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Intro Mary Garden
Saint Joseph - Patron of Mary's Gardeners
John S.Stokes Jr..
St. Joseph Magazine May, 1960
St. Joseph, Garden Workman
Mary Garden of artist, Ade Bethune
When we garden in Mary's name, dedicating our work to her and
prayerfully caring for flowers especially associated with her life
and mysteries, we find inspiration and example in St. Francis who
is said to have taken care never to tread on the least plant,
since it might bear a flower, symbol of Mary, the Mystical Rose,
the Rose of Sharon.
We find inspiration also in St. Fiacre, patron of gardeners,
who devoted his life to tending a garden surrounding an oratory
and hospice which he built and dedicated to Mary; and in St.
Isidore, patron of farmers, who prayed each day at the shrine of
Our Lady of Atocha before working in his master's wheat fields.
Our own special and most fitting patron, however is St.
Joseph. As prayerful workman, most chaste spouse of the Blessed
Virgin, and foster father of Jesus, he is the example and
inspiration for every aspect of our Mary Garden work, both
prayerful and practical.
St. Joseph, Workman, was the good and faithful steward of
God's creatures, of the tools and materials of his carpenter's
trade and of the modest dwelling of the Holy Family in Nazareth,
with its furnishings and grounds. Because he exemplified the
intentions, virtues and dispositions for all work, he has been
proclaimed by the Church as universal patron of workmen. For
every kind of workman, meditation on St. Joseph's life and work is
a source of insight and inspiration, and for gardeners and farmers
it affords a profound sense of the loving stewardship we should
exercise for God's plant creatures, making humble submission to
their needs and giving watchful attention to growth and the
seasons.
As foster father of the Only Begotten, St. Joseph was called
to intimate experience and knowledge of God's providence,
omnipotence and glory. He likewise must have been keenly
perceptive of this same providence, omnipotence and glory as they
are manifested everywhere in nature and in the growth and beauty
of plants and flowers. He is our most fitting model as we learn
more surely to raise our hearts and minds from the visible things
of nature to the invisible Creator in meditation, praise and
thanksgiving.
In his watching and tending of growing things, St. Joseph
surely saw and meditated on the close analogy between the
cultivation and growth of plant life and the cultivation and
growth of the divine life of grace in the soul.
"In nature St. Joseph beheld the silent falling of
the refreshing dew, the noiseless absorption of it
by the sun, the soundless germination of the seeds,
the imperceptible ripening of the grain. St. Joseph
was sent to guide God's chosen One. His heart was
moistened by the heavenly dew of the Holy Spirit,
warmed by the Sun of Justice. Within his soul he
cultivated the gifts of grace and nurtured the
virtues which were its outgrowth."*
As we cultivate and meditate on those flowers especially
associated by name, legend or use with Mary's life and mysteries,
we can reflect how St. Joseph meditated on her mysteries as he
beheld them or learned of them on earth, in limbo and in heaven.
And as we grow and gather flowers for Mary's altars, shrines and
statues, we can suppose that St. Joseph lovingly grew them in her
yard, gathered them for her house, and placed them in her hands.
Who then, could be a more fitting model and inspiration for all
who plant and tend gardens for Mary or make gifts to her of
flowers than St. Joseph?
Like the most beautiful of flowers, Mary, God's Mystical
Rose, created in His image and likeness and free from sin,
reflected and showed forth His grace and truth most perfectly of
all creatures (mirroring the humanity of her divine Son). Yet,
St. Joseph venerated her and served her not just because of her
great beauty and virtue, but first and last because she was the
Holy Mother of God; because God created her and, with her consent,
graced her, dwelt in her and with her, and submitted to her, as
His Mother. Clearly it was inadequate for St. Joseph to attempt
to tell Mary how beautiful and holy she was or how much he loved
her. He could only show this silently through his work and care
for her, and through his gifts to her. And once Mary's simple
needs were cared for, what gifts were more fitting than flowers?
For her part, Mary must have rejoiced at these gifts of God's
creatures and no doubt she often arranged them for St. Joseph and
the divine Child. In giving to Mary, St. Joseph was honoring
God's Mother and giving through her to God Himself. And later,
when the boy Jesus joined his foster father in giving flowers to
Mary, she may have given them to a sorrowing or sick neighbor,
showing how the love generated within the Holy Family was to flow
out to the entire world.
Now we ourselves, after the example of Jesus and Joseph,
offer our work and flowers to Mary, whom Jesus has given us as our
heavenly Mother and as our mediatrix with Him. And Mary continues
to arrange them and to offer them, together with our prayerful
intentions, which she purifies, adorns and embellishes, as
spiritual bouquets to Jesus, who in turn gives them back to her
for distribution as showers of enlightening, consoling and healing
grace to souls walking in darkness or to bodies wracked with pain.
As we continue with our gardening work according to the
spirit and example of St. Joseph, we find he is our constant
companion to whom we can turn, and also our heavenly intercessor
to whom we can lift our hearts in prayerful acts and aspirations.
Proceeding thus, we consider him less and less in relation to our
work, and turn more and more to meditation on his life and his
relationship with Mary and Jesus. In this way we come to know how
his burning love for Mary and Jesus pervaded his every thought and
act, driving him on to purer and purer intentions, zeal and
contemplation. And finally we come to contemplate with a simple
regard the reflection of Jesus and Mary in the holiness and
mystery of St. Joseph, with joy, peace and love which envelop our
entire being and work.
To bring St. Joseph closer to us as we work with the soil,
and to assist us in meditating on his example, in beseeching his
intercession and in contemplating his life with Mary and Jesus, we
can use to advantage a suitable outdoor image or likeness of St.
Joseph. Such an image, "St. Joseph, Workman," especially designed
for this purpose by noted religious artist, Ade Bethune, is
illustrated in these pages.
This statue is identified as that of St. Joseph, most chaste
spouse of the Blessed Virgin and foster father of Jesus, by the
flowering staff, the traditional emblem of St. Joseph, clasped in
the left hand.
St. Joseph, patron of all workmen and provider for the Holy
Family, is represented in a special manner for garden and farm
workmen as kneeling at garden work with a small cultivating tool
in his right hand.
A sense of St. Joseph's fidelity to grace and to the interior
life, and of his faithful watchfulness for God's will and
providence, is conveyed by the artist's representation of his
countenance and of the entire bearing of his body.
At the same, time the statue's body and countenance show a
strength which bespeak St. Joseph's fitness as protector of the
Holy Family and the Church and also as model for all workmen. It
likewise testifies to the strength of his purity and chastity.
The cultivating tool recalls for us that garden work and all
work is a stewardship of God's creatures. It recalls also the
analogies between the cultivation of plant life and of the
spiritual life. The statue could be entitled, "St. Joseph,
Faithful Steward": steward of the Holy Family, steward of the
tools and materials of his work, and steward of the grace and
interior life of his soul.
Utilizing the kneeling position, the traditional flowering
staff and the cultivating tool, the statue represents St. Joseph
as both at work and at prayer; or, rather, shows that his work was
prayer. Indeed, the tenderness of his countenance and the manner
in which he is represented as pressing the flowering staff to his
breast with his left hand, while he rests his tool with his right,
suggest for our meditation that St. Joseph's thoughts were of Mary
and Jesus, for whom he was shortly to continue with his labors.
Beholding the statue as we work outdoors, we are reminded
that all our work, too, should be performed recollectedly, with
prayerful intentions and custody of heart, and that from time to
time we should pause for a moment to give our attention fully to
Our Lady and to the divine Child, that our work, like St.
Joseph's, will become a continual prayer of devotion, praise and
thanksgiving.
* From "Reflections for a Novena to St. Joseph" by Sister Emily
Joseph, C.S.J., The Queen's Work, St. Louis, 1955
Reprinted with permission.