Reparation Through Flowers

                                            John S. Stokes Jr.
                                            August, 2006

A key need of our time in religious history is for the widest
participation in Christ's sacrificial reparation of the world
temporal effects of sin, which prompt so many to violence.

The following is an overview of how Mary Garden Flowers of Our
Lady can serve to quicken such participation.

While we contribute to God's Kingdom through the arts, crafts,
sciences, manufacturing and technology, and through social
cooperation and organization according to revelation and the
promptings of grace . . . our progress towards the coming of
Kingdom is blocked by temporal effects of sin in the world
environment of values, which tempt many to competitive seeking of
sense gratification, material accumulation and worldly power -
through deception, manipulation, discrimination, oppression,
violence, war and genocide, etc..

The immediate, pressing task at hand today is thus our fullest
participation in Christ's reparational deliverance of the world
from these temporal effects of sin - for which we pray in essence
in the Our Father, the Lord's Prayer.

Hope in Basic Human Goodness

The basic assumption of this participation - from the revelation
of Genesis, and from observation in infants and small children -
is that in the fallen world we are still created in basic
goodness, but this is then corrupted by the temporal effects of
sin in the world environment . . . transmitted and accumulated
through the years from the original sin of our first parents in
their response to the temptation of Satan.

The "time binding" perpetuation of this world environment from
generation to generation comes concretely through the pervasive
examples and conditionings of many parents, peers, neighbors and
teachers; and through work and social environments, leaders,
media and communications, etc..

However, it is our faith and hope that, with a fullness of our
divine/human sharing desired and willed for Creation by God,
Christ's redemption of the world for Kingdom, will accomplish the
needed reparation for the temporal effects of sin, as well as
forgiveness for the sins creating them.

The Our Father

The dual path of Christ's redemption is set forth for us in the
simplest term in the Our Father - the Lord's Prayer - in which in
addition to praying for the forgiveness of sins, we pray that the
corrupting environment of values be overcome with God's
assistance through: our forgiveness of offenses, our avoidance of
temptation, and our deliverance from evil.

Offenses are all to often responded to in kind - "an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth", or worse - and through lawsuits and
violence, rather than with forgiving sweetness; and resistance to
temptation is attempted through the "moralism" of external
behavior modification, rather than through inspiration in
interior formation in virtue for personal spiritual fulfillment
and contribution to the building of the earthly Kingdom.

Deliverance from evil is too often viewed as only to be prayed
for, and awaited, dependently, rather than obtained actively
through our sharing penitentially in Christ's redeeming and
repairing sacrifice, "making up what is wanting in the sufferings
of "Christ" (Col. I, 24).

Sins and Effects of Sin

More specifically, while it is widely understood that our sins
are forgiven, in satisfaction to the Father, through Christ's
taking them upon himself for their dissolution through the
sacrificial death of his body on Calvary - in which we are called
and enabled to share through our re-enactive continuation of his
sacrifice of Calvary in all the daily celebrations of the Mass in
the world - it appears to be insufficiently understood that we
also are called, in God's desire and will in creating the world
for a fullness of divine/human sharing, to share penitentially in
Christ's reparational dissolution, again through the death of his
body, of all the evil temporal effects of sin in the world -
which, in his divine infinity, he also takes upon himself as his
own for this, along with all our sins,.

The difference between Christ's redemption of us from our sins -
in which we participate by re-enacting the offering of his sacred
body and blood in the Mass - and his reparation for the evil
temporal effects of all the sins in the world, is that as he, in
his infinity, takes on his body, as well as our sins, their
temporal effects for their sacrificial dissolution with his
death; we are - in keeping with the divine desire and will in
creating the world for the fullness of human sharing in the
divine action - to share with him in this by our sacrificially
undertaking and offering for and with him in love all our own
daily duties, works, frustrations, adversities, pains and
sorrows, which, while he takes them upon himself as his own, he
desires of us our loving joining with him in his sacrifice -
again, as St. Paul said, "making up what is wanting in the
sacrifice of Christ".

It would appear that the need for reparation for the temporal
effects of sin in the world is not adequately understood and
acted upon because of the mistaken belief that conflicts can be
resolved through discursive, logistical strategy, tactics and
timing of action and negotiation in accordance with moral norms;
whereas in actuality, without reparative spiritual dissolution of
the effects of sin, logistical action and discursive
negotiations, however moral, can only be a rejuggling of the
effects of sin.

What is needed is the reparative dissolution of these effects so
that persons may join together in their thereby freed goodness to
dialog and compromise for mutual discernment of the basic truth
and justice of the issues over which they are in conflict, rather
than endeavoring to prevail over one another through strategy,
tactics, timing and power.

Mary's Call for Daily Acts of Redemption through Christ

It is because of the massive accumulation of unrepaired effects
of sin in the world, that Mary, in her mediated divine
revelations at Fatima, and then at Akita - both approved by the
Church for devotion - beseeched that for peace on earth there
must be a fullness of our loving offering, with Christ, in
emulation of and through the intercessive advocacy of her
Immaculate Heart, of all our personal daily works, adversities
and sufferings, in reparation for the effects, of sin in the
world.

With the compelling contemporary critical need for this - in view
of the increasing violence in the world, and increasing
distribution of portable weapons of mass destruction - Pope John
Paul II in the year 2,000, after 83 years of "classification",
made public the terrifying 1917 "Third Secret" revelation of
Fatima: that if there is not widespread voluntary undertaking of
daily reparational penances and sacrifices, there will result,
from the thus unrepaired ever accumulating world effects of sin,
the reparation desired by God - that the divine/human Kingdom may
come - alternatively, in the form of cause and effect penitential
reparation imposed by massive urban destruction.

However, as Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, pointed
out in 2,000, this disclosure is not to be understood as a
prophecy, but as a call for alternate voluntary widespread
sacrificial penances, undertaken in freedom of will, in
reparation for the accumulating world effects of sin.

It would appear that more is required for this than the one-time
five-Saturday penitential services of reparation adopted by the
Church after Fatima, and widely inspired through the worldwide
circulation of Fatima Pilgrim Virgin statues - which, with the
consecration of the nations of the world to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, are seen to have made possible, through their then
reparational diminishment of the world temporal effects of sin,
the just reconstruction of the defeated "axis" countries of world
War II, and the peaceful resolution of the "Cold War".

What is evidently required, further, is not a repeat now of such
one-time reparational services, but a widespread reparational
continuity of sacrificial offering for and with Christ through
each day of all works as they are undertaken. and of all
diminishments and sufferings as experienced.

Need for Daily Quickeners for our Redemmptive Offerings

There can be various means of bringing this about, and in this we
at Mary's Gardens envisage that flowers - God's direct creations
- can, especially through their symbolism, be seen as quickeners
through the day of reparational sacrificial offering of actions,
adversities and sufferings; and with their universal distribution
and visibility in contemporary society, flowers are such a
presently existing means.

In this, in addition to recourse to the quickening of reflection
by bouquets of cut flowers seen everywhere, all have the ability
to undertake the cultivation of plants, whether in gardens,
patios or window boxes outdoors; or indoors on windowsills, in
dish gardens or as a single house plant - as constant reminders
and quickeners for our sacrificial offerings for and with Christ
through the day.

Simple as it is, the undertaking of the care of flowers, or even
of a single flower, as a work offered sacrificially for and with
Christ, for reparational deliverance from evil, can thus serve as
a constant quickener for the offering of all our works as they
are undertaken, and all our diminishments, sorrows and sufferings
as experienced - for these intentions . . . in accordance with
Mary's beseechings, as at Fatima and Akita.  It is not the size
of the quickening means which is significant, but their universal
presence and their efficacy of symbolic content.

Additionally, the cultivation of flowers or even of one flower
which symbolized for the medieval faithful Christ's redemptive
and reparational sacrifice, and Mary's coredemptive sharing in
it, serves to heighten our own sense if sharing and spiritual
communion with Jesus and Mary in their reparational sacrifice for
the deliverance of the world from evils.

In this we are ever to be mindful of the Third Secret of Fatima
and Third Message of Akita, which beseech our voluntary
penitential and reparational sacrifices - in the hope that
massive sacrifices not be imposed externally as a consequence of
unrepaired temporal effects of sin.

Prayer of Redemptive Sacrifices

A prayer which can be repeated through the day - with each work
undertaken, or adversity or suffering experienced - is:

     "All for and with you, my Jesus, through the Immaculate and
      Sorrowful Heart of Mary, in reparation for temporal effects
      of sin in the world that, delivered from their evil, the
      hearts and minds of all - and especially those of world
      leaders, dissidents and insurgents - may be freed
      increasingly to respond, in their thus liberated inherent
      created goodness, to the graces of forgiveness,
      reconciliation, peace, and just compromise beseeched in
      the prayers and sacrifices of the Holy Father and all the
      faithful.

in this we envisage, as stated in the Catholic Encyclopedia,
that:

     "God's grace is bestowed on all; not just on the baptized
     and sanctified.:

     "As the object of these graces is, according to their
     nature, the spread of the Kingdom of God on earth and
     the sanctification of men, their possession in itself
     does not exclude personal unholiness. . . .

     "Actual grace is that unmerited interior assistance
     which God, in virtue of the merits of Christ, confers
     upon fallen man in order to strengthen...his infirmity
     resulting from sin".

And flowers help us also to envisage, as the temporal effects of
sin are repairingly dissolved in souls, the flowering of virtues
in the redeemed spiritual soil of their natural goodness.

Developed Sense of the Continuum of the Effects of Sin to be Repaired

In time, as we offer our daily lives in reparation with Christ
for the temporal effects of sin permeating the world atmosphere
or "noosphere" of values, we come to have a sense of this
atmosphere as a medium in which all participate.  We thus see
that it is in virtue of this continuum that Christ was enabled to
take upon himself all the sins and effects of sin of the world as
his own, and that the "many thoughts" of these were and are
revealed to Mary through the spiritual sword penetrating her soul
and heart - for her coredemptive offering sharing in Christ's
Passion and Crucifixion.

Further. as we are quickened by flowers or other means to lives
of continual reparation through and with Christ, we at the same
time, through electronic and print news media, are attuned to
specific world effects of sin in events, which motivate us to
direct our reparational sacrifices, through and with Christ,
specifically to them, God willing, as we participate emulatively
with Mary in her co-redemption with Christ.

Developed Sense of the Continuum of the Effects of Sin to be Repaired

Flowers which can especially quicken our joining, with Mary, in
Christ's reparational sacrifice include:


                  

     1) Passion Flower - Symbol of Christ's Passion and Cross:
        including his scourging, crowning with thorns, three
        nails and five wounds
 

                    

     2) Iris Spears - Symbol of the sword of sorrow spiritually
        piercing Mary's heart and soul that the "many thoughts"
        of the sins and sufferings of the world taken upon
        himself by Christ be revealed to her for her coredemptive
        sacrificial offering with him, which we are to emulate


                 

     3) Bleeding Hearts - Symbols of both the Sacred Heart of
        Jesus and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, united in redemptive
        and coredemptive sacrifice


                 

     4) Turban Lily - "Mary's Tears", from her sorrowful
        sufferings spiritually experienced at the foot of the
        Cross - as revealed at La Salette, and emitted from her
        Redemptoris Mater statue at Akita. and a number of others
 

               
                                                                      
     5) Straw Flower - "Christ's Eye" symbolizing his appeal to
        us, while carrying his Cross, to share in his suffering
        sacrifice

Additionally, the actions prayed for in the Our Father are
quickened by:


                 

    6) Piripiri - "Forgiveness Plant" symbolizing the barbs of
       anger or irritation at offenses, to be purged that our
       forgiveness my be truly pure and sweet.


          

    7) Bee-Balm - "Sweet Mary" - from her forgiveness of
       offenses, free from sins of anger or irritation


                    

    8) Chicory - The "Heavenly Way" of virtue rather than
       response to temptations

                        
                              o O o

Photo Copyrights

1} University of Georgia Plant Biology - www.plantbio.uga.edu/ 
2) Mary's Gardens - www.mgardens.org/
3) Imagines plantarum - www.imagines-plantarum.de/ 
4) Dragisa Savic Nature Photography - www.naturefg.com/ 
5) Jerusalem Botanical Gardens - www.botanic.co.il/ 
6) New Millennium Flower Essences - www.nmessences.com/
7) USDA Plants Database - http://plants.usda.gov/
8) Dave's Garden - http://davesgarden.com/


Copyright Mary's Garden 2006

                               o O o


Condensed Re-write September 2006



Reparation Through Flowers 2

                                            John S. Stokes Jr.
                                            August, 2006


The current world escalation of violence and suffering calls for a
re-affirmation of our faith and hope that God's Peaceable Kingdom
surely will come on earth as it is in heaven; and a re-affirmation
of how we are to advance this coming ow, as ever, in our era of the
proliferation, miniaturization and rapid transportation of weapons
of mass destruction.

While the actual building of kingdom is through grace-guided
virtuous individual, social, political and economic action, and the
arts, crafts and sciences; the essentials in the fallen world for
this building are first of all those for which we pray in the Our
Father: forgiveness of offenses, resistance of temptations and
deliverance from evil.

Foremost among these essentials for which we pray is our
deliverance from evil, through the nullification and dissolution of
the temporal effects of sin which permeate the world environment of
values and are passed on from generation to generation - disposing
leaders to turn to social force and violence rather than
cooperatively building God's Kingdom in truth, justice, love and
freedom.

While the spread of the temporal effects of sin is reduced to a
degree through our absorption of offenses in the sweetness of
forgiveness, and through our avoidance of adding to them through
acquiescence to temptation; our ultimate deliverance from their
evil, that God's Kingdom may be built, is to be accomplished in
their reparational nullification and dissolution through the very
fullness of our penitential sharing with Christ in his redemptive
sacrifice of Calvary - as urgently beseeched of us for these times
by Mary at Fatima, Amsterdam and Akita.

We participate in Christ's redemptive, reparational sacrifice to
the fullest in loving response to his loving taking on himself in
his infinity of all the sufferings and other effects of sin in the
world for their nullification and dissolution through the death of
his body - in keeping with God's creation of the world to share
with us humans, and for us to share with him, in love, all the
divine goodness and action of Creation.

Our sharing in God's action thus includes both our building of the
earthly Peaceable Kingdom in grace, for eternal transformation into
the eternal New Heaven and New Earth; and our participation,
likewise in grace,in Christ's sacrificial redemption of the fallen
world, that this building may proceed notwithstanding the the fall.

Our model for emulation in this is Mary's co-rredemptive union with
Christ's sacrifice through the offering for and with him of all his
suffering, as revealed and experienced by her through the sword of
sorrow spiritually penetrating her heart and soul.

As revealed through Mary, the choice before us at this juncture in
religious world history is whether we will offer, as beseeched by
her, all the present works and sufferings of our daily lives
penitentially for and with Jesus' reparational sacrifice, in
nullification and dissolution of the accumulating world temporal
effects of sin; or whether in our failure to do so these effects
will accumulate to the point of unleashing on the world the imposed
penance of massive urban destruction, so far held back by her as
Queen of Angels,.

With all the distractions and interruptions of the day, and with
the attention required by the practical details of living and work,
it is all too easy to see things only secularly, and to endure the
negatives stoically.  What is needed, therefore, is are means which
through the day call and quicken us to the sharing of all our acts
and sufferings sacrificially with Christ - who in his infinity
already takes them upon himself sharingly in love, but awaits our
loving offering of them in our sacrificial sharing with him in
return.

Our virtual offerings at Mass, in Eucharistic adoration, in our
Morning Offerings, and in our praying of the Sorrowful Mysteries of
the Rosary - and even the praying of the "hours" or other periods -
are fulfilled in the concreteness of our continuing actual
offerings made through the day in loving spiritual communion with
Jesus as he, in his infinity, ever takes them sacrificially on
himself in and with ourselves and all others.

One means widely and readily at hand for the quickening of our
reparational offerings through the day are flowers - which, as
direct creatures of God, were seen in Medieval times, before the
days of printing and general literacy, as familiar religious
symbols; and which can be seen as such again today.  Further, the
regaining of a familiarity with the extensive Medieval Marian
flower symbolism serves to augment the quickening by all flowers of
our reparational offerings.

Fundamentally, the very colors of flowers were seen as symbolic of
the Gospel Mysteries: white of the joyful, red of the sorrowful,
yellow/gold of the glorious - and now, purple of the luminous.
Then there is the myriad of flowers, such as those accompanying
this text, whose forms were seen as symbolic of aspects of the
Gospel mysteries, events and persons - serving to heighten our
religious quickening by all flowers.

Finally, our ability to offer reparational sacrifices for and with
Christ, in diminishment of the temporal effects of sin, includes
the ability to do so for specific intentions - such that we may
make pivotal reparational input, God willing, in specific
situations, or for specific persons, anywhere the world, free of
limitations of space and time, - in response, for example, to the
day's news.

A prayer which has been used in reparational offerings, in whole or
in the first phrase, is:

     "All for and with you, my Jesus, through the Immaculate and
     Sorrowful Heart of Mary, in reparation for temporal effects
     of sin in the world that, delivered from their evil, the
     hearts and minds of all - and especiallly those of world
     leaders, dissidents and insurgents - may increasingly be
     freed to respond in their thus liberated inherent created
     goodness, to the graces of forgiveness, reconciliation,
     peace, and just compromise. as beseeched in the prayers
     and sacrifices of the Holy Father and all the faithful."

                            o O o