Developmental Correspondence
Excerpts of Letters from John Stokes to Bonnie Roberson
The Fires of St. John
October 25, 1980
There is one more matter from the research I want to speak of now,
even though I haven't translated the relevant texts from the German,
or even combed through all the texts I have; and that is the Feast of
the Birth of St. John the Baptist, June 24, and all the customs and
flowers associated with it.
This feast is frequently referred to as the Pagan celebration of the
summer solstice, involving the lighting of a lot of bonfires, with
related festivities and customs, which was "taken over" by Christians
by making a few superficial changes to incorporate it into Christian
belief and culture - much as the alleged extensive flower
associations with Venus and Freia were supposed to have been taken
over as equivalent associations with Mary, and Christmas was supposed
to be merely a modification of the winter solstice celebration of
Pagan culture.
- the implication always being that Christianity is the "equivalent"
of the older religions and really the same basic natural religion in
a different guise or expression.
The important thing about the Mary-Flowers in refuting this assertion
is that they have such multiple associations with all the feasts of
Our Lady through the year, and in number so vastly exceed those
associated with Aphrodite, Venus and Freia, that the basic assertion
of equivalence and of historical continuity simply fails to meet the
test of research and reason.
However, in the case of the Birth of St. John and Christmas, we are
only dealing with one day or time of year in each instance, so that
there can indeed be said to be a probable "conversion" or "baptism"
as far as observance and custom are concerned - but this in no way
means that they are fundamentally equivalent, or are the same natural
religious observances under different guises.
Here, again, I believe that an examination of the flower customs,
symbolisms and namings associated with the St. John's Eve bonfires
gives us a clue to the deeper truths involved. In the overall
context of the sacramental use of flowers as blest and reserved
religious objects - particularly in the Assumption Day baskets of
Flowers blessings - we have here in contrast, a sort of "opposite"
ceremony, where not on the holy day of the feast, but on its eve
(paralleling Halloween before the Feast of All Saints) a "St. John's
Girdle" woven from Artemesia vulgaris was filled with seasonal
flowers which were then suspended over the bonfires for burning,
accompanied by various songs and chants to the effect that the people
thereby be delivered of their sins and afflictions.
I have nowhere read that the plants for this ceremony were in any way
blessed or sacramentalized in church, and my immediate source of
information on this at hand, Nathusius' "Die Blumenwelt", in fact
cites one reference to the inclusion of plants with folk names of
"devil's bite" and "devil's excrement" in these girdles, which
further indicates that this was a sort of scapegoat ceremony.
After describing the importance of the fiery-red burning at these
girdles, Nathusius then goes on to say:
"In the region of Saxony St. John's Crowns of white St. John's
Flowers, cornflowers, poppieswere hung in the vestibules of houses
to bring blessings to house and field."
While he doesn't say so, I would expect, from the church blessing of
Corpus Christi wreaths, and of Assumption Day Baskets of Flowers,
Plants, and Grains for similar use, that these crowns were in fact
sacramentally blessed in churches, on the next day's Feast of St.
John, for use as reserved religious objects.
In any case, Bonnie, we can see that the St. John's Eve bonfires
symbolize the prophecy of Zechariah (Luke 1, 78-79) relative to John
the Baptist as forerunner of Christ, that:
The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those
who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death."
- in fact, according to Nathusius one of the St. John's flowers is
Zechariah's Plant (Zachariaskraut), Centaurea cyanus.
And the burning of flowers symbolized the grace of purging sins in
response to St. John the Baptist's call to repentance.
Just yesterday (to show again how overflowing, yet intimate, is God's
Providence) I was talking to one of the Jesuit Priests at the Chapel,
Father O'Kane, about the "Our Lady's Tears" symbolism of the white
and pink Martagon lily hybrids on the altar (they have lilium
speciosum white and pink coloring, but the very definite Lilium
martagon bloom contour), and also thanking him again for a homily he
gave about six months ago on how flowers, through their response to
the sun, give us lessons in the humility and obedience under God's
Providence,
- and he said to me, "oh, I was just reading where John the Baptist
said, 'Even now the ax is laid to the root of the tree. Every tree
that is not fruitful will be cut down and thrown into the fire' (Luke
3, 9) - Plant teachings are everywhere in the Scriptures."
I didn't connect this passage with the custom of throwing the "St.
John's Girdles" of plants into the bonfires of St. John's Eve until
just this moment of writing this letter to you.
I do not consider that it would be fitting to bless plants that are
to be so quickly thrown into the bonfire (Although blest palms are of
course required to be burned, and are used as the ashes for the
following Ash Wednesday) but I would propose that any graces of
repentance that in fact are operative through this ceremony can be in
part attributed to the general "first fruits" blessings of flowers on
Church altars and in blessing ceremonies.
In any case, it is very clear to me from all these considerations,
Bonnie, that the many St. John's Flowers derived their namings more
particularly from their use in the St. John's Eve bonfire ceremonies,
rather than from simply being in bloom, apart from the ceremonies,
around June 24.
It may also be possible, as a secondary association, that a number of
them may have a yellow, orange or red fiery association, but I
haven't checked them out for a preponderance of this sort.
Also, in relation to the bonfires, we have the words of the John
Gospel prologue (1;7) that John the Baptist "came as a witness to
testify to the light."
But the primary import of the St. John's Eve bonfire ceremonies would
seem to me to quicken the grace of repentance by the burning of one's
sins in order that one would not oneself be "cut down and thrown into
the fire."
And presumably, through the naming of the St. John's Plants from
their throwing in the fire, or even from their only being in bloom
around that time, and thus "prospects" for the fire, they would be
seen according to this association and symbolism as they grew in the
fields, and thus be means to the grace of repentance.
Also, those plants in the preserved St. John's Crowns would appear to
symbolize those souls who did in fact repent - and thus would provide
a symbolic association appropriate to their use as blest, reserved,
sacramental, objects, for the sacramental protection and blessing of
homes, stables, workplaces, fields, etc.
I'm sure it can be demonstrated that Pagans sacrificed flowers and
plants in bonfires in sun worship at the summer solstice, but this
cannot be said to be the pre-cursor of the Christian repentance
bonfire ceremonies.
Jesus, too, I recall, made references to grass being thrown into the
fire to be burned and John's message and call to repentance were only
a fore-runner of this, so that Jesus' ministry is the one ultimately
involved here (just as his redemption is implicit and anticipated in
Mary's Immaculate Conception.)
Finally, I propose that the casting of flowers in the St. John's Eve
bonfires serves to remind and caution us against the naturalist
superstition that flowers and nature are "automatically" good for use
whereas if we are not sanctified, and they are not blest and
sacramentalized, they may very well serve as allurements and
temptations to emotional or spiritual gluttony, lust or even avarice
(e.g. the "Tulip Mania"), as checked out in the 1533 investigation of
Melrose Abbey gardens as possible "Pleasure gardens" or as perhaps
present in the landscaping of certain villas, palaces or castles,
etc. - or they can be employed by evil spirits, to lead us down "the
primrose way to the everlasting bonfire" - all of which we were
concerned about early on in Mary's Gardens, per my America and
Catholic World articles.
That flowers, while in themselves good, as part of God's creation,
can be used for either good or evil leads us to appreciate even more
the Church's wisdom in blessing them as "first fruits" or as
sacramentals in order that they be set apart and reserved as holy, as
well as good - as means to grace for the salvation of our souls and
the renewal of the face of the earth, unto the coming of God's
Kingdom .
Bonnie, this about brings you up to date with my "research", in the
broader sense of the term.
(October 26, 1980)
P.S. It occurred to me that I should reconcile what I wrote
yesterday with what Grigson has written about St. John's Eve in "The
Englishman's Flora" (p. 76-79) and "A Herbal of All Sorts" (p.76-78).
First, he points out citing the "French anthropologist", Arnold van
Gennep, that "there is not true evidence of a European cult either of
the sun or fire (and) no evidence to connect the picking of plants
with the sun "- so that there is no historical basis for the
phenomenon that "most books on folklore write of St. John's Eve and
the fires and ceremonies as a christianized survival of fire-worship
or sun-worship".
But then he goes on to present his own theory that the ceremony grew
out of a combination of pre-Christian "magic ceremonies and fires,
etc. - used to protect the harvest, the farm animals and the people"
and the smoke from the fires which was "purifying (and) strengthened
the magic of plants already magical (and strengthened against the
powers of evil) all those who jumped across the fire".
I question, and suggest it should be checked further, whether the
advent of Christianity and the christianizing of culture would be the
occasion for the origination and widespread dynamism of ceremonies
which were essentially magical.
It seems to me that we should rather look to Christianity itself for
the origin and dynamism of these ceremonies. In this connection I
certainly plan to follow up Grigson's assertion that the fires "were
lit and sanctified in the evening".
It is very possible that when "the flowers were smoked - they were
now better for medicine, or for immediate use in protecting stables,
cow-stalls, horses, animals or men, against elves, devils and demons,
witchcraft and all evils" not because of some magical quality of the
smoke, as such, but because the fires had been blest by the local
priest, religiously and sacramentally.
Since people and flowers can be and are blest on numerous occasions,
I have difficulty seeing how the particular St. John's Eve ceremonies
would be developed for this primary purpose - any more than would be,
say the feasts of Corpus Christi or the Assumption. It seems to me,
rather, that the ceremonies were developed for the eve of the date
assigned to the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist because in
the Gospel, St. John: pointed out and bore witness to Christ, the
Light of the world. called to repentance to prepare to way, and
stated that "every tree that is not fruitful will be cast into the
fire (Luke 3, 9)
While I take exception to the element of superstition reported by
Nafusius's in "Die Blumenwelt" - (p. 24,26) as not being inherent or
fundamental to the religious origination of the ceremonies, I think
his account contains elements which bring us closer to seeing the
Christian basis for them:
"Garlands of nine different sorts of herbs, of which the St.
John's Girdle (Johannisgustel), Artemesia vulgaris, was one
of the principal ones, were suspended over the fire and,
after being burnt were pulled off by persons jumping over
the fire, who then while the flowers were burning red with
fire, sang songs to themin commemoration of the bloody death
of St. John. In many localities lanterns were decked with
fiery-red wild poppies so that they would shine with a
blood-red light
"Superstitious people make garlands from St. John's Girdle
and wind them onto their bodies afterwards throwing them with
special chants and sayings, into the St. John's Fire -
believing that thereby they will be set free from all their
misfortunes."
Somehow, the redness of the burning flowers (which I would expect
was, with the lanterns, more orange or yellow than red) just doesn't
strike my sense of symbolism as the kind of symbol which would be
selected to recall St. John's beheading (which moreover, is
separately celebrated on August 29).
I propose that they were, rather, dramatizations of the coming light
of the world; the casting into the fire of the unfruitful "trees";
and preparing for salvation by the burning away of sins (symbolized
by removing the garlands from the body and throwing them into the
fire.)
(More appropriate as symbols of St. John's beheading would be the red
juice of Hypericum perforatum, "St. John's Blood" , or the red
berries of Arum maculatum, St. John's Head".)
Contrary to what I proposed above, I can see that if what Grigson
says about the "sanctification" of the fires is in fact a priestly
blessing (and with rituals for blessing fields and field crosses in
the Roman Rite, I can see this as a distinct possibility), then I can
envisage that the "St. John's Crowns" of flowers might indeed be
blessed and "smoked" at the St. John's Fire ceremonies - although
this doesn't rule out the possibility of their being blessed in
Church the following day.
The drying, smoking and perhaps partially burning or browning of the
preserved flowers would bring more vividly to mind their blessing at
the ceremony.
As with the alleged "Venus Flowers" and "Freia Flowers", I've gotten
into the St. John's Eve distortions in order to penetrate to the
deeper truths of St. John's Eve - both historically, for the record,
but also to see what we can learn from it and benefit today. In this
last respect, I'll simply copy from my journal for this morning:
"St. John's Eve is a time of repentance and penance."
"It is a time for the immolation of flowers, and of our love of
flowers, lest we idolize them, even when used as sacramentals - and
we are reminded of this throughout the year by the blessing and
reservation of flowers burnt in St. John's Fire."
"- although in our times, we are reminded of this by the ritual of
removing blest palms of the previous year from our homes and burning
them for ashes for Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of Lent and the
removal of flowers from our altars, now the primary rite of
repentance and penance, which probably accounts for the disappearance
of the St. John's Eve popular rites of repentance and penance."
"- Nevertheless, they seem more appropriate to repentance and penance
than the gluttonous excesses of 'Fat (Maunday) Tuesday', and the
Halloween excesses of mimicking witches, ghosts and evil spirits."
"However, reflection on the St. John's Eve ceremonies heighten our
disposition for an efficacious Ash Wednesday and Lent - St. John's
Eve is a sort of mid-summer Ash Wednesday."
"- And the St. John's Flowers in the fields can still, today, call
us, symbolically and with the sacramental 'first fruits' blessing of
all flowers to repentance and penance, midst the beauty and lushness
of summer growth - just as we are still thus called by the liturgical
celebration of the feast."
"St. John's Eve popular rites were ones that the entire community
could take part in as a penitential rite - more than they might in
Ash Wednesday church rites."
"Consciousness of St. John's Eve inspires the immolation of the love
of flowers - that this love not become idolotrous."
"Late June is seasonally appropriate for this because the cycle of
springtime awakening and renewal of growth is past: summer flowers
are entering their fullness, and fruits and vegetables have not yet
ripened - yet the days are starting to grow shorter."
"The light of St. John's Eve was first manifested for me in the
illumination of the Chestnut Hill Ave Seat of Wisdom central Mary
Garden statue by the setting solstitial sun."
"The liturgical pointing to the Heavenly light of Christ comes at the
time of the maximum earthly light, which now begins to decrease."
"St. John's Eve is indeed a feast of mortification for flower lovers,
in our culture. The spring flowers are gone and the hot summer days
are starting. Gardens are scorched, and frequently neglected by
gardeners going away on weekends or vacations."
"But with the Nativity of Our Lady, a new cycle begins - with the
coming of the cooler weather, a renewed blooming of roses, a
maturation of marigolds, and the blooming of goldenrod, asters and
chrysanthemums."
"- which culminates in All Saints Day, and immediately goes into
renewed mortification at All Souls Day, the month of November, and
the falling of leaves."
"- until the coming of Advent which while still a penitential time,
and a liturgical time of St. John the Baptist, prepares us for
Christmas, when the days will begin to grow longer in anticipation of
Spring.
Bonnie, with respect to the matter of herbs which were used magically
or superstitiously, in previous Pagan ceremonies being incorporated
in Christian rites, I find the following from the Sacred Legends of
Plants by "a priest of - Paderborn" instructive:
"These plants (blest on the Feast of the Assumption) may be
partly those which served n the altars of superstition partly
those which were regarded by the people as healing plants, and
those, finally, grown in the fields."
"Through the blessings bestowed upon them, their misuse is
atoned for, their healing power enhanced, and their growth
commended to God's protection."
Thus, it behooves us to demonstrate, Bonnie, through scholarship and
reason, the essentially Christian origin and Church-centeredness of
customs, rites, symbolisms, namings, legends, usages, etc. where they
exist - and to offset, "atone for" and transform whatever Pagan or
superstitious elements may still be current.
- so that elements of Christian culture can properly be preserved,
and insisted upon, as part of the holy, sacramental, renewing life
and action of the Church, flowing apostolically from Christ - and not
just as another variant of pagan or superstitious customs of
"universal, natural religion", as so many writers on plant-lore would
have us believe.
October 28, 1980 Simon & Jude
Last night I had a staggering surprise. In checking out Arnold van
Gennep in connection with the Fires and Herbs of St. John, as
mentioned by Grigson, I was astonished to find at Widener Library
that he has 403 pages on this subject in his "Manuel de Folklore
Francais Contemporain", Book I, Vol IV, Paris, 1949, pages 1727-2130,
so I invested $10.00 and xeroxed the entire section.
At this point I am most thankful that in my letter to you of Oct.
25-26 I thought and prayed my way through this matter on the sparse
information I had up to that point, because it gave me a perspective
of what to look for in van Gennep.
In skimming it for an hour last night I noted that the St. John's
Fires were given a tremendous impetus by a sermon of St. Augustine,
and that through the years there was both a tremendous variation in
the actual customs and procedures surrounding the fires, and an
unending ecclesiastical controversy over them.
On p. 1809, van Gennep states (tr.) "What interests us at this point
is the attitude of the Church regarding these fires," and then he
goes on to quote endless ecclesiastical documents approving,
regulating or prohibiting the fires in various degrees.
Where there was the fullest ecclesiastical participation, the flame
for lighting the bonfires was taken from the village church to the
site of the fire in full ceremonial procession and with full
sacramental blessing.
The attempts to regulate prohibited the dancing in circles around the
fires, the singing and chanting, the throwing in of flowers and
herbs, the jumping over the fires, commemorating St. John's
beheading, etc.
The prohibitions condemned them outright as superstitious, magical,
demonaic, etc.
Interestingly, as I conjectured, in some instances flowers were
indeed blessed in church on the following day's Feast of St. John,
rather than at the bonfire.
- and there was much use of flowers woven as wreaths, crowns,
crosses, and placed as sprays at the pinnacle of the pyramid of wood
before lighting the fire.
At this point in history, the St. John's Fires have been largely
secularized, and the Church's blessing of fire has been focused
liturgically in the Easter Vigil service of Light:
"Let us pray, Father, we share in the light of your glory
through your son, the light of the world. Make this new fire
holy, and inflame us with new hope. Purify our minds by this
Easter celebration, and bring us to the feast of eternal light.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."
(Preparation and lighting of Easter candle)
"May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness
of our hearts and minds.
"Christ our light . . .
(Exsultet)
"Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, radiant in the
brightness of your king! Christ has conquered! Glory fills
you! Darkness vanishes forever . . .
"This is the night when the pillar of fire destroyed the
darkness of sin! This is the night when Christians everywhere
washed clean of sin, and freed of all defilement are restored
to grace and grow together in holiness
"Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided. But undimmed, a
pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God. Let it mingle
with the lights of heaven and continue bravely burning to
dispel the darkness of this night! May the Morning Star which
never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, the Morning
Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light
on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns forever and ever.
Amen."
I think it is well, and I am whole-heartedly supportive, Bonnie, that
the Church has by and large withdrawn its approval of and
participation in the St. John's Fires - they certainly, to my
knowledge, are not a factor in the U.S. - and returned our focus to
the Easter Fire - To avoid excesses in relation to fires that divert
from salvation and from renewal of the face of the earth.
However, Jesus did "come to set fire on earth", and the face of the
earth cannot be renewed passively. Fire as heat is the primal symbol
of energy - and I think that there is a basic truth which is
contained in the lighting of St. John's fires throughout the French
countryside: that, somehow, blest and sacramentalized energy must
spread out to renew the face of the earth - or that the energy which
is already moving out secularly must be blest and sacramentalized.
I was thinking of this this morning at Mass as I was looking at the
flames of the altar candles, and then moved ot praying for it,
including it in my offertory intercessions, as I also include my
intercessions for the instrumentality of flowers for grace as first
fruits. (Interestingly, candles are "immolated" as the wax is
consumed by the flame - just as the altar flowers are "immolated" by
withering. Somewhere in the Mary's Gardens correspondence files at
New Hope are some copies of a bulletin or "newsletter" put out some
time ago by some people promoting knowledge of the religious uses and
symbolisms of candles.)
I now have on my desk a photo I took of the altar and tabernacle at
Xavier Chapel, with the Martagon lilies - in connection with the
things I mentioned about them in my recent letters (they have been
there about 10 days now) - and I'm suddenly conscious that the two
candles were not lit when I took the photo.
The two things on the altar, in addition to the lectionary - candles
and flowers - symbolize so much to me now: the flowers the matrixing
of the grace pouring out to the world through the Mass and Eucharist,
and the candles the penetrating Spirit.
Along with the altar photo, I have the photos I recently took of
roadside asters, a photo of a vase of white, red and gold roses - a
gift from a business associate which was waiting for us on our
arrival at our hotel room in Paris (together with a basket of fruit)
- and a 1957 photo I found just Sunday (While looking for Ed's
memorial prayer card) of my Chestnut Hill Mary Garden illuminated by
the St. John's setting sun - the original concrete statue of the Seat
of Wisdom, in two-thirds close-up view, with yellow pansies, red
lychnis and an Our Lady's Candle mullein in the background.
These photos keep before me the flow of grace and blessing - and now
with thoughts of the candles, together with the radiance of the Seat
of Wisdom, I am much more prayerfully aware of the fire and light.
I am struck, Bonnie, by how these spiritual developments, relating to
flowers of grace, and fire of Spirit, are paralleled by the spiritual
developments in Hagerman, whereby you, in your gardening for Our
Lady, are now being called, and responding to, working with the light
and fire and energy needed for the spiritual renewal of the face of
the earth - with the solar greenhouse - working with grace and with
energy.
I hope, to this end, that you can have your greenhouse blest, as I
know your garden has been blest.
It seems to me that it is only when energy is used prudently,
harmoniously, and gracefully - in service of basic, sufficiency,
human needs - that the face of the earth will indeed be renewed.
Your ability to show people how to use herbs for the seasoning of
their more simple fare is such a graceful complement ot the prudent
use of energy for the growing of one's own food.
You are lighting your own St. John's Fire - one of the "other fires"
referred to by Thomas Merton in his poem.
Just now, in praying the midday Hours (Sext), I read the third hymn,
by Oliver Wendell Holmes, with much greater appreciation:
"Lord of all being, throned afar,
Your glory flames from sun and star;
Center and soul of every sphere,
And yet to loving hearts now near.
"Sun of our life, your living ray
Sheds on our path the glow of the day;
Star of our hope, your gentle light
Shall ever cheer the longest night.
"Lord of all life, below, above,
Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love;
Before the brilliance of your throne
We ask no luster of our own.
"Give us your grace to make us true,
And kindling hearts that burn for you,
Till all your living altars claim
One holy light, one heavenly flame."
I read this daily, but after writing this letter, Bonnie, it will
mean a lot more to me - as will walking past the seated statue of
Oliver Wendell Holmes in the Commonwealth Avenue green mall.
St. John's Night
by Thomas Merton
(excerpted)
Now where the hills of Languedoc are blue with vineyards
Swimming to the crowns of the low ridges brown as shells,
A thousand villages begin to name your night with fires.
The flames that wake as wide as faith,
Opening their fierce and innocent eyes from hell to hill
In the midsummer nightfall
Burn at the ageless cross-roads these their fires.
All the dark shocks of the fair summer's harvest
Rise up in the deep fields
Where for two thousand years, St. John,
Your fires are young among us:
They cry out there, loud as was your desert testimony . . .
And in our hearts, here in another nation
Is made your deep midsummer night.
It is a night of other fires,
Wherein all thoughts, all wreckage of the noisy world
Swim out of ken like leaves, or smoke upon the pools of wind.
Now can we have you, peace, now can we sleep in
Your will, sweet God of peace?
Now can we have Your Word and in Him rest?
Prophet and hermit, great John-Baptist . . .
We wait upon your intercessions:
Or die we without mercy on the rim of those impossible shores?
Kindle, kindle in this wilderness
The tracks of those wonderful fires:
Clean us and lead us through this night, Elias!
Win us the summits of the love and prayer
That wisdom wants of us, oh Bridegroom's Friend!
And take us to the secret tents,
The sacred, unimaginable tabernacles
Burning upon the hills of our desire!
October 30, 1980
Last night I was able to check out Volumes III and V Book I of
Arnold van Gennepıs "Manuel de folklore Francais Contemporain",
which cover Lent-Easter and summer, respectively (Volume IV which I
wrote about in my letter of October 28th covered May - St. John's.)
Two areas of special interest which I noted had to do with the
French ceremonies and customs equivalent of the blessing of palms on
Palm Sunday and to the blessing of Assumption Day baskets of flowers
on the Feast of the Assumption, in various other countries.
In France "Palm Sunday" is called the "Sunday of the Branches" (Le
Dimanche des Ramequx), because, traditionally, green branches other
than palms were more widely used - olive, laurel, willow, etc.
Moreover, the cultural emphasis is very great on the uses of the
blest branches after the ceremony, to extend or distribute the
blessing to the home, family members, barn, stables, animals, fields
and crops. Also, there is much attention given to the burning of
the branches the following year, so that they will not fall into the
hands of profane persons, who might use them for occult purposes.
This whole pattern of plant blessing in France, on "the Sunday of
the Branches" was a joy to me to discover, because it supports my
sense of the need for a restoration of plant blessings, and
particularly flower blessings, in our country at this time or I
wrote in my letter of Oct. 18-"17".
Those of us who live in cities, suburbs and towns may not have
animals, barns, fields and crops, and may have taken these to a
certain extent for granted, but with population growth, resource
depletion, energy shortages, and limited food supplies, there is
going to be a lot more gardening and solar greenhousing which will
generate once again a sense of our very real dependence on God's
providence and blessing, and a sense of our need to acknowledge and
petition that blessing through religious ceremonies, blessings and
blest objects, including flowers and plants.
I propose that this is an important dimension, if not the most
important dimension of your solar greenhouse project - particularly
as it will be a shining example and inspiration for others - with
the combination of blessing by a priest, the reservation of blest
palms or other greens, or flowers, and special religious sense of
the associated Mary Garden and Flowers of Our Lady.
As for the special blessings of plants on the Feast of the
Assumption, August 15, in France, this is not given much emphasis.
There is some blessing of medicinal herbs on this occasion, but,
according to van Gennep, this is just one day of blessings, along
with many others of summer, and the principal blessing ceremonies
focus on the Feast of the Annunciation, the Sunday of the Branches,
the month of May and the Feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist.
Van Gennep states that the blessing of plants on the Feast of the
Assumption is much more prevalent in Germany and Belgium, than in
France and gives some references, which I will attempt to locate.
Bonnie, I feel that this rounds out the basic principles and
outlines of my research into the blessing and reservation of plants
as sacred, sacramental objects. The rest will be a filling in of
the details, but I believe the basic ideas are here - and also the
basic applications to our work.
And as I read of all these customs in Catholic France and Germany
regarding the blessing of plants, I am even more convinced that this
was the general context for their religious symbolism and names,
culminating in the Mary Garden.
Reaching out to the world spiritually, we are to:
open up the flow of flowers of grace
kindle everywhere the fires of divine love,
spread reception of the Eucharist, and
build God's temple, city and kingdom.
At Mass we intercede that there may be this reaching or going out
through the modalities supported by our offering of:
the altar flowers
the altar candles
the Eucharist
the Tabernacle and church
And from a mystical "macrocosmic" overview we see this (for example)
with the help of the medieval Rose Windows (Painton Cowen):
Mary, Seat of Wisdom- (Chartres, #6,7; Notre Dame, #11)
Flames of Love of Sacred Heart and Lamb - (Houden #75; Tours,
#85)
Eucharist, Wheat, Grapes - (Strasbourg, #59
Resurrected Word and Mystical Body - (Chartres, #10, 36, 37,
41; Notre Dame #12)
- the soul of the world, or animus mundi, being symbolized by the
Terrestrial Paradise, in turn symbolized by the Garden Enclosed and
Mary Gardens into which the Eucharist is to be engendered and given
birth, as we go forth.
