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Intro Mary Garden
Flowers of Mary's Appearances
John S. Stokes Jr
In His providential governance of the world, God, throughout
history has, in love, given inspiration and guidance - through
angels, saints and chosen persons - for the furtherance of the
revealed Divine Plan of Creation, Redemption, Sanctification,
Resurrection and Kingdom.
Prominent in this inspiration and
guidance have been apparitions, visions
and locutions of the Blessed Virgin which,
as approved for devotion by Holy Church,
have served both to awaken the faith for
"a wicked and faithless generation", and
to inspire the fuller living of faith by
the Faithful in the culmination of the
Divine Plan.
In our undertaking of the work of Mary's
Gardens in 1950 to research and spread
knowledge of the medieval Flowers of Our
Lady, and to propose their cultivation
in Mary Gardens as a prayerful,
devotional work, we conceived this
initially as a restoration of earlier
popular religious tradition and legends to daily life and work
today - as they were present in medieval Christendom, with
parallels in other traditional religious societies of the East
today.
Then, in November of 1950, just as we were preparing for the public
introduction of Mary's Gardens the coming Spring, Pope Pius XII
proclaimed as dogma the ancient doctrine of Mary's Assumption body
and soul into heaven. This corroboration in truth of the basis for
Mary's earthly bodily appearances led us to reflect on the import
of these appearances and their messages for devotion and prayerful
recourse to her through her medieval flower symbols.
Examining Our Lady's major appearances, we noted the emphasis of
each. At Guadalupe, Mary appeared as the Woman Clothed With the
Sun, of Revelations, summoning the peoples of the "new world" to
the Christian faith. At La Salette, as Sorrowful Queen of Heaven,
she implored repentance for the sins of the old world. At Lourdes
she sought prayers for her merciful intercession for divine
healing. At Knock, as Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, she silently
showed herself as she receives and presents our prayers in advocacy
at the Heavenly Altar of the Lamb. At Paris, as Our Lady of Grace,
she extended her hands in distribution of her mediated graces. And
at Fatima she called for the universal reparational consecration of
our lives, through her Immaculate Heart, to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus - for world peace.
From reflection in the Mary Garden on these appearances and their
messages, we realized that Mary's glories, prerogatives, mercies
and counsels mirrored by her flower symbols - which we had
initially reflected on and venerated, in medieval fashion, as
attributes of Worthy Mother of God, enthroned in heaven - took on
new immediacy and specificity for the present day. Thus:
Mary's Gold - Mary's faith-inspiring glory, as at
Guadalupe
Queen's Tears - Mary's repentance-inspiring sorrows, as
at La Salette
Mary's Rose - Mary's call to pray the Rosary today, as
at Knock
Eyes of Mary - Mary's mercies today, as at
Lourdes
Herb of Grace - Mary's mediation of grace today, as at
Paris
Mary's Heart - The efficacy of prayers to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, as at Fatima
In an immediate sense, the proclamation of
the dogma of the Assumption gave new warrant
to the Assumption Lily - White Day Lily,
Hosta plantaginea - named for its blooming in
north temperate climates around August 15th,
the date of the liturgical Feast of the
Assumption; to the liturgical rite for the
blessing of "Assumption bundles" of plants
on the feast day, dating from the 9th century;
and to the early Church legend of the finding
by the Apostles of roses and lilies in Mary's
opened tomb in place of her body, taken up to
heaven.
Roses have been present at a number of Our Lady's appearances: the
heavenly roses filling the cloak of Juan Diego at Guadalupe and
impressing on it the miraculous image of Our Lady Clothed With The
Sun; the three rose garlands of Our Sorrowful Lady of La Salette;
and the Rose at the forehead of Mary, Queen of the Most Holy
Rosary, at Knock.
Of Lourdes, Pope Pius XII, speaking of the symbolism of the rose to
a group of rose growers meeting in Rome, stated, "When Mary
appeared to St. Bernadette on the rock at Masabielle, where the
speckled rose bush grew, each of her feet was adorned with a
blooming rose. She whom the Church had just proclaimed the
Immaculate Conception manifested in this way, to a poor and artless
child, the fullness of her perfections and the delicacy of her
goodness."
In all this we came to see that, in the Mary Garden, the Flowers
of Our Lady serve both for the general quickening of reflection
and meditation on the Gospel story and on Mary's life, virtues,
mysteries and endowed privileges and prerogatives; and also now for
the quickening of our prayerful recourse to Mary in her motherly
counsel, mercy and mediation of grace for the needs of our times -
as beseeched by her in her appearances.
In our research we also came upon flowers
which, in popular religious tradition,
serve to recall Mary's appearances as such.
Striking among these - with evident
reference to the Woman Clothed with the
Sun of Guadalupe - is Mary's radiant
likeness in the markings of the tropical
American flower, Painted Feather, known
in some areas as "Mary": a symbolism
preserved by botanists in the assignment
of its scientific name, Vriesia mariae,
"Mary's Vriesia". Similarly the zinnia -
especially the yellow or golden zinnea,
with it's initial single erect "haloed"
bloom above its foliage "body" - was
called "The Virgin" and "Little Mary" in
some areas of Latin America.
Other flowers of Our Lady's presence - named from her many private
appearances of European legend - include "Our Lady by-the-gate"
(Bouncing Bet, Saponaria officinalis), "Our Lady of the
Meadow" (Queen of Meadow, Filipendula ulmaria), "Our Lady in the
Corn" (Corn Poppy, Papaver rhoeas), and "Our Lady of the Lake"
(Water Lily, Nymphaea alba).
In this tradition, Frances Crane Lillie, founder of the first U.S.
Public Mary Garden at St. Joseph's Church, Woods Hole,
Massachusetts in 1932 entitled the introductory leaflet for
visitors to the Garden, "Our Lady in Her Garden."
In his devotion to Mary's appearances, and from his annual
pilgrimages to her appearance shrines, Irish Mary's Gardens
Associate, Brother Sean MacNamara, C.F.C., has quickened his
reflections on her appearance messages in his niche Mary Garden at
the Christian Brothers monastery at Iona, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, by
planting in it flowers "from within the radius of Our Lady's
presence", as Pope John Paul II has expressed it - from Fatima,
Lourdes, Knock and Medjugorje.
U.S. Mary Garden pioneer, Bonnie Roberson, dedicated "Our Lady's
Solar Greenhouse" at her Hagerman, Idaho home and herb nursery to
Our Lady both as "The Woman Clothed with the Sun" of Guadalupe and
Our Lady of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.
Of deeper import to us from Mary's appearances was her summons at
Paris for prayerful recourse to her as the Mediatrix of Grace, as
symbolized by her appearance there as Our Lady of Grace with her
hands extended in distribution of graces prayed for - an image
reproduced in the widely worn Miraculous Medal, and in popular
Marian statuary. While the doctrine of Mary's Mediation of All
Graces was adjudged in 1950 by Pope Pius XII as "not yet sufficiently
ripe in the mind of the Church" for dogmatic definition, the weight
of this doctrine in Church teaching and practice is so well
established, and the modern world's need for the guidance of grace
is so evident, that we looked for Flowers of Our Lady which would
recall and quicken reflection on, and prayerful recourse to, Mary
as divinely ordained channel for the distribution of grace. In this
we found initially:
Mother of Thousands - recalling the universality of Our Lady's
(Strawberry Geranium) mediation - from the multitude of tiny
new plants rooted where the many
extending branches of the parent plant
touch the soil.
Our Lady's Keys - to the heavenly storehouses of graces,
(Cowslip Primrose) filled - as perceived by St. Louis de
Montfort - with the graces meritoriously
rising from Christ's sacrifice on the
Cross and from the prayers, works and
sacrifices of the Church, for distribution
to souls.
In continued reflection, we became
increasingly confirmed in our conviction
of the need for prayerful recourse to
Mary's mediation for the increased flow
of divine grace to the modern world.
From an examination of the world
situation and the following of current
events, it was evident that in the
movement of the redeemed world towards
the establishment of the Peaceable
Kingdom, according to the purpose of
Creation, successive critical junctures
are encountered in which alienated,
warring religions, cultures, nations,
factions or groups - in balance or
stand-off of power - enter into
negotiations of the "peace process",
in the course of which momentary
openings are reached in which leaders,
with the support of their peoples, may
be able to achieve agreements of
reconciliation, compromise and
cooperation for the building the future. From the teaching that
even in the Edenic world the inspiration and guidance of original
grace was necessary to the building of God's Kingdom, we could see
the even greater need of Christ's redemptive grace, through Mary's
mediation, for peaceful reconciliation and cooperation today.
For further corroboration of the doctrine of Mary's universal
mediation, we examined its origins and development in Church
tradition and teaching. In this we found that it was held to be
implicit in the scriptural stories of her intercession at the
Marriage Feast of Cana and of her presence praying in the upper
room with the Apostles for the descent of the Holy Spirit at
Pentacost; that it was explicitly celebrated in the Office and Mass
for the liturgical feast of Our Lady, Mediatrix of all Graces, May
31st; and that it was supported in numerous approved theological
works. In devotional practice, it was implicit in the praying of
the Rosary, and explicitly affirmed in numerous novena and scapular
prayers to Our Lady and in the daily prayers of the Legion of Mary.
Especially corroborative for us, from the Divine Office for the
feast of Our Lady, Mediatrix of all Graces were:
Introit -
"Christ, the Redeemer, who has willed that we receive all
graces through Mary, Come let us adore."
Readings -
"In me is all grace of the way",
Prayer to Mary -
"We beseech this through your Divine Son, Jesus Christ
who has been pleased to appoint you, his Mother, to be
our Mother also and our mediatrix with him.
But even with this extensive body of traditional support in Church
teaching and practice for the doctrine of Mary's Mediation of All
Graces, we felt the further need for an explanation in simple
reason for its place in the Divine Plan. In this we turned to
"Creation Theology", as expressed in the teaching of Thomas
Aquinas and others, which teaches that God created the world to
show forth and share his life, goodness, truth, attributes and
action with human persons, created to this end in the divine image
and likeness, male and female.
Reflecting on this, we saw that if the purpose for Creation was the
sharing of the divine goodness and action with human persons, our
infinite God would wish to accomplish this to the fullest, and that
the fullest sharing of Christ's mediation of grace to the world
with a human person would be accomplished through the calling of a
person, perfectly conformed to the divine image and likeness, and
filled with grace, into intimate union and unique cooperation with
Christ as co-Mediatrix of all graces. It was clear that
immaculately conceived and sinless Mary - temple and spouse of the
Holy Spirit, and Mother of the Divine Word Incarnate - was that
person.
Years later we noted in the Vatican II Constitution on the Church
(par. 60) the corroboration of the establisment of Mary's
prerogatives as having their origin in God's will or pleasure:
"The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no way obscures
or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather
shows its power. For all the saving influences of the
Blessed Virgin on men originate not from some inner
necessity, but from the divine pleasure.
"They flow forth from the superabundance of the merits of
Christ, rest on his mediation, depend entirely on it, and
draw all their power from it. In no way do they impede
the immediate union of the faithful with Christ."
As set forth here it is not from some "inner necessity" that Mary
is the Mediatrix of all graces - to affirm which would be idolatry
or Mariolotry and would presume the usurpation of the mediation of
the divine person of Christ by the human person of Mary - but
rather from the "divine pleasure", which shows forth and shares the
divine mediation of Christ, to the fullest, through the bestowal on
immaculately pure, utterly humble, fully assenting, loving, and
obediently cooperating Mary of the prerogative of co-mediation with
him of all grace.
We subsequently came to see that the "intimate union and singular
cooperation" of Mary with Christ (Vatican 2 Decree on the
Apostolate of the Laity, par. 4) - the basis for her sharing in the
Mediation of All Graces - served also to enable her union
and spiritual communion with Christ's immolation, as she stood at
the foot of the Cross - with accompanying co-redemptive generation
in her soul, by the action of the Holy Spirit, of the graces of
imitation of Christ and union with his Redemptive sacrifice, for
mediation to the human family.
This in turn provided insight into Mary's call at Fatima for the
universal reparational consecration of our lives, through her
Immaculate Heart, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the peace of the
world. From St. Louis de Montfort, we understand consecration to
Jesus through Mary as the act of conferring for their use all our
goods, interior and exterior - including the material and spiritual
fruits of all our good actions, past, present and future. In our
reparational consecration to Jesus through Mary - requested by
her at Fatima - we thus offer all our aggravations, diminishments,
sorrows and sufferings as a joining and sharing in the redemptive
sacrifice of Christ, who has already taken them and those of all the
world upon himself in his suffering and death on the Cross. In
this, as expressed by St. Paul, we "make up what is wanting in the
sufferings of Christ"; namely, their fullest taking up and sharing
by the human family, as his members - in a sharing of the divine
goodness and action, according to the purpose of Creation.
In this we came to see that in the spiritual communion of our
consecration to Jesus through Mary, our own sufferings also are
co-redemptive, and our works of mercy, in spiritual communion with
those to whom these works are extended, are also mediative of grace
- in emulation of Mary.
In our further consideration of the union and communion of Mary
with Jesus, in love, in the spiritual interpenetration and
communion of their hearts, we came better to understand also Mary's
prerogatived endowment as universal Advocate to the Father, in union
with Christ, for the mediative distribution to all persons of the
graces for their sanctification and for their individual works and
prayers for the coming of God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
- as sharing, cooperating, adopted children of God and Members of
Christ, rather than as dependent petitioners of God's favors through
Mary's intercession.
We saw, then, that this intimate union and singular cooperation of
Mary with Christ was symbolized visually by the interpenetrative
joining in love of the Immaculate and Sacred Hearts - as revealed
at Paris and then reproduced on the reverse side of the Miraculous
Medal - showing the basis of Mary's mediation of all graces,
represented by her image with outstretched hands on the face of the
medal.
With the recent granting of his nihil obstat on May 31, 1996 by His
Excellency Hendrik Bomers, Bishop of Haarlem, approving devotion to
Mary as "The Lady of All Nations", as she presented herself in
series of messages at Amsterdam from 1945 to 1959, we can consider
that her calling in these messages for the proclamation of the
"final dogma" of Mary Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate serves
as a further warrant for our prayerful recourse to her as Mediatrix
of all Graces.
After coming, through Mary's appearances,
to see the loving spiritual communion of the
hearts of Jesus and Mary as the source and
font of all graces distributed to the world,
we found that the consecration of our Mary
Garden work and prayers to them was
continuously quickened by all the flower
symbols of Mary virtues, excellences, gifts
and prerogatives - and explicitly by the
many flowers named as symbols of the
Immaculate and Sacred Hearts, including
Bleeding Hearts, Caladium (leaves), Tuberus
Geraniums, Quaking Grass (seed heads),
Shepherd's Purse, Carduus Thistle, Cuckoo
Flower, Florist's Geranium, London Pride,
and Pansy (petals).
Copyright Mary's Gardens 1999