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Intro Mary Garden
Parish and Shrine Mary Gardens
John S. Stokes Jr.
Parish and shrine Mary Gardens differ from private home Mary
Gardens in respect to their public character, their mode of
incorporation in devotional life, and the arrangements for their
stewardship.
Public Character
As distinct from conventional institutional landscaping and
architectural statuary placed in front of a church, the parish Mary
Garden of symbolic flowers planted around a focal statue of Our
Lady makes a public affirmation of Marian doctrine and devotion to
visitors and passers by, expressive of the Church's mission to the
community and the world.
Of special significance for our era is the ancient flower symbolism
of Mary's divinely endowed privileges and prerogatives - freely
accepted and embraced by her in her immaculate purity, humility,
fidelity and love - for the mediation and distribution to the world
of the graces of sanctification, inspiriation, guidance, repentance
and reconciliation needed for the building of God's Peaceable
Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
In our devotion to Mary in church before her altar or participating
in her feastday masses, in our praying of the Rosary, and in our
group praying of her litanies and novenas and the singing of her
hymns in her sodalities and guilds, we privately venerate and
praise Mary as the worthy Mother of God, prayerfuly beseeching her
merciful intercession for our needs. In the Mary Garden, this
devotion is brought outdoors in public view.
In the Mary Garden, our custom of
meditating on Mary's Mysteries as
we pray the Rosary - "that we may
imitate what they contain, and
obtain what they promise" - is
extended through our quickening by
her flower symbols to more
specific reflection on, and
prayerful recourse to, her divinely
endowed priveleges and prerogatives
of: Immacuate Conception, Divine
Motherhood, Perpetual Virginity,
Co-Redemption, Assumption soul and
body into Heaven, Queenship of
Heaven and Earth; and Spiritual
Motherhood, protection, advocacy
and intercession, and mediation
and distribution of spiritual
grace, light, wisdom and power for
the faithful.
In this we rejoice that Mary, full of grace, through her "intimate
union and unique cooperation with Christ" (Vatican II Decree on
the Apostolate of the Laity, 4), sublimely exemplifies, for our
emulation, her and our potential for fulfilling God's purpose
for Creation of showing forth and sharing to the fullest, in love,
the divine goodness and action with humans, created to this end in
the divine image and likeness.
As we turn in prayer to Mary as God's chosen, freely assenting and
faithful channel for the distribution to the world of the graces
needed for the furthering of God's Kingdom, we are awed by the
realization that with her every mediation of grace to us, God's
creational desire for the fullest sharing of the divine goodness
and action with humans is ever more perfectly accomplished - in
Mary and in us.
This Marian message of the
Church to the world is spread
further each time the flower
symbols of Mary's privileges,
virtues and prerogatives are
reflected on or explained to
visitors in the Mary Garden:
the white lily symbolizing her
purity; the red rose, her love;
the hidden violet, her
humility; eardrops honoring her
hearing of the word of God and
keeping it; Our Lady-in-the-
shade of her overshadowing by
the Holy Spirit; and the
up-facing tulip of openness to
divine filling.
Likewise, the marigold symbolizes the golden resplendence of the
fullness of grace in Mary's soul; the ladyslipper the beauteous
footsteps of her obedience; the white-spotted milkdrops her Divine
Motherhood of Jesus the God-Man; the strawberry - still in flower
while in fruit - her Perpetual Virginity; and the pointed iris
spears the co-redemptive Sword of Sorrow piercing her soul as she
stood at the foot of the Cross, shedding "Our Lady's Tears".
Also, mid-August-blooming Assumption Lily; the heart-shaped leaves,
buds and flowers symbolizing both the interceding Immaculate Heart
of Mary and of the merciful Sacred Heart of Jesus; Mary's Eyes of
mercy; her Hand of Pity; her flower Keys to the heavenly storehouses
of grace; Our Lady's Mantle of spiritual protection, the constancy
of "Mother Love" blooms; the Crown of her queenship . . . and other
Flowers of Our Lady blooming through the year according to the "Mary
Calendar".
The parish Mary Garden as public statement of faith has its origins
with the first U.S. public Mary Garden - founded in 1932 at St.
Joseph's Parish in Woods Hole, Massachusetts - which, together with
the ringing of the chimes of the Angelus Tower by which it was
planted, and with the library of Christian classics in the
scriptorium room in the base of the tower, was intended by Mrs.
Lillie, its donor, "to remind the scientists who study at the
Marine Biological Laboratory across the inlet that there is another
and valid aspect of life."
Incorporation in Parish Devotional Life
When the planting of a Mary Garden is first proposed for a parish -
by the pastor or by home Mary-Gardeners desiring to share their
garden devotion to Mary with the parish - a primary consideration
is the formation of a group of parishioners of devotional commitment
to Mary, who wish to express this devotion through faithful
stewardship for her Garden.
In the simplest terms, those committing themselves to the devotion
and work of the Mary Garden are those who:
- Are devoted to Mary
- Wish to express this devotion by tending her flowers in a
Mary Garden
- See the placing of a flower before Mary's garden statue
similar to the simple devotional act of lighting a candle
for her before her altar in Church
- See the planting and caring for the garden as a prayerful
offering of work for spiritual intentions
- Sense the garden as a holy place through the priestly
sacramental blessing of its statue and planting; and
thus a place of gentleness, sweetness, peace and quiet
- Reflect on Mary's qualities, life, mysteries, priveleges
and prerogatives as symbolized by her flowers
- Aspire to spiritual growth and perfection by emulating
Mary's virtues, likewise symbolized by the flowers, and
rooting out distractions, vices and imperfections impeding
these qualities
- Sense Mary's presence in the garden through her action as
Mediatrix, where spiritual insights, inspiration or love
are experienced while working or refecting in it. (Frances
Crane Lillie entitled the visitors' leaflet she wrote for
the mother Mary Garden in Woods Hole as "Our Lady In Her
Garden.")
- Commune spiritually with Mary, our loving Mother, as they
work or visit in the garden - sharing with her their joys,
sorrows and needs.
- Share in Mary's queenly desire for, and make prayerful
recourse to her in her role as Advocate, Intercessor and
Mediatrix for the conversion of the world to faith in her
Divine Son and Lord, and to the building of his Peaceable
Kingdom, as the culmination of Creation.
- Offer the spiritual merits and graces of their gardening
work to Mary for her mediating guidance of them to where
most needed by souls and the world in the Communion of
Saints - offerings again symbolized by the placing of
flowers before her statue
Where the love of having
a parish Mary Garden has
grown in hearts, but
there is inadequate
gardening experience
among parishioners to
take on a full garden
right away, Mary Garden
devotion and stewardship
have been introduced to
others by the giving of
small dish and patio
container Mary Gardens
for their care.
Or by giving seeds and
instructions for a
beginning small Mary
Garden of easy-to-grow annual Flowers of Our Lady - in preparation
for the subsequent cooperative planting and care of a larger parish
Mary Garden.
For general introduction of the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary
Gardens to parish members, two introductory slide lectures are
available from Mary's Gardens: Slide Lecture #1 (1961) of 50 35mm
color slides for conventional slide projector with printed
and also tape-recorded narration - available on loan through
e-mail request to Mary's Gardens; and Slide Lecture #3 (1997), the
slides and text for which can be viewed on this website or
downloaded and printed out for computer projector presentation.
Among U.S parish Mary Gardens of special note, that at St. Mary's
Parish in Annapolis Maryland, adjacent to historic Carroll House,
was established, with pastoral permission and blessing, through the
initiative, commitment and responsibility of a group of gardeners,
some with 30 years of prior home Mary-Gardening experience.
At St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Portage, Michigan the large
Mary Garden along the entire south side of the church was
established through pastoral initiative, with lay participation -
the initiative of Fr. Thomas Stanley, S.M., Pastor, who early in
his priestly career, in 1953, established the first U.S. shrine
Mary Garden at the Lourdes Shrine in Dayton, Ohio, currently being
restored.
The first public U.S. Mary Garden in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
mentioned above, was established in 1932 by a single individual,
Frances Crane Lillie, as a donation to St. Joseph's Church,
together with a trust fund for its maintenance through the years,
and for that of the Angelus Tower by which it is planted, also
donated by her to the church. She personally spent time in the
garden, often daily, working with a landscape architect and a
renowned nurseryman for six years perfecting the planting of the
garden.
While in the Mary Garden, Mrs. Lillie would explain the meanings of
Our Lady's Flowers - of which she had learned from English
monastery gardens and religious folklore researchers - to visitors,
including, when he was in Woods Hole, the Bishop of Fall River, who
had dedicated and blessed the tower and garden in a special
ceremony, with procession and homily.
All three of these gardens are given a unique devotional quality
through especially executed focal sculptures of Our Lady - at
Annapolis, Mary of Nazareth, with the child Jesus; at Portage, the
Woman with child clothed with the sun of Revelations; and at Woods
Hole, Our Lady of the Angelus.
Faithful Stewardship
Essential to the integrity, proportion and clarity of the Mary
Garden, showing forth its devotional character, is regular faithful
stewardship for its watering, weeding, cultivation, edging,
trimming, adjustment of plant positions, and any required plant
replacements.
For home Mary Gardens this is fitted in harmoniously with daily
tasks and schedules; but for parish Mary Gardens, special planning
and commitment are required. As parish groundskeepers usually are
professionals not participating in parish devotional life, and are
present on the grounds perhaps once a week, resonsibility for Mary
Garden stewardship requires the commitment of one or more
parishioners to daily stewardship visits to the garden.
In some parishes the parishioner or parishioners taking primary
initiative or responsibility for the Mary Garden have posted
sign-up sheets for volunteers to care for the garden for a week
each, under the general direction of the Mary Garden chairperson
who works with each the first day. In other parishes, volunteers
are asked to sign up for longer periods - for specific
responsibilities, such as watering, weeding, cultivating, edging,
etc.
However, experience has shown that such arrangements have the
serious shortcoming that due to unavoidable illness, emergencies or
changes in vacation plans, an important stewardship commitment is
sometimes unfulfilled - such as the requirement for watering - so
that during a heat wave or dry spell the soil becomes hardened and
plants may be irretrievably dried up and lost.
What usually happens after several years is that a small group of
committed parishioners emerges to take full responsibility for
garden stewardship on a mutually worked out flexible but reliable
basis. This may involve, for example, several persons who make
stewardship visits to the Mary Garden each day after attending
daily Mass; others who visit the garden daily after driving their
children to school; and still others who have jobs during the week
and spend time in the garden on weekends. Essential to this
arrangement is the welcoming or recruitment of new group members to
carry on through the years - until the end of the world.
At both Annapolis and Woods Hole, garden bed sprinkler nozzles and
underground plastic piping have been installed, with adjustably
timed main valves, for automatic early morning watering - with
noticeable improvement in plant growth and blooms.
Shrine Mary Gardens
At major Marian Shrines there may not be regular parishioners or
societies from which a group of Mary Garden stewards may be formed.
However, the shrine size and budget may be such that a full time
horticulturalist and staff may be employed, with both gardening
competence and the employment motivation of a special devotion to
Mary.
This is the situation at the national Shrine of Our Lady of Mary's
appearance site in Knock, Co. Mayo, Ireland. Here, after reading
in 1982 a review in an Irish Catholic weekly by Mary's Garden
Associate, Bro. Sean MacNamara, C.F.C, of a chapter on the Woods
Hole Mary Garden in the centennial History of St. Joseph's Church,
written by parishioner Jane A. McLaughlin - who also restored the
Mary Garden for the centennial (and its golden jubilee) according
to its developed, 1937, plan - Knock Shrine Director, Msgr. James
Horan, obtained a copy of the Mary Garden plant list and planting
plan from Woods Hole and had Shrine Horticultualist, Anne Hopkins
Lavin, design and plant an eight-bed Mary Garden with focal
sculpture as a setting for the new Blessed Sacrament Chapel. In
consultation with Msgr. Horan, a revised plan with additional
Flowers of Our Lady was designed by Bro. Sean the following year.
From her familiarity thus gained with the Flowers of Our Lady, Anne
Lavin envisaged that the entire Shrine grounds could be planted
with them as "Our Lady's Meadow", which became a reality in 1991,
as described in the Knock Shrine Annual for that year:
"Magic Carpet of Colour"
"If some of us had, over the years, thought of Knock as
a grey colourless place, we would surely have had second
thoughts last summer. Early in the spring, Anne Lavin and
her team of gardeners were busily at work planting and sowing
thousands of bulbs, plants and seedlings. Between them they
created a magic carpet of colour. It was something that must
have been noticed by all pilgrims as several spoke of its
beauty.
"Every available inch of the Shrine grounds was filled
with magnificent blooms: roses, gladioli and delphiniums rose
above swathes of antirrhinums, poppies and petunias - a
magnificent blaze of colour stretching from the Gable almost
as far as the eye could see, and, as it happened, seen mostly
under a blue sunny sky. It was a new and splendid attraction
at Knock, comparable with any formal garden wherever one
might seek it, and a perfect setting for peaceful
meditation."
Knock is thus a model for the planting at other Marian shrines of
Mary Gardens and Flowery Meades, where the budget and staff
organization permit the employment of full time shrine
horticulturalists, with Marian devotion.
.
Copyright, Mary's Gardens 1999
Photo credits:
Queen of Peace Church - Sara Brumer
St. Joseph's Church - Carolyn O'Boyle
Spotless Lily - John Stokes
Dish Mary Garden - Rosemary McCutchen
St. Stephen's Church - Candace Knapp, sculptor
Knock Shrine - Knock Shrine