Mary's Gardens Developmental Correspondence
Letters from John Stokes to Bro Seán MacNamara, Ireland
1988-ff
This "book length" correspondence, and similarly extensive
correspondence (in long process of posting to Website) with Bonnie
Roberson of Hagerman, Idaho; Jane McLaughlin of Woods Hole; and
Nanette Sears of Annapolis, represent Mary's Gardens' "in house";
developmental activity from 1980 (following that of Bonnie, who had
carried it forward from 1968 until then) through 1995, when the
Internet website and general e-mail correspondence were initiated.)
Because of the book length and unediting of the letters, a
listing of letter contents has been prepared .
John Stokes
February, 2005
LETTER TOPICS
January 11, 1988
- Visit to Woods Hole Mary Garden in Snow - Knock Booklet Sent Out
January 21, 1988
- De Montfort Missionaries Knock Pilgrimage Planned
January 23, 1988
- Further Plans for Knock Pilrimage - Photos for Article
February 2, 1988
- Snowdrops, Candlemas Bells, Buds or Blooms for Candlemas
February 11, 1988
- Going Forth from Mary Garden to the World
February 21, 1988
- Sense of Mary's Presence With Flowers as Mediatrix of All Grace
February 29, 1988
- Woods Hole - Mary's Presence Sensed in Mode of Flower Symbolism
March 19, 1988
- Flowers of Our Lady and Present-Day Irish Rural Poor
March 27, 1988
- Effectiveness of Varied Flowers in Quickening Sense of Mary's Presence
March 30, 1988
- Saramentally Blest Flowers: Vehicles of Mary's Mediated Actual Graces
April 19, 1988
- A Sensed Reality of Mary's Presence Sustains Mary Garden Care
May 2, 1988
- U.S. deMontfort Missionary Fathers Pilgrimage Visit to Knock
July 4, 1988
- Answers to M.G. Inquiries - Woods Hole - Annapolis Garden Started
July 11, 1988
- Mary's Gardens Purpose Re-Artculated - Kingdom and Transfiguration
August 1, 1988
- Private Marian Revelations - Woods Hole Garden - imprecatory Prayer
November 15, 1988
- Illuminateed Flower Drawings - Earthly Kingdom - Transfiguration
December 8, 1988
- Follow-up for Knock Articles
December 12, 1988
- Visit to Woods Hole Mary Garden - Rose-Mary Plant - Bell Tower Star
March 17, 1989
- Editing Revisions of Knock Articles for Queen of All Hearts
June 24, 1989
- Mary's Mediating Presence Where Grace is Distributed
July 31, 1989
- Blest Flowers Draw Down Mary as Mediatrix of Their Graces
September 7, 1989
- Knock Bulletin Mention of Mary Garden - Presentation of Plants
December 20, 1989
- Saint Fiacre - Living in the Heavenly City on Earth
January 10, 1990
- Rising to Love of God's Beauty and Truth Through Flowers of Our Lady
March 17, 1990
- Snowdrops Bloom this Candlemass - "Thoughts in Bloom"
March 25, 1990
- Our Calling for Renewal and Kingdom as Instruments of the Holy Spirit
May 13, 1990
- New Annapolis and N. Olmstead Mary Gardens - True Devotion Deepened
July 8, 1990
- Knock Delays - Mary Garden Care Essentials - Deepened Marian Piety
February 2, 1991
- Irish Monthly Mary Garden Column - Mary Garden Society at Knock?
March 17, 1991
- Annpolis Mary Garden Planting - Priest Supporters of Mary's Gardens
July 22, 1991
- Preparations for "Mary of Nazareth" statue at Annapolis Mary Garden
September 8, 1991
- Dedication and Blessing of Annapolis Mary Garden - Significance
August 22, 1992
- Perpetuation of Woods Hole and Annapolis Mary Gardens - Dublin Garden
February 2, 1994
- Artane "Garden of Remembrance", Prototype Burial Plot Mary Garden
March 25, 1994
- Garden of Remembrance leaflet Revisions
(Postings in Process)
THE LETTERS
+
Boston, MA
January 11, 1988
Baptism of the Lord
Dear Brother Seàn,
Thank You for Your latter of Decombar let telling me of
your new work and sanding your prayerful beat wishes for Christmas
and tho Now Year.
We found an especially lovely 7ft. 'Georgia pine' Christmas
Tree this year with a beautiful over-all shape and a multitude
of fine branches (instead of fewer, coarsa ones). Also, we found
some large hand-crafted Christmas tree balls which were perfactly
proportioned to its size.
There has been a sort of Kaleidoscope renaissance in this
country the past several years, and I was able to find some
especially wonderful hand-crafted ones.
Yestarday, I drove to Woode Hole and it was one of those
wonderfully bright mornings after an overnight snow storm, with very
little traffic on the (well-plowed) roads.
This was the first time I had an opportunity to visit the
Garden of Our Lady under such pristime white conditions, and I
prayed the Mary Garden Prayer before the figure of Our Lady with
a special sense of wonder, awe and reverence.
I hadn't baen watching the time, and as I got out of the car I
wondered what thp strmnge 'clunking' noise I heard was. Looking up
at the bell tower I found that ihe knockers were striking the
Angelus belle, but an almost leaden sound was coming from them. I
don't khow whether this was duo to the below-freezing temperature,
or to the in-progress repairs Fr. Dalzall mentioned to me on my
lest visit. It was quite unusual.
No one had been in the Garden since the snow as it was
especially pure and untouched.
I was pleased to see the erection of two narrow trelIises
about 7 ft. high and 6 ft. or so apart at the back border -
framing the figure of Our Lady aa you look at the Garden from the
front, and providing an entrance accross to the aroa cloored behind
the Garden in 1985. Just the trallises themselves - which are
nicely crafted, and reminiscent in fooling of the original Lillie
trellis, of which I have a photo - restore the sense of the 'Garden
Enclosed', which I am sure will be enhanced by an appropriate
accompanying planting.
Also, the 1986 removal of the overgrown back privet thicket trees
at the back bed for the proper rostoratton of it planting which was
not possible in the goneral 1982 restoration (when Jsne had to put
plants originally specified for this bed in a left border bed as
you approach the Garden).
I'm sure the Knock Mary Garden booklet, and its just tribute
to the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, and Jane's centennial
history of St. Joseph's Church, together with your work, was the
effective inspiration for Msgr. Horan's establishment of tha Knock
Garden, have provided added impetu for ihe fullest and highest
quality of restoration of the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady.
I an hopeful that we will be able to make the originally
envisaged full family use of our Woods Hole house in the summers -
so that I will be able to spand time once again at the Garden and
to make the concrete contributions to its life which are
facilitated whon I am 'on location'. Pray for this, Brother.
For Christmas I sent out the remainder of the 20 copies of the
Knock Mary Garden booklet to people who have been close to Mary's
Garden through the years - including Ed's widow Frances, Father
Stanley, Ade Bethune, and Jone Garra (our original 'consultant',
and designer of the 1968 Philadelphia Flower Show Mary Garden).
A1so to Marie Reinhart Jones, who used to drive with Ed and
myself to the St. Joseph's Cpllege Insitute of Industrial Relations
night courses in 1948-SO when Ed and I were conceiving the Mary
Garden idea and work (and who now is the editor of the Chestnut
Hill Local newspaper in Philadelphia); and others close in similar
ways to the practical origins of Mary's Gardens.
I am going to write to Tom Neary at Knock requesting some
additional copies - and enclosing an additional donation, to
contribute to any further underwriting, if neceseary, for
reprintings of the Booklet (or otherwise for any furthar garden
associated literature, such as planting plan give-aways, etc.).
We went to be sure that the Booklet stays in print, Are you
privy to any information as to the quantity of the original
printing, and how many were sold in 1987, etc?
I continue to give thought to the overall ramifications and
development of the Mary Garden idea, Brother, although at a reduced
levol as compared to the last several years. I hope to continue
writing to you of this, as wall as of evente and work ot the Woods
Hole Garden - my letters to you comprising pretty much the sum
total of my Mary's Garden work since the big push providentially
possible with Jane at the time of the 1982 Jubilee.
With your presence close-by Knock now, and Garden renewal
plans nearing completion at Woods Hole, I have a feeling, for 1988,
of consolidation of our bases on both sides Of the Atlantic. I
have no concrete signs of any further movement in Englond, since my
AVE article(s), but hope for some sort of breakthrough there - at
Walsingham, or elsewhere.
I am still involved, personally, in an extensive consolidation
of home, family and affairs - with the hope for establishing a
basis for time for another major round of Mary Garden work:
writing, promoting, lecturing. Pray for this.
With all prayerful best wishes for your good health and for
your educational and Mary's Bardans work in 1998, I am, as always,
Sincerely, your friend, in Jesus mnd Mary,
+
Boston, MA
January 21, 1988
Agnes
Dear Brother Seàn,
I received nice note from Fr. Stanley Matuszewski, M.S.,
Editor for its entire 40 some years of the recently discontinued Our
Lady's Digest.
'Thanks a million' for your wonderful enclosure, The
Knock Mary Garden booklet. It Is very attractive and
should help the Mary Garden movement...
Also, from Fr. Roger Charest, Editor of, Queen of All Hearts,
telling he was leading a pilgrimage group to Europe in April with a
planned visit to Knock.
I wrote to him saying that possibly there would ba considerable
bloom at that time since the 6ulf Stream has a warming influence on
Ireland; and asked him to take a few pictures for me, I also gave
him your Bal1introbe address, to send you the schedule of his visit
so you might be able to arrange to meat briefly at the Shrine,
His address is:
Fr. Roger M. Charest S.M.M.
OUEEN OF ALL HEATS MAGAZINE
Montfort Missionaries
26 So. Saxon Ave. Say Shore, L,I.,
NY 11706 U.S.A.
He has published perhaps I0 full-length articles on the flowers
of Our Lady and Mary's Gardens through the years - including one of
Bonnie's and four of mine (most recently the three Mary Garden
Jubilee articles).
It occurs to me he might went to write something about
your Mary garden work and the Knock Mary Garden, as part of his
report to his readers of his pilgrimage - or perhaps even a full
article. It's about time for a re-demonstration that 'A prophet is
not without honor, except in hie own home'.
I do not mean that your work is not appreciated in Ireland, but
that it is deserving of that special appreciation which can come
from an outside perspective.
I enclosed with my latter to him photo copies of the original
1972 Philadelphia Inquirer 'Hot Line' column reporting of your
inquiry regarding Mary's Gardens, and of the Catholic Standard photo
of you with a dish Mary Garden - so he would have a sense of the
providential continuity of the Mary Garden movement initiative, and
also of your own unique input to it and the Knock Garden,
Father's Knock visit may represent a unique providential
opportunity for us in the hoped for incorporation of the Mary Garden
idea and movement In universal Catholic and Marian religious culture
- Just as the Flowers of Our Lady were part of medieval rural
Catholic religious culture, And this further providential
'leveraging' is possible because of the publication of The Knock
Mary Garden booklet.
Through the years much of the growth of the Mary Garden
movement has been through making the most of Providential
opportunities to set up new links and channels for the communication
of information and for the circulation and fruition of the Spirit -
as well as through direct "promotion". I see this as another such
opportunity.
Perhaps You could drop Fr. Charest a note giving him your
Phone number, and saying you hope you might be able to meet with him
briefly at the Shrine,
I do not have enough detailed acquaintance with the Irish scene
or your personal background to write about you the kind of articles
I did about Bonnie which one can't write about oneself). Perhaps
there is someone in Ireland who know of your life and work who
could write such an article for the QUEEN. Or, perhaps Fr, Charest
or one of his writers would write such an article if the necessary
background information were made available.
In this connection, you wrote to me on November 6, 1990 that
you were 53 years old an October I0th of that year - which would
place Your birthday on October 10, IS27. Later, however, You wrote
me something that led me to believe (without checking your earlier
letter) that you were born on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi
(October 4th). Could You clarify this for me?
I don't know if I eyer wrote you that Ed and I established the
founding of Mary's gardens to be on March 7, 1951, in Philadelphia -
the (former) feast of St Thomas Aquinas.
I suggest that we leave the final initiative up to Fr.
Charest, Brother, after we have provided practical facilitation for
a meeting (assuming you would wish such. Maybe he would just like
to meat you because of his long familiarity with the Mary Garden
movement, and any sort of article etc. would come later. Perhaps he
has an over-full agenda already, but would like to follow up by
correspondence later, etc., My suggestion to him was just the
general one that he might like to meat you.
I mat with him personally just once, around 1983, about which I
may have written you, when he came to Boston to apeak at a Legion
of Mary conference, He was good enough to let me tape our brief
discussion, between sessions, for Bonnie. He greeted her through
the tape, and I recall that we offered prayers for her health.
We were able to fit our brief meeting into a very buoy schedule
on extremely short notice, which prompts me to consider that he
might be able to do likewise with You at Knock (or Ballintrobe), I
made no further specific suggestions to him, as to the possibility
of an article,
With prayerful hope for the fruition of this 'open-ended'
providential opportunity, Brother, I remain, as ever, your co-worker
in the vineyard of Jesus and Mary,
+
Boston, MA
January 23, 1988
Door Brother Seàn,
Since writing you on January 21st I received a phone call from
Father Cherst of QUEEN magazine in which he mentioned that his
planned pilgrimage to Knockck in late April is still tontativo -
awaiting the registration of enough pilgrims to cover expenses.
Actually the stop-avor is in Dublin, with a bus trip to Knock
for a four hour afternoon visit.
He said he would bo most happy to meet you there, but wented
you to know his time constraints. I will let you know if the
planned visit becomes definite.
The purpose of his phone call was to tell me that he plans to
reprint Robert Osterman's 1953 Irish Ecclesiastical Record article
in the March-April issue of OUEEN, and would like to have me
prepare a commentary updating the article in terms of the
subsequent development of tho Mary Gardon movement in Ireland,
culminating in plonting of the notional Irish Mary Garden at Knock.
I enclose a copy of the commentary I have written. I am also
sending him copies of my review of Muire Mhathair and the Knock
Booklet.
He would very much like to have several reproduction-quality
photos of the Knock Garden, and I told him I would write to you and
Tom Neary to see if any could be airmailed in time for his printing
date in about two weeks.
I an writing to Tom Neary today, and also to Robert Woods of
Nyack, NY, whom you mentionod had made a videotape of the Knock
Garden in tho summer of 1986, and whom I had not gotten around to
writing before. My hape is I would be able to make still
photographs from the videotape, if he sends me a copy.
If you are able to send any photos, they will be much
appeciated.
This will apparently bo the first journalistic report an the
Knock Mary Garden in the Unittd States, and it is most fitting that
in be in QUEEN.
I will arrange for ampie reprints.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
February 2, 1988
CandIemas
Dear Brother Seàn,
This year we had a good January snowfall (about which I wrote
in connection with my visit to the Garden of Our Lady in Woods hole
on January 9th, and then a January thaw about two week ago, which,
together, (moisture and warmth), have produced about 3 inche of
SnowDrop/Candlemas BeIIs shoot growth in the south- facing garden
across the street from our building in Boston. Favorable conditions
for the ever hoped for Candlas bIooms today.
Day before yesterday four or five buds ("drops") appeared, and
yesterday they doubled in size. I don't think they were quite large
enough to have bloomed into "beIIs" by today; but hope springs
eternal and, as you know, growth takes place at night (last night
was above freezing), so in a few hours, when I go on some errands, I
will see what has happened, and so note for you at the end of this
letter (it is now early morning).
I watch the Snowdrop blooms closely every year because they are
for me the beginning of the Mary Garden Calendar. (How appropriate
"The Mary Calendar" is as the title of Judith Smith's book of the
1920's from England which was one of Mrs. Lillie's sources, and
whose personal copy we have, as part of Mrs. Emerson's research
files).
Last year, as you may recall, I wrote that there was good
warmth in late January, but no previous January precipitation, so
there wasn't enough moisture for bloom. This year there are both,
but the ground was deeply frozen, and the flowers were shielded by
the snow cover from the warming sun for much of the January thaw.
Anyway, there are beautiful white buds/drops, so we at lhave Our
Lady's Tears, if not Candlemas BeIIs, for the start of the Mary
Garden bloom season.
How short the time between the watch for late, Immaculate
Conception Roses (which we had two years ago) and early Candlemas
Snow Drops! - with the richness of Chrisimas Trees and hot house
Poinsetteas ("Nativity Flowers" in Mexico) in between.
Then we have the lore that it was "bad luck" if you didn't
remove your Christmas greens by Candlemas (replacing them, if
desired, with "Candlemas Greens" - boxwood).
The perception of Candlemas as representing the end of the
Christmas season, as mirrored by this custom, is a rather profound
thought in that it is spiritually/mystically at Candlemas that we
offer the light of Christmas glories back to God - as Mary and
Joseph presented the Christ Child to God in the Temple.
I recall that there have been Bells for Candlemas for me about
four times in my 37 years of Mary Gardening - twice in Philadelphia
and twice in Boston.
The providential aspects of this are a delight to me. I recall
St. Theresa's mention of her joy and feeling of God's love when a
light mantle of snow fell for her vows in May. I think also of my
oldest daughter, Anne (of "In Mary's Garden", at age 4 or S at the
beach, making sand castles before the waves of the incoming tide and
saying, "I am playing a game with God".
Then, there were the blooms which "miraculously" appeared for
the blessing of Bonnie's Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse, on the Feast
of the Annunciation, 19SI, as I wrote in my 'Our Lady's Digest"
article.
In any case, there is a special welling in my heart of love
for Our Lady's Flowers, and God's Providence, at this time each
year.
I see from the Booklet that there are Snowdrops in beds
1,2,3,4,7 and 8 in the Knock Mary Garden plan. Have they bloomed
for Candlemas? Are there any Snowdrops in the Burren, and if so
(with all its micro-climates) do they bloom at their "liturgical
time"? (My copies of "The Jewels of Thomand' and "Muire Mhathair"
are in Woods Hole, so I can't check just now any references they may
have).
I remember Jane's and my joy when in the first year of the
Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady jubilee restoration the first
Assumption Lily bloom appeared on August 15th.
Fr. Weiser, S.J., in one of his books ("The Easter Book"?)
speaks of how in Europe the Climatic signs of Candlemas were seen
as weather harbingers for the coming spring, and how this has been
secularized as "Ground Hog's Day" here in the U.S. (substituting
U.S. grroundhogs for Euopean badgers).
I suppose one could propose some sort of correlation, or
parallel, between whether there are Snowdrop "tears", or "bells" or
no showing at all, and whether the groundhog sees his shadow,
doesn't or doesn't come out of his/her hole at all, etc..
There is a town in PennsyIvania which has promoted itself as
having the "official" groundhog; and reports and photos of what
happens appear each year in the media nationally.
Finally one recaIIs the saying in England that whether there is
an early or late spring, "everything catches up by June".
I will send a copy of this letter to Fr. Charest, since he
first started me thinking about the bloom calendar at Knock, in
connection with his possible late April visit.
(Evening)
Well, Brother, the official groundhog didn't see his shadow
today (thus signifying an early end to winter weather this year),
and we have here Candlemas "drops", not 'bells".
The surprise, however, was that 10 or IS additional drops
have appeared since yesterday, so that what I found was of a colony
of drops - their cluster of white "flames" resembling a rack of
lighted votive candles before the altar in church.
I have always thought of "Our Lady's Candles" as flower symbols
resembling the candlestick of Our Lady's Candle in English (and
other?) churches - as in Mullein - and accordingly have wondered
about the application of this name to small white flowers such as
White Campion. I now realize thatin the latter the symbolism is of
the candle flames (which I should have realized all along from their
alternate name of "Our Lady's Lights"), Clearly, this is the more
fundamental intuitive association of Snowdrops with Candlemas - the
"drops", not the "bells"- and, as you know, if there is a very late
spring, due to prolonged re-freezing following a January thaw (it's
snowing here again now, this evening), the snowdrop buds, while
showing for Candlemas, may not actually bloom until four to six
weeks later, in March.
Here, again, we have an example of the more profound, almost
"ontological", as distinct from poetic or fanciful, substance of the
Flowers Of Our Lady, which is at the heart of Mary-Gardening.
So, on beholding this flower colony of candle flames, nestled
midst the protecting ivy (as were the early blooming Snowdrops in a
neighbors's south facing garden bed which I used to watch in
Philadelphia) this noon, I blessed them sacramentally with a Sign of
the Cross, and said the Mary Garden Prayer, "...as our hearts are
raised to (God) by the light, grace, wisdom and growth of these
pure, blest, transfigured Flowers of Our Lady..."
In this communion of Candlemas garden joys, I remain, Brother,
sincerely, as always, your friend in Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
+
Boston, MA
February 11, 1988
Our Lady of Lourdes
Dear Brother Seàn,
Thank you for your letter of January 28th and its well wishes.
I was delighted to receive your report on the snowdrop blooms
at Knock, which crossed my letter to you of Candlemas, in which I
wrote about the status of the snowdrop bloom here in Boston this
year. It looks as though you have "bells' when we have "drops".
With respect to Fr. Charest's questic>n about late April blooms
at Knock, it occurs to me that some of our early May flowers may be
in bloom in late April in Knock - at least if they, too, are
thermotropic.
From the booklet, I see that about half the flowers from the
Wild Plants for May list (p 31) are in the planting list (p 13).
Our practise in Philadelphia was to make a fresh planting of
blooming pansies and daisies, grown under cold frame (by ourselves
or by local commercial growers) around April 1, "the start of the
planting season", as the foundation planting for spring blooms.
These provided the setting for the April-blooming primroses,
violets, periwinkle, forget-me-nots (biennial, renewed each year),
and bulbs, etc., and also for all the May bloomers.
Then when they began to get scraggly with the June heat, even
when pinched back, we replaced them with blooming marigolds
(Tagetes) and petunias started under glass, as the basic setting
for the June roses and lilies, biennials, summer perennials, and
other annuals, and then for tho rest of the growing season - adding
also long-blooming impatiens (Mother Love), which would continue
with them until frost.
The key to this program was the availabilty of the pansies,
daisies, marigolds, petunias and impatiens; and of a Mary-Gardener
to transport and plant them - plus the refreshing of biennials,
the replacement of any winter-killed perennials, and the setting of
any tender perennials used (e.g. Fuchsia, Rosemary and Gladiolas).
With the lining up of sources for plants and, if necessary,
funds, in advance, and with planning for two free days, in April and
June, this program was followed rather "effortlessly". I did this
personally for the Our Mother of Consolation parish Mary Garden for
seven years, untiI I moved from the parish.
Has anyone been able to keep a bloom calendar for Knock? In
comparing locations its always interesting to consider which species
bloo starts are thermotropic and which heliotropic. I would expect
that thermotropic species like snowdrops would bloom earlier at
Knock than in Philadelphia/Boston due to the gulf stream warmth, but
that heliotropic species (e.g. Iris?) would bloom either earlier or
later, in relation to the spring equinox, depending on the time of
year, due to the higher latitude.
Since polishing my "Paradise of Our Lady" article for Father
Charest (I haven't heard yet whether he will use it or not), I have
had some further thoughts about the Knock Mary Garden and its
incorporation In the life, caremonies, devotion and inspiration of
the Shrine.
A basic element of the Mary Garden idea, as envisaged by Ed
MeTague, and affirmed and embraced by me, was that the Mary Garden
was not to be just a retreat, sanctuary, "upper room" or refuge,
but a place which one entered, and then, renewed, went forth to the
world, renewing all things in Christ - as from Mass.
I endeavored to include this exhortion in my articles:
"If we are to restore all things in Christ, we must
bring to life the familiar names which flowers bore
when they were lovingly regarded as signs, symbols
and, as it were, sacramentalsof the divine attributes
and the truths of our redemption."
(America,1952)
'Our Lady's garden...is a 'Garden Enclosed', but its
enclosing circle is broken by the entrance or gate -
through which redeemed man is invited to proceed to
the center, and through which he goes out to the
world, restoring all things in Christ."
(Catholic Art Quarterly, 1952)
"Leaving St, Joscph's...we see once again the tower
and Mary Garden; and beyond them across the inlet the
Woods Hole town center and laboratories,
"Angelus tower, Mary Garden, sacred art, holy books,
St. Joseph's Church are seen in unity as bringing us
to Him who is the Resurrection and the LiFe. And
beyond them is the world, from which we came and to
which we are to return, restoring all things in Christ."
(QM, 113)
"We must not expect, however, that our souls will be
permitted to rest in contemplation of the flowery beds
of the garden. Mindful that Mary, the Mystical Rose,
was called from her flights of divine love in the
Temple to the work of the incarnation, redemption,
mediation and spiritual motherhood, we should watch and
pray in expectation of God's call through Mary, to
arise and go forth to new duties in the garden of the
world, where the harvcst is great but the reapers are
few."
(Queen, 1960)
"Filled with Peace of Christ, we leave the garden,
praying with St. Francis that we may be made the
instruments of that peace."
(Assisi, 1961)
"The Garden of Our Lady is also a New Paradise of Eden
from which we proceed, with the divine light, grace,
wisdom and power mediated by Mary, the New Eve, to
renew the face of the earth."
(Paradise... MS)
While Knock, and the other shrines of Our Lady, are properly
holy places of awe, veneration, celebration, penance, healing,
miracles, moral exhortation, petition and personal renewal, it seems
to me that they are equally places from which we are called to go
forth as builders ofGod's earthly and heavenly City and Kingdom.
Since the principles upon which we are to build the earthly
City were contained in their original essence in Eden - the sweep of
sacred history being from Garden to City - it is fitting and
important that we be reminded of and refreshed in the primordial
"articulation" of these principles as manifested in the Garden: viz.
in God's instructions to our ancestors in the Garden, in the early
history of the consequences of our violation of these principIcs (of
temptation, Fall and alienation) in the Garden, and at Babel, and in
the renewing parables of Christ and the matter of the Sacraments
(bread, wine, oil, water, beeswax).
Thus, at a pilgrimage shrine we may be refreshed by the
Sacraments and processions, and exhorted to obey the 10
Commandments, to avoid the Capital sins and the vices, to practice
the virtues, and to go forth in love of God, Mary and Neighbor; but
the Mary Garden and Flowers of Our Lady provide a tangible
distillation, lens, prism, matrix, formation, support, vision and
love through which we may so go forth, and through which we may be
reminded of and sustained in the shrine regeneration "on location"
in the world, home and workplace, away from the shrine.
To see this fully and to express it appropriately, one has to
live the life of the shrine - just as I had to spend a couple of
summers in Woods Hole before I could see more fully the integration
of the Garden of Our Lady in parish life as actually lived. In this
I see providential elements in the opportunities afforded to you to
make pilgriMages to Fatima, Lourdes and Rome, as well as to Knock,
and to be in residence near Knock to participate in the life of the
Shrine through the natural and liturgical year.
Surely the Knock Mary Garden can be more then a national Mary
Garden at a shrine, or "interesting landscaping' - ajoyous as these
are. From all the Mary Gardens that have been started st churches
and at small shrines, and later abandoned when the founding inspired
Mary Gardener moved on, I am most aware of the importance of a
deeper grounding and sustenance of the Mary Garden in the basic
devotional life of the church or shrine - not for the sake of the
Mary Garden, but for the sake of the fullness of devotion,
salvation and kingdom, using the totality of God's gifts to us.
It seems to me that this could fittingly be dealt with in
articles about the Knock Mary Garden and, as I said, it seems that
you have a unique providential opportunity here. Anyway, I offer
this as something to be thougt about.
To this end, I was delighted that you were able to present a
miniature indoor Mary Garden to the curator of the new Museum at
Knock, as this presents the essence of the Mary Garden in even more
distilled form - which may help give a vision of how the larger Mary
Garden, surrounding the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, can fit more
integrally into the life of the Shrine. A1sol, I wrote, the
proposed second, smaller, Mhuire Garden, would serve to this same
end.
As I wrote in my articles about Bonnie, the placement of her
Mary Garden so that she could see it constantly from her kitchen
window was an important element for the incorporation of the Mary
Garden sirituality into her whole home life, devotion and
inspiration. And her development of dish Mary Gardens was to the
same end. May she provide heavenly intercession and mediation as we
work out the Mary Garden spirituality for church and shrine!
It would seem that a next step at Knock would be the
preparation of a Mary Garden Prayer Book(let), in which would be
included: selectionz from Scripture, prayers from liturgical
ceremonies such as thee Blessing of Palms and Assumption Bundles;
the Rosary; hymns; prayers from the saints - Ss. Patrick, Francis,
Theresa, etc; passages from St. Bernard, St. John of the Cross, St.
Louis de Montfort etc.; established prayers such as the Dominican
blessing of roses, the Servite Blessing of Flowers for Mary's
Crown, prayers for May Proocssions and Crownings, prayers associated
with the Pope's Go1den Rose, etc.; and then some prayers based on
individual flowers, such as those in Gemminger's book, and others,
along the lines of the "Ten Flower Prayers"; and the Mary Garden
Prayer, etc..
Then, some thoughts about "going forth", along the lines
envisaged above, would be included.
With this, sequences could be developed for visits to the Mary
Garden, with variations depending on flowers cwrrently in bloom from
time to time.
This would take some time to develop, with unction, as with the
Mary Garden Prayer. I'll start pulling together some prayers to
this end, but I would envisage that the essentiaform would arise
from Mary Garden spirituality and prayers of Knock itself - as
actually lived.
I'll direct my Lenten sacrifices and penances to this "next
step", Brother, and to the other approaches on which you are no
doubt ruminating, on location,
As ever, I remain affectionately your friend, sincerely, in Our
Lady,
+
Boston, MA
February 21, 1988s
Peter Damian
Dear Brother Seàn,
After polishing up my 1984 article MS, "Paradise of Our Lady"
for Father Charest, and then ruminating about the contributions of
the Mary Garden to the spirituality of Knock, following the setting
down of some initial throughts in my letter to you of the 11th, I
was almost startled a day or two later by the realization or
discovery that there has been a marked change in my own marian
spirituality - namely a striking heightening of my perception of
Mary's presence.
I have always had a general sense of Mary's presence in the
Garden, and especially in the Garden of Our Lady at Woods Hole, but
it has been of an overall "mantling" presence.
I find that I now sense her presence variously at, with, or in
each flower, plant or bouquet that I am beholding. I look up at a
vase of roses in our living room, and Mary is there; I look over to
Bonnie's Holy Spirit philodendron, and Mary is there - in each case
in the symbolism or mode of the flowers and leaves.
Suddenly, Mary is much closer, in each plant variety. And this
is true for plants, "God's direct creations", in a way which is not
so, for me, for her statues and statuettes, in themselves. In a
Mary Garden, however, the figure of Our Lady does become a focus for
her general presence, but there, too, I sense she is immediately
present in each plant or plant clump as I behold it.
Then, she is beautifully present in a still different way in
each dish Mary Garden, as a special distillation of her mediation
(I'm sure Bonnie sensed this, with her beloved cactus dish Mary
Gardens, quickening her to recollection and love of Our Lady of
Guadalupe).
I see a new significance to my intuitive sense that Mary Garden
plants should be in small clumps - as in Mrs. Lillie's garden -
rather than in large sweeps or borders.
I see, also, a new significance in Mrs. Lillie's title for her
Garden, in the plant list leaflets: "Our Lady in her Garden".
Then, I think back to the very first plant procurement
expedition Ed and I went on in May of 1951, after having started
annuals indoors from seed in April.In a small nursery run by a
lifetime horticulturalist, then in his 80's, we had our first direct
intuitive recognition of Our Lady Cushion (Armeria) and Our Lady's
Tears (Tradescantia virginiana), which I'll never forget. When we
explained about Our Ladys Tears, the nurseryman said, "Yes, she's
crying all day".
This new heightened sense of Mary's presence was perhaps
awakened by my re-reading of Bob Ostermann's mention of Our Lady as
our "constant companion" through her flowers; but it came into full
awareness as I was thinking about the contribution of the Mary
Garden to the spirituality of Knock.
I had first turned to Bonnie for some insights:
"The Knock Shrine, with its Mary Garden, will conquer
the world for Mary.
"Our Lady of Knock will transform the world through her
flowers by placing them close to her heart.
"Total world transformation through the Flowers of
Our Lady"
and, with Ed:
"The Garden and agriculture are the source of all the
principles upon which the world is to be re-created
and the earthly Kingdom built."
Then, as I was pondering, with supplication to Bonnie, as to
how can this possibly be (all insights do have to be tested against
right reason, common sense and the Mind of the Church), and in
envisaging further how the Mary Garden could in some way serve as
prism or matrix as we go forth from shrine to world, along the lines
that I wrote to you, the words of the stanza about Our Lady's Candle
(Mullein) came to mind:
"The Virgin Mary travels over all the land,
With Heaven's Fire in her hand."
with the addition:
"in rose-petal loops emanating from Knock and her other
shrines."
"We are to love Mary's soul-opening distribution of light,
grace, wisdom and power."
Mary goes forth through the world from her shrines; and as we
go forth from them ourselves we are to emulate her going forth (Our
Lady's Shoes, Slippers - "All her steps were most beauteous").
Then, the pivotal insight:
As we are heightened in our sense of Mary's presence at her
shrine, where she actually appeared and communicated to us, and as
we learn and experience through the shrine Mary Garden how she
continues to be present to us now in her flowers - just as really
everywhere as at the shrine - we now have a means of supporting,
quickening and heightening the sense of Mary's presence with us as
we travel with her, and she with us, over all the land.
As the Mass brings down Christ, so do gardens bring down Mary.
Originally this was perhaps discovered in the rose garden, as
distilled in the Rosary beads which we carry with us; but the actual
flowers, God's creatures, do this in a special way.
Bonnie:
"Mary comes to her flowers and gardens in response to
urgent prayer
- because she is the Queen of Flowers
- because flowers most resemble Heaven of all things
on earth
- because they are where Heaven and earth meet
- because they are the starting points from which the
earthly Kingdom is to be built.
"Mary comes to us in her Garden when we invoke her with
total love of soul for her flower and garden signs and
symbols."
I began to have a greater appreciation of why the rose windows
were so central in the medieval cathedrals.
Mary inheres in her flowers.
In my AVE article I conjectured that the medieval circulation
of Our Lady's Relics from the Holy Land might have had much to do
with the naming of Our Lady's Flowers and with their effectiveness
in giving a sense of Mary's presence. Very possibly the sense of
Mary's presence evoked by her relics (as evoked by visits to her
apparition shrines) enabled the faithful to discover that flowers,
too, are of themselves vehicles of Mary's presence.
The sacramentals of Mary.
I have always sensed and look for that "something more", than
sentiment or symbolism, that must have been behind the extensive
spread of Our Lady's Flowers throughout Christendom, and maybe this
is it.
I recalled also that at Guadalupe Our Lady appeared above the
translucent cactuses of Tepeyac hill (and impressed her image on
Juan Diego's cloak with roses); at La Salette at the little flower
paradise the children made; at Lourdes by the speckled rose bush of
the grotto; at Fatima above a small holm oak tree; at Beauring from
the garden shrubs; and at Banneaux from two pine trees.
And at Knock, she communicates to us in a special way that she
is the Rose of Sharon . . . appearing not just at or by a rose
plant, but with a rose embedded, as it were, in her very forehead.
"I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valley."
Overwhelmed by this flood of insights, I dusted off my copy of
Emil Neubert's "Life of Union with Mary", which I haven't look at
for five or six years, and turned to it for clarification - which I
found in the following sentences:
"Jesus resides and acts in us; Mary doesn't reside in
us, but she acts in us . . .
"If...a certain number of souls speak of the presence
of Mary within them, we must understand the word
'presence' as an almost constant awareness of the action
of Mary in their interior. In fact, when they address
themselves to the Blessed Virgin, they do not enter into
their inner sanctuary, but instinctively think of Mary
as before them or at their side."
(p 191-192)
This is very helpful, Brother, in that it enables me to see
that while we are not to presume that Mary is actually present in
our flowers and gardens, her action through them, on our souls, can
be so intense that it is as though she were in fact personally
present in them.
I do not want to get "carried away" here. On the other hand,
there is the quest as to how the Mary Garden is to contribute most
fully to the spirituality of Knock and the other Marian shrines, and
to be more instrumental and efficacious of itself towards Salvation
and Kingdom; and it would seem that perhaps what unites shrine and
garden in this is the sense both can impart to us of Mary's presence
with us, as we go forth from them renewing, by and with Mary, all
things in Christ.
After all it is the sense of the presence of Mary that draws us
to her shrines, as the sense of Christ's presence in Eucharist and
Tabernacle that draws us to his churches. And if at her shrines we
can learn, further, the sense of her presence in flowers, then we
take with us an effective means of sensing her presence as we go
forth to the world. I recall an article fragment I wrote around
1955 which I entitled "Backyard Pilgrimage" (among my archives in
Woods Hole somewhere - I came upon it while putting things in order
for the Jubilee review of things).
And all this is in order that we may go forth with the
nurturing vision, quickening and strengthening in morality and
virtue, and especally in faith, hope and love, as transforming and
leavening instruments in each circumstance - instead of submitting
to the discursiveness and dialectics of secular conditioning,
determinism, imperatives, pressures and temptations of the world
flesh and devil.
Bonnie:
"Mary is personally and actively present to us in
flowers, plants, shrubs and trees; or more precisely, what
is present ta us is a mode or manifestation of her
mediation of God's light, grace, wisdom and power.
"Mary has chosen to appear or manifest herself to us at
Guadalupe, Lourdes, Knock and Fatima from or in
association with plants, rather than just 'out of thin
air', to instruct us in their providential creation and
bestowal as channels and vehicles of Spirit - as
discovered and demonstrated by Ss. Patrick, Columba
Fiacre, Bernard and Francis."
Seen thus, plants are to be understood as instruments of Mary's
mediation. Christ has the sacraments and Mary her flowers and
Rosary.
Bonnie:
"Mary, as we sense, is personally present with the
flower instruments of her mediation because ultimately
and always it is she, not they, who is Mediatrix of All
Grace . . . "
There comes to mind the requirement that an altar table with
candles and flowers be used at every Legion of Mary meeting.
In these thoughts, Brother, we see a deeper union of the
Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens with the shamrock of St.
Patrick, the trees of St. Columba and the garden of St. Fiacre.
Ed:
"The essential and ultimate contribution of Mary's
Flowers and Gardens, as we go forth, is as Mary's
sacramemtal instruments of formation and mediation
for every need."
"We are best to generate appreciation of this by
planting Mary Gardens at Our Lady's shrines and, in
the world, by teaching the names of Our Lady's Flowers."
The generality or specificity of various flower symbolisms
becomes more significant in the light of their instrumentalities of
Mary's mediation.
Thus, the generality of lilies and roses: the annunciational
pure filling with the Spirit of the lily, and the pentacostal going
forth with the Spirit of the red rose - the world-emcompassing
heart-shaped loops of the petals ever returning to the center.
As distinct from the mediational specificity of Our Lady's
Shoes, Fingers, Eyes, Hair, Eardrops, Heart, Ladder-to-Heaven,
Milkdrops, Tears, Candle, etc.
The perception of Mary as Mediatrix and Distributrix of all
Grace, and of flowers as instruments of her mediation and
distribution, protects us from falling into the error of druidic
"nature worship".
St. Anselm has instructed us how Mary is Queen of Nature by
virtue of her co-redemptive Fiat. She is also Queen of Nature by
virtue of her mediational use of it.
Brother this has been quite a flood of thoughts, as I write,
which I share with you in all their spontaniety. In time I'm sure
I'll be able to sift them out.
Due to the very early Lent this year, from the moon's course, I
wonder if Penitant's Rose (Crocus) will be in bloom here by Latare
Sunday.
Sincerely, your friend, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
February 29, 1988
Dear Brother Seàn,
Yesterday I made another day trip to Woods Hole, and again
learned something new about Our Lady's Flowers.
In visiting the Garden of Our Lady in near-freezing weather I
looked for a few herbs to pinch and savor before I said the Mary
Garden Prayer. In doing this I was surprised to see that the one or
two inches of fall growth of a number of self-sown seedlings of
Nigella damascena (Our Lady in the Shade) were apparently winter
hardy, as they were already supple and resuming their growth in the
warming February sun. Perhaps it is technically a biennial or
short- lived perennial, rather than an annual (which I had always
understood it to be) .
Also, the mystery of the January "clunking" Angelus Bells,
about which I wrote you, was solved. As I drove up to the Garden I
saw a truck and some workmen. Several were working on reshingling
St. Joseph's Church siding, but others were atop the Bell Tower with
iron-working tools, a blow torch and welding equipment, making
repairs to the Angelus Bells' supporting frame, strikers and
bushings. They informed me that the Bells themselves (and the
bushings) were bronze, but everything else was iron or steel and
badly rusted. They said that the shafts were "frozen" (in the
machinist's sense) in the bushings, so that the clunking noise was
due to partial movement of the strikers without actually hitting the
bells themselves. They struck the bells for me several times
lightly by hand with a hammer, and a nice, full, sound resounded (to
show they do ring well in the cold).
It is good to see this work going forward. The Tower stonework
was re-pointed back in the 1960's, and still looks in good shape,
but perhaps the bells hadn't been repaired since their installation
in the early 1930's. The original clock which rang the bells for
the Angelus was mechanical, and was replaced by several different
versions of electric clocks or timers through the years.
I was impressed again at how well the yew hedge has grown back
again, so it once again can be trimmed and shaped, after its severe
pruning. Just a few days earlier I happened to catch part of a
gardening program on television, in which someone was explaing how
yew hedges will always grow back no matter how severely you prune
them. This is what the local nursery people told Jane at the time
of the severe pruning back from the sidewalk, but its good to see it
actually happening.
This is the first time I have visited the Garden of Our Lady
(or any Mary Garden) since I have come to have the heightened sense
of Mary's presence, of which I wrote in my letter of February 21st.
I noticed immediately as I approached the central figure of Our Lady
that I sensed her presence to be focused at the rose bush in the
central bed to the right front of the statue ( and not in the statue
itself). She seemed to be just quietly there as I said the Mary
Garden Prayer.
Interesting that for me Mary seems to be present at her statue
itself in the photograph on the cover of The Knock Mary Garden
booklet - because it is immediately surrounded by flowers and
seemingly arises out of them, as distinct from a plant or a bouquet
beside a statue.
The interesting thing about individual groupings of blest Mary
Plants or small groupings of the same Mary Plant is that as we pray
to Mary before them for Mary's intercession and mediation, or for
her formation of us according to her virtues and redemptive or
kingdomly spiritual action, as recalled by the particular plant
symbolism, their symbolical forms heighten our sense of her specific
mediation, channeling, molding or other instrumentality in each
instance, and therefore our disposition and attunement for imitation
of, conformity to or participation in this action - as is the case
also with the positioning or attitude of Mary's arms and hands in
her appearances, especially as at Knock, and Paris (Our Lady of
Grace, of the Miraculous Medal), or in painting (Our Lady Orante).
Thus, Mary's Lily, Rose, Heart, Eyes, Eardrops, Mantle, Shoes,
Crown, Hand, Fingers, Pincushion, Tears, Sword of Sorrow, Milkdrops,
Tresses, Bedstraw, Balm, Gold, Ladder, Keys, Candle, etc..
I recall how Ed loved to compose small bouquets of Mary-Flowers
according to their symbolisms, as Bonnie did later with Dish Mary
Gardens.
In viewing the bed of snowdrops across the street here in
Boston - now beginning their bell-blooms - I sensed:
- the awe of Mary's presence with the clump
- the immaculate "whiteness" of Mary's purity
- the candles of Candlemas, and church
- the presentation at the Temple of the Nativity
glories back to God
- Christ as light to the gentiles and the glory of
his people
- The piercing of Mary's soul with a Sword of Sorrow
that many hearts may be revealed
Since, as Father Juergens proposes, Mary is present to us by
her action ( "and never was it known that anyone . . . was left
unaided"), she becomes present with particular plants as we lift our
hearts to her in meditation, prayer or contemplation through them -
and not with every plant, all the time - just as she becomes present
when we pray our Rosary beads.
The lore about St. Francis' care not to step on the least
wayside flower because of its symbolism of Mary might be extended to
encompass the thought that the least wayside flower can also be a
place where Mary becomes present to us if we pray to her though its
symbolism.
I find that with the new extension of the inland (24/495)
highway from Boston to the Cap Cod Canal bridge to the Falmouth/
Woods Hole highway (28), the drive is much more harmonious and about
ten minutes shorter than the highway (3) closer to the shore - just
enough to change the drive from a chore to a relaxation (an hour and
30 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes) - so maybe during this period
when I am not able to spend extended time in Woods Hole I may be
able to make more frequent day trips.
In any case, Brother, the sense of what is happening with the
Garden of Our Lady and Angelus Tower is very important to me, as I
am sure is the case with Knock for you.
While at the house in Woods Hole I looked through the 100 or so
books some from Bonnie's library that her sister, Faye Coates sent
me, preparatory to cataloging them. There are many real treasures,
most of which I didn't have previously. It is so wonderful going
through Bonnie's loving notes and notebooks. I also looked for the
master paste-ups of some of the article reprints for the Tower, but
wasn't able to find them in the organized files there. They must be
in some unorganized file boxes I took down from Boston subsequently,
so will have to continue the search next trip.
I haven't heard from Father Charest yet about the March-April
QUEEN use of "Paradise of Our Lady", but hope that no news is good
news.
In anticipation of this year's bloom sequence of Out Lady's
Flowers, I remain, as always,
Sincerely your in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
March 19, 1988
St. Joseph
Dear Brother Seàn,
Yesterday I airmailed you a copy of my letter of St. Patrick's
to Fr. Byrne in Australia, enclosing the listed articles and plans,
and sharing with him my current view of our ever-developing Mary's
Gardens work.
This is characteristic of the letters I used to send to other
serious new Mary-Gardeners through the early years, until Bonnie
took on this work; but it has been a long time now and this is
perhaps the such first letter I have written in 20 years (other than
the major review I made for Jane for the Woods Hole
Centennial/Jubilee).
I thank you for the opportunity. It took a lot of thought
deciding what to send him just now. Now that I am "tuned up" for
this, I should be able to write to any other new "Mary Garden
Missionaries" you might designate, who may come to us through the
Knock Mary Garden and your booklet.
Let us pray that a vigorous extension of the Mary Garden
Movement takes root in Australia through Father's initiative, your
inspiration, and Mary's guidance.
On St. Patrick's Day the local TV channels all had Irish
"specials". Channel 5 had a half-hour video overview of, the
Connamira terrain, briefly, and then, if I understood the name
correctly, of the village of Claremorris, which I see from the atlas
is close by Ballinrobe.
First they showed the parish church and interviewed pastor; and
then visited a family, where the children were digging and carting
peet, and the father was cultivating his vegetable garden: "Anyone
who pays money for vegetables in town is crazy". The soil looked
black and rich. Next, two industries: a seaweed processing plant,
and a brewery: "I'm lucky to have a job, to support my family. Many
of us have had to spend most of our lives on the dole". Then, two
men building a house; and finally Saturday evening at the pub: "with
dancing for the body; music for the soul; and ale for the spirit."
Young people interviewed spoke of the bleak job prospects, and of
their desire to relocate in the city, or to emmigrate.
If this is representative of your area, it gives me a better
sense of the poverty and simplicity of life. Perhaps some of the
children I saw were your students.
As environs of Knock, it also gives me a sense of those whom
Our Lady especially loves, and I understand the wisdom of
establishing the Knock cultural museum so that fast in-and-out
pilgrims can better see the conditions where Mary chose to appear
with the heavenly tableau.
The harsh conditions of bare survival are so elemental that
those subject to them who do have a strong faith perceive it in life
imagery of the greatest simplicity and clarity - like that of little
children - which may be why God so loves the poor, and Our Lady
appears to them.
Such evidently were the faithful who perpetuated the view of
the Flowers of Our Lady in Europe, as also were the new faithful of
Latin America, who received it from the missionaries.
This raises the question of the perception of flowers in the
eyes of faith of today's rural poor.
I would appreciate knowing your perceptions here, Brother, as
one who has been living with, participating in the life of, and
teaching the rural poor.
Does the hope of getting away from harsh rural life through
relocation in the city, or emmigration, lead to an alienating view
of nature, as a limitation and prison? It seems to me there may be
a difference from medieval times, when village and rural life were
accepted as the locus of one's existence from birth to death, with
no concrete locational alternatives - so that one's love was focused
on heaven and one's surroundings, rather than on relocation.
In his "Village on the Valcleuse" Laurence Wylie speaks of how
in rural France, the old faith and customs are dying, with the
dissemination of secular city values through modern communications,
transportation and property ownership.
The striking thing about the Flowers of Our Lady is that -
thanks to the field work of botanists and folklorists, as catalogued
by lexicographers - they are a direct heritage from the medieval
rural poor.
We read that life everywhere in those times had its legends of
visits from Our Lady. Surely this contributed to popular support
for building of the huge cathedrals, dedicated to Mary, in such
small towns.
What we experience of Mary's presence with us through her
flowers is only a glimpse of the fuller all-pervasivenes of her
presence in the medieval life of faith. Where the earthly means of
transportation were limited, Mary did the traveling. In our era, in
which we are able to travel more easily, Mary comes to a few special
places, which have become her shrines. Special holy places instead
of an all-pervasive holiness. This is why Our Lady's shrines are
especially important today to the perpetuation of the popular
religious tradition of the Flowers of Our Lady, with their
providential supports to faith. As the circulation of secular city
values eroded the faith of rural areas, so can the circulation of
religious values from Mary's shrines restore it, extending also to
the cities themselves - just as there are flowers and the Tree of
Life in the Heavenly Jerusalem.
From reflection on the sensed all-pervasiveness of Mary's
presence in medieval rural faith, I have also come to have a better
appreciation of such flowers as Our Lady by-the-Gate, Our Lady of
the Meadow, and Our Lady of the Lake, - as also of Our Lady's
Resting Place, Virgin's Bower, Mary's Pinch Mary's Bite, and Our
Lady's Mint.
One consequence of a heightened sense of Mary's presence,
through flowers - especially near at hand in bouquets - is that we
have to "adjust" our use of prayer phrases such as "Hail, Mary" and
"we fly unto thee", which we have associated with a certain distance
from Our Lady.
The Angel Gabriel exclaimed "Hail" when he had come the
distance from as yet unreopened heaven to earth; and "flying" to
Mary implies that we on earth envisage ourselves before her in
heaven.
From the viewpoint of the a sense of Mary's presence with us,
through her action as Distributrix of Grace, we discover that she is
not always with us just by herself. She teaches us this at Knock,
where she visibly brought with her, or was accompanied by, the
Heavenly Lamb, St. Joseph, St. John and encircling Angels. Always,
when she is with us on earth, she is at the same time surrounded by
the multitudes of the heavenly court - in the interpenetration of
time and space in eternity and infinity - so that even when she is
intimately close by us we can join with the everpresent heavenly
multitudes in proclaiming "Hail". This is one of the modes by which
we are to have Heaven on earth.
Instead of "flying" to Mary, we simply turn to her.
A few detailed thoughts as to flower symbolism I wanted to
share with you:
In speaking of different facets of the snowdrops, Candlemas
Bells, symbolism I neglected to mention the appropriateness of their
delicate "spear" foliage as symbols of Mary's Sword of Sorrow
(pointed out to me byh Nan Sears of Annapolis) - much more fitting,
I submit, than the large spear blades of Iris and Gladeola foliage;
and also more liturgically timely through their leafing and blooming
at Candlemas.
Also, we have been using spherical, clear glass "rose bowls"
for anemone (Palestine "Flowers of the Field") bouquets, such that
one sees the individual anemone stems extending radially, as it
were, from the large reservoir of water - symbolizing to me Mary's
distributions of many particular graces from the overall reservoir
of grace of the Second Heaven. This is very real as a group of us
sit around talking.
I expect, Brother, that this will reach you before Easter, so
let it be my special prayerful best wishes to you for the fullness
of Easter's resurrectional joys.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
March 27, 1988
Palm Sunday
Dear Brother Seán,
Several days ago the March-April issue of QUEEN magazine
arrived with a five page article on Knock, "Was I Really there" by
Mary Eileen Foley, RGS, of which I enclose a photo copy.
As I wrote previously, Father Charest tells me he will publish
"Paradise of Our Lady" in the April-May issue, and he hopes some
sort of article on the Knock Mary Garden will be forthcoming after
his April visit to Knock, and his meeting with you.
I don't know yet whether they have enough subscriptions to make
the pilgrimage definite, but one hopes this would be so, especially
since it is a Marian Year pilgrimage. I'll let you know for sure in
a week or so.
According to the announcement the pilgramage is April 17-30,
with the first stop in Dublin. "After touring Dublin...we'll motor
to Knock for Mass." So it sounds like April 18th, 19th or 20th.
They then go on to Paris, Nevers and six days at Lourdes.
In re-reading Father Neubert's "Life of Union with Mary", I
realize that when I mentioned this book in my letter of February
21st, in connection with my recently heightned sense of Mary's
presence, I should have also included the following quotes (in
addition to those from pp 191, 192):
"In the beatific vision and through the natural
faculties of her glorified body Mary knows us, sees
our needs, and hears our prayers. (And) in virtue of
her intercession and even by direct physical actions
she assists us. Surely we can say, then that the
events of our life happen as if she were quite near to
us. We are certainly closer to reality if we represent
our heavenly mother before us or at our side, though
hidden from our eyes, than if we imagine her in a heaven
infinitely beyond the stars. Those who love to remember
her by glancing at her picture or statue are right in
addressing her as if she were at the place where the
picture hangs or the statuestands. . . because Mary sees
them, hears them, helps them as if she actually stands
very close to them.
"The manner of living in the presence of Mary must
necessarily vary with the character and the experience
of each individual."
(pp 45, 46)
From our viewpoint and experience of flowers as especially
suited for quickening our sense of Mary's presence, the following
excerpt Fr. Neubert then quotes from one individual is especially
interesting:
"'Formerly I would place a beautiful picture of the
Blessed Virgin on my desk and from time to time I would
look at it to renew myself in the thought of my Mother
in heaven. This helped me for a while, but soon left me
rather cold. Then I would replace this picture with
another, but after a time this one, too, lost its
power to recall. After all, these pictures, even the
most artistic of them, were so poor in comparison with
the beauty which must have adorned the real Virgin. . . .
(p. 46)
This testimony as to the diminishing effectivness of pictures
and statues, as such, in recalling a direct sense of Mary's
presence, whether in heaven or at our side, serves to emphasize the
importance of the freshness and variety of flowers to this end -
whether of themselves in field, roadside, garden or bouquet, or when
placed before Mary's picture or statue.
But I perceive an even deeper truth and correspondence here,
Brother.
From the story that those present when a certain holy person
was praying the Rosary observed subtle flowers rising up from his
lips with each Ave, we are instructed as to the transport of our
prayers through subtle flower-pneums.
(Perhaps this is why we are taught always to move our lips as
we pray our oral prayers, even when praying by ourselves.) "Grace
is spread abroad from thy lips" (Canticles). In this same vein,
Pope Pius XII said in his 1954(?) Rome address to rose growers, "The
Rosary is an entire garden of roses offered to Mary". The offering
of spiritual bouquets is a much more than a figure of speech.
Similarly, Mary, too, assumed body and soul into heaven,
generates flower pneums in her Immaculate Heart - as, for her part,
she acts spiritually to intercede for us with the Holy Trinity, and
to mediate and distribute grace, light, wisdom and power to us - as
we know in a general way from Guadalupe; from St. Therese's promise
to spend her heaven showering roses of love and grace on earth; and
from numerous reported miraculous showers of roses.
Our beholding of earthly flowers attunes our interior spiritual
sense for our reception of the heavenly flower-pneums distributed to
us by Mary. Since they provide both the predisposition and the
vehicle for this distribution, these earthly flowers also become for
us vehicles of the sense of Mary's presence as she makes these
distributions.
I received the clue to this when, on raising my thoughts to
Bonnie and Frances Lillie as to the best way for awakening for all
the sense of Mary's presence through her flowers and gardens, the
words camr to me:
"Look to the flowers in Mary's Heart.
"As we behold Mary's Flowers, or pray the Rosary,
Mary, in love, generates in her heart and soul flower
pneums of grace, light, wisdom and power, which she
distributes to us through these flowers, or our Rosary
beads, with an accompanying sense of her presence."
Further - as St. Louis de Montfort tells us - Mary, our
Mediatrix, receives our (enflowered) prayers, adorns them,
embellishes them, and then presents them to her Divine Son in heaven
- receiving and transmitting to us in return the spiritual pneums of
love originating from his flowering Sacred Heart.
Herein must lie the reason why the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts
are characteristically portrayed as encircled with flowers.
In time our recourse to flowers becomes so affective that they
serve both as habitual signs of Mary's presence and as continuous
fonts of outpouring grace, whether we are making oral or even mental
prayerful acts, or not.
Further, they quicken us from time to time to the sense of her
presence according to her various attributes.
As Pope Pius XII points out, in the address to rose growers
mentioned above, Mary herself has made use of flowers to this end in
her appearances to us: as, for exsmple, when she appeared to
Bernadette by the speckled rose bush in the grotto at Lourdes: "In
this way she manifested to a poor and artless child the delicacy of
her graces and the beauty of her goodness." (I quote from memory
here, and perhaps don't remember the Pope's words precisely, as I
sent my last article copy immediately at hand containing this quote
to Fr. Byrne in Australia).
In this Holy Week I will make my annual re-reading of "The Way
of Divine Love" - so full of unction for me - which contains the
beautiful salutation to Mary given to Sr. Josepha by Jesus,
containing the words"
"'O incomparable Virgin! Immaculate Virgin! Delight
of the Blessed Trinity, admiration of all angels and
saints, you are the joy of heaven.
'Morning Star, Rose blossoming in springtime, Immaculate
Lily, tall and graceful Iris, sweet-smelling Violet,
Garden enclosed kept for the delight of the King of heaven
. . . I salute you and rejoice at the sight of the gifts
bestowed on you
'by the Almighty, and of the prerogatives with which He
has crowned you!'"
As always, the sense of Mary's constant presence - as mediatrix
of our prayers, and distributrix of the graces, for our needs and
opportunities of each moment - affords us a providential way for
optimizing the instrumentality of our ongoing acts and works of
mercy, praise, salvation and kingdom.
With continuing prayers for the effective presentation of the
Knock Mary Garden to pilgrims in this light, I remain, as always,
Brother,
Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,
P.S. - In the light of these ongoing clarifications of Our Lady's
flower and garden presence, I propose to change the attribution for
St. Rose of Lima in the Mary Garden Prayer to:
"St. Rose of Lima, who conversed in the garden with the
Boy Jesus and his Mother."
and to place this after St. Fiacre and before St. Isidore. J.
+
Boston, MA
March 30, 1988
Wednesday in Holy Week
Dear Brother Seàn,
This is a continution, while it is fresh in my mind, of the
thoughts of my letter to you of March 27th - which go back to my
letters of March 17th and February 21st - regarding the
experiencing of a heightened sense of Mary's presence through her
gardens and flowers.
Together with this heightened sense of Mary's presence, I sense
an issuing of the actual graces she mediates through her blest
flowers, mindful of the statement of the Catholic Encyclopedia,
that:
"Blessings...are sacramentals and, as such, produce
the...following specific effects: excitation of pious
emotions and affections of the heart;...freedom from
the power of evil spirits;...(and) various other
benefits, temporal or spiritual...."
"Blessings", Catholic Encyclopedia (1912)
and the affirmation of the Second Vatican Council Constitution on
the Sacred Liturgy (par. 62) which states:
"The liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals
sanctifies almost every event in [our] lives . . .
There is hardly any proper use of material things which
cannot thus be directed toward the sanctification of
men and the praise of God."
The The Rural Life Prayer Book (1956) of the U.S. National
Catholic Rural Life Conference observes that today such sacramental
blessings are "riches of the Church which have been long unknown
and unused like a treasure hidden under our very doorstep".
With this we evidently experience a degree of participation
(however small ) in Mary's fullness of grace, which, with an
accompanying participation in her overshadowing by the Holy Spirit,
we are to direct, through, with and for her, for the salvation of
souls and the building of God's Kingdom of love and justice.
This is clearly a gift of gratuitous actual graces for our
inspiration and prompting, as distinct from the gift of sanctifying
graces received through the sacraments.
The fullness of the outpouring of grace seems to emanate from
the heavenlike texture of the open flowers; imparting to us a sense
of the guiding overshadowing of the Holy Spirit from the opened
flower petals surrounding the centers. (I wrote last fall of my
discernment of this symbolism in the bracts surrounding the blooms
of Nigella damascena, "Our Lady-in-the-Shade" - Our Lady in the
shadow of the Holy Spirit - which especially impart this sense at
the Garden of Our Lady in Woods Hole).
There is one Spirit but many flowers and many souls. We see
each flower as a beautiful and unique spiritual tracing and
emanation of the overshadowing matrixing of the Holy Spirit.
We thus go forth from the Garden, with Mary, to act in the
world with this inspiration and prmpting of grace. I pray this
comes to be experienced and acted upon at the Knock Shrine Mary
Garden.
As Lliam Brophy expressed it poetically:
"(The flowers of) the glad abounding earth
still gush the Holy Spirit's primal mirth
In endlessly renewed diversities."
How fittingly Chaucer saw Mary as the "Flower of flowers".
Actually, we receive particular graces to distribute, from the
sea of grace surrounding Mary, through the flowers of our hearts
opened in love, into which angels direct these graces by the
wafting of their wings - like the wind blowing up whitecaps and
spray from ocean waves - as Mary, Mediatix of all Grace, for her
part receives them from the heavenly reservoirs of Grace.
Similarly we receive the luminous overshadowing of the Holy
Spirit into the aura of our souls through transmitting angels of
light.
These thoughts have been in response to the question which
arises as to what is one to "do" with the experienced profuse,
unceasing, outpouring of grace which can accompany our spiritual
quickening through flowers as instruments of Mary's presence - and
as to how is one to do it. But how are we to become enlightened as
to our practical instrumentality of the Holy Spirit in this?
Here we can learn from St. Louis de Montfort's love of and
prayer to Mary as "Star of the Sea" - Mary as both the sea of grace
and the star of guidance through this sea - which I haven't
so appreciated until now.
It is to Mary, now ever present at our side, to whom we are to
turn - as Seat of Wisdom and Mother of Good Counsel - for the
needed wisdom and counsel.
Thus, not only do we now have a sense of Mary's presence at our
side, so we can turn to her for the general needs and opportunities
of our lives, but also she is present to provide the wisdom and
counsel we need for our missionary, apostolic, salvational and
kingdomal use of the gratuitous gifts of participation in her
fullness of grace and in her overshadowing by the Holy Spirit, which
can accompany this sense of her presence with us.
Who better than Mary can counsel us in the channeling of the
fullness of grace according to the spirating, circulating,
matrixing of the overshadowing Holy Spirit?
Mary's good counsel directs and leads us in the opening up -
through acts of love and mercy; and through words of wisdom and
counsel - of the natural receptivities of others to and for the
supernatural grace and spirit, which we are now to participate in
focusing and distributing with her, as "other Marys".
In this it is helpful to understand that Mary's fullness of
grace was not required for her sanctification, nor was it the
"product" of it, but it was gratuitously infused, in the first
instance, in her Immaculate Conception, that she might in turn
"distribute" it to the Christ Child as an integral part of her
nurturing of him in his true humanity, as he grew "in wisdom and
age and grace before God and men" (Luke, 2, 52).
Thus, Mary was the Mediatrix of All Grace, first as the Mother
of the growing Christ Child (and then, as Mother of the mature
Christ, as at Cana); but then also as Mother of the Church, of the
Mystical Body of Christ, until the end of time.
This would seem, Brother, to be a culmination of the
earthly/heavenly journey of first discovering and experiencing the
beautiful symbolism of Our Lady's Flowers; then discovering these
flowers as supports for meditation; then discovering them, (blest),
as sacramentals of grace; and, finally, discovering them as
conveyors of the sense of Mary's presence with us - both in the
Garden, and as we go forth from the Garden to the World in the work
of Mercy, Salvation and Kingdom.
In the hope that you will find some merit in these thoughts,
which I make bold to share with you, I remain, as ever, sincerely
your friend, in the communion of Jesus, Mary and the Garden Saints,
+
Boston, MA
May 2, 1988
Athanasius
Dear Brother Sean,
What a joy to learn from your letter of April 20th that you
were indeed able to meet with Fr. Charest and his pilgrim party at
Knock!
I can see that your opportunity to lead their tour of the
Shrine and Garden personally after joining them for Mass at the
Apparition Chapel was a rare spiritual treat for them which will be
long remembered.
I'm sure Bonnie was with you. It was her tours of her
Hagerman Mary Garden with visitors which were the heart of her
communication of the Mary Garden idea, love and spirit. Also, the
hospitality and sociability afterwards - as with your tea and
cakes. Bonnie also always provided a small gift of a flower,
leaflet or memento that visitors could take with them - your
booklet being so important in this respect at Knock.
I recall that Mrs. Goffin, who lived across the street from
the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, told me how Frances Lillie used
to sit in the garden regularly, reading (from the beautiful library
she established there in the base of the Angelus Tower), so that
she could be there to personally convey her appreciation of the
Mary Flowers to visitors. (As I write, I now realize that Mrs.
Lillie established the Tower library for herself as well as for
casual visitors. But, always in a spirit of sharing, as I recall
there was a sign saying that visitors could take books with them
for as long as they liked, so long as they eventually returned
them. And they did, as in the early 1950's I catalogued the fifty
or so original books still in the library after 20 years -
hurricanes and all - and I think I included this list with the
archive materials I assembled for Jane in 1981.)
So, Brother, the tour you conducted was in the high tradition
of the Mary Garden. I wish I could have been a "fly on the
(garden) wall", or had thought to ask Father Charest to take along
a pocket tape recorder. I gave Bonnie many tours of my
Philadelphia Mary Garden via tape recorder - reporting new blooms,
symbolism discoveries, meditative insights, etc.. And I had the
one opportunity to conduct her through my Garden in 1962, as she
did to conduct me through hers in 1968. Also, I taped her numerous
times from Woods Hole. I think she said you sent her a tape once.
If so, I's sure I'll find it in her archives and papers her sister,
Faye, sent me. (How I long for an opportunity to go through those
archives in minute detail. Every, even quickly jotted, note is
such a treasure.)
The important thing is that your direct, personal,
communication of the Mary Garden idea, love and spirit to Father
Charest probably conveyed far more to him than have my 30 years of
correspondence and articles - although these were a good background
and preparation for the "big moment".
The Mary Garden tradition is first and foremost a popular oral
tradition handed down in countryside and garden; and all our
articles and books are ultimately a support for this (although I do
dearly hope I will be blest with the opportunity - for I which I
ask your constant prayers - to develop, with Marion's help and
while helping her in her graphics work, full and beautiful
electronic supports for this tradition through video and computers,
as I have written before.
I do hope Father Charest will now write an article about the
Knock Mary Garden and his visit himself, capturing the opportunity
for fuller appreciation afforded to him.
Your ability to get away from your other duties to spend these
important moments with Fr. Charest and his group is so
providentially wonderful. There comes to mind the mystical reports
of the saints in heaven eagerly nurturing and waiting for great
moments of sacred history on earth, and I do hope this is one of
them, (and on such a beautiful day, as you report).
I will make sure, as you request, to ask that he emphasize
that Knock is the first and only national Marian Shrine to have an
outdoor Mary Garden, and that the booklet exists and is obtainable
from the Knock Shrine office.
At this point I will await some word from him (the "Paradise
of Our Lady" article should be appearing soon, in his May-June
issue), but if I don't hear from him in a week or so, I will
contact him. Your follow-up letter to him, giving information and
quotes for his article will be most important. Let me know
anything else I can do.
I will pass on your kindest regards to Jane McLaughlin, as you
request, and I thank you for the best wishes conveyed from Tom
Neary.
With all prayerful best wishes, and with ever-increasing joy
over our work together for the deepening and spread of the Mary
Garden movement, I remain, as always,
Sincerely, your friend, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
April 19, 1988
Dear Brother Sean,
I am very conscious that today is the "big day" for Mary's
Gardens, (and hopefully the world) with the 2:30 scheduled arrival
of Fr. Charest's pilgrimage group at Knock coming up in two hours,
as I write at 7:30 this morning (assuming that Ireland is on summer
time, 5 hours ahead of our eastern daylight saving time).
I do hope that their plans are going according to schedule,
and that you and others are able to meet with them (however
briefly).
As you well know, the planting of the Knock Mary Garden
represented to Bonnie the culmination of her life's work, and I of
course raised my hopes for this occasion to her in prayer:
"Mary will be with them all, and will make her
presence known miraculously"
I do indeed hope for a miracle of grace here.
Shortly afterwards I received a strong sense that the Mary
Garden Prayer should invoke:
"St. Rose of Lima, to whom the Boy Jesus and his
Mother were present in the garden"
So, I petitioned St. Rose specially, also:
"Jesus and Mary will touch their hearts in the Garden."
I recall so well reading in one of my books or pamphlets that
after a commission of Jesuit inquisitors had extensively examinened
St. Rose, they concluded that Jesus and Mary had indeed been present
to her - some details with which she perceived that presence, such
as playing cards with the boy Jesus, of course coming from her own
heart and imagination.
Yes, I did indeed receive your St. Patrick's Day card, in good
time for the feast, and I thank you very much for it. I wasn't
previously aware of "St. Patrick's Fires" of Spring - although I
knew of St. John's Fires of Summer, and of equinoxial and
solsticial fires generally. This is such a dramatic instance of
St. Patrick's sanctification of nature and nature customs, and in a
way has the force of a greater specificity of time and place than
the legend of the Shamrock.
I note your concern that while the Knock Mary Garden beds and
plantings are being cared for, some of the agreed to symbolical
plants still have not been included this spring. After thirty
years of a similar concern at Woods Hole - from the time Ed and I
first met with Wilfred Wheeler and Dorothea Harrison there about
restoring the planting according to plan, to the time Jane
McLaughlin actually carried forward the restoration - I am able to
empathize with you quite poignantly over this.
I had come to be so resigned about the planting at Woods
Hole, that Jane even had to persuade me, as it were, to join her in
going for the fullest possible retoration. I remember well the
conversation I had on first meeting her, after Mass at St. Joseph's
one Sunday in 1981 when I told her how "sanguine" I had become
about ever seeing the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady planting
restored.
The lesson I learned from this, and from other public Mary
Gardens, was that it isn't so much a matter of having a Mary Garden
which is faithful to its planting plan, but of of having a Mary
Gardener, or a Mary Garden person, Committee or Society working
with professional gardeners or caretakers, with personal commitment
and inspiration for having a faithfully executed and maintained
Mary Garden.
Generally, professional gardeners and horticuluralists are so
committed to meeting secular expectations as to the appearance of a
garden and grounds; are so pressed for time; and are so influenced
by the prevaling viewpoint of their horticultural peers and of
secular horticultural literature that plant symbolism, including
religious plant symbolism, is simple interesting plant "lore", that
they simply don't sense the importance of fidelity of the planting
plan of a Mary Garden.
I recall this was similarly the case, secularly, of the
planting of the medieval garden at The Cloisters in New York City.
The original plan - prepared, I believe in the 1930's - by the
Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (then or later) called
for a magnificent variety of medieval plants, which were perhaps 80
percent there in the early 50's when Ed and I first visited the
garden and photographed it and its plants. Then a few years later,
as we prepared extensive lists of the Mary-names of the plants from
the plan, less and less of the plants were actually refreshed each
spring, and finally, about ten years ago, I read a series of
magazine articles about the Cloisters garden stating that there was
now a new gardener, and how exciting it was that she had come up
with a new vastly simplified plan, with only about 10% of the
orginal plant materials. I wrote her an extensive letter, but
never received a reply.
Ultimately, as I have come to see more clearly just recently,
it is the sensed reality of Mary's presence through the Flowers of
Our Lady that sustained the popular religious tradition of these
flowers through the centuries - which sense we pray will sustain the
planting and maintenance of Mary Gardens in the present and future.
It is in this that I hope and pray for at Knock.
It is now 8:30 AM here, so I will close this letter and focus
my vision and prayers fully on the hoped for immediately upcoming
events at Knock.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
May 2, 1988
Athanasius
Dear Brother Seàn,
What a joy to learn from your letter of April 20th that you
were indeed able to meet with Fr. Charest and his pilgrim party at
Knock!
I can see that your opportunity to lead their tour of the
Shrine and Garden personally after joining them for Mass at the
Apparition Chapel was a rare spiritual treat for them which will be
long remembered.
I'm sure Bonnie was with you. It was her tours of her
Hagerman Mary Garden with visitors which were the heart of her
communication of the Mary Garden idea, love and spirit. Also, the
hospitality and sociability afterwards - as with your tea and
cakes. Bonnie also always provided a small gift of a flower,
leaflet or memento that visitors could take with them - your
booklet being so important in this respect at Knock.
I recall that Mrs. Goffin, who lived across the street from
the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, told me how Frances Lillie used
to sit in the garden regularly, reading (from the beautiful library
she established there in the base of the Angelus Tower), so that
she could be there to personally convey her appreciation of the
Mary Flowers to visitors. (As I write, I now realize that Mrs.
Lillie established the Tower library for herself as well as for
casual visitors. But, always in a spirit of sharing, as I recall
there was a sign saying that visitors could take books with them
for as long as they liked, so long as they eventually returned
them. And they did, as in the early 1950's I catalogued the fifty
or so original books still in the library after 20 years -
hurricanes and all - and I think I included this list with the
archive materials I assembled for Jane in 1981.)
So, Brother, the tour you conducted was in the high tradition
of the Mary Garden. I wish I could have been a "fly on the
(garden) wall", or had thought to ask Father Charest to take along
a pocket tape recorder.
I gave Bonnie many tours of my Philadelphia Mary Garden via tape
recorder - reporting new blooms, symbolism discoveries, meditative
insights, etc.. And I had the one opportunity to conduct her
through my Garden in 1962, as she did to conduct me through hers in
1968. Also, I taped her numerous times from Woods Hole. I think
she said you sent her a tape once. If so, I's sure I'll find it in
her archives and papers her sister, Faye, sent me. (How I long for
an opportunity to go through those archives in minute detail.
Every, even quickly jotted, note is such a treasure.)
The important thing is that your direct, personal,
communication of the Mary Garden idea, love and spirit to Father
Charest probably conveyed far more to him than have my 30 years of
correspondence and articles - although these were a good background
and preparation for the "big moment".
The Mary Garden tradition is first and foremost a popular oral
tradition handed down in countryside and garden; and all our
articles and books are ultimately a support for this (although I do
dearly hope I will be blest with the opportunity - for I which I ask
your constant prayers - to develop full and beautiful electronic
supports for this tradition through video and computers, as I have
written before.
I do hope Father Charest will now write an article about the
Knock Mary Garden and his visit himself, capturing the opportunity
for fuller appreciation afforded to him.
Your ability to get away from your other duties to spend these
important moments with Fr. Charest and his group is so
providentially wonderful. There comes to mind the mystical reports
of the saints in heaven eagerly nurturing and waiting for great
moments of sacred history on earth, and I do hope this is one of
them, (and on such a beautiful day, as you report).
I will make sure, as you request, to ask that he emphasize
that Knock is the first and only national Marian Shrine to have an
outdoor Mary Garden, and that the booklet exists and is obtainable
from the Knock Shrine office.
At this point I will await some word from him (the "Paradise
of Our Lady" article should be appearing soon, in his May-June
issue), but if I don't hear from him in a week or so, I will
contact him. Your follow-up letter to him, giving information and
quotes for his article will be most important. Let me know
anything else I can do.
I will pass on your kindest regards to Jane McLaughlin, as you
request, and I thank you for the best wishes conveyed from Tom
Neary.
With all prayerful best wishes, and with ever-increasing joy
over our work together for the deepening and spread of the Mary
Garden movement, I remain, as always,
Sincerely, your friend, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
July 4, 1988
Dear Brother Seàn,
Since last writing to you on May 2 I have endeavored to keep
you abreast of my Mary's Gardens activities and thinking through
copies of my letters to Fr. Byrne (May 22), Fr. Charest (May 31 &
June 11), Anne Hopkins (June 11), and to two people who inquired
about the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens after reading
"Paradise of Our Lady" in QUEEN magazine.
I forwarded the last two to share with you how I am responding
to inquiries, as with the copies of my letters to Fr. Byrne in
Australia, written at your suggestion. I think the last previous
inquiry I answered directly ( other than a few people I wrote at
Bonnie's request) prior to these was my first letter to you, in
1972, because Bonnie had been writing all the replies.
As distinct from the form letters we sent out by the 1000's in
the 1950's, these are written individually - setting forth the Mary
Garden idea and movement in considerable detail for the particular
person - keeping in mind that what we need now are people of the
deepest motivation, who might undertake a commitment to carry
forward this work themselves, as in the case of Fr. Byrne.
I also wrote to Father Greely, P.P., in response to a note I
recived from him thanking me for a 2nd contribution I had made to
the Knock "Mary Garden Publications Fund" a while back, mindful of
the fortcoming second printing of your Booklet.
I don't think it is proper to send you a copy of my full
letter to him, but I enclose a slightly edited copy of a major
portion of it in which I wrote of the Knock Mary Garden in the
context of the development of the Mary Garden idea and movement -
so you will know of my direct input, as, for example, in regard to
the desirability of the second Mhuire Garden, etc..
Last Sunday, June 26th, I drove to Woods Hole for the day to
open up our house in preparation for the possibility of spending
some time in Woods Hole this summer. Due to a heavy thunder storm
and electric power failure, we weren't able to see very well
indoors, or to operate our vacuum cleaner, so we didn't accomplish
much along these lines. However, this gave me some time to go
through the Mary's Gardens files (near the light from a window) and
to find the paste-up copies for the "Lillie Tower" and "Cape Cod
Shrine" articles about the Garden of Our Lady, as well as some
reprints left over of the QUEEN "Mary Garden Jubilee"(#3) article.
After we had some lunch at a local favorite restaurant on the
waterfront, we went back to the house, and just then - about 2:45
PM - as we were stepping out of the car we heard the Angelus Bells
ring out, loud and clear (2-3/4 hours late due to the set-back of
the control clock by the power failure).
Recognizing this as a special summons, I went to the Garden
where, happily, I came upon Jane working to distribute some extra
humus (left by the professional garden caretakers) to the side
beds. We had a joyful reunion of sorts, and brought each other up
to date about much of what has been happening.
We of course spoke of you and of Knock, and I told her about
my occasion to write to Fr. Grealy. The Garden looked just fine
and I told her I would be sending copies of the article reprints in
a few days from Boston - including, also, reprints of the
"Paradise" article. I can see that it is best to have available
for visitors articles specifically relating to the Garden of Our
Lady, which they are actually visiting - just as your Booklet ties
in directly with a visit to the Knock Mary Garden. I also am
sending to her copies of the list of 200 Flowers of Our Lady, so
that those who might want to start Mary Gardens of their own will
have a larger variety of plant materials to choose from.
I will also check with her to see if there is any possibility
your booklet could be sold at one or more of the local stores, or
otherwise made available through a sample and notice at the Angelus
Tower, etc..
As for the Garden itself, in addition to the overall groomed
and healthy appearance, there were a number of particulars of happy
refinement. Among these were the growth and bloom of the climbing
rose at the post for the planting list and plan shelter; very fine
growth in the right rear corner bed with profuse rose blossoms and
several handsome "Candles"; beginning climbing and blooms of the
Morning Glories and Clematis at the restored rear bed trellis;
several large Nigella plants (nurtured by Fred in his back-up home
nursery beds); and tall stalks from Bonnie's three Madonna Lilies
in the right front corner bed, and also a fourth in the central
cross-shaped bed, next to the statue of Our Lady.
I took some slide photos (it had been so long since I used my
camera that I wasted some slides getting my memory back as how to
operate it). I got good representative photos of the Garden, and
also a very nice one of Jane - of which I will send a copy.
Among the things Jane told me was that she has been in
correspondence for some time with a woman who has been active in
the preparation and furnishing of the historic Carroll House in our
state of Maryland - for which a Mary Garden is planned. I'm a
little "rusty" in my memory of the historical details, but the
Carroll family was prominent in the "Catholic" colony and, now,
state of Maryland. I believe one of the Carroll's was a signer of
our U.S. Declaration of Independence (celebrated today), and
another the first bishop of the first U. S. diocese, of Baltimore.
So, this house is a most important historic monument, and the Mary
Garden will add much to the interest, as well as remind people that
Maryland is Mary's Land. The planting of Mary Gardens at historic
monuments, as well as shrines, is a new and important dimension of
our work, and I am thankful to Jane for following through with this
opportunity. More on this when Jane sends me further details, or
perhaphs she may write you about it. Eventually there should be
photos and some sort of printed mention.
I am receiving some further insights about our work - beyond
the "Paradise" and "Our Lady in Her Garden" facets - which I will
share with you in due time as they ripen.
I will be interested to learn of your assignment for next year
- whether you will be continuing at Ballinrobe, etc. From your
year nearby, I would appreciate having your assessment of the Knock
Garden and its further development and incorporation in the life of
the Shrine. In our early years, Ed McTague used to say, "Mary's
Gardens has been founded, and after five years we can say that it
has been established". I am mindful that now the Knock Mary Garden
has been established for five years.
From my correspondence with Anne Thomas, Tom Neary, Fr.
Charest and Fr. Grealy, on top of all our letters, as well as from
your Booklet, I feel in closer communion with Knock, and see it,
along with Woods Hole, as a sort of twin base for the spread of
Mary Gardening throughout the world.
The Carroll House Mary Garden could also be of major
importance, because as a historic monument the House provides a
context for focusing on the historic fact of the Flowers of Our
Lady - which, in a way, was the first focus of Mary's Gardens of
Philadelphia.
Personal, home, Mary Gardens are of special importance
because, like Bonnie's (in a predominently non-Catholic community),
they provide a mode for a personal, apostolic, demonstration,
"statement", or "confession" of love and devotion deeper than
discursive apologetics and argument. But, since individuals come
and go, as do parish, school and monastery Mary Gardens, we need
more enduring anchors such as angelus towers, shrines, historic
monuments - and also books and CD ROMS - from which individual Mary
Gardens can be inspired over and over again and again.
In the hope that this finds you well, and with prayerful best
wishes for a good summer, and a culminative close of the Marian
Year on the Feast of the Assumption, I remain, as always, your
friend,
Sincerely in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
July 11, 1988
St. Benedict
Dear Brother Sean,
After half of year of intensive thought and writing about the
significance of the Knock Mary Garden, I once again feel a need to
make an overall review of our work in global terms.
As always, the challenge is how to communicate appreciation of
the riches and meanings of the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens
as an effective motivation to others. I have been endeavoring to
do this as well possible for each person to whom I write; and each
attempt spurs me to try to discern how to do it better the next
time. Then comes the moment, such as now, when I take a look at
all these attempts, and re-read all the articles from through the
years, and then endeavor to make a more definitive articulation of
overall meaning and purpose.
In the broader sense we are always endeavoring to move
ourselves and to inspire others ever more fully towards Conversion,
Church, Salvation, Kingdom and Heaven - in a world which is so full
of poverty, indifference, injustice, oppression, exploitation,
illness, addiction, violence, crime and war, etc..
Secular gratification, pride, superiority, possessions and
power all have their allurements and motivations, but how pale and
passing these are in comparison to the love of Soul, Christ,
Spirit, Creator, Mary, Kingdom and Heaven, once they are
experienced. Ultimately faith is a divine gift, but surely we,
like Mary, can be instrumental for this giving. One of the lessons
of Mary's Intercession, Mediation and Distribution is that Divine
Grace can indeed be humanly interceded for, and mediated and
distributed. Also we know that "grace builds on nature (and art)"
and "glory builds on grace", so that all objects of nature and all
artifacts can and are to be employed for purification, conversion,
sanctification and Kingdom. All of which can be summed up in the
truth that "The fullness of Heaven is to be built on earth".
If all creation has its place in the divine plan of
redemption, as St. Paul says; if all creation is potentially
instrumental of grace - and of glory, as St Louis de Montfort says;
and if God's power can be found everywhere in nature, as St.
Patrick teaches us - then it is incumbant upon us that this endowed
instrumental potential be actualized, through Mary, Queen of
redeemed nature.
It seems to me that the old catechism statement that "We were
created to know, love and serve God in this world and to be happy
with him forever in heaven" doesn't motivate people adequately any
more. I think the reason is that it is perceived to focus on the
earthly "Valley of Tears" and heavenly "Pie in the Sky" in a way
which, while appropriate to the "static" world of the ancient and
medieval periods, doesn't adequately take into consideration the
created, and continuously discovered and co-created, good of the
modern, scientific world. Modern secular communications, graphic
arts, manufactured goods, conveniences, transportation, scientific
inquiry and innovation have so much more to offer than the ordinary
life of earlier periods, that they are mistakenly sought as a
substitute for, rather than as a more striking likeness of and
means to, the fullness of supernatural life and heavenly riches.
Yet there are always earthly lack, diminishment and death, no
matter how marvellous the wonders of the modern world, and I think
Teilhard de Chardin was correct in his discernment that we in fact
build heaven eternally as we build earth temporally, so that
despite the death that we all - healthy and sick, rich and poor,
must experience - everything is preserved and nothing is lost.
In one of his books he distilled his perception of this
developmental truth in a little diagram something like this:
Heaven
^ _.Omega Point (Christ)
l /!
l /
l /
l /
l /
l /
l /
l /
l /
l /
l /
l/___________> Earth
I think that the "Omega Point" is still a little too "Pie in
the sky" or abstract; and that what is to be perceived and
emphasized, is that as through our grace-inspired action on earth
we build God's Kingdom here and now, "on the horizontal axis", so
are we at the same time building the Heavenly Jerusalem, for
descending eternal transfiguration of the Earthly Kingdom on the
Lat Day - with the General Resurrection, and nothing ultimately
lost through diminishment and death.
Scientific transformation of the globe, properly seen, imparts
this sense, even though it is all too often only seen as material
and temporal. The ever-present threat from science itself - in
the short term by pollution and potential nuclear, biological or
chemical destruction; and in the long term by depletion of natural
resources and the "greenhouse effect", etc. - should remind us
always to see it as a foretaste of, rather than a substitute for,
heaven.
The beautiful consequence of the perception that, in the truth
of the Cross, we build heaven on earth ("Thy Kingdom come, on earth
as it is in heaven") through immolation and reparation, as well as
through stewardship, development and transformation, is the
perception that nothing is lost, despite all these dire,
apocalyptic, threats . Everything we do - to develop and conserve
("dress and keep") Creation for and with the creating Father; to
offer up diminishments, loss, suffering and death immolatively and
reparationally for and with the redeeming Son; and to renew the
face of the earth for and with the regenerating, transfiguring and
transforming Holy Spirit - contributes to the building of heaven on
earth, to the building of the eternal New heaven and the New Earth,
which ultimately will be one.
There are always "tares among the wheat", and, "sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof", so that heaven is never fully
achieved on earth while the building process is going on - yet in
the end, in the pleuroma, the Heavenly Jerusale is indeed built
through our earthly labors of grace, light, wisdom and power, and
descends to make the culminating transformation of the new earth;
and everything, whether of preservation, immolation or
transformation, contributes to this.
Once this is effectively perveived, we then see that our
historical goal, and the goal of the saints, awaiting the
resurrection of their bodies, in heaven still being built, is to
hope and work for the fullness of our building heaven through
earth, so that although the earth is never fully built, from it may
come the new heaven, from which, in turn, as it descends, will come
"in a flash" the general resurrection and new earth.
We are to see the "purpose" of the descending Pentacostal Holy
Spirit as the building of heaven on earth towards the end of time
and the General Resurrection - as prefigured in Mary's Assumption,
and in the offering at the altar of Assumption bundles of plants to
symbolize the ultimate resurrectional, assumptional incorporation
of all creation in the new heaven and earth.
Thus, instead of stating that the purpose of our creation is
"to know, love and serve God in this world, and to be happy with
him forever in the next", I propose that it be re-perceived and
re-stated as something like (long form) "to know, and love God, and
to be his faithful instruments and coworkers in the task for which
we were created, of building heaven through the promptings of grace
in our lives on earth - that this world may be brought to its
culmination, and all may be resurrected to live with him eternally,
in the new heaven and new earth."
Thus, our work, in love, for truth, justice, freedom, mercy
and peace is undertaken not just out of secular humanism, but for
the building of heaven, where we are to find the ultimate human
fulfillment of all as beholders and sharers of God's goodness and
eternal life. And morality has its ultimate foundation in the
restraints we accept of earthly fulfillment that we may further the
coming of this heavenly fulfillment - that instead of endeavoring
to make the earth infinite we view it, properly, as a means to the
Infinity of Heaven.
The beauty and awesomeness of flowers and gardens and their
care lie in their heavenly likeness, which, by extension and
analogy, enable us to see the likeness to, and movement towards,
heaven of all creation, work and art. So that all flowers and
gardens are, in fact, Flowers and Gardens of Our Lady, who - "fair
as the moon, bright as the sun and terrible as an army set in
battle array" - is mediatrix and distributrix of all divine grace,
light, wisdom and power.
In the "realism" of heaven, our work for the Flowers of Our
Lady and Mary Gardens, then, is not some sort of peripheral
delicacy of the material world, but a focal pointer of the way to
heaven. I believe this was Frances Lillie's vision in founding the
Garden of Our Lady.
Brother, I'll no doubt be attempting to re-state this ever
more clearly, and communicably, as long as I live, but I hope this
present attempt, which I share with you in the communion of our
work, may be of some usefulness.
As ever, I remain sincerely your friend, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
August 1, 1988
Alphonsus Liguori
Dear Brother Sean,
Thank you for your letter of June 29th, telling of your
several recent visits to Knock and of the heightened activity
there.
I was especially interested in your mention that Fr. Gobbi was
addressing members of the Marian Movement of Priests in the
Basilica while you were there on the 29th. The last edition of his
Marian locutions I have is the 6th - August 29, 1973 through Apri1
24, 1980 - and I must get the most recent edition from the United
States Director of the movement, with whom I last corresponded five
or six years ago. I feel much rapport with Fr. Gobbi's locutional
closeness to Our Lady, and have been much enriched by them.
Certain little things have meant a lot to me, like the emphasis on
the "Yes" of Our Lady's co- redemptive "Fiat". And there is some
excellent flower and garden imagery, e.g.:
"Soon the desert will blossom and all creation will
become that marvellous garden, created for man, to
reflect in a perfect manner the greatest glory of God"
- November 28, 1979
I wonder if he has had any locutions amplifying the
interpretation Mary's appearance at Knock.
The Marian Movement of Priests offers me much encouragement,
especially when I feel alone, in my immediate environment, in my
sense of Mary's communication and presence, which I so much wish to
share directly with others, or at least be assured that others
share somewhere.
At the same time there seems to be less devotion to Our Lady
in parish life and at the "bookstore and statuary level", I sense
that there is a regeneration of this devotion at a much deeper and
personal level (as with the Marian Movement of Priests) which
people are somewhat reluctant to be too vocal about, except with
each other.
In Heaven we will be in direct communication with God, Mary,
the angels and the saints, so that as Heaven is built on earth,
this should be increasingly so here also - ordinary rather than
extraordinary - even though "through a glass darkly, rather than
face to face."
Fr. Gobbi's continuing locutions from Our Lady are instructive
to us as to how this may become "ordinary" (with all the prudent
and necessary safeguards of doctrinal fidelity and hierarchical
watchfulness), and as to how our lives of Salvation and
Kingdom-building can indeed be enhanced by locutions, visions,
consolations and elections.
It can be said, even as it is said regarding Our Lady's
authenticated appearances and public messages, that the deposit of
faith and teaching of the Church are sufficient, so "we don't need
this". However, faith needs to be quickened in ever fresh, direct
and immediate ways; and when it comes to building God's earthly
Kingdom, we are in much need of support for our wisdom and counsel
as we meet ever new obstacles and opportunities. This is one of
the things I treasure about the ever-fresh, ever-new,
ever-variagating flower and garden symbolism of Our Lady.
In a genaral way, the broad acceptance of Fr. Gobbi's Marian
locutions by the Marian Movement of Priests better disposes all for
the acceptance of the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens as one
of the available vehicles for the experience of Our Lady's
communication and presence. I hope this will be specifically so
for those responsible for the Knock Shrine.
It is wonderful that Fr. Gobbi's Marian locutions are accepted
"second hand", but why not experience Mary's presence and
communication first hand - as with the help of the Garden?
I am happy for you that the time of year has once again come
when you are able to spend some time in your native Clare.
I will write to Fr. Charest shortly, after I receive his
July-August issue in which I hope he will make some mention of his
visit to Knock. I have indicated to him several times my hope that
he will make specific mention of your booklet - and have given him
the precise price and order address information. In this letter I
will order a copies of the list of Marian Shrines in the U.S.A. and
Canada for you, as you request, and also for myself.
For my part, I have been fortunate in having just spent a week
in Woods Hole - speaking with Fr. Dalzell after Mass on July 24th
and encountering Jane again in the Garden of Our Lady, on the 26th.
I gave them two additional copies of your booklet, so one can be
placed in the Angelus Tower room, that people may know about it and
know where they can obtain it - and there will be a "back-up" if
the first one disappears. Jane said she will make a plastic cover
for it, as has been done for the book of poems, in the Tower, for
Alpheo Faggi's sculptures of the Stations - which has remained in
the Tower for some years. Jane mentioned that she had also ordered
some additional copies of your Booklet.
I neglected to mention, in writing you of my previous visit
with Jane, that an inquiry was received from an Italian author,
writing a book on Alfeo Faggi, asking to verify that he had done
the metal bas relief on the Tower door of scenes from the life of
St. Joseph. In addition to giving this verification, Jane was able
to tell him of the metal bas relief he did for the private grave of
one of Mrs. Lillie's adopted sons, on the Lillie Woods Hole
property. I was shown this perhaps twenty years ago by Mrs.
Lillie's cousin, Mrs. Florence Gigger, who was trust custodian of
the Tower and Garden for a period - and have a color photo of it.
I also neglected to mention the nice new white plant name tags
in the Garden of Our Lady. These were designed by Jane's friend,
co-parishioner and helper with the Garden , Fred Luts, who also
constructed the restored "wayside shrine" shelter for the Garden
plant list and plan, and the new rear trellis, and grows some
plants for the Garden in his home garden beds.
The labels are the familiar plastic planting labels about 3
inches long and pointed at one end, in which Fred has ingeniously
cut two slits into which the top 2 inches, bent at a right angle,
of 8 inch or so long 1/8" wire supports are inserted, so that the
labels are up a bit and can be read horizontally. I had used the
standard low horizontal plastic labels, with supporting pointed
plastic column "stake", at the OMC Mary Garden in Chestnut Hill,
but they were much lower, and thus less easy read. These and other
contributions of Fred, working with Jane, have been very important
to the quality of the restoration of the Garden of Our Lady.
In one of my daily visits to the Garden, I met an artist who
was making a water color painting of it, and I was able to tell her
that the prominent 6 ft. red Lythrum plants she had just painted,
while not in the planting plan, were appropriate to the Garden as
"Christ's Blood Drops". When I mentioned this to Jane, she said
the Lythrum had been planted by the professional nurseyman
caretaker at the time of the restoration as a substitute for the
Veronica called for on the plan, and has been left as an
augmentation of the terminal focal point, complementing the
beautiful tall, rose-like, reddish pink Hollyhock of the rear bed
(of which several people have asked Jane for seed - it is so
beautiful), even though the Veronica has now been added.
In general, the Garden was in good mid-summer bloom,
including, additionally, the Thyme, Teucrium, Monkshood, Petunias,
Marigolds, Chrysanthemum balsamita and Melissa (both tiny blooms),
Campanula, Morning Glory, Clematis, Pansies (Johnny-Jump-Ups),
Lily, Nigella and perhaps others I don't recall as I write. Also,
of course, there is the ever-present fragrance of the RoseMary and
Spearmint.
Frances Lillie evidently, like Bonnie, was especially fond of
the fragrant Herbs of Our Lady, and I am reminded of one of Wilfred
Wheeler's nurserymen ( Joseph Dias?) who cared for the Garden for
many years from its inception and who told me he personally
prepared for and placed in Mrs. Lillie's burial casket a little
bouquet of "her favorite fragrant herbs". I should have asked him
of his conversations with her in the Garden.
Providentially, the restoration of the trellis in the center
of the rear bed, the profusion of red roses, hollyhock and lythrum
at either side of it ( and even some blue morning glory climbing
the trellis, which turned out to be red - as though to tell us
something), and the opening up of the area about the same size as
the Garden, behind the trellis, and now filled with masses of
Golden Jerusalem (Black-Eyed Susan) blooms, provide a new "in
depth" replication of Heaven.
Thus, the Angelus Tower, represents the Heavenly City of the
First, Empyrean, Heaven; the Garden of Our Lady the Heavenly
Paradise of the Second Heaven; the red roses, hollyhock and lythrum
at the trellis, the Heavenly Rose of the Third Heaven; and then the
rear, inner court the storehouses (of which St. Louis de Montfort
speaks) of the Power, Pneuma, Grace and Light, progressively, of
the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Heavens, which Mary mediates
to us.
There are also some white flowers (daisies?) and some green
foliage and ground cover in the inner court; and to articulate the
symbolism of the upper four Heavens a little further, some blue
flowers (Chicory, "Heavenly Way"?), white (daisies, Queen Anne's
Lace?) and green shrubs (there is already some privit hedge) could
be added to the inner court in appropriately composed masses of the
Yellow/Gold of Light, the Blue of Grace, the White of Pneuma, and
the Green of Power (the power of green plant growth being the
garden symbol of heavenly Power - "Consider the lilies, see how
they grow"). The inner court was opened up by clearing away a
privit thicket, at the suggestion of Fr. Dalzell.
These symbolized created heavens are all of course distinct
from the uncreated heaven of the interior of the Trinity, in which
we participate through Holy Communion at Mass in St. Joseph's
Church across the street.
Interesting how, providentally, as I said, the establishment
of the St. Joseph's, Nazareth Garden at the west side of the Tower
and Garden plot, and now the Heavenly Storehouse Garden at the east
end - each established for more immediate considerations - serve to
round out a fuller overall symbolical composition.
Prominent among the wayside and field flowers in mid-summer
bloom around Woods Hole are St. Johnswort, Black-Eyed Susan, Beach
Roses - red and white, Butter & Eggs, Chicory, Lythrum, Queen
Anne's Lace, Paint Brush, Morning Glory (white) and Day Lilies.
During this recent visit I was much more appreciative of the
ringing of the Angelus bells. The Angelus prayer is a remarkable
distillation of the essence of our faith - for as much as we may
lovingly care for God's Creation, and prayerfully work for its
heavenly transfiguration and transformation, we are ultimately to
live, in this life, according to the truth of the aspiration that
we may be brought to the glory of Christ's Ressurection by the
uniting of our diminishments, suffering and death with his Passion
and Cross.
The first two patron saints of gardening, Phocas and Dorothy,
were both martyrs - who embraced their martyrdom in anticipation of
their entrance into the flowering heavenly paradise.
Later, St Martin de Tours was beseeched by his earthly
associates to defer his immanent rise to heaven in order that they
might receive from him further ministery to their spiritual needs
on earth.
Now that we better understand that it is God's will that his
Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven ("Why are you looking
up?"), we look more and more to the conversion of others for the
transformation of the earth, as well as foir their salvation.
In searching for the means best to instrument this, we can
turn for advantage to what St. Louis de Montfort refers to as
"imprecatory prayer": a prayerful quickening and alertness - of
both forgiveness and of a deep desire for conversion and Kingdom -
to offer up each and every tresspass, offense, diminishment and
injury, large or small, we experience at the hands of others,
immediately and directly for the grace that will convert them,
specifically, away from such trespasses to attitudes and acts of
love, justice, mercy and spiritual creativity and building.
I learned in prayer, from St. Louis de Montfort, that
imprecatory prayer "mediates the Cross of Christ" - the Cross from
which our Savior prayed for the conversion of those who persecuted
him, and for the whole world.
It is to this that I felt especially quickened by the ringing
of the Angelus last week, "that we . . . by his Passion and Cross,
may be brought to the glory (on earth as well as in Heaven) of his
Resurrection. We all too often forget the glorious period between
Christ's Resurrection and his Ascension.
Interestingly the Faggi bas relief Stations of the Cross in
the interior of the Tower room place the Angelus Prayer in further
spacial perspective. As we move from the Joyful "Nazareth Garden"
of St. Joseph at the west of the Tower and through the "St. Joseph
Door" to the interior of the Tower, where we pray the Sorrowful
Stations, we indeed pray that we "may, by his Passion and Cross, be
brought to the glory of his Resurrection" - of the seven glorious
heavens of the Tower and of the Garden of Our Lady and Heavenly
Court to the East.
I hope that one day this progression can be formalized or
regularized (as "St. Joseph's Stations"?), just as one "makes the
stations" at Knock, etc..
I'm sort of leaping ahead of myself here, Brother, but you can
see that my week in Woods Hole was blest with some spiritual
insights and illuminations.
It was wonderful to hear that some 10,000 people were present
at Knock for the recent all-night vigil in the Basilica, and that
generally it looks as though more people will visit the shrine this
year than ever before. I do hope more and more people are coming
across the Mary Garden as they circulate around the Shrine grounds,
and that their eyes will be caught by the beautiful cover of your
booklet in the gift shop.
With thanks, again, Brother, for your joyful letter, and
looking forward to hearing from you further, I remain, your friend,
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
August 1, 1988
Alphonsus Liguori
Dear Brother Seàn,
Thank you for your letter of June 29th, telling of your
several recent visits to Knock and of the heightened activity
there.
I was especially interested in your mention that Fr. Gobbi was
addressing members of the Marian Movement of Priests in the
Basilica while you were there on the 29th. The last edition of his
Marian locutions I have is the 6th - August 29, 1973 through Apri1
24, 1980 - and I must get the most recent edition from the United
States Director of the movement, with whom I last corresponded five
or six years ago. I feel much rapport with Fr. Gobbi's locutional
closeness to Our Lady, and have been much enriched by them.
Certain little things have meant a lot to me, like the emphasis on
the "Yes" of Our Lady's co- redemptive "Fiat". And there is some
excellent flower and garden imagery, e.g.:
"Soon the desert will blossom and all creation will
become that marvellous garden, created for man, to
reflect in a perfect manner the greatest glory of God"
- November 28, 1979
I wonder if he has had any locutions amplifying the
interpretation Mary's appearance at Knock.
The Marian Movement of Priests offers me much encouragement,
especially when I feel alone, in my immediate environment, in my
sense of Mary's communication and presence, which I so much wish to
share directly with others, or at least be assured that others
share somewhere.
At the same time there seems to be less devotion to Our Lady
in parish life and at th