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Intro Mary Garden
Our First Visit in 1949 recalled
CAPE COD SHRINE MARY GARDEN
John S. Stokes Jr.
Queen of the Missions February, 1955
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Woods Hole Garden of Our Lady, 1954
In the Marian year encyclical, FULGENS CORONA, our Holy
Father, Pope Pius XII, exhorts us to make pilgrimages to shrines
and churches where the Blessed Virgin Mary is especially
venerated, and there to offer her renewed devotion and
supplication, beseeching her to show all men the way to life
eternal through Jesus Christ.
One shrine which offers a very special tribute to Our Lady,
and also points in a special way to life eternal, is her Mary
Garden shrine at St. Joseph's Church, Woods Hole, Cape Cod,
Massachusetts - the first public shrine of its kind in the United
States.
Ringing of the Angelus
As visitors to Woods Hole, we first learn of the shrine when
we hear the ringing of the Angelus, or see its bell tower - a
prominent landmark clearly visible across the inlet from the town
center. A short walk or drive around the inlet brings us to the
tower standing in a plot set apart from the street by a handsome
yew hedge.
With a sense of adventure, we put our hand to the wooden gate
in the hedge. Opening it, we step through to find ourselves before
a door in the tower base. To the left of the door is a bronze
plaque bearing the inscription:
SAINT JOSEPH'S BELLS
The large bell is named Pasteur. Its inscription reads:
I WILL TEACH YOU OF LIFE AND OF LIFE ETERNAL
The smaller bell is named Mendel. Its inscription reads:
THANKS BE TO GOD
Mrs. Frances Crane Lillie, a convert, who gave the shrine as
adjunct to St. Joseph's Parish church, named the Angelus bells for
Mendel and Pasteur - two Catholic pioneers in the study of life -
with a special view to the scientists working at the renowned
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory across the inlet, of which
her husband was director and president. It was her ardent hope
that the shrine would heighten the prayerful sense of the
biological work, seen as a collaboration with God's providence in
sustaining life, and as a discovery of the perfection of the
eternal Creator as manifested in the diversity and total order of
His living creatures. The bells have rung out this call each
morning, noon and evening since they were blessed in 1929 by the
Bishop of Fall River, during a special dedication procession and
Mass.
On the metal facing of the tower door, dedicated to St.
Joseph, are six scenes from the life of the Holy Family telling
the joyous message of the Eternal Word become man. They speak,
too, for the restoration of art - good art - for God's sake in an
age when the end of art is all too often seen as only pleasure,
self-expression, or art for art's sake.
Inside of the Oratory
Inside the door is a small oratory. Around the walls are
miniature Stations of the Cross, calling us to meditate upon Him
who by his death has given life to the world. On a table and
some shelves are the Bible and Christian books of many centuries.
Stilled for a moment, we see this is a carefully and purposefully
assembled library, yet one which has been placed there just for
us. Alone, and in silence, we are face to face with the writings
of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, popes, saints and scholars
of the Church: holy men speaking out of the ages of God's
incarnation, death and resurrection; of his presence with us in
his Church until the end of the world; and of his Kingdom which is
without end. If the glimpses of life had by leafing through these
books move us to read further, a notice assures us we are welcome
to take one with us, and to keep it until we have finished with
it.
Stepping out again from the oratory, we behold a garden at
the other end of the hedged tower enclosure. But this is no
ordinary pleasure garden; it is a Mary Garden dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin around whose statue God's riches and artistry - the
plants and blooms - are ordered in garden beds.
Plant markers and a notice posted to one side tell more: that
the garden is composed of plants which centuries ago, in popular
traditions of pre-Reformation Catholic England, were seen and named
to recall Our Lady and her mysteries. Ordered here about her
statue, they join the Angelus bells in singing a litany of her
praises:
Virgin Flower, Assumption Lily, Mystical Rose.
Here is truly a garden oratory, where our hearts are lifted
up by plant life to Our Lady, Queen of all life
Heritage of the Flowers
The plants and blooms also testify to the deep piety of a
former age when Christian love and devotion were mirrored in even
the "little" things of daily life, such as the flowers of the field.
With penetrating clarity and impact, we are struck by the imprint of
intimate devotion as out of the silence of the centuries the pendant
bloom clusters of primrose once again come into focus as "Our Lady's
Keys"; the pointed seed pods of wild geranium as "Madonna's Pins";
the stout erect stalk and blossom clusters of mullein as "Mary's
Candle"; the dainty blue blossoms of harebell as "Our Lady's
Thimble"; the slender buds of honeysuckle as "Our Lady's Fingers"
and many others. The faithful have no need of books in order to
read. Is there here perhaps, a glimpse of a vast forgotten heritage
from the Age of Faith - a sacramental view of nature which awaits
only the vision of faith to be restored to life?
Thus edified and brought to heart, mind and will, we now turn
to depart through the gate by which we entered. As we do we see
before us across the street, St. Joseph's Church which we perhaps
gave little notice in our initial quest for the Angelus tower.
Overjoyed that Mary has one again led us to Christ, we proceed
from garden to church and kneel before the Most Blessed Sacrament
of the Altar.
In Retrospect
Leaving St. Joseph's a few minutes later restored in spirit,
we see once again the tower and Mary Garden: and beyond them
across the inlet the Woods Hole town center and laboratories. But
the elements of the picture have come together with new clarity.
The notes sounded separately are heard in harmony. Angelul tower,
Mary Garden, sacred art, holy books and St. Joseph's Church are
seen in unity as bringing us to Him who is the Resurrection and the
Life. And beyond them is the world from which we came and to
which we are to return restoring all things in Christ.
Ordered here in the most immediate and direct way to prayer,
church, and Sacrament - architecture, art, books and plant life
bring us to a vision of how they may be seen also at a distance
from Woods Hole. Not everyone can make a trip to Cape Cod, but
any little place - even a window box or flower pot - will do for a
Mary Garden.
Why not more than one? Why not Mary Garden shrines at other
churches and at homes and schools, where the children can play and
where Our Lady's Flowers and their care can become a part of daily
living and devotion?
Call to Stewardship
Apprenticeship in the arts and crafts of horticulture and the
undertaking of faithful stewardship for seeds, plants and blooms
for Our Lady can teach us our responsibility and call to
stewardship under God's Providence for all his living things, and
by analogy for the supernatural life of His grace in our souls. And
as we cultivate plant life dedicated to Mary, and offer its blooms
as gifts at her shrine, we can make yet another offering: the
interior offering of the joys and sacrifices of our work as
spiritual bouquets to Mary and to her Divine Son and Lord.
Stewardship for a Garden of Our Lady prayerfully undertaken
contains the "one thing necessary" - not only for gardening but
for all work, no matter how scientific or technical or how highly
organized it may be. It holds up the mirror, asking whether our
work is undertaken primarily for earthly pleasure, ambition or
solicitousness or, properly, as a means to life eternal.
Work, Prayer, Sacraments
To work is to pray: and truly prayerful work leads to, and is
nourished from, the sacraments, that ultimately the three - work,
prayer and sacraments; may become one in us, rising up as an
offering to God. May Our Lady in her garden help us thus to
sacramentalize earth and its fruits and to supernaturalize
governance and labor, that we and all things may be lifted up in
Christ.
Reprinted with permission.
(Photos courtesy of the Boston Sunday Post).