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Intro Mary Garden
Mary, Protector of Faith
Flowers and Stones
Mary's Garden
Basilica of the U. S. National Shrine
of the
Immaculate Conception
Washington DC
John S. Stokes Jr.
On June 10, 2000 the new Mary's Garden at the Basilica of the U.S.
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington donated
by the National Council of Catholic Women was dedicated in a Mass
and blessing ceremony presided over by The Most Reverend Gabriel
Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, and attended by an
overflowing crowd including a thousand NCCW members on millennial
pilgrimage to the Shrine from throughout the U.S.
Located on a three-quarter acre site on the Basilica's northwest
grounds, Mary's Garden, designed by Brian Kane, ASLA, and Laura
Canfield, ASLA, of the Kane Group, landscape architects in
Alexandria, VA, is planted before a focal life-size image of the
Virgin and Child, "Mary, Protector of Faith", by Washington sculptor
Jon-Joseph Russ. The statue is located, in a flower bed setting
with reflecting pool, at the terminus of a circular stone prayer
terrace with central "Magnificat Fountain" and four large
surrounding beds of flowers, shrubs and flowering trees - in turn
bordered by a circular stone walkway, with prayer niches, within an
outer enclosure of shrubs and small trees.
Full reports, with numerous photos, of the Mary's Garden dedication
and blessing ceremony, following a Mass in the Basilica, are to be
found on the NCCW and National Shrine Internet web sites, together
with a Virtual Garden Tour, adapted from the "Garden Narrative" in a
28 page booklet distributed by the NCCW to all attending the Mass
and Garden Blessing.
The National Shrine Mary's Garden is of special importance for the
contemporary world wide Mary Garden restoration movement by virtue of
its concept, design and blessing as a holy place of religious
symbolism, veneration and prayer integral to the overall
spirituality of the Shrine.
As expressed by Shrine Director, Rev. Msgr. Michael J. Bransfield,
at the dedication and blessing ceremony,
"We are opening a new dimension to this shrine. . . .
Coming out here to pray and rest...will be part of our
pilgrimages and our everyday life. This will bring us
into the garden to pray as well as in the church. . . . "
God's Original Garden Revelation
An opening reading from Genesis 2: 4,7-9, 15 at the blessing
ceremony recalled that God's initial means of sharing the divine
goodness, beauty and truth with humankind - the purpose of Creation
- was through a garden, of which Mary's Garden serves as a reminder
and symbol. Following the human fall from divine harmony and grace,
Christ's Sacrifice on the Cross redeemed the world garden from evil,
that Creation may be culminated in the building and coming of God's
Peaceable Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom, "on earth as
it is in heaven", that all may be transformed on the Last Day into
the paradise and city of the eternal New Heaven and New Earth -
symbolized together here by the Shrine Mary's Garden and the
Basilica. The presence and proximity of Mary's Garden serves as a
visual reminder of this as Masses are celebrated in the Basilica.
"Be it done to me according to your word"
The Garden, through stone-engraved words from the scriptures,
proclaims the truth that humble and immaculate Mary, through her
espousal union with God for the Divine Motherhood of Jesus Christ,
true God and true man, was thereby brought into endowed
participative union as well with all the divine creating, redeeming,
sanctifing and kingdomal actions for souls and the world.
Mary's entry into this union is celebrated in the Garden by the
stone-engraved words of her response to the Angel of the
Annunciation,
"I am the Servant of the Lord;
Be it done to me as you say."
Luke 1:38
and her resulting divine maternity is symbolized in the Garden
by the sculpture of the Virgin and Child - the image adopted by the
Church to this end following the Council of Ephesus.
"God who is mighty has done great things to me"
The fullness of Mary's union with God is affirmed by the Church in
the Marian dogmas and doctrines - from scripture and the deposit of
faith - of her divinely endowed prerogatives as our spiritual
Mother, Co-Redemptrix, Protectrix, Counselor, Advocate, Intercessor,
Mediatrix and Distributrix of all grace, and Queen of Heaven and
Earth, through her motherly union and unique cooperation, on earth
and in heaven, with her Divine Son - her and our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
United with God the Son, Mary is equally in union with
overshadowing, indwelling, espousing God the Holy Spirit, in his
world sanctification and renewal; and with God the Father, not only
in her co-parenting with him of the Divine Word Incarnate, but also,
as Queen of Angels, in his sustenance of the world; in his
providential governance of it towards Kingdom; and - in eternity -
in the very creation, of the world, in accordance with the
application to her of the passage from from Proverbs 8:22-32,
"The Lord begot me, the firstborn of his ways . . .
"I was the first, before the earth . . .
"When he established the heavens I was there . . .
"Then was I beside him as his craftsman,
and I was his delight day by day,
Playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of the earth;
and I found delight in the sons of men."
This all-encompassing human union of Mary with God is proclaimed by
her in the Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55, read next at the dedication
ceremony, from which selections are prominently displayed in
stone-engravings at the central Prayer Court of Mary's Garden:
on the red granite coping stone that borders the pool of the
"Magnificat Fountain",
"My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit finds joy in God my Savior."
Luke 1:48
and, on an adjoining terrace flagstone,
"God who is mighty has done great things to me;
Holy is his name."
Luke 1:49
"Fountain of Gardens"
In accordance with the scriptural image applied to Mary by the
Church Fathers, the central Magnificat Fountain of the Garden
symbolizes Mary as the "Fountain of Gardens" (Song of Songs 4:15);
as the co-redemptive universal Mediatrix of the waters of grace
pouring from the pierced side of her crucified Divine Son and Lord.
Beholding this fountain, we are moved to pray, as from the Introit
of the Divine Office for the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces:
"Christ, the Redeemer, who has willed that we receive
all graces through Mary, Come let us adore,"
and to reflect, from the Readings for this office, on the words:
"In me is all grace of the way"
We are inspired further to turn to Mary in meditation and prayer by
her rich garden and flower symbolism from scripture and pious
tradition, recalled by the Garden. As Msgr. Bransfield stated
further in his remarks at the dedication:
"The Song of Songs speaks of 'An Enclosed Garden',
'A Fountain Sealed' - imagery referring to Mary's
fidelity, her immaculate conception, her perpetual virginity.
"May Mary's Garden, designed with these words in
mind, be a constant source of inspiration and renewal
to all who venture there to pray and rest."
Rosary Walk
For those thus inspired to meditation and prayer in the Garden,
stone benches are provided on the Prayer Terrace, before the garden
beds, and in prayer niches on the outer walkway. The outer walkway
serves also as a Rosary Walk, on which, beginning with the opening
prayers at the statue, one may pray the Paters and Aves for the five
Rosary mystery meditations of the day as one proceeds on it around
the Garden - circling back to the statue for the concluding prayers.
Garden Blessing as a Holy Place
While Mary's Garden's statue, pools, inscriptions and flowers thus
serve to inspire reflection, meditation and prayer, the sense of the
Garden as a holy place comes first of all from its sacramental
blessing - by Archbishop Montalvo - in respect to which he stated,
at the blessing ceremony,
"We shall invoke God's blessing on this Garden as a
means of dedicating it to the great honor of the
great glory of God.
"His presence at this shrine shall serve as a reminder
to all who venerate the Mother of God here of the
abundance of his grace and his material gifts, and to
find refreshment in them."
(Full Text of Blessing Homily)
Through the effects of sacramental blessing, effects often not fully
appreciated today, those who enter the Garden and behold it
experience the "excitation of pious emotions and affections of the
heart", and also "freedom from the power of evil spirits...(and)
various other benefits, temporal or spiritual" (Catholic
Encyclopedia).
The Archbishop's affirmation of Mary's Garden as a holy place was
mirrored in the accompanying remarks of Rev. Msgr. Dennis M.
Schnurr, General Secretary of the National Council of Catholic
Bishops, in respect to its blessing:
"'I will fill this house with my glory and I will
give my peace in this place'. I can think of no
better words to describe what Mary's Garden will
mean to all who visit and pray here."
Flowers of Our Lady
The sense, from its blessing, of Mary's Garden as a holy place also
serves to quicken experience of the time-steeped spiritual unction
of its "Flowers Our Lady" - of medieval rural tradition - as
spiritually illuminating symbols of Mary's virtues, life, mysteries,
privileges and prerogatives.
Increasing numbers of people are becoming familiar with the "Flowers
of Our Lady" from home and parish Mary Gardens; from the Mary's
Gardens' Internet website at http//www.mgardens.org and from
Vincenzina Krymow's book, "Mary's Flowers: Gardens, Legends and
Meditations" - published last year by St. Anthony Messenger Press,
Cincinnati, and Novalis, Toronto, and given awards by the Catholic
Press Association of first place for design and production and third
place for "best spirituality book", for 1999.
The story of the Flowers of Our Lady is also told in chapters on
Mary Gardens in the recent books: Maureen Gilmer's "Rooted In the
Spirit", and Ann Ball's "Catholic Traditions in the Garden"; and
also in the frequent articles on Mary Gardens and the Flowers of
Our Lady in Catholic newspapers and magazines.
The three books are available from the Basilica bookshop, which
sponsored a two hour book-signing by Vincenzina Krymow of "Mary's
Flowers" before the Mary's Garden dedication Mass and blessing
ceremony.
"Mary's Flowers" includes full-page colored woodcut illustrations,
legends and meditations for 30 Flowers of Our Lady, and an appendix
listing of some 300 such flowers, from the over 1,000 documented by
research.
Also on exhibit at the book signing were a miniature indoor dish
Mary Garden and a patio container Mary Garden, with figurines of Our
Lady - crafted by home and parish Mary Gardener, Lisa Creamer,
author of the teacher's guide, Mary's Gardens for Children.
Prayers for Mary's Intercession and Mediation
With our thoughts and reflection raised to Mary by the Shrine Mary's
Garden's statue, pools, inscriptions and flowers, we are moved to
pray to her for her intercession and spiritual mediation with God.
Through loving reflection on Mary's utter humility before God -
symbolized by violets and other lowly, hidden flowers - and through
the illuminative quickening of our sense of her immaculate openness
to total filling with God's grace, by the spotless purity of the
white lilies and roses, we experience a tangible sense of her
endowed sublime, universal sharing and magnification of God's action
for Creation, Redemption and Kingdom.
We therefore make prayerful recourse to Mary's ordained unique
intercession and mediation with God, with trust and confidence that
it is through the fullness of her universal sharing in the
interceding and mediating action of her Divine Son with God the
Father, in the union of God the Holy Spirit, that our prayers for
divine assistance and guidance in our work for God's Kingdom will
most surely be answered, in accordance the words of the Memorare, of
St. Bernard,
"Never was it known that anyone who fled to your
protection, implored your help, or sought your
assistance was left unaided."
Mary, Model of Womanly Nurturing in Family and World
A bronze plaque at the Entry Court of Mary's Garden sets forth the
general goal and program of the National Council of Catholic Women,
to which end Mary's Garden has been donated and dedicated:
"The National Council of Catholic Women acts through its
affiliated organizations to support, empower and educate
Catholic women in spirituality, leadership and service.
"NCCW programs respond with Gospel values to the needs of
the Church and society in the modern world."
In announcements of the Garden, in the homily of the dedication
Mass, and in the remarks at the Blessing Ceremony, the special
intention of the National Shrine and NCCW for Mary's Garden is set
forth as the inspiration of Shrine pilgrims to heightened
commitment, prayers and action for fuller womanly nurturing in
social, political and economic life, as well as in personal and
family life - in emulation of Mary and with prayers for her
mediation of the graces to this end.
As stated in the Dedication Brochure,
"(The very Garden itself) represents characteristics of
women: a garden is welcoming; it offers a place of welcome
and refreshment; it provides quiet for prayer and
reflection; it expresses nurture and care for creation."
In the Dedication Mass homily, Archbishop Montalvo, speaking of
Mary's spiritual presence with us as mother, stated,
"Her maternal quality, which sensitively and lovingly
nurtures and supports human life, is a gift given by God
to all women: to wives and mothers, and to religious
sisters and single women, as well."
Consecration to Jesus through Mary for World Peace
It is clear that needed for the carrying forward of the "peace
process" between the alienated nations, cultures, groups and
individuals of the world is: the acknowledgement and forgiveness of
past transgressions; the just addressing of wrongs; agreements
through the compromise of differences; and mutual cooperation in the
building of relationships and societies of truth, justice, love and
freedom. There is endless media reporting, discussion and analysis
of the strategies, tactics and timings of group conflicts, power
struggles and negotiations; but the necessary compromises and
cooperation can only come through changes of heart of leaders, and
supportively, of their constituents.
The key to these needed changes or conversions is the nurturing of
the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace, in hearts through the
infusion of and responsiveness to his graces. In accordance with
God's will and plan for the fullest divine-human sharing and
cooperation in the redemption of the world, the building of its
Peaceable Kingdom in all its aspects is to be through utter fullness
of immaculate Mary's participative endowed mediation.
It is thus that Mary, at Fatima, called for the consecration of the
world, through her Immaculate Heart, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
for the building of Peace on Earth.
Nurturing, with Mary, the Birth of Christ in Hearts
In Mary's Garden, meditation and prayer to this end are quickened by
reflection on the focal sculpture of the Virgin and Child, symbol of
Mary's privileged Divine Maternity, and therefore of her other
privileges - with recollection of St. Augustin's teaching, in the
Second Reading in the Liturgy of the Hours for the Presentation of
Mary, that:
"The Virgin Mary...the chosen one from whom our Savior
was born among men...believed by faith and conceived by
faith....
"Mary heard God's word and kept it, and so (was) blessed.
She kept God's truth in her mind, a nobler thing than
carrying his body in her womb. The truth and the body
were both Christ: he was kept in Mary's mind insofar as
he is truth, he was carried in her womb insofar as he
is man; but what is kept in the mind is of a higher
order than what is carried in the womb."
It is the graces of belief in Christ - to which she opened herself
as a maiden, prior to the Annunciation - that Mary, her soul pierced
by a sword of sorrow at the foot of the Cross, nurturingly mediates,
as Co-Redemptrix, to all hearts, "that the thoughts of many hearts
will be revealed" (Luke 2:35). Indeed, it is in the nurturing of
the birth of Christ in hearts, minds and souls, that Mary is Mother
of the Church, of the Mystical Body of Christ - as proclaimed by
Jesus to her and to the disciple John from the Cross (John 19:26,27)
- as well as of her Divine Son in the flesh.
Through the special endowment of women by the Creator as mothers and
nurturers - so that a blessed virgin might conceive the Redeemer in
her heart, mind and soul; might give him birth in the flesh; might
nurture his growth in wisdom, grace and strength; and might nurture
his birth and growth in the members of his Mystical Body - all women
are likewise called to the womanly fulfillment of their varied
nurturing potentials for restoring Christ, giving birth to Christ,
in every area of human activity: personal, familial, religious,
social, economic, vocational and professional . . .
Or, stated in another way, God, having created women with the
capability of motherhood and of motherly nurturing, in preparation
for the giving of birth by a divinely conceiving blessed virgin to
the Divine Word Incarnate, thus endowed all women with the special
potential and dignity of emulating, participating in and extending
Mary's divine motherhood in hearts.
In medieval times, when the world view of many extended little
beyond the local village where one lived one's life, and the coming
of God's Kingdom was viewed transcendently, Mary's virtues of
profound humility, lively faith, total obedience, divine purity,
ardent charity, heroic patience, angelic sweetness and divine wisdom
were viewed, for emulation, largely as a "Ladder to Heaven".
For our day, when travel, communications, technology and trade
present the concrete possibility of, and the imperative for, the
building and coming of God's Peaceable Kingdom of truth, justice,
love and freedom "on earth as it is in heaven", as a prelude for the
transformation of Creation on the Last Day into the eternal new
heaven and new earth, Mary is to be emulated also as our universal
Mediatrix of the graces needed for the building of this Kingdom, and
the Nurturer, as our Spiritual Mother, to whom we are to make
recourse in prayers for the opening of hearts for the seeking,
reception and action upon these graces.
The great things done by God to Mary - as she proclaims in the
Magnificat - in her privileged and ordained universal sharing in and
mediation of the divine action in and for Creation are to be seen as
including her universal mediation of God's providence - showing the
might of God's hand in scattering the proud in the conceit of their
hearts, in putting down the mighty from their seat, and in exalting
the humble, the meek who shall inherit the earth.
Spiritual Quickening Through The Flowers of Our Lady
While we are thus inspired to Marian meditation and prayer by the
statue, fountains, scriptural inscriptions and basic garden and
floral symbolism of Mary's Garden, there is an opportunity for still
further future affective and illuminative quickening in this through
the possible future planting in the Garden of additional symbolic
Flowers of Our Lady from medieval popular devotional tradition.
In this there would be an emulation of the devotion and prayer to
the Blessed Virgin of the medieval faithful who augmented their
basic faith in Mary by discovering means of heightening their sense
of her constant motherly presence with them through the symbolism of
everyday objects such as flowers.
In an early article on the Flowers of Our Lady ("Mary's Gardens",
Irish Ecclesiastical Record, February, 1953), Robert Ostermann
wrote,
"Now we can only have an idea of what we lost, when
Christian unity was destroyed, through knowing how
spontaneous and common was formerly the expression of
it in human affairs. It is always in the trivial, the
common-place, that our habits and convictions can best
be measured, as in the flowers once called 'Our Lady's
Keys', 'Our Lady's' Thimble', 'Mary's Candle', 'Our
Lady's Pin Cushion'.
"Suddenly, like a dream ending, we begin to appreciate
how terrible, how unbridged, is the distance separating
us from medieval piety. We are complex and muddled,
uncertain of our postulates or allegiance. It takes an
entirely different view of things to see in the shape of
a leaf a mirror wherein Our Lady may have gazed."
Thus, flower symbols of Mary's everyday Nazareth life, such as those
mentioned above, convey a sense of her intimacy and approachability,
and others such as 'Mary's Eyes', 'Mary's Hand' and 'Sweet Mary', a
sense of her ever-attentive motherly mercy.
Today such Flowers of Our Lady beautifully supplement and vivify the
words of scripture and the imagery of religious art.
These and other forms of nature which can be discerned as mirroring
and thus showing forth revealed truths are integral to God's plan
for Creation. "As above, so below." In the primordial language of
Eden, as in Hebrew, and as in the Christian saints' names given at
Christening, many names given to creatures enable recognition of
their spiritual meanings. This is in accordance with God's
instruction to Adam to name all the creatures - as he learned their
meanings. In general, the spiritual correspondences of creatures
provides the basis for the use of nature figures in poetic imagery.
The discovery of the wealth of the "Flowers of Our Lady" named in the
medieval countrysides for their discerned Marian symbolism and
associations - as documented from the research of botanists,
folklorists and lexicographers - has led to the planting of such
flowers in contemporary "Mary Gardens" - modeled after medieval
illustrations and paintings of the Virgin and Child in enclosed
gardens of symbolic plants. A number of such flowers have
accordingly been included in the National Shrine Mary's Garden.
Mary, the "Blossoming Rod of Jesse"
In the tradition of medieval cloister gardens the circular, "O",
form of the central pools - replicated in Mary's Garden's
"Magnificat Fountain" and repeated in the overall circular form of
the garden and in the form of the statue's reflecting pool - was
seen to recall the great "O Antiphon" of the December 19th Advent
liturgy, intoned in choir by the gardening monk:
"O, Rod of Jesse, come!"
referring to the prophecy by Isaiah of the Virgin Birth of the
Redeemer under the imagery of the miraculously blossoming Rod of
Jesse (Isaiah 2:11).
This scriptural symbol of the Blessed Virgin was seen by the Church
Fathers as the revealed basis for the reference of all flowers to
Mary, the "Flower of flowers" (Chaucer), as her symbols and
signatures - as with the "Rose of Sharon" and "Lily of the
Valleys", from the Song of Songs.
The blossoming rod (or root, shoot or stem, depending on the
translation of the Bible) of Jesse was envisaged as a miracle in
nature, appropriately adopted as a symbol of the prophesied
miraculous virginal conception and birth of the Messiah - in the
line of Jesse and David - because in nature the new blooms of
plants, such as the grapevine, normally come from the upper
branches, or from the point of pruning, rather than from a stem
emerging from the root.
Drawing on this basic scriptural attribution of flowers to Mary,
numerous further flower images were then employed by the Church
Fathers and the saints in their praise and veneration of Mary - with
consequent adoption in the liturgy. Thus, St. Bernard spoke of Mary
as,
"The rose of charity, the lily of chastity,
the violet of humility. . . and the golden
gillyflower of heaven"
In medieval times the basic symbol adopted for the Rod of Jesse was
the rose, as in the central rose windows of cathedrals - in
accordance with the lines from Dante,
"Behold the Rose,
wherein the Divine Word was made incarnate"
and also as in the Christmas carol,
"Lo, How a Rose 'ere Blooming".
Thus the Rod of Jesse "O" Antiphon central pools of medieval
cloister gardens can be said to have been the architectural
equivalent of the rose windows of the cathedrals.
Mary's Flowers of the Medieval Countrysides
Then, in the popular religious traditions of the medieval
countrysides a "galaxy" of flowers were seen and named as symbolic
of Mary, and of her life, virtues, mysteries, priveleges and
prerogatives - often with accompanying enriching legends. Thus, it
was in nature itself that was discovered the full spiritual unction
of flowers and their symbolism for the intuitive, luminous,
affective quickening of the faithful to Marian reflection,
meditation and prayer. "The Mary Garden is the only place where the
Gospel story is told in nature."
According to the "Garden Narrative" of the Mary's Garden dedication
booklet, the initial planting of Mary's Garden includes a number of
Flowers of Our Lady of medieval symbolism:
"The sculpture is enframed by . . . white flowering roses
and hydrangea. . . . All major plantings in the garden are
selected for their white blossoms, representing Mary's purity
Perennials, ground covers, and spring flowering bulbs occur
at intervals, and include anemone, aster, coneflower,
cranesbill...and hosta.
"The many plantings in the garden provide flowers throughout
the growing seasons, and many species have been selected for
their connotations with Mary."
The above-mentioned plants bore old symbolism or names,
respectively, (among others) of: Mary's joyful mysteries, "Ave
Maria", "Rose of Sharon", "Mary's Star", "Golden Jerusalem", "Mary's
Pins" and "Assumption Lily". Spring flowering bulbs would include
snowdrop ("Candlemas Bells"), crocus ("Penitent's Rose"), daffodil
(Mary looking down from heaven), cilla ("Angel Eyes") and hyacinth
("Easter Flower").
It is to be hoped that as the planting for Mary's Garden is
perfected through the years (the planting plan of the first U. S.
public Mary Garden at St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts, was developed by its landscape architect, Dorothea K.
Harrison, over a six year period from 1932 to 1937) the somewhat
random symbolism of this initial selection will be evolved into an
integral symbolic mosaic of flowers which, as well as being
attractive and horticulturally viable, will be, together with the
overall Garden symbolism, symbolically inclusive of Mary's basic
privileges and prerogatives.
A few, each, of such symbolic plants could be placed in niche areas
in the flower bed setting of the sculpture of "Mary, Protector of
Faith" - as a more intimate "Mary Garden" within Mary's Garden.
Included could be plants such as those symbolic of Mary's Divine
Maternity ("Lady-Lords"), Perpetual Virginity (Strawberry -
continuing in flower while in fruit), Co-Redemption ("Mary's Tears",
and "Mary's Sword of Sorrow"), Assumption (late summer blooming
"Assumption Lily"), Spiritual Motherhood ("Mother Love"),
Intercession ("Mary's Heart"), Protection from evil ("Our Lady's
Mantle"), Mediation and Distribution of All Graces ("Mary's Keys"),
and Queenship of Heaven and Earth ("Mary's Crown").
The special attention required for the procurement, planting and
care for these beloved plants would await the initiative of a
committed Mary's Garden Auxiliary, Society, Solidarity or Guild of
devoted gardeners who, under the auspices of the Shrine, would
supplement the basic maintenance of the Garden by the Shrine
horticulturalist and groundskeepers. Such an Auxiliary would
provide an opportunity for continued participation in Mary's Garden
by NCCW gardening members from the Washington area.
In the overall Garden, while retaining the prominence of white
flowers symbolic of Mary's immaculate purity, and of her joys,
smaller areas could be planted with red and purple flowers,
symbolizing her sorrows; and gold flowers, her glories. Those
familiar with Rosary Gardens will be drawn intuitively to the
Garden's circular outer walkway as a Rosary walk, as mentioned
above.
Mary, Model of Divine Sharing
Through the richness of Marian reflection and meditation quickened
by the many Flowers of Our Lady there comes a heightened
appreciation of the unique fullness - to the capacity of human
nature, created in the divine image and likeness - of Mary's
immaculate, holy sharing in the divine goodness, beauty, truth and
action.
In this it is seen that since Christ's Redemptive Sacrifice and
Ascension and Mary's Assumption into heaven, Mary's human sharing is
in the divine action for Redemption and Kingdom, as well as in the
showing forth of the divine goodness in Creation. Each time we
make recourse to Mary in prayer, her responsive motherly exercise of
her divine privileges and prerogatives of universal mediation, with
Christ, accomplishes a further sharing by her, and through her by
us, in the divine action, and thus an ever fuller accomplishment of
the purpose of Creation. In this Mary is the model and channel for
all the intercessions and mediations within the Communion of
Saints.
As stated above, it is through Mary's fidelity, in faith, to the
purity of her Immaculate Conception - to which the Shrine is
dedicated; through her utter humility of assent to her call by God
to the Divine Maternity; and through her hearing the word of God and
keeping it, that she was raised to total union with God and
therefore to the fullest human sharing, showing forth and
magnification of the divine action for Creation, Redemption and
Kingdom.
Thence followed Mary's further specifically bestowed privileges and
prerogatives of co-redemption, spiritual motherhood, counsel, help,
protection, advocacy, intercession, mediation and distribution of
all grace, and Queenship of Heaven and Earth - through her intimate
union and singular cooperation with her Divine Son and Lord, Jesus
Christ, in the loving spiritually interpenetrative bond of the
Immaculate and Sacred Hearts.
Thus heightened in our understanding of God's will that we act in
Creation through Mary's example, guidance, intercession and
mediation, we turn to her in prayer, and await her graces with
ever-increasing zeal and confidence.
Flowers and Stones
A characterization of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church from
medieval times was that of "Flowers and Stones". In this,
"Flowers" were seen to represent the interior
devotional/ascetic/mystical religious life of the Church, of the
People of God; and "Stones" the visible Church ("upon this rock I
will build my Church") of the secular priesthood, sacraments,
heirarchy, magesterium, parish organization, catechisms, schools and
social and political ministry, which protect and teach the inner
religious life, while they are at the same time sustained by it.
Today his Holiness Pope John Paul II speaks, similarly, of the
"Church of Mary" and the "Church of Peter".
As symbols of the spiritual unity and complementarity of these two
aspects of the Church, flowers are brought into churches; and stones
are incorporated in "Gardens Enclosed" - magnificently so in the
U.S. National Shrine's Basilica and Mary's Garden.
The "stones" enclosing the National Shrine Mary's Garden flower beds
are also most important for the permanence they will give the
garden.
Happily, the stone Angelus Tower of St. Joseph's Church in Woods
Hole, beside which was planted the "Garden of Our Lady", the first
U. S. public Mary Garden, in 1932, and the stone borders of the
garden beds, have, together with the perpetual trust fund bequeathed
for tower and garden maintenance, served to ensure the permanence of
this garden - restored two times after almost complete destruction
by hurricanes.
Hopefully the stones and flowers of the U. S. National Shrines
Mary's Garden will endure, inspiring meditation on Mary and
prayerful recourse to her divinely endowed prerogatives, until the
culmination of the world - and eternally, in the Book of Life.
Photos: Vincenzina Krymow and Lisa Creamer
Copyright Mary's Gardens, 2000