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                                               Intro Mary Garden

The Garden Way of the Cross

From information booklet and meditation-aid prepared by

Father Thomas A. Stanley, S.M.
     Pastor: St. Catherine of Siena, Portage, MI.
     August 1993.
     Revised: July 1996, March 1997


The Mary Garden

The Mary Garden is a devotional shrine consisting of a
presentation (usually a statue) of Mary, the mother of Jesus, set
in the midst of a garden of special plants and flowers.  Its
purpose is to promote prayerful reflection on the ways of God,
especially the plan he is following to bring about our salvation.

The custom of setting out a garden of flowers and plants connected
in some way with the name and 1ife of the Blessed Virgin Mary
began in medieval England.  People of those times were especially
keen in seeing signs and symbols of the presence of Jesus and his
mother everywhere.  Every fieldpath and hedgerow became an
illuminated Book of Hours where some common flower, leaf or berry
was assigned a holy association or lovely legend involving the
Holy Family.

The practice of giving Marian names to flora of various kinds had
its origin in the penchant of the Fathers of the Church for
associating with the Blessed Virgin flowers and plants mentioned
in Holy Scripture.  This delightful mode of religious expression
really ballooned after the Crusades when tales told by returning
warriors sparked widespread interest in details of Holy Family
life tied in with flora of the Holy Land.

Traditionally, all flowers are seen to be dedicated to the Mother
of Jesus.  Hence the great variety of them which fill the churches
of Europe during her month - the month of May.  Hence also the
wreaths of flowers of all kinds and colors which the Flemish
School painters delightedly used to encircle their paintings of
the Mother and Child.  But there are also many flowers with which
Our Lady's name is, in one form or another, directly connected.
Thus all plants and flowers are proper to a Mary Garden, but
certain ones bearing her name (like Our Lady's Heart, Face,
Gloves, Thimble, Keys, Slippers, Eyes, Bells, Tears, Mantle, etc.)
are especially featured in Mary Gardens.

The first Mary Garden in the United States was begun in 1932 by
Frances Crane Lillie at St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts.  The idea began to spread soon after when two men
(Edward A. G. McTague and John S. Stokes, Jr.) undertook the
promotion of Mary Garden shrines out of a home office in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The Mary Garden at St. Catherine of
Siena, probably the first in Michigan, seeks to continue this
charming devotional practice.

The Cross

  .


The first Holy Year in history was celebrated in 1300 with the
idea that another Holy Year would be celebrated every 100 years
thereafter.  It did not take long to realize that 100 years was
too long a wait and so the interval was first shortened to 50
years and then (as is the present arrangement) every 25 years.  In
modern times, popes have also declared additional, special Holy
Years.  Pope Pius XI did this when he declared 1933 a special Holy
Year marking the 1900th anniversary year of the death and
resurrection of Jesus.  Pope John Paul II followed this initiative
and declared 1983 a special Holy Year to mark the 1950th
anniversary year of our Redemption. Thus, in this century we have
had four regular Holy Years (1900, 1925, 1950 and 1975) and two
special ones (1933 and 1983).

The Holy Year is also a call for pilgrims to come to Rome.  Those
that do have special privileges and graces available to them.  In
1983 Pope John Paul II broadened the celebration by declaring
these same privileges and graces available to those visiting their
parish churches to pray and mark the anniversary year.  As part of
its celebration, St. Catherine of Siena parish in conjunction with
the Edward L. Koenig Council, No. 6980 of the Knights of Columbus
placed the outdoor cross where it stands in the garden as a
memorial of the 1983 Holy Year.

The Brick

Each of the four great basilicas in Rome (St. John Lateran, St.
Peter, St. Mary Major and St. Paul) has a special door to the
right of its principal entrance.  It is called the Holy Year Door
because it is open only during a Holy Year.  It is through this
door that the holy year pilgrims are expected to enter and leave
the basilicas.

In the years between the Holy Years, these doors are walled up
with special bricks and masonry.  The bricks bear the coat of arms
of the Pope in office at the time of the closing of the Holy Year
together with an appropriate historical inscription.  When the
doors are broken open for the following Holy Year, the bricks are
culled out, cleaned, numbered and made available to those who
might request one for a special reason.

The brick embedded in the concrete at the foot of our wooden cross
is such a brick.  It was originally placed in the Holy Year Door
of St. Peter's Basilica in 1975 and so bears the arms of Pope Paul
VI.  It also has the inscription; PAULOS PP. Vl PORTAM SANCTUM
PATR. VATICANAE BASILICAE CLAUSIT ANNO JUBILAEI MCMLXXV (Pope Paul
VI sealed the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica at the end of the
1975 Jubilee Year).  It was removed in 1983 when Pope John Paul II
ordered tbe door to be broken open to begin the special Holy Year
he had declared.  With the help of a friend in Rome, Father Thomas
A. Stanley obtained this brick as a Holy Year memorial for St.
Catherine of Siena parish.


THE WAY OF THE CROSS

There is a tradition that the "sorrowful way devotion," also
referred to as "the way of the cross," began almost immediately
after Christ's death and resurrection when Jesus' mother, Mary,
along with a group of Christ's disciples, would regularly retrace
her Son's journey to Calvary stopping prayerfully at places of
specia1 significance.

The Way of the Cross became a special devotion in Europe as the
Crusaders began returning from service in the Holy Land.  There,
they too had walked prayerfully the path of Jesus to Calvary also
stopping at key, Gospel-related sites.  Back home again, these
veterans began to lay out "Little Jerusalems" where they could
continue this devotional practice.  As the devotion grew and
religious imaginations became enthused, the number of stops or
stations varied greatly, anywhere from 3 to 150.  Gradually, the
idea got recognition from the official Church.  It was then
permitted inside the churches and was standardized at 14 specific
stations.

A number of these "official" fourteen stops have no basis in
Scripture, having had their origin in popular piety.  As the 1975
Holy Year approached and devotional aids were being prepared in
Rome for the expected influx of pilgrims, the Holy Father asked
Father Argelo Bonetti to memorialize fourteen new stations or
stages in Christ's passion, death and resurrection -- stages which
were to be drawn from the Gospels and the prayers of the Church.

This meditation-aid, prepared for visitors to St. Catherine's Mary
Garden, is based upon the fourteen stations proposed by Father
Bonetti.  In addition, each station is associated with a flower or
flowers whose popular Mary-connection may prompt a devotional
insight into that station's significance in the saving paschal
mystery of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ.


Extending the practice of meditating on the Stations of the Cross,
the flower symbols of the Sorrowful Mysteries, planted around the
garden cross, provide a mosaic of meanings for continuing
meditation on the passion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.


The Fourteen Stations of the Cross