School Mary Gardens Through The Year, 1994

(From letter of October 7, 1994 from John Stokes to Nanette Sears,
founder of the Mary Garden at St. Mary's Church, Annapolis, MD in
1989 - regarding smaller Students' Mary Garden in enclosure within
larger garden.  See ARCHIVAL/Developmental Correspondence.)

                               o O o

        From the viewpoint of continuity and perpetuation there is
the important practical matter of how the work of caring for the
school children's Mary Garden is to be organized through the year
and years. Everyone is inspired with the original enthusiasm for
the Garden now, but this enthusiasm can be extended the work of
caring for it - seen in its importance in its details and each day
- so there is a continuing motivation for performing it.   This
intensive care results in lots to watch and do daily, and also
keeps a focus on plant symbolism - to which all the work is
ultimately directed, rather than being just repetitive, monotonous
chores.

	Then there is the organizational matter of who of the school
students should have particular responsibilities for the Garden
each year. One possibility would be to have members of one
particular grade bear this responsibility - such as this year the
grade (now one grade higher) that planted it last year. Members of
the next grade could be made special assistants or observers in
preparation for their taking on the responsibilities to following
year, etc.  In addition to this there could a school Mary Garden
Guild open to those from any grade with a special interest in, and
undertaking special projects inspired by, the Garden.  Thus the
Garden would always be cared for, and those with special interests
would be free to participate as Guild members.

	I would assume that somewhere in the school curriculum there
is a science course which includes teaching about plant life and
growth.  This instruction could make use of examination of Mary
Garden specimens, or of dish Mary Gardens.  A merit of dish Mary
Gardens is the small amount of soil and plant materials required,
so there could be one in each classroom.

	I enclose some simplified dish garden instructions, including
soil building information - developed for the numbers of persons
inquiring of us about dish Mary Gardens but mentioning they had no
previous gardening experience.  The soil information of course
applies both to dish and outdoor Mary Gardens.

	Once the Garden has been designed and planted, and a plan for
its continuing care established, attention can be given to
enhancing the richness of living with the Garden through the
natural and liturgical years.

	With the beginning of the liturgical year on the First Sunday
in Advent there is always the hope that there will be a few late
roses still blooming for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
You will recall that Mary, appearing to Bernadette as The
Immaculate Conception had a rose on each foot, as well as the
Rosary beads in her hands.

	I have always found a certain providental excitement in
watching each year to see if flowers named for a feast day, or
normally blooming in a certain liturgical period, bloom for that
feast or period that year.  Also, there is the symbol of the
Burning Bush, "burning but unconsumed", applied to Mary in the
liturgy of this feast - a symbolism applied to the holly, which of
course has its red berries in winter.

	Then, there are all the plants associated with the Nativity
and Manger by legend, such as the Star of Bethlehem, Nativity
Flower (Poinsettea), Christmas Rose, Our Lady's Bedstraw and Our
Lady's Milkdrops.  There is an old book called "Plants of the
Sacred Nativity", by Dowling, about all these plants. Also the
decoration of Christmas Creches with flowers and foliage is very
much in keeping with Marian flower and plant symbolism.  The
making of the creche and manger a physical reality is a sort of
prototype of making the life of Nazareth a reality through plant
symbols. And the Christmas Tree, with all its lights and
ornaments, becomes a very mystical symbol.

	For me the beginning of the Mary Garden year has always been
Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification, when the question
always is (e.g. in Philadelphia or Boston): "will the snowdrops be
in bloom this year?", about which I have written you before.
Traditionally, Candlemas has always been the pivotal day in Europe
regarding what kind of spring will devlop each year, and of course
"Groundhog's Day" is a sort of secular adaptation of this in the
U.S. for the same date.  Father Weiser, S.J. wrote about this
rather extensively in one of his books on plant symbolism - "The
Christmas Book", "The Easter Book", or "?".

	Then, come all the spring bulbs associated with Lent - "Lent
Lily", "Penitent's Rose", etc. - and of course the indoor
miniature roses which may bloom for Litare Sunday (not to mention
the blessing of the golden "Pope's Rose" in Rome on this Sunday).
Then the Flowers of the Passion, and Mary's Tears at the foot of
the Cross.  And, for Easter, the Easter Lily and the Resurrection
plants. The spring bulbs also serve as special reminders of the
Holy Land since most of them are found there indigenously.

	This, or a little earlier, is the time for planting flats of
seeds for annuals flowers of Our Lady, for seedlings to be moved
to the garden in May.  Perhaps some of the children would want to
undertake this in sunny classroom windows.  Later on seeds for
biennials and perennials could be sown in a little nursery bed off
to a side of the Garden.

	I won't set forth here the Flowers of Our Lady for all the
liturgical and Marian feasts through the year's cycle, Nan, but I
have noted a few from the top of my head as I write to provide
examples for the suggestion that watching for their blooming etc.
can be an attraction for students to participate in the life of
the Mary Garden through the year.  However, special mention should
be made of the Feast of the Annunciation and the month of May.

	Several of the books of hours depict Mary in a miniature
painting as being greeted by the Angel Gabriel at the
Annunciation, with an Annunciation Lily in a vase before her, and
with a number of individual flowers symbolizing her Annunciation
virtues positioned beneath the painting, in place of text, so to
speak. Better than words, the flower symbols of Mary's purity,
humility and spiritual fruitfulness, of her as Mystical Rose, and
of the Holy Spirit and Trinity, provided food for meditation on
the Annunciation for those praying the Hours.

	As distinct from the flowers of Chrismas and Lent, with their
focus on the Nativity and then the Passion, these flowers of the
Annunciation, which is the Feast of the Ave Maria, focus on Mary's
inner virtues and dispositions which perfected and attuned her for
her responsiveness to the Spirit and for her call to the Divine
Maternity.  The Ave Maria is, next to the Sacraments, so focal for
our Catholic faith and piety because the need for all times, and
especially for our times, is for all to live the life of the
spirit, the life of spiritual leavening within family, society,
politics, economics and work - for God's Kingdom - rather than by
the competitiveness and conflicts of these, and by personal
appetites, and the desire for possessions and power, which are the
way of the world and destruction.  And Mary, at the Annunciation,
is our sublime model for openness and responsiveness to Spirit.

	It is this, the call of the Annunciation to the life of the
Spirit, which I see, therefore, as one of the most important
teachings of the Flowers of Our Lady and the Mary Garden for
children (as well as adults) through the liturgical bloom year.  I
have little contact with school children at this time, and when my
own children were of that age I (regrettably) didn't see things
this clearly.  I hope that those of you, Nan and Kahla, who share
this view will find ways of spiritual ingenuity, in love and
grace, in communicating it to the school children.

	The month of May, which is especially dedicated to Mary, also
has its very special quality.  Picking up the spiritual commitment
of the Annunciation - after the cycle of Lent and Easter - it
celebrates the delicacy and beauty of holiness.  For our
instruction in this we have Canticles (the Song of Songs), St.
Bernard's Sermons on the Canticles and St. John of the Cross'
Spiritual Canticle setting forth the loving, mystical, interplay
of the soul and God, of the Spouse and the Beloved - epitomized by
Mary's love of God. Through the Flowers of Our Lady and the Mary
Garden the sublime attractiveness of holiness is shown forth and
celebrated in a special way which we hope will move children
commit their lives to it, perhaps even vocationally - its
ecstacies far surpassing sensory gratifications and addictions.

	There are of course at least two other cycles overlapping
each other in the liturgical year, interweaving with the cycle of
the year itself - the cycle of Mary, beginning with the Immaculate
Conception, and the Cycle of Jesus, beginning with the
Annunciation.  These juxtapose and interpenetrate one another, and
ultimately converge.

	May ends now with the Feast of the Visitation, recalled by
Our Lady's Shoes, Slippers, and the thistle seed blowing in the
wind ("All her steps were most beauteous", etc.).  This serves to
bring us from the May transports back down to earth - in Mary's
trip to visit Elizabeth, and in her Magnificat words about might
and humility, rich and poor, and the place of Abraham, Israel and
herself in Sacred History.  In the Cycle of Jesus, May ends with
flowers of the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

	While the school year probably ends in early June, before the
feasts of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts,  and roses begin their
blooms in late April, maybe the best time to teach and reflect on
this symbolism is when the bleeding hearts bloom - drawing from
the cycle of nature rather than that of the liturgy.

	In June and July we rejoice over the maturation of summer
biennials and perennials blooms.  And August is a major Marian
month in the garden year - the harvest-time days from the Feast of
the Assumption to that of the Birth of Mary in September being
spoken of as the "Lady-Days".  These can be dealt with towards the
end of the school year, by teaching of the many plant, herb and
flower associations with Mary celebrated at the time of the
Assumption, etc., such as the Roses and Lilies found, according to
early legend, by the Apostles in Mary's empty tomb; the convention
of the Assumption Bundles; and Venerable Bede's Assumption
symbolism of the white Lily.

	However, seen as the Mary Garden of the parish children
through the whole year, and not just the school year, and with a
little organization of activities and responsibility, the Garden
can be a year round thing (it probably was last summer!), so
everyone can share the excitement of the bloom time of Assumption
Lilies each summer, and the liturgy from the Roman Rite for the
blessing of "Assumption Bundles" can be read and practiced,
perhaps with the full ceremony and by the whole parish, young and
old.  And then the Feast of Mary Queenship, with Centauria,
"Mary's Crown", possibly still in bloom (I don't remember), and
opportunities for crownings of Mary's statue(s).  It is also hoped
that some of the children may wish to start Mary Gardens - outdoor
or dish - at their own homes.

	Swinging around, then to the culmination of the liturgical
and garden years with the Birth of Mary (there are rites for the
blessing of the new seeds for the next year on this feast - and
the collection of seeds could be part of the children's Mary
Garden activities); Michaelmas; the Rosary; All Saints and All
Souls; and Christ the King - there is the overwhelming sense of
endings preparatory to new beginnings and underground germination.
Some of my favorite poems speak to this season: Helen Hunt
Jackson's "October's Bright Blue Weather"; Francis Thompson's "The
Sere of the Leaf"; and Thomas Merton's "Two States of Prayer"
(October and December).

	I'm sure you and the children are having meaningful garden
celebrations of today's feast of the Rosary.  You will recall,
Nan, that I wrote you extensively a year or two ago about all the
Mary Garden ties with the Rosary I had run into, from Alain de
Roche and St. Louis de Montfort, etc..

	All Saints is the time for special veneration of the Garden
Saints, as litanized in "A Mary Garden Prayer".  We recall that
SS. Phocas and Dorothy, the two martyrs, Roman Martyrs, (in
addition to St. Paul) among them, both were sustained in their
martyrdom by their visions of the joys of the Heavenly Paradise as
they faced their executioners on earth.  A number of others
instruct us in the flow of graces from heaven and Mary through
nature; and still others instruct us in the use of flower imagery
as a support for our mystical flights to heaven, in emulation of
Mary, the Mystical Rose.  Finally, SS Dominic and Theresa instruct
us in the flow of heavenly graces through showers of roses for our
spiritual growth, for the Missions, and for Kingdom - especially
through the praying of the Rosary.  At least three, SS Dorothy,
Phocas and Fiacre were seen to be patron saints of gardening.

	Starting with standard references like Butler's "Lives of the
Saints", and the various lives of the saints surely in the school
library, students could elect to do research papers on the garden
saints - learning the concrete examples they provide for recourse
to grace in our gardening work, and in our lives generally.

	Another heart-warming heritage of the Flowers of Our Lady is
the wealth of legends associated with the flowers - usually
distilled in corresponding flower names. I had a number of books
of these, but gave most of them to the OMC parish library at the
time the Mary Garden was started there (1965) and have forgotten
most of the titles.  Nathusias speaks beautifully of children's
love of Mary-Flower names and legends, in the passage I quoted in
my AVE article (enclosed).

	The shapes and colorings of flowers are of course highly
important to their religious symbolism, and Mary-Gardeners are
always on the lookout for particular blooms which show forth their
symbolism with a special clarity and beauty.  Keeping a camera at
hand, with a close-up lens attachment, to capture such blooms in
photos can be an exciting ongoing project.  Also, photos of
flowers can be clipped or, in the school has a color computer
scanner, scanned - (always keeping in mind copyright law).

	Those of the students who have artistic talents may wish to
draw and paint the flowers.  I sent Laura several years ago copies
of some delightful flower paintings by a nearly sightless young
Mary Gardener.  And the Flowers of Our Lady can be used to
decorate the objects of the various arts and crafts.  The large
seed's of Jobs Tears (also known as Mary's Tears) can be saved and
strung together as  Rosary beads.

	Then a Mary Garden flower data base could be set up on one of
the school computers (or manually) with a card or page for each
flower, giving such information as botanical name, common name(s),
religious name(s), height, bloom color, bloom period, light and
heat preferences and tolerances, and special soil requirements,
how propagated, native countries and climatic zones, local nursery
and seed company sources. etc., and also information each year
from your garden such as first and last bloom, plant replacements,
etc. each year.  The standard reference, "Hortus III (IV?)",
contains all the basic horticultural information for each species.

	Another project could be to build up a data base of flower
and nature quotations from Scripture (esecially Canticles, Sirach
and the Parables of Jesus) and the Marian Feasts in the Liturgy of
the Hours; also flower imagery in the writings of the saints and
poets. If the school has a library with a reference section, a
shelf could be given to Flowers of Our Lady and Mary Gardens
books, complemented with various records and studies made by the
students through the years, bound in folders for the shelves

	Building on the blessings of plants on Palm Sunday and the
feast of the Assumption, and the blessing of seeds on the Birth of
Mary; and the blessings of the Mary Gardens, the children can be
instructed made aware that through such blessings the Mary Gardens
and the Flowers of Our Lady are holy places of grace.  When
particular symbolic flowers are picked they can be blessed with
holy water and reserved as sacred objects - thus instructing in
the use of sacramentals as extensions of the holiness of the
sacraments of Holy Church.  Several flower blessings are set forth
in the enclosed Mary Garden Jubilee (1983) article.

	As Mediatrix of All Grace, Mary is present in the Garden by
her mediating action wherever graces are received through blest
garden sacramentals . Frances Lillie, creator of the Woods Hole
"mother" Mary Garden in 1932 entitled her garden leaflet, "Our
Lady in Her Garden".  The flower symnbols are helpful in
developing this sense of Mary's presence.

				         o O o

	Nan, I think I have hit most of the highpoints here.  (Even
as I write just now, Flowers of Our Lady designs for needlework
come to mind).  The idea, of course is not to combine all these
possible activities in some sort of program, but rather to have
them ready as they may be motivationally appropriate to the
interests, inclinations and vocations of individul students, now
or in the future.