Dedication Booklet 

          
     Starting St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
            Parish Mary Garden

   
Julie Henry                                          (7 Photos)             
North Huntingdon, PA

Apr 22 2002

After several years of fundraising, research and a lot of hard
work, our Mary's Garden here at St Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in
North Huntingdon, Pa, has scheduled our dedication ceremony for
Sunday, May 19th.  Our Christian Mothers & Ladies Guild
organization, of which I am a past president, and which my
mother-in-law, Mary Jane Henry, is now president are putting the
finishing touches on our garden.

We are interested in the photo of the sign from the Garden of Our
Lady at St Joseph's Church in Woods Hole.  We would like to put
some type of glass (plexi-glass) enclosed sign which could list
all of the plants that we have in our garden.

Can you give me info on this?

We saw this picture one day on your website & really would like to
have one in our garden.  I appreciate any help you can offer.

Thank you very much & I enjoy your site!


Apr 24, 2002  Reply, John Stokes

Thanks for telling us about your Mary Garden at St Elizabeth Ann
Seton Church in North Huntingdon, Pa, and the scheduled dedication
ceremony for Sunday, May 19th.

I hope you can send us some photos of the Garden in bloom and of
the dedication ceremony, together with any information about the
Garden and its design, planting, care and incorporation in parish
life - for sharing with others in our website Chat & Photos
Section.

I assume you are familiar with our 1996 article, "The Blessing of
Mary Gardens as Holy Places"

The "Wayside Shrine" shelter for the garden plan and plant list at
the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, per the photo you attached to
your message from Vincenzina Krymow's garden tour on the Internet,
was designed by Fred Luz of the Woods Hole parish.  A copy of
Fred's dimensioned drawings for this shelter were sent, on request,
to the Annapolis Mary Garden by our Associate, Jane McLaughlin who
restored the Woods Hole Garden in 1982 and oversees it.  The
shelter has two hinged \doors, behind which the garden plan and
plant list are posted, with plastic covering for protection from
rain.  The shelter was designed by Fred Luz from the photo of the
original shelter made by Frances Crane Lillie for the Garden per
the 1937 photo in the 1985 website article, "Medieval Countryside
in a Garden"

"Take One" copies of the plant list and plan, and other
information, are also available for Woods Hole Garden visitors in
the small room at the base of the Angelus Tower adjacent to which
the Garden is planted.  Visitors can thus hold the plan and list in
their hands as they walk through the Garden.  The plants are also
identified by plant markers for each variety, giving their common,
botanical and religious names.

By way of a copy of this message I am asking Jane to let me know if
a copy of these plans is still available, from which to make and
send you a copy.


Apr 24, 2002

I was so happy to see your prompt response to my email.  I have
been working on the dedication booklet & will be happy to send this
information along with some photos.  One of my goals is to
incorporate our garden into our church's website also.

I like the idea of the "Take One" copies and my next project is to
work on such a brochure.  We also have plant tags to place that we
are going to list the common, botanical & religious name.

Since our dedication is in May, we are planning along with our
formal dedication, to have a May Queen Crowning ceremony. We have a
May Queen court of 4 young ladies and we are inviting our 1st
Communion class & other youngsters to join in.   We are quite
excited about the whole day. Attached is a photo of our statue that
we're using on our invitations & in our program booklet.

        


It's taken us 2 years of planning and it's finally coming all
together. Thanks for all your help.


Apr 25, 2002 John Stokes

Thanks for your message of Apr 24 and the photograph of the
beautiful statue.

It is a joy to see the thorough, professional way in which you have
gone about all this.

Can you share with us the source of the statue, address, etc..  We
are in n eed of further sources,

I look forward to seeing the dedication booklet and photos - and
also the "take one" brochure when ready.

What is the Internet address of your parish website?  I'll take a
look.


Apr 25, 2002

Here is the address for the website for our church:

     www.st-elizabeth-seton.org/

In the photo of the church, the Mary Garden is located (but not
pictured) to the right of the building.

   

The statue was ordered from Italy but I don't know many of the
specifics.  The information about our statue I'll have to get from
my mother-in-law.  As I mentioned, she's the president of our group
& has been very instrumental in organizing the whole garden
including the statue, memorial bricks and concrete benches.  In our
dedication brochure I am preparing a history of our garden and will
include this information.
 
Thanks again for your help & I'll be in touch soon.


Apr 26, 2002  John Stokes

I opened the website and saved a copy of the church photo.  Should
make a nice place for the Mary Garden to the right of the building.
Is that the south side?  Looks like there should be plenty of sun
in any case.


Apr 29, 2002

We had a group working in our garden Sat & hopefully our memorial
bricks will be completed in front of our statue this week.  Next
Sat we have a work crew lined up again for mulch in the garden and
the church grounds and then planting is scheduled for annuals on
Mother's Day weekend.  We're trying real hard to get ready for the
19th dedication.  Most of our tulips in the garden unfortunately
didn't survive the deer population.  (I read that deer consider
tulips as an "ice cream" treat).

Thanks again for your help.  I'll be in touch.

   

May 1, 2002

Thank you for the email of The Mother's Day Story.  I printed it
out & I was able to sit down last night & read it.  It was really
beautiful & informative & I would like to try to incorporate some
of it into our Garden dedication booklet.  (I even dreamed about
angels last night after reading it. The angels were a cluster of
butterflies in one corner of a room I was in but I knew they were
angels.)


May 2, 2002  John Stokes

Thanks for sharing with me your dream about the angels.  When we
become spiritually attuned, our "active imagination" discerns the
spiritual in creatures.  As one correspondent recently said to me,

    "May Our Lady walk with you in your garden"


May 6, 2002  Julie Henry to Jane Mc Laughlin

I received your information in the mail on Saturday for the Wooden
Information Box & I want to thank you and John for all your help. I
read over the book you sent also & found it very informative.  I
thoroughly enjoy researching the information for our Mary's Garden
but I only hope that I can relay this information onto our visitors
as well as you and John.
 
We mulched our garden this past Saturday and expect to put in the
annuals this weekend.  I'll be sure to send a few pictures from our
dedication on the 19th.  I doubt we'll have our information box
ready by then, but I'll send a picture of that also when it's
completed.
 
Thanks again for your help.




May 21, 2002

Enclosed are a program and the picture card from our Mary's Garden
dedication on Sunday.  It was a lovely event with about 150 people
turning out for the May Queen crowning and garden dedication.  We
had rain about 12:00 but by the 2:00 starting time it had stopped
and we had a beautiful sun and blue sky while we were outdoors,
Just as, we, walked back into church, it began to rain again.  So I
think Mary heard our prayers that day for beautiful weather.

I took 2 rolls of pictures and will be picking them up today.  I'm
anxious to see them.  I'll be sure to send you a copy via e-mail.
On one picture I zoomed in on the head of the statue with the
flower crown - it as an absolutely gorgeous sight.


Next I'm going to start working on the web page about the garden
for our church's website and will incorporate the pictures from the
beginning of the our garden up to the dedication.  It' very
interesting to see the progress.

I can't thank you enough for all your help.  Your e-mails. research
and Mary Garden web site were very helpful and many people have
commented they never knew that common flowers in their own garden
had the Mary stories behind the names.  I hope I have been able to
touch a few hearts with the program booklet.  I know that
personally I am very proud and touched spiritually that I was able
to a part of our "Mary's Garden".


June 4, 2002 - John Stokes

Thanks for mailing the Dedication Booklet off to me so promptly
after the ceremony. I apologize for the delay in being able to get
back to you.

The booklet is superb, and I congratulate you on such a thorough
and beautiful job!

Your whole undertaking, and especially the participation of the
entire parish - from the 2-yr old's to your Pastor - are a
beautiful and thorough model I would very much like to share in
this way with others - for their inspiration, and for their
following in their own parishes.

Again, Julie, many, many thanks for the joy of your parish's Mary's
Garden.


Jun 6, 2002

I was so thrilled to hear that you liked our booklet from our
garden dedication.  Many thanks again to you for your wonderful
website.  As soon as I get my photos organized, I'll send them to
you, in addition to the attached.

After the dedication, we had to replace some plants already in our
garden because of 3 days of unusual late May frost & cold weather.
Today, they are certainly getting enough water as it has been
raining all day.  But it still looks beautiful.
 




I'm still working on trying to get a web page put together with
my photos - I'll keep you posted on that.  Yes you do have our
permission to include any photos or to post selections from our
correspondence onto the Chat & Photos section.  I have to point out
that the 2 year old mentioned in the booklet is my daughter,
Jennifer.  We had our whole family on work detail although I'm not
so sure that was the easiest thing to do.  She did have a great
time helping out.
 
As far as a planting plan, I have the original large copy of the
plans on which I tried to layout what we could put where.

Naturally, things changed & I need to have Rege, the gentleman who
drew the original plans, revise it with the final layout and a
smaller sized version.  The plant markers are just the metals ones
that are written on with permanent markers.  We still need to get
them completed & placed.  (The weather here hasn't been the
greatest and it seems that when I have the time - the weather
isn't cooperating.)  The "take one" plant list & the garden layout
in the posting shelter are still on my "to do" list along with the
web page.

Hope the photo attachments work ok.  I have many favorites but I
wanted to give you an overall look at our garden.  Thanks again
for all your help.


June 7, 2002 - John Stokes

Thanks for your message and photos of today. The photos came
through fine.

I've composed selections from our correspondence as a starter for
the Chat & Photo posting - plus a copy so far of 5 pages of your
booklet, from "History of the St Elizabeth Ann Seton Garden"
through the end of "Mary's Month of May"; indicating that this is
an excerpt from a 24 p. booklet.  I've used one photo of the
statue with flowers, and wlll add others, such as a couple of
early photos of the garden being dug and planted; the crowning;
and a photo of a lot of people in the garden at the dedication.
Maybe one of your Pastor blessing the statue, etc.

Your booklet is so informative in giving illustrative legends and
meditations, etc. and general background that I hope you can
maintain all this in your "take one" item - which would thus
become a booklet, rather than a sheet.  Or do you plan to use the
booklet as is for future visitors.?  And will a supply be
maintained in the church pamphlet rack?

Re. plant markers, we use to use a machine (Dymo?) which imprinted
plastic labels with  adhesive backing which could be adhered to
those plastic plant markers with little stake for inserting in the
ground and a 45 degree inclined little panel for the name.

There is also a superb, but somewhat expensive, marker that our
Mary's Gardens Associate, Paula Mucha, used for her former parish
grotto Mary Garden.  I can't put my hand on it just now as I write,
but by way of a cc of this message, I ask Paula if she could e-mail
you the address where you send for them.


Jun 8, 2002

Attached are several photos of our garden in its early stages.  

   

I want to thank you for your suggestion about using the Dymo 
labeler for our plant markers.  That thought never occurred to me,
so right now as I'm scanning, I'm making the labels.  Good idea!
 
I'll be scanning & sending you the other photos I had chosen as
soon as I can.  I think I have all that you mentioned. (Let me
know if you need more - I have plenty.)
 
Thanks again


Jun 8, 2002

These photos show the center court inscribed bricks which was
finished the week of the dedication.  Parishioners can at any time
purchase a brick in memorial or to have their family name listed.
This will be an on-going thing.
 
The choir did a wonderful job singing accapello the "Magnificat".
It was so nice that so many members of the choir made the effort
to come out again that afternoon to join us in song.  I had the
privilege of joining in the Prelude piece "Mary, Ponder in Your
Heart" on my flute.
 
   

The last photo is the garden shot that day.
 
A few more to go. Hopefully I'll get them done tonight.


Jun 8, 2002

The Mary's Court photo shows one of the 1st Communion Girls &
several of the Court members along with Fr Rick as they approach
the statue for the crowning.
 
Fr Mack was the 1st pastor here at St Elizabeth and was able to
join us for the day.  He read the scripture reading.
 
Fr Rick is our current pastor and he blessed the statue for us.


June 8, 2002 - John Stokes

Thank you for the beautiful photos - especially the exquisite one
of the May-crowned statue!

From our viewpoint at Mary's Gardens the St Elizabeth Ann Seton
Garden and its dedication are the "event of the year" - as was the
Mary's Garden at the Basilica of the U.S. National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception two years ago, and the St. John the Baptist
parish Mary Garden last year..

Your dedication booklet is of special importance for many reasons,
and especially because it clearly sets forth how the 2-year
planning and development of the Garden was a spiritual project of
the entire parish, in which responsibility for its various aspects
was widely taken on by various individuals and groups.

Also, your booklet uniquely sets forth the essence of the Flowers
of Our Lady and Mary Gardens in its sections on Mary Garden
history, the various symbolic groupings of the flowers, flower
legends, flower meditations, Mary's Month of May and its flowers,
and your closing invitation to visitors to "Take a Moment" to sit
down on one the Garden benches and reflect on the flowers.

As with the National Shrine, I want to write a full-lengthed
article with photos, and also I would like to reproduce in full
your 20 p. dedication booklet, for which you have previously given
permission to reproduce portions - as two website files in
addition to the developmental correspondence excerpts to be put in
the Chat & Photos section.

I would of course include a clickable hot-link to your parish
website page to be posted by you on the garden, and I would
probably duplicate some of he photos you post.

In this connection, with our website reproduction of your booklet,
would you and the parish want to see included the listing of the
clergy (and Pastoral Associate) and the various Mary's Garden
Committee members?  I realize these names would not be recognized
by those outside the parish accessing the website world-wide; but
their inclusion serves to demonstrate, as do the photos, the full
parish participation in the project.

Again, my sincerest appreciation and thanks to the parish and to
you, and especially to you for your research, the booklet, and the
photos.

Prayerful best wishes,


Jun 10, 2002

I never expected it but I am so thrilled that our program booklet
& and our garden has made such an impression.

I am checking with Fr Rick about including the names from our
booklet onto the website and will let you know as soon as I hear
from him.

I can't tell you how happy it makes me to turn my computer on to
check my mail.

I received the email from Michael Holden and will be happy to send
him one of our booklets.  (I mailed the one to Elizabeth a few
days ago.)  I truly never thought that our little garden would be
a role model but I am truly happy to hear that.  I would be happy
to help any other groups in whatever way I can.

My mother-in-law was very instrumental in handling the fundraising
& working with getting the concrete and bricks/benches.  She
deserves a lot of the credit.

This is such a joy in my life right now - I just hope that some of
my work will help someone else.

Thanks again to you for all your help & inspiration.



June 10, 2002 - John Stokes

Some suggestions for the Mary Garden Committee, now that the Garden
has been atarted and dedicated:


                     Garden Maintenance

For ongoing garden maintenance, the best arrangement, through the
years, appears to have been to have the Committee Members, with
the help of other volunteers, take on the day-to-day
responsibility for watering, weeding, edging, pinching back spent
blooms or withered foliage; and then to have one or two special
people take responsibility for seeing that plants are procured and
planted at the proper times - but to have the professional
groundskeeper or landscapist take responsibility for cutting the
grass, and raking leaves in the fall, and also to have back-up
responsibility to make sure the garden is kept watered and weeded
if committee members are ill, or away etc..

For plant procurement and planting it is important that semi-hardy
biennial plants such as pansies and English daisies be procured
and planted as early as possible after the soil warms up, for
early border color; and that tender annuals be planted as soon as
the danger of frost is past, or replaced if necessary, for
fullness of May blooms (too bad you had such a late frost this
May!).  Also notes should be made for the fullness of bloom of the
earlier spring-bloooming bulbs, so reference can be made to these
in procuring and planting fall replacements.  And in general, any
plants that become disproportionately large should be pruned back
in the fall - such as roses, etc.


             Study of Marian Doctrine & Devotion

It is to be hoped that the garden committee members, at committee
meetings or as part of Sodality or Rosary Society meetings, will
undertake discussion or study of Marian doctrine and devotion
which can be quickened and enriched by the flower symbols.

In this the concluding prayer of the Rosary is to be applied to
reflection and meditating on the flower symbols of Our Lady in the
Mary Garden.

     "Grant, we beseech you, that while meditating on these
     mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
     Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what
     they promise, through Christ Our Lord, Amen."

In this respect, one suggestion I might make is that in
considering the groupings of "MARY's PLANTS" (per the examples in
the Booklet), the plants of Mary's Sorrows and of her Glories (her
heavenly privileges and prerogatives of protection, nurturing,
guidance, advocacy, intercession, and grace-light-wisdom-power
mediation and distribution) also be emphasized as distinct groups.

I deal with Mary's Sorrows pretty thoroughly in CHAT Jan 12, 2002,
and with her Glories, a bit heavy, in CHAT Feb 19,2002 (2nd half).


  The Special Importance of Prayer to Mary in Our Times

The special importance of Mary's intercession and mediation for
our times is that after 2,000 years since Christ's Redemption of
the world, Christians haven't yet consolidated this Redemption
with the culmination of Creation through the establishment of
God's Peaceable Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom - but
rather have participated in the world of conquest, exploitation,
domination, oppression, slavery, colonialism, imperialism, etc.
Now that it is clear that national and world power domination
won't work - because it is becoming possible for the dominated to
strike back with the terrorism and weapons of mass destruction -
we see the truth that God's Peaceable Kingdom must indeed be
established through truth, justice, love and freedom.

In fullfillment of Mary's prophecy in the Magnificat as to the
coming of God's Kingdom, it is up to the mighty, if they are not
to be put fown from their seat, to exhalt the humble; and up to
the rich, if they are not to be sent empty away, to fill the hungry
with good things.

Impossible as this seems in the present world situation, our hope
lies in our faith that God's will WILL be done, and that his
Kingdom WILL come "on earth as it is in heaven".  As the Holy
Father has said, "God did not create the world to be a graveyard",
and as G. K. Chesterton said, "Christianity has not failed; it's
never (fully) been tried."

I propose that the key to the establishment of God's Kingdom,
according to his will, lies in our grasping and living by the
teaching of the theologians (and the Catechism) that God created
the world to show forth and share his goodness with us humans,
created to this end "in the divine image and likeness".  The key
here is that God wishes to SHARE with us his goodness, and that
Mary, through her immaculate purity, her humility, and her total
assent to God (Hearing the word of God and keeping it; doing the
will of our Father in  Heaven) is, through her total union with
God ("the Lord is with you"), the "number one" sharer ("Blessed
are you among woman") in God's goodness and action.

The Key to Kingdom is that it is to be built through our sharing
and participation in God's loving action, through recourse to and
emulation of Mary's immaculate, virtuous divine sharing.  And
God's sharing of his goodness and action through Mary, and
therefore with the world, is increased ever more fully each time
we pray to her for her advocacy, intercession and mediation - with
readiness to act, in emulation of her virtues, through our sharing
in the graces thus received through her mediation.

Your statue of Our Lady of Grace is the perfect image of this, and
I note that the image of Our Lady of Grace on the cover of your
booklet shows that grace pours forth from some of her fingers, but
awaits our prayers that it may pour forth from all of them - as
she said in the revelation of this image in Paris.

I keep trying to say all this over and over, on each occasion, and
maybe one day I'll get it right.


    Flower Reminders to Pray to Mary Through the Day

In any case, we did not undertake Mary's Gardens simply as an
alternate extension of existing Marian devotion, but in the hope
that through the restoration of her flower symbols to common
perception, all will be quickened on each encounter with flowers
through the day (see "Wayside Flowers and Shrines of Our Lady"),
to emulate the "Flower of flowers" and to pray constantly for her
protection, counsel, advocacy, intercession and mediation/
distribution of graces - that we may contribute, through recourse
to her, and through sharing through and with her in the divine
goodness and action, to the movement of the world from the present
crisis towards its culmination in God's Creational sharing in his
Peaceable Kingdom, of which she is Queen.


June 19, 2002 - John Stokes

I have now posted your St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish Mary's Garden
Dedication Booklet, with Dedication Day photos added, to the
website, with Home Page notification link of:

NEW

    Model Parish Mary Garden Planting, Introduction and Blessing

and will also post this present message to our CHAT correspondence
(Apr 22, 2002), along with 7 additional photos of the Garden
development.

For the website posting I have added: at the beginning a
click-index of the Booklet sections, to facilitate browsing
through them; a "Mary's Gardens Introduction" pointing out to
viewers the exemplary steps which were followed in planning,
constructing, planting and dedicating the Garden; and at the ends
of the "Mary's Plants" and "Meditations of Mary's Flowers"
sections, two click-links to illustrative flower photos from the
website files.

Of special significance to us at Mary's Gardens is the way in
which you conceived and executed the entire Mary's Garden project
from the information on our website and in Vincenzina Krymow's
"Mary's Flowers, Gardens, Legends and Meditations" - coming to us
for personal assistance only at the end, in obtaining dimensioned
plans for the little Woods Hole pole-mounted plant list and
planting plan display housing; (in the course of which
correspondence we were able to suggest the use of clearly legible,
waterproof "Dymo" labels for your plant markers).

We hope that many other parishes will see how, following your
steps, they can likewise proceed from our published information;
while at the same time the CHAT posting for the start-up of the
St. John The Baptist Parish Mary Garden (21 Jun, 2000) illustrates
our readiness to offer assistance where desired.

When you have an opportunity, let me know of any changes you might
want to make to our posting of the Booklet, and also any spelling
corrections which might have to be made to parishioners' names, or
elsewhere, etc..

When the garden blooms have matured, send us some further photos
which we can add.  Also any additional photos you may have which
you would like to see included now - either in the Booklet, or in
the CHAT correspondence.

Again, Julie, let me again express our joy over your garden, and
our appreciation of the imaginative, professional and esthetic
manner in which you and your parish asssociates undertook and
executed this entire project.

With all prayerful best wishes to you, your family, fellow
parishioners and clergy,


(Click here for continuation)

Jun 25, 2002