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Intro Mary Garden
The Garden Way of the Cross
Introduction
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A number of flowers with old religious names are accompanied by
delightful legends woven around their symbolism. The legends
served as vehicles by which their symbolism was passed on from
parent to child, from generation to generation - as part of the
teaching of religion before the days of printing and catechisms.
When the religious plant names were written down from oral
traditions, however - most of them by folklorists and botanists, to
whom we owe profound thanks for their preservation - many of the
associated legends were lost. As one writer has observed, these
missing legends are like petals which have been blown away from the
flowers, which through pious reflection we are to attempt to
rediscover and restore today.
One restoration of such legends, both as preserved and as
recreated, is found in the booklet of flower meditations, "The
Garden Way of the Cross", written in 1993 for the Mary Garden of
St. Catherine of Siena Church, Portage, Michigan by Father Thomas
A. Stanley, S.M., Pastor of St. Catherine's until 1996.
This meditative booklet was inspired by a large wooden cross
at the west end of the Mary Garden (which extends along the
entire south side of the church), installed there as a memorial of
the 1983 Holy Year. In that year Pope John Paul II declared the
privileges and graces available to those making Holy Year
pilgrimages to Rome to be available also to those visiting their
parish churches for the Holy Year intentions. As part of this
celebration St. Catherine of Siena Parish, in conjunction with
the Edward L. Koenig Council No. 6980 of the Knights of Columbus,
placed the outdoor cross where it stands today in the Mary Garden.
The presence of the cross recalls and continues the medieval
custom of planting crosses in fields, for which the following
blessing from the Roman Rite was employed:
Blessing of Crosses to be Set in Fields, Vineyards, etc.
(Performed on the Feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross,
or on the following Sunday.)
V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who has made heaven and earth.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.
Let us pray.
Almighty, everlasting God, Father of all consolation
and kindness, through the merits of the bitter passion
of your only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which he was so
kind as to undergo for us sinners on the wood of the
cross, bless these crosses, which your people will
take from here to set in gardens, vineyards, fields or
other places, so that the farms on which they are set up
may be free from the crushing of hail, the violence of
tornadoes, the power of storms, and from every disturbance
of the enemy. May then their produce by brought to full
ripeness, and gathered in honor of your name by those who
trust in the power of the holy cross of the same Jesus
Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and is King with you
for ever and ever.
R. Amen
(And they are sprinkled with holy water.)
o O o
One plant legend of special relevance to Christ's Cross is that of
the herb, basil (Ocimum basilicum) which was held to be of such
close association with the Cross that St. Helena was able to find
the location of the True Cross by digging for it under a colony of
basil plants. We know of the association through St. Helena, but
just what the legend, the "fallen petal", was is not known to us.
Possibly it was one of the plants which was reputed to have sprung
up at the foot of the Cross where Christ's blood drops or Mary's
tears fell, as is reported in legends of other plants. Or it may
have been offered to Christ as a soothing herb. Another "fallen
petal" is the use of "basilica" as the name for the cross-shaped
floor plans of church buildings. Also, from the practice in some
areas of strewing branches of basil before church communion rails,
it came to be known as "Holy Communion Plant".
In composing "The Garden Way of the Cross" in 1993, Father Stanley
drew on the religious flower names and legends which have been part
of his reflection ever since he established the Mary Garden at the
Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at Dayton, Ohio, in 1954 - believed to
be the first such Shrine Mary Garden in the U. S.
The flower symbols of Our Lady's Life and mysteries, and their
interpretive legends, can be considered according to five groupings:
- those of the virtues and excellences of Mary associated with
her Immaculate Conception and maidenly spirituality;
- those of the Joyful mysteries of the Annunciation, Visitation
and the Sacred Nativity;
- those of the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth;
- those of the Sorrowful Mysteries of Jesus' Passion and Cross;
- those of the Glorious Mysteries of Jesus' Resurrection and
Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and Mary's
heavenly Assumption, Spiritual Maternity, Advocacy,
Mediation and Queenship.
Father Stanley's illuminative incorporation of flower symbols and
legends of the Sorrowful Mysteries in the fourteen stations of the
Way of the Cross is instructive as how the other flower symbols
and legends of Our Lady can be likewise incorporated in our
meditations on the other mysteries of Mary's intimate motherly
union and close cooperation with the saving work of her Divine Son
and Lord.
It is to be kept in mind that flowers are encountered and their
symbolism reflected on in nature, and also in the Mary Garden, one
plant, grouping or colony at a time, while one pauses in
meditation. This information booklet and meditation-aid is
therefore to be used primarily as a source of information for
subsequent reflection in nature or the garden (or indoors before
dish gardens or house plants) - just as the Mary Garden Prayer is
to be prayed before flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses.
In preparation for this it is suggested that in printing out this
booklet from your web browser, supplementary printings be made of
each flower graphic, so they can be viewed and reflected upon
individually, in a virtual garden, after becoming familiar with
their symbolism from the text. Also, the dish Mary Garden graphic
at the head of this web page can be printed out separately and
reflected upon, one flower symbol at a time, as would be done in
an outdoor Mary Garden or an actual dish Mary Garden.
Once familiarity has been gained with the flower symbols in the
Garden Way of the Cross, they may be reflected upon also
non-verbally and affectively in virtual Sorrowful Mary Gardens -
as with the meditative illustrations in medieval books of hours.
Father Stanley's Introduction
The Fourteen Stations of the Cross
Copyright Mary's Gardens 1997