     Her Apparel         - her mantle, smock, apron, veil,
                           nightcap, earrings, gloves, shoes,
                           purse;

     Household articles  - her duster, little brushes, comb,
                           knives and forks, little ladles,
                           drying plant, bread, cheeses,
                           flavoring, needlework, flax, thimble,
                           pincushion, candle, bells, keys,
                           basin, porridge


The beauty and purity of Mary's household articles, as envisaged
through their flower symbols, serve to mirror for us the purity of
her intentions as she worked with them - reminding us that, in
emulation of Mary, we ourselves are likewise to undertake all our
own daily tasks for spiritual intentions.

Then, there are a number of other flower symbols of Mary's
Motherhood: the Strawberry, continuing in flower while in fruit -
symbol of Mary's virgin motherhood and perpetual virginity; the
Mother-of-Thousands, Strawberry Geranium, propagating itself
through the many small plants emrging from the spreading roots of
a mother plant - and also, given the same name,  Mentha requienii,
Spanish Moss from it's myriad of tiny leaves; Lady-Lords (similar
to our Peace Lily) whose spathe and spadix resemble the medieval
frontal images of the seated Virgin with the Child on her lap -
symbol of Mary's Divine Maternity adopted after the Council of
Ephesus.

And, as set forh in "Mary's Month of May", Gerald Manley Hopkins'
poem, "May Magnificat", (seemingly anticipating the transfer of
the feast of the Visitation to May 31st in the liturgical
calendar), the life and growth of all nature symbolizes Mary's
Motherhood:


         "All things rising, all things sizing
          Mary sees, sympathizing
               With that world of good,
               Nature's motherhood.

         "Their magnifying of each its kind
          With delight calls to mind
               How she did in her stored
               Magnify the Lord.

         "Well but there was more than this:
          Spring's universal bliss
               Much, had much to say
               To offering Mary May.

               . . . . . . . .

         "This ecstacy all through mothering earth
          Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
               To remember and exultation
               In God who was her salvation."


 
(END)