Mary's Gardens Developmental Correspondence
Bonnie Roberson Letters 1982
This "book length" correspondence, and similarly extensive
correspondence (in long process of posting to Website) with Jane
McLaughlin of Woods Hole; Bro. Seán MacNamara of Ireland; and Nanette
Sears of Annapolis, represent Mary's "in house" developmental
activity from 1980 (following that of Bonnie, who had carried it
forward from 1968 until then) through 1965, 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
April, 2005
LETTER TOPICS
January 2, 1982
- Blest Flowers - Flower and Spiritual Growth - Spiritual Heavenly Descent
January 9, 1982
- Showing Forth religious Truths in Nature for Scientists
January 15, 1982
- Prees File List - TypeCorder Word Processor - Spiritual Healing
January 16, 1982
- Sacramentally Blest Scapulars of Our Lady - Medals
January 22, 1982
- Wood Hole Mary Garden Jubilee Article - Windowsill Mary Garden
January 24, 1982
- Basic Principles for Our Lady's Solar Green House Article
January 27, 1982
- More Thoughts on Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse Article - Queen's Tears
January 30, 1982
- Spiritual Allegory of the Hunt of the Unicorn - Heavenly Rose Garden
January 31, 1982
- Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse so Lovely - So Many Things are Blooming
February 2, 1982
- Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens Historical; Their Combination Now
February 6, 1982
- Greenhouse Article not to Suggest Part of the Charismatic Movement
February 10, 1982
- Will Remove from Article - Re-Statement of Mary's Gardens Orthodoxy
February 11, 1982
- The illuminative Character of Mary Garden Spiritality
February 12, 1982
- The Empowerment of Illumination - Candlemas - Florists' Spring
February 14, 1982
- All Gifts of the Holy Spirit Pass Through Mary' Hands
February 28, 1982
- Multiple Details - Flowers of Holy Land - Meditatve, Illuminative
March 3, 1982
- Jubilee Articla Accepted by QUEEN - Date Set for WH Slide Lecture
March 15, 1982
- Bonnie's Reconciliation with Bishop - Basis of Marigold Symbolism
April 7, 1982
- Apprehensions and Fears vs Hope - Woods Hole Lecture - House
April 11, 1982
- "Mary Garden Jubilee" Press Release - Article Reprints at Garden
May 1, 1982
- Society of Mary - Shape of Woods Hole Eel Pond recalls Mary's Heart
May 23, 1982
- St. Joseph's Centennial Mass and Garden Jubilee Blessing Announced
May 27, 1982
- Woods Hole Historical Society St. Joseph's Church Centennial Exhibit
June 16, 1982
- Mary's Gardens Current Details - Woods Hole Small Town Life
September 9, 1982
- Turn of Care for Woods Hole Garden - More Mary's Gardens Work Details
September 14, 1982
- Rosary in the Woods Hole Mary Garden - Woman Clothed with the Sun
September 17, 1982
- Mary Garden and Kingdom - How the Plants have Fared - Fluttering Leaves
October 12
- Little Time to Spend on Mary's Gardens - Osterville Slide Lecture
October 26
- Bonnie's Surgery - Work Details - Heaven - Woods Hole Garden
November 5 1982
- Mary's Gardens as Spiritual Community - The Levels of Heaven
December 5, 1982
- Woods Hole Late Fall Blooms - Carrying Mary's Gardens Forward - Illumination
THE LETTERS
+
Boston, MA
January 2, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
I hope you and Ernie were able to start off the New Year in good
spirits and that it will be a year of happiness, fruitfulness and
maintenance of your health.
We spent a good New Year's Eve entertaining a friend, with good
feelings and lively discussion of things that count.
In general, I feel it's the best start for a new year my family and I
have had for some time.
And, of course, it's the year of the St. Joseph's Centennial and
Garden of Our Lady Golden Jubilee at Woods Hole.
Also, yesterday, the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, I had some further
thoughts clarifying the work of Mary's Gardens.
The distinction I came across, while studying the differences between
the older pastoral poetry and the newer romantic poetry, per my
letter of Dec 27-28-29, of a nature poetry which simply reflects
other religious truths from scripture and thoughts, as compared to a
nature poetry which mystically opens up new truths and insights, has
given me a new way of understanding the power of religious flower
symbolism, and therefore of appreciating its importance.
Ever since Ed and I encountered the rebuke that Catholics already had
their liturgy, devotions, rosaries, medals, statues, holy cards and
prayers of Marian devotion, so they 'didn't need' flowers,I have kept
looking for just what it is about the Flowers of Our Lady that I know
is so special and has so much to offer - or, rather, looking for ways
of better understanding and experiencing it.
I think I can express this more clearly now by saying that as visual
images which in the created correspondence between inner and outer,
luminously mirror spiritual realities,flowers, and especially those
that have been sacramentally blest, clear the way for and release
special spiritual truths, grace, illumination and power to move and
raise our hearts, minds, souls and strength towards God.
This is true of all nature, images and sacramentals; but gardens,
plants and flowers are unique and special, in their symbolism of:
cultivating the soil to receive, germinate and sustain seeds of new
spiritual growth; the upwards reaching of plants toward the sun,
symbolizing God; the unfolding of foliage to receive spiritual light
and air; the blooming of flowers to give off spiritual light and
fragrance; the descent of the dew of wisdom and other gifts of the
Spirit to rest on the flowers; the wilting and 'sacrifice' of the
flowers to release the Spirit and soul, and the Pentecostal
scattering of seeds of the Spirit.
I am convinced that as we regard flowers meditatively and
contemplatively, realizing and 'feeling' that our own interior
spiritual life and growth in a very real and 'literal' way resembles
the growth of a flowering plant in the soil of the garden or field,
this indeed "straightens the ways of the Lord" within us, and
channels his grace, light and power of spiritual growth to us,
sacramentally.
Further, I am convinced that we can help awaken and activate further
spiritual life and growth in others by showing them and helping them
to see and to understand flower symbols.
There is of course nothing 'new' here, Bonnie - just an attempt at
another way of saying what we have been working with all along.
Another insight I had yesterday had to do with 'Heavenly Descent' -
the Mystical Descent of the Heavenly City, as described in
Revelations 21:9 ff.
Around a year ago, I described to you an interior dimension of this,
whereby the upwards thrusting, interior (Christmas) Tree of Life was
displayed by a downwardly descending interior golden Blooming Rose
plant.
Now, I understand that externally, outwardly, in the world and nature
before, we saw certain things - flowers, buildings, cities, etc.
symbolically - now, at the Heavenly Descent, everything is flooded
with glory and power, to create a heaven on earth such that
everything physical luminously corresponds to, and is transfigured to
mirror, some spiritual reality.
This then leads us to see that the 'New Heaven and New Earth' are one
and the same the old earth heavenly transfigured.
The Heavenly Descent thus differs from imaginative symbolical
envisioning in that everything is transfigured as it is, concretely -
becoming spiritual objects, rather than just symbols.
And what is needed, finally, to bring all this to the culmination or
Parousia of the Final Judgement and Eternal Life of Immortality, is
the universalization of transfiguration both through general mystical
participation in the Heavenly Descent, and by Miracles, to
progressively overcome sin, sickness, pain evil and death, through
the pleuromic Christ, and Mary, our Mother, our Mediatrix.
In keeping with Blake's thought of 'Heaven in a Wildflower', then,
flowers symbolize both our spiritual growth towards heaven; and the
coming of heaven on earth once we start the process by liberating
flowers from Venus and Nature, by christening them with their Mary
names and placing them in a Mary Garden.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady
+
Boston, MA
January 9, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
Thanks for your phone call on the 7th. Yes, we did receive your
Christmas card, the dried Holy Land flowers and the Christmas breads.
I'm sorry I got so carried away with the flood of ideas that came to
me around Christmas time that I failed to thank you for them, in my
letter of December 27th. No doubt by now you have received my letter
of January 2nd - if you are getting any mail deliveries at all, that
is.
I can appreciate that snowbound with 18" of snow and 10 deg. below
zero weather, and with the flu together will all the other ills our
mortal flesh is her to, you and Ernie pretty much are having to spend
all your time, attention and energy in merely surviving. In such
times we appreciate how wonderful it is, and thank God, for just
being able to keep warm and have enough to eat.
We had one heavy snow here the first weekend in December, but since
the ground wasn't frozen and it was a fairly wet snow, it didn't tie
things up much. Now it has all melted, but for tomorrow the first
real cold spell is forecast, with temperatures approaching zero and 3
or 4 " of snow.
We are one block from a grocery store, drug store and newsstand, so
that immediate needs can be taken care of readily, if we omit to
stock up on something, and in the very cold weather and snowstorms I
put our car in a garage. My main concern is the electric bill, as
about 4 times the needed heating capacity is built into our baseboard
and wall electric heaters, and we have to be careful that we keep
them turned as low as possible. We have tremendous heat loss from
single-pane large windows, even though covered with curtains.
As I mentioned over the phone, I have been spending a great deal of
time trying to write an article on the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady
for the more general audience of the Catholic academic world and the
scientist at Woods Hole...which I will hope America might publish
around March 8th, the 30th anniversary of my first America article,
"Gardening for Our Lady".
After writing an 8-page draft, completed yesterday, I think I finally
received an insight of the focus I want to give it - which I'll
attempt to summarize here, and then put in article form.
As you know, I've been working since last summer at how to present or
describe the Garden of Our Lady in such a way that to the secular,
scientific, humanist world it will have some intelligible reference
to the biological work going on across the pond at the Marine
Biological Laboratory.
How, in other words, are we to propose that scientists working with
molecular biology and genetic engineering should pay any attention to
the symbolical Flowers of Our Lady?
My recent insight is that the key to all this lies in the basic
'nature worship' or belief in the goodness of nature, natural life
and natural human being that underlies all science and secular
society. This 'nature worship' takes on at least four important
forms in our day:
€ Belief in the goodness of matter, such that it can be analyzed and
manipulated with impunity (an error heading to nuclear warfare and
accidents).
€ Belief in the goodness of the natural environment (which actually
is incapable of redeeming the world from the evils of science,
technology, pollution, etc.)
€ Belief in the goodness of life (which leads to the erroneous
philosophy of evolutionary survivalism and inevitable progress one to
biological warfare and accidents.
€ Belief in the goodness of natural mysticism (which leads to
romanticism or at worst psychism, spiritism, etc.., and their
redemptive inadequacy.
To all this, the Angelus Garden of Our Lady presents the truth that
nature as such is not to be 'worshipped' as the source of our
redemption, salvation and renewal that these come from the
supernatural life of God, as manifested in the Incarnation, Death and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ and that one of the noblest or highest
uses that can be made of nature is to symbolize and mirror the saving
plan and action of God along with showing forth and sharing the
goodness of the Creator, and supporting human life as it grows to
participation in eternal life.
In other words, without their movement towards participation in the
eternal life of God - mirrored by Christian nature symbolism -
natural matter, environment, life and religion are incapable of
self-redemption. Therefore, we should celebrate the symbolism of our
saving religious truths as shown forth in nature and especially in
the Mary Garden and as rung out by the Angelus Bells - the symbolic
showing forth in nature of the truths by which we and it are saved to
those working with nature, and especially the truths of Jesus and
Mary Jesus, who by his life, death and resurrection saved nature; and
Mary who by her immaculateness and first opened up Life to the
Incarnation.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady
+
Boston, MA
January 15, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
I've finally been able to get a little momentum going with Mary's
Gardens 'catch up' work..with the updated article for Fr. Charest,
and my Preface for Bro. Sean's Muire Mhathair, both of which I sent
you copies in the last few days, together with my accompanying
letters.
Just now I've finished a typed copy of the Mary's Gardens Press File
List, which I enclose with this letter. I typed this from Xerox
copies of the hand written lists such as I sent you a year ago, and
I'll have to add the information from the hand written copies about
the number of illustrations for some of the listing ("ILLUS") that
didn't show up on the Xeroxing, when I can get them from Woods Hole.
However, I wanted to send you this typed working copy, because I
think it will give you a 'lift', as it did me. (Reading the TITLE
column, is like a litany!)
This, together with the "Testimonials" which I typed up for the first
5 or 6 years of Mary's Gardens correspondence, give the best evidence
of the widespread dissemination of the message of Mary's Gardens, and
of the many responses to it and actions on it from the heart.
One of the things which has been most helpful to me has been a
miniature word processing 'typecorder' which Marion gave me for my
birthday in October of 1981. I just wasn't able to make the effort
of learning how to use it when I was in the midst of all my research
and typing for the St. Joseph's Centennial History, but this month I
finally set myself to it and the things I have mentioned in this
letter are what I practiced on (article, preface, list).
The 'typercorder' (manufactured by Sony) has a typewriter like
keyboard, but types on an internal tape which display _ a line (40
characters) at a time as you go along. Erasures, corrections,
additions, deletions and editing can be done on the tape or 'memory'
which can be flashed quickly line by line for the whole page without
having to actually physically erase anything on paper. Then, when you
have finished correcting and revising the page on the 'memory', you
push a button which stores the page on a removable cassette, and
frees the 'memory' for the typing of the next page. When you have
finished the whole document (letter, list, article, book, etc.) you
rewind the cassette to the beginning, and push buttons to print it
out one page at a time..on a little thermal printer that comes with
it, or on an kind of electronic printer. Each cassette holds 100
pages. Both the typecorder and printer can be carried together in an
attache case, and together are lighter than a typewriter. They can
be operated by either line current or batteries.
This is going to be extremely helpful to me, Bonnie, in writing both
articles and books because it gets away from the drudgery and time of
erasing and making corrections, and retyping whole pages, etc You
just 'retrieve' (play back) the page from the cassette into the
machine; make the corrections or changes; print it out; and then
store it back on the cassette (some spare, or another space, or
another cassette).
Thus, if you see any errors or omissions in the Press File List, just
let me know what they are, and I can make the changes in a matter of
minutes and reprint it. I've left about 10 lines space on each page,
so additions can be made.
In working with the typecorder, and seeing how a document can be
'renewed', along the lines I have described above, I see a parallel
to how the renewing action of the Holy Spirit may work.the travelling
cursor on the display of the text for renewal letter by letter,
character by character, symbolizing the way a spiritual point of fire
can move through our bodies or nervous systems, renewing them point
by point.
This is even more dramatically symbolized by computer graphics
operations where the moving cursor generates lines and shapes.
Thus, when we pray for physical healing, or for the healing of social
relationships, we can envisage the cursor of the Holy Spirit running
through the body or relationships generating renewal as it
goes..through Mary's matrixing, as we offer ourselves and our
relationships to her.
We're happy our second snow of the winter this evening and night. The
temperature has been above freezing so far, so rain is mixed with it
and only a few inches accumulation are expected in the city, although
a little further inland they're expecting a foot or more.
The winter as a whole has been most warm so far, and on January 10th,
with the ground still unfrozen, I had the unusual experience of
seeing in the garden across the street, one last fall violet still
blooming, right alongside of snowdrop shoots, up over an inch.
Love to Ernie
Love, In Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
January 16, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
Within the past few weeks I have been blessed with a much more
profound appreciation of the scapulars of Our Lady, and in particular
of the brown scapular revealed by Mary to Saint Simon Stock, around
1237 to 1245.
The scapulars are all symbols of Our Lady's garment, clothing, or
habit .and in particular of her inner garment, under her mantle,
which I would see as corresponding to her dress, or in the language
of the Flowers of Our Lady as her smock.
One book I have, "Divine Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary", states;
p. 264:
"The Scapular is a habit..Our Lady's habit. She appeared in it to
Saint Simon Stock, holding the Scapular in her hand even as she was
wearing it (full size) on her person. She appeared thus again, in
1917 at Fatima and we recall the words of Saint Dominic spoken over
seven hundred years ago in prophecy 'One day, by the Rosary and the
Scapular, I will save the world'. When we wear the Scapular, we are
wearing a garment which was woven on the looms of Heaven and brought
to earth by Our Lady herself, in her own hands."
Earlier, on p. 260, the book states: Our Lady said (to Simon Stock)
"This scapular ..is a sign of salvation, a sure safeguard in danger,
a pledge of peace and of my special protection until the end of
ages."
"Actually (the author continues) the wearing of the scapular is a
mystical prayer made possible by Our Lady's sign. She has placed the
scapular about our necks to remind us that we have a Mother in heaven
waiting, and watching, and loving us more than our earthly mothers
love us. And when we make that sign of hers an incentive to virtue,
a means of intensifying our oral prayers or those of affection, her
heart goes out to us and union with her is deepened immeasurably."
"Often, on our journey to heaven, we may mystically embrace our
Mother even though too far off to see her, to far away to be ravished
by her actual presence and made exceptionally glorious, as the Little
Flower says, by the radiance of such a Queen."
There has been a lot of controversy about the brown, Carmelite
Scapular, as you know, Bonnie = first about the claimed special
promises for it, as compared to her scapulars (white, red, green,
etc..a Catholic encyclopedia I have, says that 18 in all have been
formally approved by the Church; and then about the cloth scapular
as opposed to an approved scapular medal; and finally, as in a letter
written to the Register you sent me, general attacks on the basis
sacramental use of the scapular, any scapular, along the same lines
as attacks against the Rosary, medals, and Marian devotion generally.
These various controversies have tended to obscure appreciation of
all scapulars, as blest sacramentals of our Lady's clothing or
garment, which would in the broadest sense-include Our Lady's Mantle.
In this respect, it is important that St. Dominic's revelation from
Our Lady about the Rosary and Scapular came before St. Simon Stock's
revelation about the brown scapular around 1240, since St. Dominic
lived from 1170 to 1221, so that he appears to have been referring to
some other scapular or to scapulars in general, rather than
'prophesizing' about the brown scapular in particular, as the above
quotation claims.
For the symbolism of the Flowers of Our lady, the revelation of a
sacramental of her clothing is important evidence of the importance
of all sacramentals, and holy objects having to do with Our Lady's
Clothing, which is supportive of the relics of Our Lady's Mantle and
Slipper associated with the return of the Crusaders from the Holy
Land.
Together, the scapulars and relics provide a tradition and a context
within which flower symbols fit as sacramentally blest holy religious
objects.
Finally, it is significant that in the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima,
Our Lady was represented in one of the tableaus as clothed in the
Carmelite Habit and full scapular, associating clothing with the sun,
in accordance with the Miracle of the Sun, as a corroboration of the
application to her by the Church of the Revelations of the Apocalypse
text of "The Woman Clothed with the Sun".
The miraculous pointing of Our Lady of Guadeloupe marvelously
combines the two in juxtaposition with the clothing of her garments,
including the wonderful dress or full scapular with its ornamentation
with leaf or vine designs.
For some years I've carried a Miraculous medal and a Green Scapular
of the Immaculate Heart (given to me in 1947 by the mother of a
friend who returned to the church shortly after my conversion in
1948) on me at all times, but since 'chancing' on the mention of the
brown scapular in a 2nd hand book 2 weeks ago, I've begun carrying my
brown scapular (previously on my desk) on me also.
Love to Ernie.
Love, In Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
January 22, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
This morning I mailed you a copy of my "Mary Garden Jubilee" article,
as finally completed yesterday and mailed today to America.
After hundreds of hours and hundreds of pages of drafts, I finally
was able to get it into magazine article size, and much more
importantly, to say what I wanted to say.
As you can see, it pulls together many of the insights I have been
writing you about for a year and a half.
Putting the Mary Garden idea back into the Woods Hole setting at its
beginning gives the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens a pertinency
and importance in a way which can be better appreciated by others,
who don't go for just the devotion.
Please join your prayers with mine that we can find America or
someone else who will publish it in time for the Centennial/Jubilee
Celebration in June.
About half of my original drafts are 'left over', so I will start
pulling them together for an Immaculata article, with more of a
Marian focus.
I also mailed a copy to Jane McLaughlin this morning. I hope this
will serve to heighten her resolve and commitment for the
follow-through with the committee and garden this Spring...and also
perhaps help her with the final polishing of the commemorative
history.
With her very concrete work, last fall, in driving to pick up the
lily bulbs and rose bushes, I'm sure she has by now run into the
situations you, Ed and I had so much experience with where others say
it's a great idea, but don't really 'get' it and wonder why we're
putting so much into it. Fortunately, she has the historical 'angle'
to work from and also John Beckerle of Woods Hole is totally
committed to the Garden.
Also, it is helpful to have others from a distance appreciate the
Garden and your sending of the Madonna Lily bulbs, with herbs to
follow in the Spring, I'm sure means a lot to her. The article
should help a lot, too..even in manuscript form.
My little windowsill Mary Garden has been running out of energy due
to the low light, although the Christmas Cactus bloomed Christmas
week, and the Cyclamen seems to be coming back after a rest this
fall.
One plant which has really done well is the Queen's Tears - Bilbergia
nutons, which has four bloom clusters, where a year ago it had two.
You may recall that it bloomed on Christmas Day, 1980, and now a year
later, it bloomed around January 15th.
I don't think my Mesmarica gracillis, Apostles' plant, has enough
energy to bloom again this year, but we'll see.
The two Aloe's, are doing fine, although the darken one gets a little
pale in the winter.
The Crassula rosary vine does just great, but my Pelargonium geranium
has just about 'run out of gas'.
Of the herbs, the Rosemary and Rue seem to best. I've used my little
Herb O' Grace to sprinkle Holy Water.
The cacti keep going, although none of them has bloomed, and the
ferns.
The geraniums don't like the cold too much, and I've lost several.
Their resistance seems to go down when they are tired.
Regrettably the Geranium and Philodendron cuttings you sent me died.
They sent out great roots, but died when I put them in potting soil.
The potting soil I got from our local greenhouse was a packaged
product called 'Bacto-Peat' (I believe), and the bacteria or little
worms in it came right out and cut through the shoots.
I really miss not having my own potting soil that I know exactly what
is in it, as I did in Philadelphia.
Next spring I'm going to attempt to get from somewhere just the kind
of soil and pots I want and then put everything in them, so I can
control moisture better, etc.
Anyway, this has been a good learning experience.
I've been able to control the mealy bugs per Rodale's Encyclopedia,
by washing them off (as I did before), and then going after any
remaining ones with alcohol on the tip of a small camel's hair paint
brush.
My Prayer plants and African Violets do okay. Now, I've got a
massive 'catch-up' to do in just about every other aspect of life
having let everything go for Woods Hole and the article.
Love to Ernie.
Love, In Our Lady
+
Boston, MA
January 24, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
Good to talk with you and Ernie by phone this evening! Thanks for
the info.
After going back to our source, in thought, to write my Woods Hole
Jubilee article, I believe I now see much more clearly the approach I
would like to take in writing of Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse and
Garden.
While I would set forth the basic principles, from a 'natural'
viewpoint, of energy conservation, organic gardening,
self-reproducing seed strains, coordination of garden and greenhouse,
cooperative exchange of surpluses with other, preservation of food
through the winter, self-sufficiency, appropriate technology, and
other elements of the secular home gardening movement ..lots of
people are writing books and articles about this, and my thought
would be to show how you are doing this thoroughly and innovatively,
but, much more importantly, adding something much more which comes
out of the Mary Garden idea and movement.
This something more of course includes the illuminative and
sacramental view and use of plants- starting with the religious
flower symbols of Our lady- but it also includes, as I wrote about in
my letters of last year, the renewing circulation of the Holy Spirit,
which can be spoken of as regenerative.
While the sacramental view of blest gardens and plants sees these as
sources of graces and blessings; the regenerative view looks to the
fact that the flow of love, grace and Spirit is necessary to open up
and to sustain the exchange, flow and circulation of information,
ideas, culture, energy, equipment, materials, goods, food, sees and
currency...and that, in turn, the flow of all these other things
confirms, enhances and conduits the exchange, flow and circulation of
grace and Spirit.
All the ideas of natural, self-sufficient, energy-conserving
gardening in the world don't make it possible for everyone or every
family to be self-sufficient as their own 'island'- due to the uneven
distribution of resources, not to mention inequalities of strength,
age, illness, talents, location, etc...and, of course, all these
differences are aggravated by competition, discrimination,
exploitation and domination and the resulting unequal and unjust
accumulation of property and money by the powerful at the expense of
the weak.
And the only way of overcoming these differences and inequalities, is
by fostering self-sufficiency and self-productivity, augmented by
fair and equal exchange of surpluses - including making available to
all, the technology appropriate to their circumstances and
potentialities so that all may have sufficiency and a fair shake in
productivity and accumulation.
Fair exchange, is all that is necessary, because this enables
persons, families and nations to contiguously accumulate from their
internal agriculture and manufacture; and it causes the rich persons,
families and nations to contract their economic life to match what
they can produce internally from agriculture and manufacture at
equitable payments for raw materials from others...as has happened to
Portugal, and Spain with the loss of the colonies, and as is
happening to Great Britain..and is now being faced by the United
States, etc.
While families can eke out sustenance by their own labor, history has
shown that where there is cooperative organization of production,
exchange, transportation and storage, a cooperative society, small or
large, can accumulate a surplus which can be shared in by all, above
and beyond subsistence sufficiency.
Thus the symbolical/illuminative view of the plants, and the
sacramental view, which sustain our vision of the divine plan of
redemption and renewal, and which provides an 'on-location' service
of grace and spirit for decisions and strength, lead to the
spiritually regenerative view, which looks at everything from the
viewpoint of the exchange, flow and circulation which can lead to
accumulation above and beyond subsistence sufficiency, and can
inspire the love and respect necessary for this circulation to take
place materially.
The typical difficulty with people who attempt self-sufficiency is
that they do it on an individual basis (family or commune) and fail
to enter into the cooperative relationships of equal exchange with
others; and also they soon fall apart due to internal dissension and
strife..and drop the whole idea.
From the illuminative view of the Divine Plan we believe in the
ultimate renewal of the face of the earth; we believe in the
sacramental graces, spirit, glory and providence to make decisions in
accordance with God's will for this plan; and we believe that our
work can have a regenerative and renewing effect on the larger
communities if we open up circulation on a fair exchange basis - all
the while accepting obstacles, adversities and set backs in union
with the redemptive passion and death of Christ, which has made
possible the sending of the spirating processing, circulation and
regenerating Holy Spirit.
Your giving of gifts - with their sacramentally in inhering grace,
spirit and power - to all who visit you, Bonnie, bears witness to
your concern for regenerative circulation, as does your concern for
self-perpetuating seeds.
Love to Ernie.
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
January 27, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
Here is a draft study I completed on Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse.
The more I read of books and articles about other people's home
gardens and greenhouses, the more I realize that it is the religious
conception of your work which should be the focus of an article.
The output of the garden and your drying are prodigious, and we
should include some actual lists of all the fruits and vegetables and
their quantities, but they should be seen as spiritual fruits as well
as material.
I have of course put all sorts of thoughts into your and Ernie's
mind, that may not exist there - but they are all suggested by things
you have said and written.
The first article will have to be shorter, and will probably be much
different, after I receive your comments, but this is a beginning.
Of course there can also be a more technical article getting into
your journal for the greenhouse, and into the methods of gardening
and preserving.
Also, a possible article on a number of the tableau Mary Gardens.
I suppose by now your Queen's Tears are blooming. This certainly is
an interesting plant when it is budding and blooming, and does very
well as a windowsill plant, although it just sits there like large
blades of grass for 50 weeks of the year.
This is brief, so I can get the draft into the mail, and start taking
care of some other things tomorrow. I did want to get something
written while the ideas started pouring out.
Love to Ernie.
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
January 30, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
After completing the "Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse" draft, which I
mailed you on the 28th, I had some insights which grew out of it
.although not directly related to it.
One is that the "Hunt of the Unicorn", as in the Unicorn Tapestries
is an allegory of the Assumption in that the desire is to 'capture'
the power of the ascended Christ, so to speak, but it is only the
Virgin Mary who can do this for us; and ultimately, after her
Assumption she maternally encompasses Christ, in her 'spiritual womb'
so to speak, which is symbolized by the unicorn in the enclosed
garden fence of the final tapestry.
Once this happens the 'scene' is transformed according to the Madonna
and Child in the heavenly Rose Garden (per Lochner's painting - slide
#40 in the Lecture Kit) which moves on to the Coronation, and the
Reign of Jesus and Mary, Mary's title, "Queen of the Most Holy
Rosary" may have originally applied to this scene, not the rosary
itself.
This is the final heavenly showing to us of the fruit of her womb
Jesus, which is the image according to which I prefer to pray to Mary
in heaven, or envisage her while I am praying, for her intercession
with Jesus.
Actually, per the Lochner painting, the Father and Holy Spirit (Dove)
are present also, so that when we ask Mary, thus envisaged to pray
for us, its not so much for her intercession or petition as it is for
her including our needs in her 'discussions' with the Trinity
regarding the supernatural governance of and intervention in worldly
affairs as the world moves toward Salvation, Kingdom and Renewal.
The Mary Garden on earth and particularly with the Seat of Wisdom or
other Madonna and Child Enthroned is, then, an image or mirror of the
Heavenly Rose Garden, serving both to raise our thoughts to it, and
to mediate and matrix the grace and spirit on earth, as I wrote in
"Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse".
Of course the greenhouse adds a further and subsequent mystical
dimension in that the 'structure' of the house, and particularly as
glass construction, symbolizes the descent of the Heavenly Jerusalem,
with all its translucences per Revelations...and thus is also a
symbol of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom, with its city, which then
contains the garden.
The other way I envisage Mary in heaven is as the Woman Clothed with
the Sun, which is kind of the culmination of the Assumption (She
later bears the Child, in Revelations), and is the way she comes
forth to us - fair, bright and terrible, from the 'rest' and repose
of the garden.
I see the Greenhouse article as important to the Mary Garden idea and
movement also in that it makes the concrete application to vegetable
gardening, and, in principle, to all giving and exchange of goods -
which is just barely touched on in the Woods Hole article (p.10, par.
3)
It occurs to me that Catholic Rural Life would be a good place for an
article like this (although its probably too long) .since it attempts
to give some new insights to people who actually garden and farm.
What do you think?
I see an article along more Marian and devotional lines as more
suitable for Immaculata - perhaps along the lines I wrote to "Br.
Sean on the Mary Garden rosary symbolism in relation to Knock back in
Nov. or Dec.
I enclose a copy of a good letter from Jane, which indicates to me
that things continue to go well there..and that the further
information I gave her about myself, which I think I owed her since
she is laying so much on the line for Mary's Gardens, didn't seem to
'slow her down'.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Hagerman Idaho
January 31, 1982
Dear John,
I have been trying to get a tape off to you, and the few things I
know you want, but there seems to be delays in everything.
The Greenhouse so lovely - so many things are blooming. My Queen's
Tears is in bud, 7 on one stem. I have never had it before, and the
Apostles' plant in bud, many Geraniums, Begonias blooming and in bud.
They are going to have to be pruned and hard, some are out of bounds.
I have really not been up to par, such a poor appetite and hard to
eat correct amount, that is bad for other problems, but I am working
on it.
Things are pretty good otherwise.
in regard to data on Guadeloupe, so far I have not had much luck on
floral data except of course the Roses.
But have found Francis Parkinson Keys book and that is hard to come
by and I feel it was a miracle to get the copy I did.
Love,
+
Boston, MA
February 2, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
I received the Woods Hole article back from America yesterday, so I
immediately revised the first page and sent it off to Brother Francis
Mary of Immaculata per the suggestion in your tape of Dec 10. I
enclose copies of the revision and my letters.
America's non-acceptance signifies to me that the news and social
commentary magazines won't have a 'sense' for this material at this
time, even with the jubilee and the historical dimensions so I
immediately turned in the direction of the Marian magazines.
One thing that strikes me Bonnie, that I haven't said in so many
words is that the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady and the Mary Garden
movement issuing from it combines 'some things old, and some things
new'. (thoughts)
Before I wrote, and spoke of the Mary Garden in terms mostly of
something old which was being restored. However, the folklore
research, and thought about the Woods Hole garden, have made it clear
that the flower symbolisms and homes are old, and the Mary Gardens of
religious art are old, but the combining of the two in actual gardens
of plants is new.
While this at first may seem to detract something from the historical
foundations of the Mary Garden of Flowers of Our Lady - in terms of
supposed earlier Mary's Gardens at Norwich and Melrose - from another
viewpoint it can be seen to add something because it is a further
development of Marian spirituality for the Age of Mary and therefore
a Sign of spiritual prayers and hope just as Our Lady's Solar
Greenhouse together with God's Acre, is a further step towards
extending Marian spirituality directly to all gardening and farming
and thus towards the renewal of the entire face of the earth (as an
antidote to everyone's focusing on and worrying about war, politics
and economics).
From this viewpoint, the Mary Garden is much more challenging and
powerful - for Kingdom and Renewal - than if it is just considered
(which it isn't) as the restoration of a medieval tradition.
However, those many persons who resist accepting the Mary Garden in
its historical context may be even more reluctant to accept it as a
prophetic movement and force for Kingdom and Renewal.
I think that Jane has perceived that Woods Hole represented something
new and creative - to be proclaimed and celebrated - and this is
certainly shown by Mrs. Lillie's concept that the Garden of Our Lady
had something to say to the Woods Hole scientists.
In the earlier years of Mary's Gardens we had to struggle to get
people to even accept the historical fact of the Flowers of Our Lady
not to mention growing them as a prayerful work.
Now, I would say that the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens (how
discerning of Ed to use both terms in our letterhead!) have been
accepted in contemporary Catholic consciousness in the U.S., but then
relegated to a 'quaint custom' or 'pious practice'.
So, our work is 'cut out for us' to make them live, dynamically, in
our times as a prophetic force for Kingdom and Renewal.
As you pointed out in a tape last year, Wildfred Strabo, in his
Hortulus, testifies to both the prayerful genre and religious
symbolism, as a part of medieval monastic gardening and this is as
important a component of the contemporary Mary Garden movement as is
the Mary Garden of art, and the Flowers of Our Lady or popular rural
traditions.
And it is Nicolas, (following St. Anslem), who has pointed out the
exterior of nature symbolism to science.
So, all of this, along with St. Francis' love of nature and flowers,
goes together to make up the power of the present day Mary Garden -
not to mention the sacramental blessing of flowers and gardens.
Pray that we may be able to pull all this together in articles that
get printed, Bonnie.
I'm now trying to write the third 'mystical' article - incorporating
all this - which I'm now thinking of sending to Queen of All Hearts,
as a sort of follow-up of my 1960 article.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Hagerman ID
February 6, 1982
Dear John,
Have been trying to get a tape off to you, as well as the last letter
I started (enclosed)
Have not been up to par, and have something that I have to really
work with.
I did get the article draft. I want to say I am not at all pleased
with the touch of too much Holy Spirit, has the stench of Pentecostal
about the last page in particular. Please do not take offense at
this, but this cannot be part of my life, I can see where a little of
this lead too, and I am not able to cope with it.
John - I believe that, 'telling it like it is', is the best, and in
this matter, the only way I can go. I might be reading into the data
on the last page of draft things that are not there, but this is the
way it reads for me, and could be read that way by others. Please do
not take offense at my frankness, we are friends regardless.
There is no hurry about this anyway.
The main part of what has been done here, food preparation etc., is
about exactly right. Thought you will need a few things added, such
as names etc. I will have a copy made of the article and will make
comments on it on another sheet, so it will be easy for you to find
answers to things you need.
Let us get behind the Woods Hole people, it is almost too much for
you to do anyway. Then get down to business with the Bonnie thing.
I hope to have a tape off to you this coming week, with further
comments, and also other things concerning Guadeloupe and Hawaii that
you will want to know.
You have been working too hard, and so much more to do at Woods Hole.
I was happy you were able to give to the financial needs of to this
most important Mary Garden theme.
Heard from Jane, and they want the Costmary and Soapwort from my
garden. She offered to pay for it, I could not accept payment. I
feel honored to send it. I must get this in the mail, and have so
little time to finish. God love you and yours. Say an Ave for me
sometime.
Under pressure & short of time
Sincerely, In our Lady,
Bonnie
PS - City changed map. Here is new house number. Am ordering
correct address stickers today.
Mrs. Bonnie Roberson
Mary's Garden
Rt. 1 Box 497
371 East Orchard
Hagerman, ID 83332
+
Boston, MA
February 10,1982
Dear Bonnie,
Thanks for your letters of January 31st and February 6th, which
arrived today.
I'm sorry you've been under par, and have had difficulty eating the
correct amount. A heavy cross. I will pray that Our Lord, through
Mary, may mercifully lighten your burden, and that it may be his good
pleasure for your work to bear many more fruits.
Thanks for your sounding of the alarm that I inadvertently offended
you in speaking of the Holy Spirit in such a way that might be
interpreted as suggesting your association with your area Pentecostal
and Charismatic groups, whom you have told me are outspokenly
critical of your Marian devotion, and dominate the weekly communion
services in the Hagerman chapel now that a visiting priest is no
longer available to say Mass. My apologies. Yes, please always
'tell it like it is'.
To avoid putting anything in the article that shouldn't be there, or
leaving out anything that should, is of course why I am sharing with
you the drafts. Any final article that would be published would of
course first have to have your approval, and also your good feeling.
You have seen, by the drafts and correspondence, how many
explorations and attempts I went through before I came up with my
final Woods Hole article; and I likewise kept Jane informed as I went
along, so I could get her corrections and hopefully good feelings,
too.
I'm pleased Jane has written you about the Costmary and Soapwort from
your garden, and you will note I retained in the final article
manuscript the mention of the importance of the plants from your
garden circulating back to Woods Hole, in terms of the Mary Garden
movement. While I am willing to help, I hope she will continue to
take full initiative and responsibility for getting all the plants.
Yes, Woods Hole is the immediate first priority because of the
Centennial/Jubilee this summer, and because of Jane's commitment -
which is why I spent so much time getting the material to her, and
then thinking the whole situation through from our 30 year
perspective.
This, then, got me looking at your work from this larger perspective,
which I want to get into the Solar Greenhouse article.
I may have been working too hard, and I appreciate your concern; but
when these ideas develop, my way is to get them on paper in study
form, for future development.
After getting all the material to Jane, I had to deal with the
question: "Why, a Woods Hole Angelus Tower and Mary Garden?" - and it
took me 6 months to boil down the answer.
One insight which has developed from your concern that I say nothing
in the greenhouse article from which it could mistakenly be concluded
that you are a participant in or receptive of the local
self-proclaimed charismatic groups, critical of traditional faith and
practice, is that I should always be careful to make it clear that in
Mary's Gardens our work has ever been to further devotion and to seek
inspiration and illumination which is totally consistent with, and
expressive and furthering of, traditional Marian devotion and
theology as taught by the Church, and reaffirmed by the Second
Vatican Council.
Mary Gardening and Mary Garden Movement are essentially illuminative
and quickening through the blest medieval flower symbols from nature,
beautifully mirroring the truths of the deposit of faith and their
teaching by the Church as to Mary's singular union with God - from
her immaculate, humble and total acceptance of the Annunciational
call to the Divine Maternity - such that, through our devotional
reflection and meditation we seek ever increasingly to emulate her
virtues, pray the mysteries of the Rosary, and make recourse to her
heavenly positioned protection, nurturing, assistance, guidance,
intercession, advocacy and mediation, of unique divine/human sharing,
as we work and pray for the grace-inspired building of God's Kingdom
- on earth as it is in heaven.
We are not saying to anyone, "look, we've got these words, tongues or
inspirations from 'on high', and therefore you ought to recognize it,
and let us run things and decide what is to be done in the parish",
etc. - which is what you have run into.
Rather, we're saying, "Look at all these wonderful flower symbols
people came up with through the centuries, that we've had a chance to
research, and to check out in the garden. If you look closely at the
flowers you can see the illuminative symbolism indicated by their
names, and since the names and the flowers belong to everyone, you
can have a garden of these of your own, too, if you want,", etc.
And, what we are trying to develop through these illuminative figures
and symbols is a greater experience of love, whereby we and others
can better love our neighbors and enemies, so as to overcome
alienations and hostilities and build peace and cooperation.
What we're trying to do is to give, share & transmit light, so that
others can see more things illuminatively and thus love more.
And yet we leave others free to see it or not see it - depending on
whether or not they 'have a sense of these things'.
The wonderful thing about the Solar Greenhouse of Our Lady is that it
is a luminous Mary Garden plus a luminous house - symbolical of the
descent of the Heavenly Jerusalem, with all its light, to create a
New Heaven and paradise out of transfigured earth.
This must be a wonderful time in the greenhouse. I hope you can get
some photos of the overall benches, etc.
Great that you found the Francis Parkinson Keyes book on Guadeloupe!
Did you ever get one of those bromeliads, that looks like Our Lady of
Guadeloupe - 'Vresia mariae'?
I do hope you get a break on your health, Bonnie - so you can have
the spring you should have had last year.
Love to Ernie.
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
Under Separate Cover:
Home Solar Gardening, by John H. Pierce (See Chapter 13, especially)
+
Boston, MA
February 11, 1982
Our Lady of Lourdes
Dear Bonnie,
I prayed especially today for your good health and strength - mindful
specifically of your diabetes, ulcers, rheumatism and eating. May
Our Lady of Lourdes, intercede and mediate for you and for Ernie.
This morning I had some further insights along the lines I wrote you
yesterday about the illuminative character of Mary Garden
spirituality. The essence of it, as I see it, is that we move from
an age of voices, locutions and tongues to an age of symbols,
figures, illuminations and transfigurations - from an age of the ear,
so to speak, to an age of the eye.
The key to this is Mary's Assumption, and how we look at it.
What we are to see, and to make an important part of our total
perception of reality, is the change or transfiguration of Mary's
physical body into a glorious body as she rose from the tomb and was
assumed into Heaven - which is an illuminative, visual perception,
and not one of voices, hearing and words.
This is so beautifully symbolized in St. Bede's seeing of the Madonna
Lily as representing, in it's white petals, the pure translucence of
Mary's risen body, and its golden anthers, the glory of her soul. And
the lilies and roses found, according to the legend, in her tomb
after her Assumption, so aptly symbolize, together, the purity and
love, through which she rose to Heaven - the qualities we are to
emulate as we meditate on the Assumption.
And while there is no report of anyone's seeing Mary's glorious
translucence as she was first assumed into Heaven, we have all the
reports of those who have seen her subsequently..at Guadeloupe,
Paris, La Salette, Lourdes, Knock and Fatima, etc.
Further, when Mary has appeared on earth, the things around her -
like the Cacti at Guadeloupe - have become gloriously and
translucently transfigured, like her, teaching us that the message or
lesson of the Assumption is that we are to see all things
transfigured as a step towards and preview of the New Heaven and New
Earth which is to come. And we are to see not only things
transfigured, but persons as well - as with St. Joseph and St. John
at Knock, or the heavenly tableaus of the Miracle of the Sun at
Fatima.
A first consequence of this is that the radiant, resplendent,
transfigured illumination of things and people brings us to a view of
how God sees and loves them; and thus moves us to love them as they
are in themselves as his creations, showing forth and sharing with us
his goodness and attributes - rather than as materials to be used,
manipulated, exploited and dominated for our secular, worldly
gratification, interest and advantage.
This love moves us to act towards people and things with fidelity,
truthfulness, justice, reassurances, cooperation, and respect for
their freedom...producing peace.
Further, it moves us to be lights of the world - to cast or shed
light on things and people so that others can see them illuminatively
also, and thus come themselves to love them more, and to act towards
them in love - establishing bonds of unity, peace and cooperation.
This is fundamental to the work of Mary's Gardens in that our
efforts, as 'children of light', are to help others liberate
themselves from a sensate, materialistic, worldly view of flowers so
they can see them symbolically as a means to such liberation.
We then assist them in meditating on the flowers which they see
symbolically, and then looking at them in simple contemplation, until
they begin to see them luminously...as I described in my 1960 Queen
article, "Gardening with Mary".
In this connection, I just recalled that the dogmatic definition of
the doctrine of the Assumption by Pope Pus XII on November 1, 1950,
was 3 months after I had first visited the Garden of Our Lady at
Woods Hole, and was during the period in which Ed and I were
conceiving the idea of going ahead with Mary's Gardens. (The
earliest document I have is a letter dated December 18, 1950 I wrote
to the Encyclopedia Britannica research service asking them to
research the Mary names of flowers). So there is a very real
historical connection between the Assumption and Mary's Gardens.
We are enabled to see things luminously through their mirroring of
the light received by us from the Father of Lights, by which we see
them - ascending to the teaching of Jesus that "The light of the body
is the eye" (as was first pointed out to me by Ed, in that time
around the end of 1950 or beginning of 1951).
This light is first received by us when we are first in a state of
grace - and it can be transmitted or mediated to us, variously, by
the Son, Holy Spirit and/or Mary or Angels.
Our mystical rising of soul, heart and mind makes us more receptive
to the divine light - and the Assumptional rising of our spiritual
bodies, makes us receptive to the light of God's power, as well,
which is a source of healing, miracles, etc.
As far as 'spiritual exercises' go, it would seem to me that
corresponding to the Ignatian 'discernment of spirits' through the
movement of spiritual 'consolation' there would be an examination and
'discernment of light', in which we would ascertain, in any given
instance, and also in general, whether we see things just physically
- or illuminatively, as well.
And it all goes back in the first instance, to whether we see Mary's
Assumption luminously.
The interesting thing about the 'discernment of light' is that,
unlike all the uncertainties of discerning spiritual consolations,
and distinct from the movement of our emotions and feelings
etc...either you see things symbolically or luminously, or you don't.
Either you have a sense for these things, or you don't. It's about as
simple as that.
Of course in general, we are to avoid deceptions of light...by use of
sacramental blessing of imagery and symbols and places; reception of
the sacraments; and prayers for Mary's and angelic protection - as
well as taking care to avoid anything contrary to the teaching of the
Church; and, if necessary seeking priestly spiritual courses or
direction.
I would venture that with the exception of Fatima, Mary's major
appearance of our times are to be regarded as presenting herself in
accordance with the transfiguration of her Assumption - with
exhortations and mercies supplying to many needs and levels of
spiritual life and growth.
It seems to me that her appearance at Fatima, with the Miracle of the
Sun, is to be regarded more in terms of her Queenship, whereby she
'comes forth fair...bright...terrible - ".
What I see here, Bonnie, is that we have to have made a sufficient
start towards building the Peaceable Kingdom before it will be
concretely furthered by Mary's appearances - still to come.
I'm not making a sharp distinction here, and maybe her appearances
are to be viewed in terms of both her Assumption and her Queenship.
However, a distinction is made in the Mysteries of the Rosary, and I
find it helpful to look at things from both perspectives.
Thus, there is the question of how we are to view Mary's light
turning into power - her 'fairness' and 'brightness', turning into
'terribleness' (per your 'artillery plant').
The key to understanding this, I believe, lies in the consideration
that both Mary's light and power are mirrorings of God's - and that
ultimately God's light is inseparable from his omnipotence.
Therefore, Mary in effect translates God's light into power - and
this is what I think she means in the Magnificat when she says "My
soul doth magnify the Lord", after which she talks about all her
power - putting down the mighty, raining up the lowly, and receiving
Israel.
Thus, I propose that when we discern the need for the empowerment of
illumination - for Salvation, Kingdom or Renewal - we should pray for
intercession and mediation to Our Lady of the Magnificat.
In this respect- the symbolism of Our Lady's Candle, Mullein, in both
the Assumption and Queenship is striking. First it seems to have
been the plant most frequently used as the 'spine' or 'backbone' of
the Assumption bundles of flowers, herbs and grains blessed at Mass
on the Feast of the Assumption (offered and blessed, I would propose,
that they be seen transfigured and luminous, like Mary's assumed body
- as sacramentally blessed and reserved religious object). Then it
is also the plant of which it was said:
"The Virgin Mary flies about the land, with heaven's fire
in her hand".
In a future letter I will hope to continue these thoughts with the
Mary Garden as mirror of the Heavenly Garden matrixing the building
of Kingdom; the Mary's Greenhouse as a mirror of the translucent
Heavenly Jerusalem descending to make all things new; and the Rose
Window as rising up of the Garden of the new Heaven and New Earth -
transforming into the Heavenly Rose of the Creating Word of God.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady
+
Boston, MA
February 12, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
In concluding what I was saying in my letter of yesterday, I have a
feeling I will be fairly brief.
The question arises that if we do seem to be called, under Mary's
Queenship, to the "empowerment of illumination", how do we discern
what we are to do? Here, again, it is not a matter, as I see it, of
voices and locutions, but of living and acting by the leadings and
deterrents of Providence...by the petals and thorns of the Rose of
Mary's Providence, through Consecration to Mary's Immaculate Heart.
But, even with this attunement to the 'counsel' of Providence, there
is still the question of how we are to proceed, and what initiatives
we are to take, in the first place, before we 'put them to the test'
of Providence - in our work of kingdom and renewal. Here, I believe,
we are to live by the Divine Wisdom Incarnate, through Mary, in the
interior garden of our heart and soul - where Jesus is mystically
present in our heart, and Mary in our soul, surrounded by roses of
immolation and lilies of divine praise, midst other flowers of
diversity. We are to discern what we are to do, through the movement
of these roses, lilies and other flowers, by the breathings of the
Holy Spirit, which we discern as whisperings of heavenly love; which
are our 'secrets'.
Our Mary Gardens that we care for in our yards, greenhouses,
windowsills and dishes are symbols of the Mary Garden in our hearts
and souls - and, through the correspondences and mirroring between
the material and the spiritual, they assist us in our attunement to
the interior breathings and whisperings of the Holy Spirit - which
again are our 'secrets'.
In examining ourselves, we see only whether we have sought the
stillness and rest to discern these breathings and whisperings.
Further than this, then, there is the descent of the Heavenly
Jerusalem - of what I see the greenhouse, or glass house, as symbol -
when the Kingdom and Renewal of the City and Garden of Earth are
sufficiently established to attune the earth to receive it - of which
about all I can see to say is, "In your light we see light itself".
(Ps 36)
And finally, the pleuromic, parousaic, ascent of the resulting New
Heaven and New Earth, which are one - symbolized by the Rose Window,
constructed up above the earth in the vaulting cathedrals: "Father
- I have given them the glory you gave me that they may be one, as
we are one - I living in them, you living in me - that their unity
may be complete." (Jn 17; 22-23)
A lot of this is rather remote, but I did want to complete the
Queenship Mystery of the "Rosary of the World".
Now, for a little catch-up.
Immediately after I wrote you on Candlemas, we had, the next day, a
very warm sunny day in the 50's, which actually brought out a single
snowdrop bud across the street. It might have even bloomed by
afternoon. I saw it about 10 or 11 a.m., when the sun first hit it.
That February is the beginning of the "Florist's Spring" here. One
florist is right next to the Pru Center St. Francis Chapel where I
drop in for a prayer each morning while picking up the mail - and
being in a covered mall, they are able to put the flower pots out
without danger of freezing. So a big 'garden' appeared on Candlemas,
with crocuses, daffodils, jonquils, narcissus, hyacinths, iris and
primroses - of the spring flowers. Also tulips.
I always wondered why primrose, Primula elatior, was called Our
Lady's Candlestick...because it is so low it doesn't resemble a
candlestick. It now occurs to me the name may have come from its
early, Candlemas bloom in England or elsewhere.
I have let my deskwork and general filing and straightening go to
just about the breaking point since last summer - first to pull out
all the Woods Hole copies for Jane (and us), and secondly to get in
writing - the article, and the two studies, for the greenhouse, and
for the mystical article, which I have partly distilled for you in
these last 3 letters - the ideas and insights I have had as a result
of all this together with my research at Harvard and my development
of thoughts in letters to you and Bro. Sean, and the people in
England, etc.
Somehow, I'll have to muster the resolve and effort to get on top of
this stuff - and then taxes - to try to be prepared to assist Jane,
as needed in getting definite sources for the plants.
The more I think about the planting of the roses and lilies last fall
in Woods Hole, the more it begins to look like a 'minor miracle'.
I do hope your health takes a big turn for the better this spring,
Bonnie and I keep this constantly in my prayers.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
February 14, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
After talking with you last night by phone - and I'm glad to learn
you were feeling a bit better - I boxed in the paragraphs of the
Greenhouse article which could be misinterpreted Pentecostally and
charismatically in the destructive sense of those terms, and will
write substitute paragraphs which I will insert and enclose with this
letter. Then you might as well throw the other copy away.
St. Louis de Montfort provides the key to this matter of the
operation of the Holy Spirit today, when he says, in The Devotion:
"The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have
pass through (Mary's) Virginal hands" (para. 25)
"When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies
there. He enters there in his fullness; He communicates Himself to
that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room
for His Spouse. Nay one of the great reasons why the Holy Ghost does
not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find
there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable
Spouse" (para. 36)
I assure you, Bonnie, that whatever I think and say about the
operation of the Holy Spirit is in terms of his operation and
fruitfulness through Mary.
However, what you have made me realize is that I must be completely
clear and unambiguous about this so that I don't seem to be giving
'aid and comfort' to the 'anti-Marian' so called Pentecostals and
Charismatics.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit revealed the truths of the
Father, and in the New Testament was fruitful through Mary and
revealed the truths of the Father and the Son. Since then He has
been sent and has come to recall, clarify, prompt and quicken these
truths, and to continue his fruitfulness in souls through Mary. As
soon as someone claims Pentecostally and Charismatically to be going
against the Father, Son, Mary or the Church in the name of the Holy
Spirit, something is wrong. And as St. Louis de Montfort points out,
this visually shows up first as going against Mary (which we are to
counter by turning to Mary as our Mother, Teacher & Guide).
An important part of the Jesuits and also of the Marian Movement of
Priests is their loyalty to the Pope, as an anchor midst difficulties
in countries and dioceses.
Since writing the above, I have read the cover story of today: New
York Times Magazine, "The Jesuits - Portrait of a Troubled Order" -
which describes the perceived division in the Jesuits between
'conservatives' and 'liberals', and an expected move on the part of
the Holy Father to call for curtailment of the participation of
liberals in revolutionary movements and other anti-authoritarian
human concerns (the full Jesuits having taken a 'fourth vow' of
obedience to the Pope).
The Pentecostal and Charismatic question is ultimately involved here,
since t hose who refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Pope
presumably do so because they feel they are inspired in this refusal,
as did Martin Luther and Henry VIII, by the Spirit.
When I say in the Creed that "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church",
I affirm that I believe in the authority of the Magisterium or Papal
Rule of the Church in interpreting faith and discipline (as distinct
from those of a particular pastor or bishop).
"God's ways are not our ways", and frequently differ from the
position of secular humanism, because liberal humanism as a political
movement operates within the political differences of the world,
which may or may not correspond with the movement of the Divine Plan
towards Salvation, Kingdom and Renewal.
In general, I believe that what we elect to do in a given time, place
and situation is to be discerned, to the best of our ability, through
movements of grace, drawings of light, prompting of the Spirit,
teachings of Providence and the orders of authorities to what we are
subject (as instruments of Providence)
In a situation where we are subjected to oppressively unjust or
destructive authority, I believe we are to continue in our
acknowledgment of this authority, and then to act in mortification,
either
(1) to accept its particular orders under protest, while affirming
our perception of justice or constructiveness, including association
or organization with others in this protest, or
(2) to carry our protest to the point of conscientious objection of
non-cooperation and disobedience...but always acknowledging
legitimate authority, and always accepting the consequences of our
obedience or disobedience, as the case may be, as mortification,
which God wills.
Thus, Jesus always acknowledged the authorities that ultimately put
him to death ("Render unto Caesar, etc." and "you would have no
authority over me if it was not given from above". even thought
disobeying them and evading them during his ministry, and then
finally accepting them in his last entry into Jerusalem.
I see the Church' s Age of the Passion in the 'World Rosary' as the
rejection of the legitimacy of the authority of the Church by
Protestantism, secular humanism - or in the name of the
Spirit - which has been crucifying it ever since.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady
PS - Enclosed are the revised article pages 6 and 10. Under separate
cover I am sending the entire article, incorporating other minor
changes as well.
+
Boston, MA
February 28, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
In talking by phone on the 23rd, I answered many of the things in
your tape of the 14th & 15th and letter of the 18th, but will touch
on some of them again here.
I'm glad that my article revision of the 14th eliminated most of the
objectionable things, and will look forward to receiving from you
further suggestions, facts, etc. We should be able to get the
polished revision off to a prospective magazine in March sometime, if
it is to your satisfactionŠone I would like your suggestion of whom
we might send it to.
I hope the doctor's suggestion about a heavier diet, or larger food
intake, will be successful in stabilizing your sugar swings. I
notice that the stores here are now carrying more sugar-free, or
added sugar-free, canned fruits for dieters and weight losers, which
seem to be at comparable prices to those with sugar added.
Great that we finally have photos of Bro. Sean, and I eagerly await
the one he enclosed for me. A year ago, when you were having all the
aggravation about the solar greenhouse completion, he kept writing me
saying he hadn't heard from you and were you okay, and now it's the
other way around. In a way, this is good, in terms of 'the three of
us', but I'll have to write.
This has been a very important period for me in attempting to
consolidate my insights of the past two years, both in my articles,
and in my notes and in my letters to you, and I've let some other
communications rest.
Dr. Cogley was most active in the 1950's and perhaps 1960's with the
Marian Outdoor Shrines Guild. Father Keane featured him a great deal
in the Chicago Servite publications - Embassy News, and Novena Mater
and possibly QM - and in one issue of Embassy News, mentioned Dr.
Cogley's work and ours together. I corresponded some with Dr. Cogley
(I'm amazed at the riches of the correspondence files I have! And I'm
sure yours are equally overflowing with treasures!), but he seemed to
be more interested in Mary's Gardens as a means for promoting his
shrines, than in the Mary Garden idea itself. You no doubt noted the
distinction I made in the Woods Hole article between a Mary Garden
undertaken as a garden offered votively to Our Lady, and a planting
of flowers as a setting or landscaping for a shrine. I recall that
Dr. Cogley was quite active in some Catholic lay orders or Societies,
and received some sort of honor or Knighthood from the Pope for his
work with shrines.
The Horticulture article about Logee's was superb, and I'm most happy
for Joy. She was so pleased with some television coverage she had
received around the time I visited her in the fall of 1980. Yes, that
is her brother whom I met, in the picture, who stays up all night
watching the heating system. She told me they keep a year ahead on
their coal and oil supply.
I'm so glad you found the Flower Garden article, and will keep it
right in my master publicity file.
I do hope you and Mr. Thayer can take photos of the greenhouse this
spring. We don't really have any fill of plants for article
use...just the very first ones.
Also, I hope you can continue with further 'tableaus' of plants
around the statues.
Some further photos showing both statues might be able to show the
'double dedication' of the greenhouse to Mary, clothed with the sun.
I have a feeling you have found something important with the Hawaii
'Tapa' Madonnas, and will get to the bottom of it.
Yes, I continue to be interested in articles on astrology -
particularly as it fitted into historical things having to do with
gardening, art and medieval culture. I consider it 'the lower end of
Providence', and I can lead anyone from astrology towards the Church,
and angelic Providence. I will attempt to locate my copy of Farming
and Gardening in the Bible next trip to Pennsylvania.
Do you have Wild Flowers of the Holy Land by Uzi Paz (translated from
the Hebrew by Ilana Shiloh), Chartwell Books, a division of Book
Sales, In., 110 Enterprise Avenue, Seacaucus, New Jersey 07097,
published in 1979? This contains descriptions and large, beautiful
color photographs, many of them full page, of 84 wild flowers.
I just found a single copy in a second hand or remaindered, book
store. It has two important flowers for our research:
Palestine Marigold, Calendula palaestina Mary's Iris, Iris helenae or
mariae
Also, it provides a basis for a Holy Land Mary Garden - based on the
following additional wild flowers:
Saffron, Narcissus, Cyclamen, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Almond, Anemone,
Lupine, Grape Hyacinth, Squash, Chrysanthemum, Jerusalem Sage,
Viper's Bugloss, Corn Poppy, Snapdragon, Madonna Lily, Hollyhock,
Gladiolus, Stork's Bill, Tulip, Cherry, Milk Thistle, Globe Thistle,
Oleander, Morning glory, Water Lily, and Willow Herb.
With respect to Viper's Bugloss as 'Our Lady's Adversary', the
description was illuminating= "The pistil is forked at the end,
resembling a snake's tongue, hence probably the generic name,
'viper's bugloss'." Of all the years I grew this (as 'Our Lady's
Flannel', from the hairy leaves), I never noticed this about the
forked pistil.
This book helps me appreciate how many of our Lenten and Easter
season flowers are flowers of the Holy Land.
Did I mention to you that Marzell gives a name for the cyclamen
(considered as held by the stem, with the boom downwards) as 'Our
Lady's Serving Ladle'? - a wonderful addition to Our Lady's household
article flower symbols. (Especially the smaller cyclamen bloom
varieties where the petals are small, and folded back in relation to
the 'cup' or 'bowl' of the ladle).
Yes, send me a Xerox copy of the Mary Carmelite notice requesting $5
for a Mary Garden kit.
Yes, send me the Nov-Dec, 1962 Micilda Hoe, and the Charlotte Biblical
Garden Xerox.
I hadn't thought of using alfalfa sprouts in place of lettuce - which
we can't get organically grown in winter. Will start at once.
The organically grown vegetables we can get (within five blocks
walking distance) in winter are potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips,
beets and daikon - in other words the root vegetables, we can get
frozen green beans, peas, corn, asparagus, broccoli, spinach and
'mixed vegetables', also chicken parts, chicken livers, fish filets,
fish sticks, beef liver and lunch meats. They also sell sprouts
already sprouted.
I, too, still believe we will learn of some specific Mary Gardens of
the Middle Ages somewhere, sometime. I think I've seen the Rose of
Lima pamphlet mentioning the 'Mary Garden', which seems to be a loose
use of the term. Her visits from the Christ Child in the garden are
the significant things for me.
With the beginning of Lent, I've had some insights about prayer,
mortification, self-abrogation and religious acts, offerings, and
sacrifices - that clear up a lot of things for me personally, and
which also have relevance to, and in a way grow out of, what I've
been writing about Mary Garden symbolism.
I have become convinced that through our mortifications, acts,
etc..., we are enabled to magnify the spiritual light sent to us;
amplify the spiritual pneuma of truth; increase the grace; and expand
spiritual power. We are able to do this, not of ourselves, but as
members of Christ's Mystical BodyŠdoing it through, with and in him.
In becoming incarnate, the eternal Son of God emptied himself of his
divinity, as St. Paul says, that he might not only become man, but
experience the weakness and death of man...to endure temptation in
the 40 days of fasting in the desert, and to experience suffering and
death in Jerusalem. Also, being mortal, and weak, it was necessary
for him to receive the Holy Spirit in baptism before he could preach
and perform miracles of healing and exorcism; and it was necessary
for him to spend time in prayer, and at times fasting before he
received the power to perform certain miracles.
The divine light, truth, grace and power which he manifested were
first of all received from the Father - and then magnified,
amplified, increased and expanded through his prayers,
mortifications, acts and works - in a sending and mirroring back and
forth between the Father and him, through the Holy SpiritŠmirroring,
exteriorizing, the internal relationship of Father and Son and Holy
Spirit in the interior of the Trinity.
And it was in this process that Mary was privileged to participate at
the AnnunciationŠas she herself proclaimed at the Visitation. Thus,
when Elizabeth questioned how it was that the infant John the Baptist
leapt within her womb at Mary's greeting, Mary spoke the Magnificat
in response by way of explanation of the divine light, truth, grace
and power that flowed from her with her greeting - saying that her
soul magnifies the Lord (generating light from light), that her
spirit rejoiced in God, her Savior (increasing grace from
grace)Šbecause he regarded her humility (from her pondering of the
truth of scripture, amplifying truth), and he that is mighty has done
great things to her (generatively expanding power from power).
And it is in this magnifying process that we are called to
participate in our Lenten purification, works and prayers.
As we generate further light by seeing things illuminatively in the
light we have received from the Father of Lights; amplify the pneuma
of truth by our pondering and ruminating of truths received; and
increase grace. Through our spiritual yearnings and longings of love
through grace already receivedŠso do we expandingly generate
spiritual power through the transformation through power received or
our released vital energy or strength, through acts, works, sorrows
and sufferings which 'drain' us.
In fact, we are called upon to love the Lord our God with our whole
heart (producing grace, in love), mind (pneuma of truth through
pondering), soul (providing light in illumination), and strength
(producing power through vital release).
Actually, this is the essence of Christ's teachings - that through
the increase of spiritual power through the transformation of our
natural vitality or strength expended in mortification, patience,
acts and works, we are enabled to transcend our natural human
limitations and weaknesses, so as to be able to love our enemies,
return good for evil, turn the other cheek, bear wrongs patiently and
forgive those who injure us.
And this then brings us to that most important of flower figures:
"Consider the lilies", which flourish not through their own efforts,
but through the sunlight, air, water and soil, and which as they grow
through these energizings, are enabled to receive still more of them.
Thus, one of the most basic symbolisms of the garden is the way in
which plants and flowers grow as a manifestation of God's power,
which they in their weakness and 'humility', transform.
Flowers expend, diminish, 'sacrifice' their vitality in the 'acts'
and 'works' of growth, or in the healing of wounds, whereby they are
injured diminished and 'mortified', that they may generate further
vitality through further light received from the sun, etcŠ
They symbolize the way in which we are to grow spiritually through
the expenditure of our strength in mortification, acts and works for
prayerful, religious intentionsŠrather than expending it for personal
gain, dominance of others, or in imitation, anger and frustration
over wrongs done to usŠwithout the use of it spiritually.
It was in this way that the Church 'conquered' Rome 'without firing a
shot' - "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" = we
have to "lose our life to find it" - "power is made perfect in
weakness" - "he who is like a little child will be first in the
kingdom of Heaven", etc..
The importance of this symbolism for the Mary Garden is that those
who say, 'what have flowers to do with the real economics, political,
social and psychological problems of the world? Why don't you
concern yourselves with human beings instead of flowers?", etc.. Is
that they receive the reply from us, "Are you living like the lilies?
Are you praying and mortifying yourself and accepting wrongs
patiently in order that you may be filled with the power of God's
love sufficiently to reach across the barriers of nations, classes,
poverty, war, sickness, race, color, creed, sex, to establish bonds
of peace, cooperation and assistance?"
It is also important in that it shows how the prayerful, religious
work of caring for the garden is a diminishment and sacrifice of our
vitality and strength through which additional spiritual power is
generated precisely to reach out in love and peace.
The whole point of our morning offering, or of our consecrations to
the Sacred Heart or Immaculate Heart, or of the dedication of our
work, or the making of the de Montfort consecration to Mary, is that
we are offering the light, pneuma, grace and power mirroringly
generated by our work to God for distribution to to others (or back
to ourselves) as God pleases.
In this respect, it is important to understand that thoughts, words,
truths, wisdom, communications etc...are not just words or ideas.
"The letter talks, but the spirit gives life".
Behind every word, thought, truth, etc., there is a spiritual pneuma
of 'moving mirrors', corpuscles, pneums, seeds or 'flowers' generated
spiritually - of which the spoken or printed word is simply the
formal element.
I have previously written of how our rosary meditations and prayers,
Aves, are like spiritual flowers emitting from our lips and rising to
Mary in Heaven. Further, as they travel upwards, they elongate and
extend to form conduits or channels...through which light, grace,
power and also further pneums or 'flowers' may travel.
Whenever we pray in the name of Father, Son and/or Holy Spirit, we
are opening up a pneumatic channel through which light, words, grace
and power may travel, mirroringly in both directions.
I think it is in large part because people don't really believe in
the subtle 'tangibility' of spiritual light, pneuma, grace and power,
but think they're only a matter of words, that we don't live the life
of immolative Christian love - but, rather, work for personal gain,
compete, discriminate, exclude make war, etc. To experience and live
the life of light, pneuma, grace and power is to 'fall into the hands
of the living God'.
All this is contained in the Rosary: the light of visualizing the
mysteries; the pneuma of rumination on their truth; the grace of our
love and yearning for God; and the interceding power of the action
of the prayers:
Joyful Mysteries
Annunciation Grace of love of God
Visitation Grace of service of God
Nativity Light of glory of God with us
Presentation "
Finding in Temple Pneuma of truth and wisdom
Sorrowful Mysteries Power of mortification and immolations
Agony Mortification of will
Scourging Mortification of flesh
Mocking Mortification of intellect
Carrying Mortification of strength
Crucifixion Immolation of life
Filling of spiritual soul with light
Glorious Mysteries
Resurrection Filling of spiritual heart with grace
Ascension Filling of spiritual mind with pneuma
Pentecost Filling of physical body with light, grace,
pneuma
Assumption Filling of spiritual body with power
Coronation, Reign Filling of physical body with power
('Coming forth')
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Boston, MA
March 3, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
As I noted on envelope back of my letter to you of February 28th, I
received a nice letter of acceptance of the Woods Hole article from
Father Charest, of which I now enclose a copy, together with a copy
of my letter to him, after I phoned him.
I will be able to get 10 more photos off to him on March 5th, and
will send you a copy of my accompanying letter, and the photo
captions.
I hope that he just may decide to publish the whole article, when he
sees the photos.
Interesting that his home is in Fall River, which is the bishop's
seat for the diocese in which Woods Hole, and all Cape Cod is.
I will hope to meet with him at the garden this summer.
I phoned Jane at her office at the MBL Monday morning. She said she
didn't have any photos to speak of.
She will handle all the details about ordering and picking up the
plants.
Rev. Kingwill has been away pretty much since the death in
mid-January of his wife - Mrs. Grigger's daughter - so she doesn't
know whether the prospective replacement professional for Nelson
Calhoun has been found.
I definitely confirmed Sunday March 21st, 10:30 a.m., for the slide
lecture to the Mary Garden Society of the parish.
I think I told you that the Parishioner's Group accepted the idea of
a St. Joseph's statue for the West Lawn flower bed, where I hope we
can plant a number of 'specimen' Flowers for Our Lady.
Jane was of course delighted that the article was definitely to be
published, and stated how excellent she thought it was...although she
wanted her role soft-petaled a bit, as I wrote to Father Charest.
She said that there was a wider appreciation of the importance of the
garden than just hers. This, of course, if good news, but I reminded
her that we had been hoping for the restoration for 30 years, so I
was aware of the importance of some one person coming forward to take
the necessary initiative and responsibility.
Please pray that my lecture will be concretely inspirational for
them.
I will leave with them a set of slides for the 1960 lecture
textŠwhich seemed to please her very much.
She said it must be very gratifying to be able to work out an
interest, in life, with such logical completeness, as we have Mary's
Gardens. I said it certainly had provided a major focus for my life
and for yours. The fact that she said this makes me think that she
is finding meaning for herself in this as sort of a culmination for
her life in Woods Hole as a parishioner, and for the writing of the
commemorative history of St. Joseph's for the Centennial.
She said the book was now in galley proofs, and that they hoped to
have it published 'by May'.
Ruth Pyne mentioned to me when I met with her last July that someone
was writing a book on Woods Hole, and had 'given them 2 chapters' -
which may give the garden some further publicity.
This would of course have a wider audience.
I hope you are continuing to feel better.
Love to Ernie,
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Phiiladelphia, PA
March 15, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
I have a few minutes here to write while waiting at the auto agency
to have my car inspectedŠand want to respond to the latest
development in this 'age of miracles' you told me about over the
phone last night.
Bishop Treinan's arrival in Hagerman on a fishing trip, calling you
Saturday afternoon to find out where he could get keys to the church,
and celebrating a 'private' Mass for you, your sister, your son and
Mrs. Zacconi - after hearing your confession and saying 'Body of
Christ, Bonnie', at Communion.
This certainly has all the signs of some sort of reconciliation of
providence and graceŠwhere there can be honestly held very deep
differences of viewpoint and conviction about religious practice, yet
without compromise or power struggles, but rather, a deep acceptance
of differences and forgiveness of offenses so that the people
involved can live together in love, unity and peace - in keeping with
Paul's teaching that there is no longer to be Greek nor Jew, male nor
female, etc., but unity in Christ.
While he and you may differ profoundly over the
charismatic/Pentecostal 'holy rollers' and over the place of Mary in
our faith, Saturday's miracle seems to tell you that you and he are
still one in Christ.
As I mentioned, I have recently come to see more clearly that just as
we magnify or increase the seeds of Light, Grace, and Word, God gives
us - through his 'gift' of the Holy Spirit - so do we magnify or
increase the strength or Power he gives us, beginning with
Confirmation, as we expend or diminish our own natural vitality or
strengthŠwhich can be either through our creative religious prayers
with movement of our lips, fingering our beads), acts, works; or
through our patience, endurance, mortification, penances,
immolations, sufferings, sorrows, agonies and deaths.
Surely Saturday's blessing of providence and grace - both for
yourself and for your sister - are a manifestation of the
magnification or increase of the seeds of God's Light, Word, Grace
and Power sown in you, through your faith and love, and nurtured
through your works and patient endurance of disappointment,
aggravation and suffering.
And this is just as much the key to unity and peace in Guatemala,
Poland, South Africa, rich and poor generally, as in your diocese.
For my part, I consider the insight I had or received about the
Marygold as a sort of minor miracle.
Every one of these old symbolized names of plants has some profound
meaning or reason, and illumination, behind it - but each one, or
many, require a great deal of rumination, pondering and 'mental work'
to discover.
It's always something more than just a simple association - such as
Mary is gloriously assumed into heaven and clothed with the sun, so
therefore golden flowers were adopted as symbols of this. As I said,
Christ is also gloriously ascended into heaven, so why not 'Christ's
Gold'? It is because, as we say in the Athenacian Creed of the Mass,
Christ "will come again in glory"; but Mary 'comes forth now, 'bright
as the sun', as recognized by the Church at Guadeloupe, Paris, La
Salette, Lourdes, Knock, and Fatima, and in all sorts of private ways
through the centuriesŠso that the primary experience of resurrected
heavenly bodily glory is through Mary - not Jesus, who shows us
'only' the glorious fiery furnace of his Sacred Heart.
Hence, 'Mary's Gold'.
As I told you, also, I plan to use slide photos of the peasant
needlework designs of the Trinity, Tree of Life, Sacrifice of the
flowers, etc. in my Woods Hole lecture - along with some slides from
the Unicorn Tapestries (whole rendering of flowers c.1500 far
surpasses the 'botanical illustration' of herbals - as did the
Renaissance religious painting of symbolical flowers).
Surely Mary must have used some designs in her needlework, needlework
designs, since the same illumination to clothing as flowers due to
the growing of food, in these two fundamental areas of life-support -
to which consideration we should add carpentry, where St. Joseph
surely incorporated design elements in his artifacts of shelter and
furnishings.
You may not receive this until after my Woods Hole lecture on the
21st - so I'll express appreciation, rather than a request for your
prayers for this lecture.
I'm so full of things to say, that its going to require a lot to
bring it down to an hour.
And after that, I'll retype the greenhouse article, with your
revisions, corrections, and suggestions, and send it to Fr. Stanley.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Boston MA
April 7, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
I was relieved to learn in phoning you yesterday that your difficulty
in seeing was apparently a temporary matter of infection and
medication side-effects, and that you were in the process of working
this out with your doctor.
I appreciate your thoughtfulness in reviewing your late 1960's and
your 1970's file boxes for materials I should have, and sending me
copies.
With regard to your feeling of apprehension and concern about how
things were and are going with me and Woods Hole - I appreciate this,
and your prayers.
As for myself, I approach everything with maximum supernatural hope
and minimum natural expectation - as though every day and undertaking
may be my last, so I give it everything I've got for eternity.
I felt this way about all the materials I pulled together for Jane
last summer and fall, and about the preparations for and giving of
the slide lectureŠand I rejoice that God enabled me to complete them.
I know you feel the same way about your own work for the Flowers of
Our Lady and Mary's Gardens - as Father Giligen quoted you in his
original March-April 1973 Our Lady of the Cape article: "Since God
has permitted me to live when I was so ill, I feel that my work must
be pleasing to Him".
As for apprehensions and fears, I pray that all mine will be absorbed
into the Gift of the Holy Spirit of Holy Fear and Awe of God, such
that falling into the hands of the living God will be the terrible
thing, and I will continuously work out my salvation in fear and
trepidation, as St. Paul says. If we do this, earthly fears are as
nothing.
And at the same time, there is the 'positive' way of looking at this:
that we are called to adoptive sonship and daughterhood of God, such
that we become his beloved partners and children in the coming
forward of his divine plan for the Salvation, Kingdom, Renewal and
Recreation of the world - that his Kingdom may come on earth as it is
in heaven.
"Give yourself up to thoughts of confidence, not fear, for I am a God
of pity, ever ready to receive you into my Heart" (Way of Divine
Love, p.267).
There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that Salvation, Kingdom,
Renewal and Re-creation will come - so there is nothing to be fearful
about in this respect; and God stands ready, in his mercy to forgive
us our sins. ("God sends us mortifications only to the extent we are
not continuously mortified.")
This will reach you after Easter, so I take this opportunity to wish
you a happy Easter - you and Ernie, and your son and his family, and
your sister.
Wonderful about your surprise Easter Lily. I hope the lilies of
Woods Hole can stand all this April freezing weather; snow and ice in
the 20's.
My Easter surprise seems to be new life in the "Resurrection Plant"
rhizomes of My Lady's Fingers/Lady's Eyelash - which, after being
'dead' all winter, seem to be sending forth new shoots.
I do hope one of us finds another copy of "Wild Flowers of the Holy
Land" - and I will keep looking in bookstores here.
Yes try for the "History of England", if still available.
I hope you can get some pictures of your lush greenhouse 'forest' or
'jungle'.
I've become a regular sprouts eater and look forward eagerly to your
jar, seeds, and instructions.
I'm happy you thought well of the Woods Hole lecture tape. It is a
copy for you, so please keep it. I enclose a 'kit' of the reprints,
lists and plans just as I distributed them at the lecture.
That lecture is probably the major effort of my life. I put
everything into it. It just grew as I was working on it. I of
course haven't been able to sustain the intensity of it, and now it
seems almost like a dream.
Afterwards I took a look at a house with some real estate people Jane
has recommended, and I liked it so much (we had looked at the outside
the day before), I made an offer and binder deposit on the spot. The
house seemed almost a fruit of the lecture. The house is the one
which used to belong to Mrs. Lillie, and was given by her to the
parish as 'Mendel House', for priests and nuns to stay in while
studying at the Marine Biological Laboratory. The parish sold it to
a private person 4 years ago. Please pray that God's will may be
discerned by us in that.
I will look forward to the Simpson earthquake article. You have done
all you can to be prepared, and May Our Lady's Mantle protect you.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Philadelphia, PA
April 11, 1982
Easter Sunday
Dear Bonnie and Jane,
Here is a draft I composed last night for a press release I propose
we send out as soon as my article, "Mary Garden Jubilee" (or whatever
they title it), is printed up and available for photocopying.
In addition to this article I would propose to include for editorial
background and periodical research files the following additional
reprints: The 50th Anniversary of "Garden of Our Lady" (Falmouth
Enterprise)' "Lillie Tower"; "Cape Cod Shrine and Mary Garden"; "In
Mary's Garden"; "God's Flowers"and "Mary's Gardens" (Our Lady's
Digest), to be listed at the bottom of the release.
I would propose to send this to the major US Catholic newspapers,
magazines and press services, as well as to regional metropolitan
newspapers and TV stationsŠin hopes that they would carry mention of
the Garden of Our Lady for summer visitors to Woods Hole.
I would hope, Bonnie, that you would feel up the handling any request
for information from readers - for which I would send you in advance
a good supply of additional reprints. If it got to be too much, or
you were indisposed, you could send me quantities of inquiries by
blue label UPS, for which I would reimburse you.
Jane, I don't know what your thoughts and that of the St. Joseph's
Mary's Garden Society are about having literature available at the
garden or church, and providing an address where people can write for
further information locally - but I have literally 1,000's of copies
of many reprints (Ed used to 'think big') available which I am moving
from the attic of a property in Pennsylvania and bring to New
England. (Rubber stamps could be used to substitute Woods Hole
and/or Hagerman addresses for the Philadelphia addresses printed on
most of the older articles.)
Please suggest any changes in the draft release which you think
should be made, so we can finalize it and have it ready for mailing
around May 1st, when the article should appear.
I believe that the Centennial, Jubilee and garden restoration are
'major' news, and now that a new generation has come along, so are
the Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens.
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
Draft 4/11/82 (for mailing around May 1st)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PLANTING OF HISTORIC MARY GARDEN RESTORED IN WOODS HOLE
For its 50th Anniversary this year, the Garden of Our Lady at St.
Joseph's Church, Woods Hole on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, established
in 1932, is being fully restored to its originally developed planting
plan for the first time since its destruction by a hurricane in 1938.
The restoration is being made as part of the 1982 Centennial
celebration of St. Joseph's Parish, the first Catholic Church in
southern Cape Cod, with original boundaries extending as far as
Hyannis and including Nantucket Island.
Long believed to be the first public garden in the United States
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady may
be the first full garden planted anywhere entirely with flowers -
over 40 species in all - which were named as symbolic of Mary's
attributes, life and mysteries in the medieval Christian folk
traditions of the European countrysides: Madonna Lily, Our Lady's
Bedstraw, Eyes of Mary, Our Lady's Fingers, Madonna's Pins, Candlemas
Bells, Cross Flower, The Virgin's Tears, Assumption Lily,
Ladder-to-Heaven, Mary's God, Our Lady's MantleŠ
Also being restored are plant lists, markers and leaflets to assist
visitors in viewing the flowers illuminatively according to their
ancient symbolisms.
The Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady is the inspiration and the mother
garden for the world wide Mary Garden Movement founded in
Philadelphia in 1951, and now headquartered in Hagerman, Idaho. Over
60 magazine articles have been published about this work, and the
non-profit Mary's Gardens center has filled over 30,000 requests for
plant lists and information from throughout the United States and
many other countries.
The Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady is located on Millfield Street,
across the street from St. Joseph's Church and adjacent to the church
stone Angelus Bell Tower, clearly visible across Woods Hole's Eel
Pond from the renowned Marine Biological laboratory, Oceanographic
Institute and Fish and Wildlife Service, near the wharf of the
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket ferries. St. Joseph's Bells were
recently heard around the world on the PBS Nova TV program, "Notes of
a Biology Watcher".
Free plant lists and information on the Flowers of Our Lady, the
Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, and Mary Gardens, generally, can be
obtained by sending a large self-addressed envelope with 2 stamps to
Mary's Gardens, Route 1, Box 497, Hagerman, ID 83332.
+
May 1, 1982
Joseph the Worker
1st Saturday
Dear Bonnie,
As I anticipated when we talked by phone April 21st, I've been almost
totally preoccupied with practical matters relating to attempting to
settle the purchase of the Woods Hole house.
However, I did finally answer Cecilia Dick, per the enclosed letter
copy. In checking out the files, I realized that Father La Douceur,
S.M., of the La Salette Fathers Novitiate in New Hampshire was one of
our major spiritual co-workers. I am so mindful that he and Father
Stanley are both La Salette Fathers. There was a beautiful exchange
of letters with Father La Douceur in late 1962 and early 1963. He
died in October, 1963.
I received my membership card in the Society of Mary - also the
addresses of a number of their offices in England. I hope to be able
to write them soon. It seems to me that the Mary Garden fits in so
perfectly with what they are trying to do.
Have you heard anything further from Janet Diehl?
I have had some more thoughts about Eel Pond in Woods Hole as a
natural symbol of Mary's Heart. It seems to me that the Millfield
St. side with the Church and Garden represent the Immaculate side,
and then the balance of Water Street and the MBL buildings on the W.
side the Glorious side, with the building of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Thus, one can pray the 15 decades of the Rosary, proceeding clockwise
from the Angelus Tower & Garden of Our Lady, circling around the
pond, and ending up at St. Joseph's Church.
Mary's Immaculate, Sorrowful and Glorious Heart. This, of course,
ties in with the Angelus Prayer, "Pour forthŠ..".
When I was in Woods Hole on Monday the 26th, I visited the Garden and
Church. There has been no spring planting so far, but I'm not quite
used to the gardening season starting in May rather than April. There
were a few daffodils here and there. The roses and lilies seem okay.
The Daphne didn't look as though it had made it through the winter,
although it had been pruned back.
Mary 2, 1982
Bonnie,
I didn't get this into the mail yesterday, so I will continue.
I recall a prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, which goes in effect,
"Lord, help us to bear wronngs patiently and to return good for evil,
yet, in so doing, not to fail steadfastly to affirm and seek your
kind of justice".
I find that considering these things before a crucifix is very
helpful to peace of heart, mind & soul - also, consideration of
Mary's Immaculate, Sorrowful and Glorious Heart.
Significantly, looking at the air photo of Woods Hole - with it's
'immaculate', 'sorrowful' and 'glorious' shores of the 'heart' of Eel
- Pond is helpful in restoring a sense of peace.
Fortunately, I'm getting closer to the point spiritually where I can
accept, and even freely embrace, disappointments, adversities,
diminishments, wrongs and injuries as mortifications and immolation;
necessary - according to God's love, wisdom, plan and providence - if
there is to be merciful but just movement in strength and power
towards Salvation, Kingdom and Renewal. And I never forget that my
adversities are as nothing compared to millions of other peoplesŠand
in particular yours and Ernie's. Let us continue to pray for one
another.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
I enclose a little 'Mary Medal' distributed at Xavier Chapel.
+
Woods Hole, MA
May 23, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
This morning I attended my first mass at St. Joseph's Church in Woods
Hole this year, and it was especially filled with joy.
Father Dalzell seemed especially inspired in his remarks and homily.
He began by announcing the sale of tickets for the June 26th
Centennial Mass, and then went on to talk at length about the Garden
of Our Lady - or "Our beautiful garden across the street", as he
referred to it - saying first of all that this was also the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the garden.
Among the things he mentioned were that there would be a special
blessing of the Garden; that the Bishop would be there; that a 'new
statue' would be installed (St. Joseph, Workman in the west bed; and
that the Garden was 'a gift of the Church to the community as
evidenced by the steady stream of visitors.
He also mentioned that there was a sign-up sheet in the bulletin
board at the rear of the church, for persons who would like to help
in caring for the garden. This was also mentioned in the church
mimeographed bulletin for the day, of which I enclose a copy.
Just now I noticed that one of the masses for the week- Sat. May 22
at 4\5:30 - was for Joseph Dias, who cared for the garden for so many
years as Wilfred Wheeler's nursery foreman. You will recall that we
acknowledged his work in the introduction to "Mariana I" and that he
was mentioned in the Falmouth Enterprise article about my March 21st
slide talk. Also, I copied for Jane my notes of his mention to me in
1953 or 1954 about placing the little nosegay of herbs in Mrs.
Lillie' coffin for her sister, Mrs. Wheeler.
This is someone very special to pray for and to in connection with
the GardenŠalong with Mrs. Lillie, Wilfred Wheeler, Dorothea
Harrison, Mrs. Emerson and Mrs. Gigger.
After mass, I chatted for about 10 minutes with Jane, Ruth and John
in front of the Church. They all had with them copies of the summer
Our Lady's Digest, which I had sent to the three of them and to
Father Dalzell, immediately on receiving them, and all three of them
felt that the p.3 mention of the Centennial and Jubilee was what had
inspired Fr. Dalzell's remarks.
So you see, Bonnie, how your thoughtfulness in sending Fr. Stanley
this information immediately fed back to and bore fruit in Woods
Hole.
I told Jane about your eyes and health generally, and also about the
freeze of the fruit trees, and the white flies - requesting her
prayers for you and Ernie.
She immediately said, "Can't we help Bonnie with some of her mailings
when the press release goes out?", so I told her I would pass this on
to you, but that you had just told me over the phone that you wanted
to handle this.
She said they had all the plants for the Garden except Daphne
mezereum and Aster amellus.
Ruth told me that this summer's exhibit at the Woods Hole historical
house was to be given over 1/3 to St. Joseph's Church, and that the
exhibit would include materials about the Garden, including a display
of color slides.
I told them I would let them know immediately when the Queen article
appeared, and that the press release would go out as soon as we knew
just what was included in the article. I think we should include
something about the historical exhibit also.
A great day today, for Mary's Gardens and St. Joseph's Church.
Love to Ernie!
Sincerely, In Our Lady,
+
Woods Hole, MA
May 27, 1982
Dear Bonnie:
On the 25th, Lillie's grandson, Frank Egloff, and his wife, Nancy,
who were at the March 21 slide lecture, spotted us and came over to
say hello.
Nancy said she was going over after supper to Bradley House, the
Woods Hole Historical Society, to set up an automatic projector
showing the (1960) Flower of Our Lady and Mary Gardens color slide
lecture as part of their exhibit for the summer of the St. Joseph's
Centennial. (I had given Jane a copy of their slide lecture kit with
the 50 slides, cassette recording, and printed narration text; and
they had decided to use it in the exhibit).
We went over about an hour later and found that Jane was there, also,
with Nancy. Nancy was just starting to add the signals to the tape
which automatically change the slides as the tape played.
It was a beautiful Eastman Kodak projection unit which projects the
slides from the rear, on a ³screen" or ground glass, window, about
5"x7". I've never seen slides projected with such brilliance and
beauty.
In making the copy of the tape for Jane back in March, I had speeded
it up about 3% to make it a little more lively so it moved along very
much to my satisfaction - with the Gregorian chant musical background
sounding excellent. Mike assisted Nancy in getting just the right
timing in the changing of the slides, (about 7-8 seconds of the 10
second interval I used in making the original tape.)
To meet Frank and Nancy just at that time, and to be there just as
they were setting up the projector was a great joy.
But equally joyous was Jane's bulletin board type exhibit of
literature and photographs on the other 3 walls of the room.
One wall had exhibits regarding Woods Hole's two vacations - a priest
back in the 1920s or earlier (I forget for the moment just when), and
a young nun just now. The Falmouth Enterprise printed some of her
religious poems last year.
Another wall had photographs of all the posters from the founding of
the church to the present.
A third had to do entirely with the Mary Garden, with a copy of the
original August, 1946, Father Galvin ³Lillie Tower" article in
Perpetual Help, reprinted in Our Lady's Digest for October, 1946, and
which I had never seen before! - copies of my Marian Era and QM
articles, and also a copy of the Our Lady's Digest reprint and a
number of photographs of the Garden, including one beautiful one in
the snow, with the snow on the shoulder or mantle of the statue,
giving it a white mantle and also white crown or hood.
The exhibit opens Saturday, May 29, and will be there all summer.
I will ask Jane if she will do a tape with me telling you all about
it.
So Bonnie, in the wondrous ways of God's Providence there is no
Garden at the moment, and no ringing of the Angelus bells - but,
then, a beautiful exhibit, and, most importantly of all, a wonderful
spirit of enthusiasm of the Historical Society (headed up by Nancy),
the Woods Hole Women's Club (headed up by Ruth Pyne) and the Mary
Garden Society (headed up by Jane).
And, as you said over the telephone with such assurance - there will
be a Garden, and the bells will ring! (Jane said this is the first
³spring" they have had in Woods Hole in years. Usually, it is cold
through May, and then all of a sudden its summer. Plantings often
aren't made until June).
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
John
+
Woods Hole, MA
June 16, 1982
Dear Bonnie:
After our talk by phone last night, I think I will list my replies to
the matters in your tapes of May 31 and June 5 & 8 here; rather than
attempt to tape a response being pretty tired after a day's
business in Philadelphia and an extremely heavy thunder storm on the
drive back this evening.
The Philippine Mary Gardens were made in the 1954-1955 Marian Year
competition for the Bishop Mongeau trophy in the Notre Dame High
Schools of the Diocese of the Cotabato and Sulu. One of the winners,
I recall was Notre Dame of Marbel.
Also a large garden was planted at the Manilla Astronomical
Observatory in Mirador, by Fr. Joseph Depperman SS, Director, those
same years.
Brother Sean's 20-page work is monumental and shows a tremendous
development of expression of his love of Mary and the Flowers of our
Lady.
Yes, I would like to know about The Light on the Mountain, on Our
Lady of La Salette.
Recently, I have come to understand that all our adversities,
diminishments, pains and suffering, can be seen as glorified, as
extensions of the glorious wounds of Christ. We are instructed in
this, by the flower symbols of Christ's Passion and Crucifixion -
which symbolize his blood, knee, back, nail marks, sweat, etc., and
also the instruments of his torture - yet are glorious.
This strange weather - it looks as though we are having our 4th week
of rain in the Northeast - reminds us how we must look to God's
providence utterly, without undue expectation for conventional
weather cycles.
I will send you 25 copies of the complete press release, with article
enclosures.
What is the material you use for beetles (non-poisonous to humans)?
It sounded like "adajonatius Sherrif".
As I said, I have revised the press release to feature the
centennial jubilee year and summer rather than focus on June 26 -
now that there has been such a delay in the May-June QUEEN and the
planting, and therefore, the press release.
Could you tell me again the research reference for Horse Chestnut as
"Our Lady's Candles?"
I sent a check to Fr. Stanley for the "Our Lady's Digest", and still
plan to write. Yes I will send one press release to the "Register",
using the Woods Hole mailing address.
Here is $6.00 for "Mother For A New World". Very interesting
additional information - especially about the "anti's".
I will sent $10 to you for the Guadalupe book from Immaculata when
received.
Yes, I would like the book on Guadalupe, including the Holy Father's
visit address or remarks.
I will send you a copy of the Pope's Fatima address on Our Lady. Yes,
I would very much like to have a copy of Sir Frank Crisp's book on
Medieval Gardens, with the Mary Garden woodcuts.
As I told you, your plants arrived and are in this Garden of Our
Lady.
Thanks for the alfalfa sprouts jar, seeds, and information. I will do
some sprouting soon.
Thanks for all the other enclosure envelopes in the package -
especially the Fr. Stanley Letter, the Tape Madonna Photo, the Domas
Card, the Idaho nuclear waste storage information, and the clipping
about the winter.
Your report about Ernie's use of his air gun to stun dogs or kill
squirrel and magpies to protect the garden - God's acre - was a new
dimension for me. Mr. Marini thinks the lillies in Our lady's Garden
were eaten by deer.
With insect, animals, birds and weather, fungi and weeds we are
thrown back always ultimately on the curse of Adam, and on God's
Providence - not to mention pollution, radiation and soil
chemicalization by humans, and vandalism.
All of these lead us to re-appreciate the utter reliance of medieval
rural people on sacramental blessings - so widely discarded today as
"superstitions.
As I mentioned, we have been very much part of small town life in New
Hope, which is comparable in many ways to Woods Hole, so this is not
new to us. There was an article about New Hope in last Sunday's Cape
Cod Times.
And we know how long it takes to win the respect of long-term
residents. (In this connection, I'm happy to have the 1953 photo of
myself with the "keeper" of the Angelus Bells, Wallace K. Butler.)
A friend told me of his many years as a student in residence in a
small town in Ireland (It was through him that Robert Ostermann came
to know of Mary's Gardens and wrote the Irish Ecclesiastical Record
article in 1953).
He spoke of four men in the town who had played cards together for
over 30 years, and no one else played with them or was ever present
in the room. One day one of the men was ill, and they asked my
friend to play his hand so the game could go on. But not a word was
said other than about the game the whole evening.
I have this feeling about the Woods Hole fishermen.
I will make you a copy of the tape from the Nova TV program o the
sailors' names for sea creatures - and send you a copy of the
interview with Jane where she mentions the program.
Jane is still waiting for her Centennial Book copies Š like us (and
her) waiting for "QUEEN".
As for the Garden of Our lady, I now see so clearly how when you
really have done "everything" you can to motivate, illuminate,
instruct, inspire, help, finance, etc. with love and prayer - our
subsequent focus is to be on mortification, "that God's power may be
made perfect in weakness" immolation, Providence and laying down our
lives in trust in God, in imitation of Jesus who "did everything" and
then laid down his life. This brings great peace!
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, In Our lady,
John
+
(Note; June 26 St. Joseph's Church Centennial Mass and Mary Garden
Jubilee Blessing reported to Bonnie on audiotape - to be transcribed.
Report formalized in June, 1983 article, "Mary Garden Jubilee in Mary Garden Jubilee magazine.
July/August correspondence likewise on tape.
+
Boston, MA
September 9, 1982
Dear Bonnie,
This is written this evening, after driving up from Woods Hole.
The week starting September 5th is my week (alphabetically) to care
for the Garden of Our Lady in Woods Hole, and I waited til yesterday,
the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, to begin my tour of duty. This
was for me a momentous occasion after all these years to actually
perform some work in the Garden, and I undertook it with as full a
sense as I could muster of all we have discussed and written about
Mary Gardening, and about this Garden in particular.
I started about 10:50 a.m. and had just finished work on the main,
East, Garden when the Angelus rang which I prayed most fervently,
and with tears of joy and thanksgivings in my eyes. The work
consisted of massive cutting back of over-grown plants; weeding out
large weeds, which others, before me left in because they weren't
sure whether or not they were something on the planting plan; and
very thorough watering, using a 75 ft. hose and "rose² spray nozzle
with adjustable water velocity.
The Italian asters literally bloomed yesterday, as Our Lady's
Birthday Flower, and the heavenly blue morning glories, Our Lady's
Mantle, are in profuse bloom. A bud has appeared on the small
clematis, Virgin's Bower.
Today, Mike, who is a free-lance photographer, took some photos of me
in the Garden, cultivating before the statues of Our Lady and St.
Joseph, and arranging the article reprints in the Tower room.
This was during a brief 2-hour visit to get some things, and the
photos were taken in a space of about 5 minutes, as we decided on
very short notice to drive him back to Boston for work (4:30) - and
in the haste of leaving I regret I neglected to bring with me the
photos to be reproduced for "Immaculata". However, I believe I have
duplicates here, and will try to get them to the photo processor so
prints will be ready for you in a week, and also those of the statue
head and of you in your garden. The one I don't have a duplicate of
(but I'll check) is of Mrs. Lillies' daughter and granddaughter in
the Garden.
I did send off to you this morning from Woods Hole the four sheets
having to do with planting plan #10, so you should be getting them
about the same time as this letter.
I should be able to get the press release and enclosures - another 25
sets - off to you on Monday the 14th.
It's ironic that living in the shadow of the Woods Hole Garden of Our
Lady since May, I have only been able to do perhaps 1/10th the work
for Mary's Gardens I did the comparable time the previous 2 years.
Last spring I thought that this summer we would have all sorts of
interested people over to the house to see slides and materials and
talk about the flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens - but it just
hasn't been physically possible.
Jane McLaughlin, too, has been very busy. Just yesterday I saw her
driving home from her lab of the MBL at 6:45 p.m. - and I have seen
her only briefly, after the 9:30 mass each Sunday, along with Ruth
Pyne and John Beckerle.
So, it has been quite a summer, Bonnie, and I hope all for the best.
Certainly there was tremendous accomplishment in building closer
relations with those in my greater, Mary Garden family.
I do so hope this October to start pulling things together again for
Mary's Gardens.
I have, though, been able to read the Liturgical Hours and do some
writing between 7 and 8:30 every morning.
I hope Fr. Charest will let me enlarge upon the paragraphs of the
QUEEN article which were editorially deleted, mostly due to
insufficient space, so there will be a third section of the article
by next year.
Anyway, I have written down most of my thoughts in my journal ,and
have lots of new material for articles.
4/10/82
Bonnie, I have found the slides for all 3 photos requested by
"Immaculata", and will deliver them to the photo processor this
morning - so I should be able to send them to you in about a week.
This letter was written rather hurriedly last night. I hope you can
make it out.
Love to Ernie.
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
John
+
Boston
September 14, 1982
Exaltation of the Cross
Dear Bonnie,
Today, back in Boston, I had another 200 each of the Lillie Tower and
Cape Cod Shrine articles printed (8 cents each), and now I have ready
an envelope for you with another 25 sets of the press release
materials for mailing to you tomorrow (except the envelopes, which I
left in Woods Hole).
Yesterday evening there was the September praying of the Rosary at
the Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady. For Jane and me, this was a sort
of thanksgiving for the tremendous blessings of this year even
though it has also been a difficult one for both of us. She was very
heavily tied down to the lab this summer, and I with our move. I
never even had a start on my dream of a Mary's Garden room in our
house, with photos, books, article, correspondence, statues, etc.
where I could invite people to learn more about Mary's Garden.
This has been very much a summer for me of the Angelus prayer: "that
we may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his
resurrection" - as it has been for you.
Tomorrow afternoon the photos for "Immaculata" should be ready -
which I will send under separate cover.
It occurs to me you might want to write something additional of your
own, in addition to the press release, which they could use to make
it more of an article.
Today I had the thought that the Fatima miracle of the sun shows us
how Mary, after her soul rises to the interior of the trinity, comes
forth first of all in the pure creating light of God ("let there be
light") - even before she comes forth "clothed" in the sun, "as the
morning rising - fair - bright - terrible", in the empyrean heaven.
Thus we have the sequence:
Our Lady of Light Women clothed with the Sun Our Lady of Creation
Mother of God Sorrowful Mother at the Foot of the Cross on earth Our
Lady of Grace at the Exalted Cross in heaven
My week caring for the Garden of Our Lady was most rewarding, and I
now feel much closer to it, as I am sure did the other members of the
St. Joseph's Church Mary Garden Society who worked on it, one week
each. This week is Jane's week, and I "turned it over to her" well
weeded, cut back, edged and watered. The heavenly blue morning
glories and the Itlian asters, are especially lovely now. Jane and I
have talked of getting the Society together in October to discuss
plans for next year.
I am looking forward to our drive to New Hope through the September
roadsides of goldenrod, lythrum, marigolds and asters.
Love to Ernie
Sincerely, in Our Lady,
+
New Hope, PA
September 17, 1982
Dear Bonnie:
Here I am again with a 4-hour wait while I have our auto repaired and
inspected - at Doylestown, near New Hope - giving me an opportunity
to write in a little more leisurely manner.
As I look out from the salesroom desk where I am writing, I see the
blue of chicory and white of Queen Anne lace holding in the sunlight
and breeze, and then across the highway, the gold of bur-marigolds,
and goldenrod.
While this has been a glorious summer for the Garden of Our Lady and
for Mary's Gardens, for which I am utterly grateful - from another
viewpoint it is only a beginning. Always our goal is the coming of
God, Kingdom, and the lifting up of all thi