FLOWERS OF OUR LADY AND MARY GARDENS
FOR SCHOOLS
This is presented as a reference resource to be drawn on, rather
than for straight-through reading. For this the sections are
indexed here for browser click-access.
While words are to be used to learn the language of flowers, the
goal is to leave the world of the verbal imagination of words and
to enter the silent world of visual, illuminative imagination.
To this end each Flower of Our Lady mentioned can be viewed through
a photo click-link to it's highlighted name in the text.
Graphics related to teaching are included in the Sections marked
below with an asterisk (*).
CLICK-LINK INDEX
Rosary Mysteries And The Flowers Of Our Lady
Religious Nature Symbols *
Medieval Flower Symbols Today
Teaching The Flowers Of Our Lady *
Rediscovery Of Medieval Tradition
Virtual Mary Gardens For School Instruction *
Flowers Of Our Lady And Mary Gardens Slide Lecture *
Teachers' Guide
Basic References *
Mary Gardens in Religious Fiction
Student Religious Formation
Growth In Emulation of Mary's Virtues
Praying the Rosary For Reparation and Kingdom
The Annunciation *
Immaculate Conception Symbols *
Flowers Of The Trinity
Trees Of Mary's Wisdom
The Visitation
Scriptural Passages Of The Mysteries
The Nativity
Mary's Perpetual Virginity
Nazareth Flowers Of Our Lady
Glorification Of God
Spiritual Communion With Mary
Trees Of Mary's Wisdom
Nazareth Bonding Of Mary And Jesus
Legends Of Mary's Nazareth Sorrows
The Sorrowful Mysteries
Reparation For the Effects of Sin
Mary's Communion With God The Holy Spirit
The Glorious Mysteries - Prayers To Heavenly Mary
The Luminous Mysteries - Building the Earthly Kingdom
of Mary's Queenship
Bloom Periods
DESIGNING, PLANTING AND MAINTAINING A SCHOOL MARY GARDEN
Plant Selection
Plant Availability
Garden Digging and Planting
Organization for Mary Garden Care
Garden Start-Up Examples
Incorporation of Mary Gardens in Classroom Teaching *
Some School Mary Gardens
St. Hubert's High School *
Cotabato and Sulu Diocese, Phlippines, Phlippines
Ravenhill Academy *
Our Mother of Consolation Parish *
St. Mary's Parish
Incarnation Parish
St. Theresa's Parish
Rosary Mysteries And The Flowers Of Our Lady
The praying of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with its
meditations on fifteen mysteries of Mary's union with Christ in his
redemption of the world, had its revealed origins in the 12th
century, which evidently was the time also of the discernment and
naming of the medieval "Flowers of Our Lady" - symbols of Mary's
life and mysteries in popular religious traditions of the
countrysides.
As Pope John Paul II observed in his 2002 Apostolic Letter on the
Rosary, 'Rosarium Virginis Mariae', in which he added to the Rosary
the five additional Luminous Mystries.
"The Rosary has...all the depth of the Gospel message
in its entirety, of which it can be said to be a
compendium."
(par. 1)
For this reason the Rosary was thus widely adopted by the
predominantly illiterate rural Christians of the medieval period as
a means for teaching and reflecting on the Gospel,
Today, with the exposure of minds to the massive output not only of
printed books, magazines and newspapers, but also of radio, TV,
cinema and the Internet, the praying of Rosary, in it simplicity,
is serving again as a focus for living the Gospel.
The Pope observes that the successive naming of the Mysteries - the
Annunciation, Visitation, etc. - while praying the sequences of the
Paters and Aves of the Rosary beads - serves as the simple but
essential means for focusing meditation on them:
"Announcing each mystery, and perhaps even using a
suitable icon to portray it, is as it were to open up a
scenario on which to focus our attention. The words
direct the imagination and the mind towards a particular
episode or moment in the life of Christ."
"In the Church's traditional spirituality, the veneration
of icons and the many devotions appealing to the senses,
as well as the method of prayer proposed by Saint Ignatius
of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, make use of visual
and imaginative elements (the compositio loci), judged
to be of great help in concentrating the mind on the
particular mystery."
(par. 29)
In another context Pope John Paul II observed that "the word 'symbol'
comes from the Greek 'symboein' -- to bring together. It is the opposite
of the Greek word 'diabolein,' to break apart, which is the origin of our
word for the devil, diabolical. Symbolic actions can bring people
together in love."
Religious Nature Symbols
Predominant among the "visual and imaginative elements" quickening
reflection on Mary's life and mysteries in the medieval period were
the forms and colors of nature, and especially those of the Flowers
of Our Lady - of which botanical and folklore researchers have
found over 1,000 - seen symbolically in the countrysides as created
"signatures" of revealed Gospel events and truths.
These flower symbols - introduced and spread orally in illiterate
medieval religious culture by itinerate preachers, mendicant
friars, wandering minstrels, roving players, pilgrims, merchants,
missionaries and other travelers - served to augment general
meditations of the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, with specific
details, and also details for additional Gospel reflection and
meditation.
In his "Spiritual Exercises", St. Ignatius of Loyola speaks of the
special spiritual relish which comes with contemplation of
religious truths through the things of Creation:
"Principle And Foundation
"Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our
Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
"The other things on the face of the earth are created for
man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for
which he is created.
"From this it follows that man is to use them as much as
they help him on to his end. . . .
"In a visible contemplation or meditation...the composition
will be to see the corporeal...thing with the sight of the
imagination. . . ."
"Annotations
. . . .
"if the person who is making the contemplation, takes the
true groundwork of the (scriptural) narrative, and...finds
something which makes the events a little clearer or brings
them a little more home to him...he will get more spiritual
relish and fruit, than if (persons) had much explained and
amplified the meaning of the events. For it is not knowing
much, but realizing and relishing things interiorly, that
contents and satisfies the soul. . ."
Illustrative Flower Meditation
As we come upon the eye-like flowers of
forget-me-nots, with their golden centers, we are
quickened to reassurance that the eyes of Mary, our
Spiritual Mother in heaven, are always turned upon
us and our needs. We are similarly reassured by
the downwards inclining blooms of the daffodil,
seen as "Mary looking down from heaven".
(Further Illustrative Meditations)
Medieval Flower Symbols Today
Paradoxically, the very technology of the modern world which has
overloaded minds with information, has at the same time provided
means of transportation and storage which, through garden stores
and florists, serve to make flowers a greater part of daily life
than they were in the medieval countrysides.
Placed in classrooms in miniature dish or windowsill plantings
before statuettes of Our Lady, the symbolic Flowers of Our Lady can
thus serve to quicken reflection on Mary' life and mysteries by
students through the school day.
The use of the flower symbols to enrich meditation on the Rosary
Mysteries is in accordance with Pope John Paul II's envisioning of
the employment of supplementary means for revitalizing meditative
prayer of the Rosary:
"It is...beautiful and fruitful to entrust to this
prayer the growth and development of children. Does the
Rosary not follow the life of Christ, from his
conception to his death, and then to his Resurrection
and his glory? . . .
"To pray the Rosary...with children, training them from
their earliest years to experience this daily "pause for
prayer"...is a spiritual aid which should not be
underestimated...with appropriate symbolic and practical
aids to understanding and appreciation. Why not try it?
"With God's help, a pastoral approach to youth which is
positive, impassioned and creative...is capable of
achieving quite remarkable results. If the Rosary is
well presented, I am sure that young people will once
more surprise adults by the way they make this prayer
their own and recite it with the enthusiasm typical of
their age group."
(par. 4)
A classroom project to this end is to examine research lists of the
Flowers of Our Lady in order to select those associated with each of
the Rosary Mysteries, and also with other Gospel events and
teachings.
Teaching The Flowers Of Our Lady
Our hope for children's growth in the love of Catholic faith and
practice lies in our confidence that, as St. Paul teaches, the desire
for goodness is implanted in the human heart; and that the Christian
revelation and deposit of faith preserved and taught by the Church
are the ultimate good which all hearts implicitly seek, no matter
what belief environments they are born into.
Children first learn communion with others (as a first step towards
eventual entering into communion with God and Mary) through their
experience of the bonding of parental or guardian love. Then there
come the times when as infants and small children they reach and
display a readiness to learn, with guidance, the goodness of each
basic skill - to roll over, crawl, manipulate, eat, walk, talk and
read, etc. Then, in a Catholic environment, there comes the time -
before any formal school education - when they reach a readiness,
especially with the graces of Baptism, to learn the Gospel truths
from the family praying of the Rosary - before they are bombarded
with the extensive secular stimuli of TV and of peer pressures
outside the home.
As this is being written, a marvellous example was shared in the
Catholic media of a one-year-old's entering into a relationship with
Mary from the experiences of presence with her parents during the
praying of the Rosary before her statue in Church before Sunday Mass,
and of parental home veneration of Mary before her garden statue.
New Orleans "Clarion Herald" 9/11/02
In our experience with the Mary's Gardens project, one oldest
daughter, after learning and participating in the daily family
Rosary became interested in our home Mary Gardens, and at age 5
began imaginatively reflecting on the Gospel story as mirrored by
the flower symbols, surrounding a focal wayside shrine of Our Lady
- as described in the 1955 article, "In Mary's Garden".
List of plants referred to in story, in order of mention
Religious Name Common Name Botanical Name
Virgin's Tears Lungwort Pulmonaria officinalis
Our Lady's Keys Cowslip Primrose Primula veris
Eyes of Mary Forget-me-not Myosotis alpestris
Our Lady's Delight Pansy Viola tricolor
Pincushion Thrift Armeria mariima
Shoes Columbine Aquilegia vulgaris
Our Lady's Thimble Bluebells of Scotland Campanula rotundifolia
Madonna's Pins Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum
Mystical Rose Rose Rosa
Our Lady's Gloves Foxglove Digitalis purpurea
Our Lady's Nightcap Canterbury Bells Campanula medium
Mary's Candle Giant Mullein Verbascum thapsus
Mary's Hand Five Fingers Potentilla nepalensis
Rose of Mary Rose Campion Lychnis coronaria
Madonna Lily Madonna Lily Lilium candidum
Mary's Gold Marigold Tagetes
Mary's Bud Pot Marigold Calendula officinalis
Our Lady's Earrings Garden Balsam Impatiens balsaminum
Mary's Thistle Blessed Tnistle Silybum marianum
Virgin Flower Periwinkle Vinca minor
St. Joseph's Staff Hollyhock Althea rosea
Mary's Slippers Monkshood Aconitum napellus
Our Lady by-the-gate Soapwort Saponaria officinalis
Assumption Lily Funkia Hosta plantaginea
O. L. Birthday Flower Early Aster Aster amellus
chrysanthemums Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum
Our Lady's Bedstraw Yellow Bedstraw Gallium verum
Our Lady's Pincushion Scabiosa Scabiosa atropurpurea
Our Lady's Fingers Honeysuckle Lonicera caprifolium
Easter Flower Candytuft Iberis semperflorens
Our Lady's Tears Spiderwort Tradescantia virginiana
Flowers such as "Star of Bethlehem" and "Our Lady's Bedstraw", and
also "Christmas Rose" and "Christ's Cradle" were joyfully
recognized from Christmas creche Manger Scenes, Christmas carols
and legends.
In school instruction numerous Flowers of Our Lady are introduced
symbolizing further aspects of the Rosary Mysteries, and also of
aspects of the catechetical and theological instruction of their
religion classes - on Creation, Redemption, the sacraments, grace,
virtues, Kingdom, etc.
Rediscovery Of Medieval Tradition
Students learning the Flowers of Our Lady today are re-discovering
the familiarity with Our Lady's Flowers which children had of old,
as we learn from authors writing the 19th century. Thus, one
author wrote, in southern Germany:
"There exists the custom, on the Feast of Mary's Assumption
into Heaven ...to bless plants...which, like other blessed
objects, are brought home by the faithful for religious
use. . . .
"Their gathering is relegated to the school children and
thereby gives occasion to a botanical excursion, which has
great appeal for them. The plant names by which the
- Our Lady's Bedstraw, Our Lord's Little Fingers . . . "
- Plant Legends, A priest of the Diocese of
Paderborn, 1891 (translated from German).
While children can become directly familiar with the Flowers of Our
Lady in a home Mary Garden; for the many who learn of them through
indoor instruction in schools, illustrations of a full range of
these flowers are collected and assembled in indexed reference
binders.
Once these collections are made, they an be referred to for
illuminative reflection on a range of Rosary Mysteries, Gospel
events, and verbal catechetical instructions.
Virtual Mary Gardens For School Instruction
For meditative reference to Our Lady, little photos or paintings of
Flowers of Our Lady are composed in virtual Mary Gardens around
drawings or paintings of Our Lady, and live plants can be arranged
around Mary's statuettes in actual miniature dish or windowsill
Mary Gardens - both providing imaginative experience of their
symbolism attributively around focal figures of Our Lady.
For schools where there are computer classes, virtual Mary Gardens
can be composed using the computer software program, FLOWERscape.
Illustrative Flowers of Our Lady Computer Virtual Mary Garden
(Additional computer Virtual Mary Gardens).
The Flowers of Our Lady are images or symbols which thus directly
quicken and focus our reflection and illuminate our imagination, in
love - as distinct from the written words of catechisms, which
provide verbal descriptions, ideas and definitions rather than
illuminative images. It has been said that our present day
imagination is largely verbal, whereas in medieval times, the Age
of Faith, it was visual.
While we, in our present era of discursive book learning translate
the written word into imaginative picturings for illuminative
reflection; the faithful of the illiterate rural medieval culture
moved directly to illuminative meditation from the luminosity of
flower symbols and supporting oral legends.
As we pray the Ave's and Pater's of the Rosary we are to meditate
on the Mysteries in our memory and imagination - to "imitate what
they contain, and obtain what they promise". When meditation on
the Mysteries is quickened by their flower symbols, a certain
luminosity is infused from the flowers which directly instills love
into our imagination through our senses - in preparation and
readiness for our illumination by the light of grace.
Twelve such meditations have been set forth for the Website
12 Flower Meditations.
Flowers Of Our Lady And Mary Gardens Slide Lecture
The introductory classroom presentation of the Flowers of Our Lady
is best accomplished by way of a slide lecture, such as the
introductory 50 photo slide show, with accompanying narrations
available from the Mary's Gardens website.
Illustrative Slide #1 and Narration, Rose Window, Chartres
Cathedral (larger 6" image for use with computer projector)
Prominent among medieval flower symbols of the
Blessed Virgin Mary were the Rose Windows of the
gothic cathedrals - great gardens of glass in
which a central figure of the Virgin and Child
enthroned in majesty was surrounded with symbols
of devotion and truth.
In the medieval age of faith, before the introduction
of printing, catechisms or religious illustrations,
these, together with the sculptured programs of the
cathedrals were a primary means for the instruction
of the largely illiterate faithful.
Here, in the famous twelfth century rose window of
the north transept of Chartres Cathedral the
surrounding symbols include fleurs-de-lis of the
Annunciation, doves of the Holy Spirit, adoring
angels, the twelve kings of the Line of David
(celebrated in Christian genealogy and art as the
"Tree of Jesse") and the last twelve prophets - all
in a spiral geometric arrangement similar to the
underlying growth pattern found in roses,
sunflowers and daisies.
The rose window, as a whole, was seen to represent
the truth of the Incarnation as expressed by Dante:
"Behold the rose wherein the Divine Word was made
incarnate" - a representation of Isaiah's prophecy
of the Virgin Birth of the Messiah as a miraculously
blossoming rod of Jesse, the origin in revelation of
all flower symbolism of the Blessed Virgin: "And
there shall come forth a rod out of the root of
Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him."
Entire Lecture (smaller 3" images for computer screen viewing, with
descriptive text).
A preparatory viewing of the 3" photos and text can be made on a
computer by teachers; and the 6" images and separate Narration
Text then downloaded and printed out in the school computer
workroom for classroom computer projection and spoken narration.
Also available on the website are photos of Flowers of
Our Lady which can be printed out for inclusion in the classroom
flower albums.
Once general introductory knowledge of the Flowers of Our Lady is
gained from the slide show, photos of additional flowers can then
be accessed from the website or elsewhere on the Internet for a
fullness of symbolism of Mary' life, mysteries and divinely endowed
prerogatives - as our spiritual mother, protector, nurturer,
healer, consoler, guide, helper, co-redemptrix, sanctifier,
illuminator, advocate, intercessor, mediatrix and queen.
As a computer exercise for students, (copyrighted) photos of almost
all the 1,000 Flowers of Our Lady of the research when searched on
the Internet through the Google search engine by their latin
botanical names can be found and downloaded.
Teachers' Guide
Mary's Gardens Associate, Lisa Creamer, has written and privately
published a Mary Garden Teachers Guide describing numerous classroom
Flowers of Our Lady projects - some for younger children and others
for high school classes.
"Mary Gardens for Children - Project Guide for Home & School Use"
by Lisa Creamer, 36 pp., 10 illustrations; Morning Star Gifts,
Olney, MD, April 2001 - $10.00 first class mail to anywhere in the
U.S.. Check or Money Order.
Parents' and Teachers' Guide
c/o Creamer
17408 Moss Side Lane
Olney. MD 20832
e-mail - creamers@comcast.net
Review:
Lisa Creamer's "Mary's Gardens for Children" is a classroom and
home schooling guide for teaching children the story and care of
the "Flowers of Our Lady" - flowers named in medieval times for
their symbolism of The Blessed Virgin and her life, virtues, and
mysteries.
Included are instructions for growing the flowers in miniature
classroom or home dish or windowsill Mary Gardens; and for starting
them from seed on sunny windowsills for moving to outdoor school,
parish or home Mary Gardens - as a prayerful work of veneration,
devotion and religious instruction.
The book first teaches the history of flower symbolism and its
place in religious life in the days before printing, literacy,
books and schools. It then proposes the gathering of illustrations
of the symbolic Flowers of Our Lady, that, lovingly viewed, they
first may be "planted" as imaginative "Mary Gardens of the Heart".
This is then followed with instructions for actual indoor
Windowsill and Dish Mary Garden projects; indoor seed starting;
Fall bulb planting; Spring annuals planting; outdoor Rosary Gardens
and patio Container Mary Gardens; and for composing virtual
bulletin board Mary Gardens of flower drawings and photo clippings.
Also included are numerous additional project ideas. The book has
Appendixes of 300 Flowers of Our Lady grouped by horticultural type
and climatic requirements; traditional prayers to Mary; children's
books about Mary; reference to extensive information on the Flowers
of Our Lady and Mary Gardens available from the Internet; and a
Bibliography of articles and books.
The text is illustrated with delightful drawings by the author and
her three grade school children. In general it is organized and
written in a style suited for the teaching of both grade school and
high school students, and for the planting by all of Mary Gardens,
small or large, as beautiful expressions of Marian veneration and
devotion.
Basic References
The many introductory leaflets and magazine articles on the Flowers
of Our Lady and Mary Gardens published in the 50 years following the
founding of Mary's Gardens of Philadelphia in 1951 - inspired by
the first U. S. public Mary Garden planted at St. Joseph's Church
in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1932 - are posted to the Mary's
Gardens Internet Website, established in 1995, at:
www.mgardens.org
Suggested for general background and reference is the 1999 book by
Mary's Gardens Associate, Vincenzina Krymow - "Mary's Flowers,
Gardens, Legends, and Meditations" (republished in paperback in
2002):
Mary's Flowers, Gardens, Legends, and Meditations by
Vincenzina Krymow, with illustrations by A. Joseph
Barrish, S.M. and meditations by M. Jean Frisk - October
1999, St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, and
Novalis, Toronto, 192 pages, paperback, 55 color
illustrations.
See reviews of this basic reference on the Mary's Garden website:
www.mgardens.org/JS-REVIEW-MF.html
Mary Gardens in Religious Fiction
The Healing Tree, by Diana Gonzalez Tabbaa
A lovely fictional story of how a lonely, troubled, young city
girl found faith, devotion, happiness and her vocation through a
tree house, Mary Garden, artifacts and scripture during a summer's
country visit with her grandmother.
Includes the laying out of a Mary Garden, a list of its Flowers of
Our Lady, the sowing of its seeds and their germination; with a
discussion of the symbolism of some its flowers in bloom.
Twelve beautifully illuminative paintings of the Flowers of Our
Lady separate the chapters. Other illustrations include an
especially lovely painting of the Marian Grotto.
Review
Student Religious Formation
In the process of learning - continuing their early home formation -
students are guided and nurtured in the basic skills of reading,
writing and arithmetic. Then, to quicken within them the discovery
and vision of their special individual endowments, potentials,
inclinations and opportunities, and the desire for the development of
these, they are presented with descriptions and images of the various
skills and professions - religion, philosophy, government. medicine,
law, science, technology, agriculture, psychology, history, drama,
writing, teaching, business, arts, crafts, music, sports, humor, etc.
In this, they are instructed that the assistance given them in the
discovery and development of their individual potentials and interests
is not simply for them to fit into prevailing job opportunities, but,
first of all, to assist each in discovering his or her unique ability
to contribute to the purpose for which our loving, infinite, personal
God created the world and us: to show forth and share the divine
goodness and action - as in his showing forth of the divine beauty
and riches in flowers, and in our sharing in the care for them as
gardeners.
We perceive the divine goodness, beauty and truth of flowers, and of
all Creation, with our five senses, understand them through our
intellects, and act to care for them and use them through our wills -
with the guidance of God's revelation and the promptings of his
grace.
In the planting and care of flowers in gardens we comply with God's
call to Adam to share in the divine creative action by "dressing and
keeping" the world (through explorations, arts, crafts, sciences and
technologies, etc.); and by "increasing and multiplying", we fill it
- with culmination to be in the building and coming of the Earthly
Peaceable Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom, and its divine
transfiguration on the Last Day, with the General Resurrection, into
the eternal New Heaven and New Earth.
From this overall viewpoint, students are presented with images -
verbal and visual - of the Earthly Peaceable Kingdom , to which they
are called to contribute; each in his or her individual way.
At the same time students are to be assisted in understanding how to
cope with the environment of temptations, addictions, disrespect,
discrimination, exploitation, hatred, oppression, violence, crime and
war, etc. - contrary to God's purpose for Creation - which they
observe on television, and, to a degree, encounter in their own
experience; and within which they must live and work.
In this it is explained that early on, the freedom with which we are
all created that we may voluntarily share in God's goodness and
action, was abused by the first humans in a sinful attempt to enjoy
and use the world for their own ends, rather than in the shared
building of its culminating Peaceable Kingdom - as a consequence of
which God's guiding grace, rejected by them, was withdrawn, and there
ensued the history of power struggles, emnities and violence of
individuals and groups as they attempted and attempt to enjoy and to
employ the goodness of Creation for their own ends.
It is explained further, however, that. in love, God the Father, to
restore the opportunity for the accomplishment of the fullness of
divine/human sharing and action for which the world was created, sent
his only begotten Son into the world, as the Divine Word incarnate,
True God and True Man, to take all its sins upon himself, in his
infinity, and through his sacrificial death give atoning satisfaction
for them to the creating Father, and banish them to the nothingness
of the outer darkness - with restoration to humans of the guiding
promptings of grace for resumption of the building of the culminating
Earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
However, while sin was thus atoned for, and continues to be atoned
for through the continuation of Christ's sacrifice of Calvary in the
daily masses throughout the world, the effects of sin continue to
circulate in the moral cause and effect environment of the world -
causing darkness of intellect, weakness of will and disorderly
affections - perpetuating the fallen world's environment of
addiction, injustice and violence.
As instructed in the Catechism, students are to cope with this
environment of the effects of sin through the protecting strictures
of the Ten Commandments and Seven Capital Sins; recourse to the
sanctifying grace of the Sacraments; and formation according to the
infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
But, more than this. Students are to be instructed that through his
sacrifice, God the Son has enabled as well the reparational
nullification of the effects of sin circulating in the world -
through the sacrificial offering to this end by individuals, for and
with him, of all the inconveniences, irritations aggravations, sorrows
and sufferings of their daily lives - that all may be enabled to live
by revelation and grace. In this God wishes - in keeping with the
purpose of creating the world for us to share in the divine action -
that, in love, we share as fully in the divine redemptive and
reparational sacrifice of the Son, as in the prompting action of the
Holy Spirit for our building of the Peaceable Kingdom.
In this it is explained to students that even the slightest
inconveniences in our daily lives are effects of sin contrary to
the harmony intended by God for Creation, and are thus to be offered
sacrificially for and with Christ in reparation.
The essence of Our Lady's revelation at Fatima in 1918 as to the
means to world peace is that we are all to pray the Rosary - through
the intercession and mediation of her Immaculate Heart - to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the graces of peace; and, together with
this, to offer to him, through her, all the sacrifices, large and
small, of our daily lives and duties, for the reparational
diminishment of the effects of sin circulating in the world, so that
the hearts of leaders and all may be freed from these effects, that
they may respond, in accordance with their essential goodness of
heart, with which we all are created, to the prayed for graces of
peace. God is neither "right" nor "left", "conservative" nor
"liberal", but sends the graces prompting decisons for peace in each
concrete situation.
Regardless of what their special interests, gifts or works may or may
not be, all students can contribute fully to the building of God's
Peaceable Kingdom through reception of the sanctifying grace of the
sacraments of Holy Communion and Reconciliation; conformity with the
Ten Commandments; avoidance of the Seven Capital Sins; cultivation of
the virtues and gifts; entering into all their living and working
relationships in truth, justice, love and freedom; praying the Rosary
for peace; and offering the adversities of their daily lives
sacrificially for and with Christ in reparation for the effects of
sin upon world leaders.
Without the inspirational presentation to students by parents and
teachers of the life goals of seeking and developing the fullness of
their endowed personal potentials for the discovery, showing forth
and magnifying of God's goodness in Creation; and of employing these
developed potentials for the building of God's Peaceable Kingdom to
this end - young people are attracted, in their undirected desire for
the good, to the lesser goods, or harms, of addictive sensory
gratification; excessive material accumulation, exercise of power
over others, and the seeking of worldly acclaim, which divert them
from the building of God's Kingdom Kingdom, and from growth in
virtues and inspirations to this end.
On the other hand, as students, with guidance, become increasingly
sanctified - through formation in the virtues, and though the graces
of the sacraments of confirmation and reconciliation - they become
further attuned and responsive, in their actions, initiatives and
creativity, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, sent for their
guidance in the divine/human cooperative sharing in the building and
coming of God's Earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
In this, their primary daily focus, in addition to the continual
sacrificial offering for and with Christ of the the aggravations and
adversities of their daily lives and duties in reparation for the
effects of sin in the world, is to be their formation in the virtues
- both of dealing externally with others in truthfulness, fairness,
love and respect; and of their own interior spiritual growth and
perfection that they may be ever more fully attuned and responsive
to the prompting of their actions by the Holly Spirit.
Students' formation in the virtues of external relations is through
constant self examination for any failures in these - with
confession, penance and consequent reception of the virtue
strengthening graces of absolution; but their primary formation is to
be in the interior virtues of purity, humility and obedience to the
divine teachings and promptings - in emulation of these virtues in
Mary - as envisaged through meditation on her life and mysteries in
praying the Rosary, and also through reflection on flowers by those
familiar with their symbolism, as they are viewed in the garden and
encountered during the day.
Growth In Emulation of Mary's Virtues
In their spiritual formation, students are to envisage the virtues,
gifts and fruits they are to emulate, not as abstract essences or
ideals, but in their perfection in the person and life of Mary - in
her immaculate purity, total humility and total conformity to God's
word and grace. As the model of virtue, Mary was called in medieval
times the "Ladder to Heaven" and "Heavenly Way" - of which we are
reminded in the Mary Garden by two flowers given the names of old
("Ladder to Heaven" - Jacob's Ladder, Polemonium caeruleum, from
the ladder-like shape of its leaves; and "Heavenly Way" - Cichorlum
intybus, Chicory, from it's extensive blue bordering of roadsides).
For their increase in sanctifying grace - that their intentions may
be ever more pure; that they may be ever more attuned to the
prompting of actual graces in their acts and works; and for the
greater glory of God - students are first of all to emulate Mary's
interior purity.
They may be instructed concretely in this by consideration of
the parallels of their interior spiritual life and the growth to the
life and growth of plants - as observed in the tending of Flowers of
Our Lady cultivated in miniature classroom dish or windowsill Mary
Gardens.
In learning of the dependence of seeds and plants on water,
sunlight, air and soil for growth, and in undertaking the
responsibility for providing these, students gain insight into the
like dependence of their own interior spiritual life and growth on
God's grace, light, wisdom and power - bestowed through the
sacraments and the promptings of the Holy Spirit - in which we are
all called to:
"Send forth flowers as the Lily,
and yield a fragrance,
And bring forth leaves in grace,
and praise with canticles,
And bless the Lord in his works."
Sirach 39:13-14 (Ecclesiasticus
39:18-19);
(Communion Verse from the original Mass
liturgy for the feast of the Rosary.)
In this the understanding is introduced to students that our
interior spiritual life and growth resemble the life and growth of
plants, in that the virtues and wisdom to which we are called are
more than behavior modification, or "moralism" - the imitation or
learning of moral and wise concepts through our intellects - but
grow from supernatural seeds and roots infusedly sown and
planted in our hearts and souls, in accordance with Christ's
parable of the sower, and with the passage applied to Mary's
mediation - "Strike the roots of your virtues in your elect".
To this end, the gospel teaching, "I will teach you of life, and of
life everlasting", is inscribed on a bronze plaque at the first U.
S. public Mary Garden at St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole,
Massachusetts.
Our seeds of the virtues, sown through the sanctifying graces of
baptism, grow when the "weeds" and "brambles" of obstructing
imperfections, vices and sins are discovered through spiritual
self-examination, and rooted up through confession and penitential
mortification, that the growth of the virtues may then be nurtured
sacramentally with the graces of baptism, communion and absolution.
Reflection on Mary's virtues inspires their emulation, in the course
of which they serve as ideals in relation to which students are to
discover their own imperfections, vices and sins - to be rooted up
through self-examination and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
For example, Dante proposes Mary's words of the Mystery of the
Finding of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:48),
"Son, why hast Thou done so to us? Behold Thy father
and I have sought thee sorrowing."
as an example for reflection of her virtue of total sweetness in
expressing a criticism, devoid of any trace of the sin of anger,
or of irritation or impatience.
We recall this as in the Mary Garden we view (and smell) the herb
"Sweet Mary" (Bebalm, Monarda didyma). repeating,
"O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary"
In their meditations students are counseled to envisage other
situations in the life of the Holy Family, in which Mary, in her
perfection of virtue, lived by the "opposite virtues" to the seven
capital sins.
Finally, students are to reflect that Mary, through her grace-filled
immaculate purity, was surely infused with every virtue to a
fullness of perfection, as the model for the boy Jesus to emulate in
his educational formation, in his obedience to her as he "grew and
waxed strong, full of wisdom: and the grace of God was in him" (Luke
2:40) - on which we are quickened to meditate as we behold the
"Obedient Plant" (Psychosegia virginiana) in the Mary Garden
(so-named from the retaining by its individual flowers of any angular
position to which they may be placed, due to unique hinged
connections to their supporting stems).
In what follows, the Flowers of Our Lady are to be examined for their
quickening of meditation both on the Mysteries of Mary's union with
Christ's redemption of the world; and, for our emulation, on the
virtues, gifts and fruits of her fullness of grace, enabling her
blessed elevation by God to this union.
Praying the Rosary For Reparation and Kingdom
We pray, in the Concluding Prayers of the Rosary,
"Grant, we beseech you, O Lord, that in meditating on
these Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain
what they promise, through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
From this, students are to understand that they are to meditate on:
- Mary's Joyful and Sorrowful Rosary Mysteries for
growth in emulation of her virtues of attunement to
God and of union with her Divine Son in the sacrifice
of his Passion and Cross;
and on:
- her Glorious Mysteries, that they may comply with God's
will that we offer to him all our sacrifices and prayers
for sanctification and Kingdom through heavenly Mary,
as our Intercessor and universal Mediatrix of all
Providence and Grace.
In meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries, Students are to offer all
their injuries, pains and sorrows for and with Jesus, who takes them
upon himself as is own, in reparation for the effects of sin in the
fallen world, that, freed from these effects - darkness of intellect,
weakness of will, and disorderly affections - the hearts of leaders
and all may respond with the intrinsic goodness with which all hearts
are created, to the promptings of grace to actions for Kingdom.
Students are to do this with the understanding that Jesus, as
God the Son, was and is able, through the Sacrifice of Calvary, and
through the continuation ot this sacrifice in all the daily masses of
the world, to make redemptive satisfaction for the infinite affront
of the sins of the fallen world to the creating God the Father - that
divine grace may be restored to the world.
However, in accordance with God's desire for the fullness of human
sharing in the divine action, we are called, in grace, to offer all
our daily aggravations and sufferings as sacrifices, to and with
Jesus, for the reparational diminishment, in the spiritual cause and
effect of the finite world, of all the effects of sin continuing to
circulate in the world after the Redemption.
In this, students are to be referred to God's revelation through
Mary, at Fatima, that the sacrificial offering to Jesus, through her
Immaculate Heart, of all the diminishments experienced in our daily
lives and in the performance of its duties, is required of us, in
addition to our Rosary prayers, if peace is to be established on
earth - for the building of the Peaceable Kingdom.
We have faith that God's will for the establishment of the Earthly
Peaceable Kingdom WILL be done, but awaits the fullness of human
daily sacrificial sharing, for and with Christ, for the reparational
diminishment of the effects of sin circulating in the world which
incline leaders to war. With respect to the 2,000 years of war since
Christ gave us the Gospel of peace, G. K. Chesterton observed,
"Christianity has not failed; it has never (adequately) been tried."
While the fullness of daily sacrificial sharing with Christ
reparationally to diminish the effects of sin circulating in the world
may at first seem incomprehensible to students as being the key to the
establishment of peace and the Earthly Peaceable Kingdom; they are to
be shown through the study of history, and also of current events, how
attempts at peace have failed over and over again over these 2,000
years, and are failing in the present, either because leaders are
unable to reach agreements to de-escalate violence; or because if
cease-fires and peace settlements are agreed upon, underlying
oppressions and injustices are unresolved so that in time new violence
breaks out from the oppressed and exploited.
Only when the effects of sin have been sufficiently diminished,
generally, and particularly in leaders, will it be possible for the
innate goodness of human hearts to enter into the de-escalations of
violence and the just agreements, which will permit the cooperation of
all, in grace, in building the Peaceble World Kingdom - for the coming
of which we pray each day in the "Our Father".
When the peace challenges and failures of world events are seen from
this viewpoint, the essentiality of the reparational diminishment of the
effects of sin in the world as the pre-condition for peace, and the
essentiality of a massive offering of daily sacrifices for and with
Christ to this end, become a compelling incentive in daily lives of
students.
The call to students, then, is to follow life and events from the
viewpoint of the basic truth of the need for the general diminishment
of the effects of sin in the world; and to study and meditate
constantly on the truth that this diminishment is to come through a
fuller joining in Christ's redemptive and reparational sacrifice,
through the intercession of Mary's Imaculate Heart - through the
Mass; and through the praying of the Rosary mysteries, reflection on
which is quickened through the day by their flower symbols seen in
gardens, on roadsides, and in plantings and arrangements.
The Annunciation
Among the flowers of the Annunciation are those which symbolize the
maidenly, immaculate, purity of Holy Mary, through her openness and
fidelity to the graces bequeathed her for the preservation of her
Immaculate Conception:
White Lily "Annunciation Lily", symbol of Mary's
Immaculate Purity.
Impatiens "Our Lady's Earrings", symbolical pure
adornments of the ears of Mary who heard
the word of God and kept it.
Violet symbol of Mary's humility "regarded by
the Lord".
Lady-Slipper "Our Lady's Slipper", symbol of Mary's
graceful Visitation trip to visit
Elizabeth in the hill country: "All her
steps were most beauteous."
Thistle-Down "another Visitation symbol", from its
graceful movement in air currents.
Others symbolize some of Mary's divinely bestowed
prerogatives, as Mother of God, possible through her immaculate
holiness:
Rose symbol of the Blessed Virgin of
prophecy, the Rose plant bearing the
flower, Christ.
Daisy "Mary's Flower of God"
Periwinkle Blue "Virgin Flower", emblem of the Blessed
Virgin's fullness of grace.
Columbine symbol of the dove of the Holy Spirit,
Mary's overshadowing, indwelling,
divine Spouse.
Pansy "Trinity Flower", symbol of the
Trinity, first revealed to Mary.
Strawberry "Fruitful Virgin", in flower and fruit
at the same time.
Everlasting symbol of the eternity of Mary's loving
mediation in heaven.
Students, for their actions to be in conformity with God's
sanctifying and actual graces, are called to emulate first of all
Mary's virtues of purity and humility, which enabled her fullness of
grace and total assent and fidelity to God's Annunciation call to
the Motherhood of the Divine Redeemer of the fallen world.
In her love of God and her consequent desire to see the
accomplishment of his purpose for Creation, of our grace-inspired
co-creative human sharing in the building and coming of the earthly
Peaceable Kingdom - as the culminative showing forth and human
sharing of his divine goodness, beauty, truth and action - maidenly
Mary sought the spiritual perfection through which she might be
divinely chosen as the prophesied virgin to bear the Messiah God had
promised to send to redeem the fallen world, and to restore the
actual graces for its guidance on its path to Kingdom.
In the Mary Garden we are quickened to emulation of the basic
virtues of Mary - her purity and her humility - by the flower
symbols from the Annunciation: the white lily ("Annunciation or
Madonna Lily") symbolizing her immaculate purity, and the lowly
violet ("Mary's Humility"), symbolizing her utter humility. 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 this, through the symbol of the red rose, he thus
praised also her love for the coming of God's promised Redeemer, to
be born of a Virgin, which love, as St. Augustin affirms, gave
birth to him in her heart before he was conceived by the Holy
Spirit in her womb; and, through the golden gillyflower, her
radiance, assumed body and soul into heaven, where she "comes
forth...bright as the sun" from the Heaven of the Trinity.
Students' reflection, in their Annunciation meditations, on Mary's
love, immaculate purity and utter humility can be quickened through
the school day by a small arrangement of flowers, drawing on the
general red, white and violet color symbolism of Mary's love, purity
and humility, on which they glance from time to time - such as a
small indoor arrangement of miniature red and white roses and
violet African violets before a statuette of Our Lady.
Emulation of Mary's virtues of love, purity and humility, is basic
to students' openness and attunement to the sanctifying graces of
the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Reconciliation, for their own
spiritual growth in fidelity to the graces of their baptism - as
Mary was faithful to the graces of her Immaculate Conception.
Accompanying their growth in sanctifying graces through these
virtues is a corresponding increase in their attunement to the actual
graces prompting their actions for the coming of God's Kingdom - as
Mary was faithful to the divine promptings, beginning with that for
her Visitation trip that unborn John the Baptist, in Elizabeth's
womb, might be spiritual quickened by Jesus, in hers.
In their call to spiritual growth, students have the example of the
growth of flowers, all of which bloom in glorious visual
perfection, as Mary, the "Flower of flowers", bloomed in her
spiritual perfection.
Immaculate Conception Symbols
In addition to the Annunciation flower symbols of Mary's purity,
humility and love, there are also flower, plant and tree symbols
selected from scripture by the Church Fathers as figurative symbol
of her Immaculate Conception:
As Emile Male states in "The Virgin in Art".
"In the early years of the sixteenth century there
appeared in France a touchingly poetic figure of the
Virgin as a girl almost a child in the attitude that
Michelangelo gave to Eve at the moment of her appearance
upon earth, hands clasped in adoration. . . .
"Above her God pronounces the words of the Canticle of
Canticles: "Thou art all beautiful, my love, and there is
no spot of sin within Thee." And to adorn still further
the beauty and candor of the spouse that God has chosen,
the artist visualizes the suavest metaphors of the Bible:
the enclosed garden, the tower of David, the fountain, the
lilies of the valley, the star, the rose, the mirror
without stain. Everything most admired by man becomes a
recollection of the Virgin's beauty."
In considering this medieval viewing of Mary according to her
divine heavenly essences, students are to consider that they, too,
are viewed by God in their heavenly essences, according to which
they, like Mary, are called ultimately to flower.
This permits the virtues to grow upwards with the illumination of
spiritual light and then, with the infused wisdom of the sacrament
of confirmation, to branch out with the leaves of wisdom and to
bear the spiritual fruits.
St. Francis of Assisi describes for us his interior "Tree of Love":
"Into love's furnace I am cast
"The tree of love its roots hath spread
Deep in my heart, and rears its head;
Rich are its fruits: they joy dispense;
Transport the heart, and ravish sense.
In love's sweet swoon to thee I cleave,
Bless'd source of love . . . .
"All creatures love aloud proclaim;
Heav'ns, earth and sea increase my flame;
Whate're I see, as mirror bright
Reflects my lover to my sight;
My heart all objects to him raise;
Are steps to the Creator's praise . . . ."
By the placing of the flowers of Mary's virtues before or around a
figure of Mary as the Immaculate Conception - as the young maiden
of the Annunciation - students in beholding them are brought to
think of Mary and to commune with her as of their age, as a peer
similar to themselves in every respect except that the supernatural
source of her spirituality was in the providential protection and
graces of her immaculate Conception, whereas theirs is in the
graces of their baptism and the sacraments of communion and
penance.
Flowers Of The Trinity
The inclusion of the Pansy, "Trinity Flower"(from its three
colors), for meditation, with the other Annunciation flowers of Our
Lady, recalls it was at the Annunciation that the Angel Gabriel
revealed to Mary (and thus to the human race) God as the Divine
Trinity of Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through the
conception in her womb by the Third Person, the Holy Spirit, Mary
was to give incarnational virgin birth to the Second, the Son, true
God and true Man, as the Redeemer and Messiah promised by the First
Person, the Father Creator.
In nature the Holy Trinity of the three Divine Persons of the one
God were also symbolized by other flowers of three-fold forms or
colors, and thus named for the Trinity, such as Trillium ("Trinity
Lily") with its three-petaled flowers, and Bougainvillea
("Trinitaria") with its three slender white flowers cradled in each
red foliage cluster.
In accordance with the Second Commandment's prohibition of images
of the unseen Creator - God the Father - the Hidden God, was given
no unique flower symbol, as distinct from the Son and the Holy
Spirit, who appeared on earth.
The Holy Spirit was also symbolized by the columbine (columba,
dove) recalling it's dove-like descent at the Baptism of Christ; by
the red Peony and several other red flowers blooming in late spring
around the time of the liturgical feast of Pentecost; and by the
Holy Spirit Philodendron symbolizing the descending tongues of
flame of the Holy Spirit to Mary and the Apostles to inaugurate the
building of Christ's Church. The tooth-like perforations of
"pinks" - also in bloom in the north-temperate climate of Europe
around Pentecost-tide - were named for the same tongues of flame
symbolism: the English name, "pinks" coming from the dutch name for
Pentecost, "Pinkster". Hence, "Pinking Sheers" which cut
tooth-like perforations in cloth.
Trees Of Mary's Wisdom
The Church Fathers also ascribed to Mary, the "Seat of Wisdom", our
sublime model of wisdom, the wisdom imagery of trees from
scripture:
"Like a cedar on Lebanon . . . a cypress on Mount Herman,
Like a palm tree in Engedi, like a rosebush in Jericho,
Like a fair olive tree in the field,
Like a plane tree growing beside the water . . .
I give forth perfume . . .
I spread my branches . . .
I bud forth delights like the vine,
My blossoms bear fruit fair and rich."
(Sirach 24, 14-17)
Students are created with intellects, wills, senses and affections
in order that through them they may grow in knowledge, love and
service of God. If these faculties are not so filled, in
accordance with their readiness at each stage of growth, the
natural desire for their filling will be turned instead to the
secular, material, sensate, harmful and illicit things of the
fallen world, still to be fully redeemed through wider union by the
faithful of their sufferings with the redemptive suffering of
Christ.
The Visitation
In the symbolic mosaic of the Flowers of Our Lady, we are quickened
to reflection on the mystery of the Visitation by "Our Lady's
Slippers" - flowers recalling Mary's steps as she traveled to the
hill country to visit Elizabeth. "All her steps were most beauteous"
(Canticles ). Imaginative legends tell that these flowers sprang
up where Mary walked.
Among the purported relics brought back to Europe from the Holy
Land by returning pilgrims in the 12th century was Our Lady's
slipper, and it is believed that the Slipper Chapel at the
Walsingham Shrine of Our Lady in England was a repository for this
relic. From this arose the custom of whereby Walsingham pilgrims
remove their slippers (shoes) at this chapel and walk the remainder
of the way to the main shrine barefoot.
The naming of numerous slipper-like flowers, such the "columbine"
with its slipper-like fallen spurs of the wild columbine, or the
spurs of monkshood, as "Our Lady's Slipper", and the naming of an
entire genus of orchids as ladyslippers, has been directly or
indirectly inspired by this relic - such that we have around us
many flower reminders of the Visitation.
In reflecting on Mary's Visitation trip we envisage her as she
travels through a countryside filled with her flower symbols.
Gottfied von Strassburg proclaims in his medieval "Song of Praises
to Mary",
"Grass, flowers and clover join in her praises . . .
laughing roses and playing blossoms . . . blooming
hedges . . . rose blossoms and lily petals . . .
valleys of roses and fields of violets . . . flowers
shining through blooming clover . . . praise the
Noble Plant of Fruitful Purity,"
Sr. Josepha Mendenez perceives Jesus' praise of Mary as,
"rose blossoming in springtime, immaculate lily,
tall and graceful iris, sweet smelling violet . . . "
"The Way of Divine Love"
Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his poem, "The May Magnificat", writes
of Mary's ecstasy in viewing the flowers of the countryside through
which she passes on the Visitation trip, surely turning her
thoughts to Isaiah's prophetic likening of the birth of the Messiah
of a virgin to the blossoming of a flower (the scriptural basis for
the view by the Church Fathers of all flowers as symbols or
"signatures" of Mary):
"May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why;
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season -
"Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?
"Ask of her, that mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring? -
Growth in every thing . . .
"All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathizing
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.
"Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did...
Magnify the Lord.
"Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May . . .
"This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation."
In her privately revealed "Poem of the Man-God", Maria Valtorta
tells of Old Testament symbolism of Solomon and David seen in
flowers by the child Mary. Envisaging Mary's symbolic view of
flowers may have led to the naming of the daisy by medieval
Christians as "Mary's Flower of God".
The association of flowers with the Visitation was given further
emphasis when the Church, following the Second Vatican Council,
moved the feast of the Visitation in the liturgical calendar from
the first Sunday in July to the 31st of May, as the culmination of
Mary's Month of May (a move anticipated, as it were, by Hopkins
"The May Magnificat").
Paradoxically, with the accompanying transfer of the feast of
Mary's Queenship from May 31st to August 22nd (after the Feast of
her Assumption, August 15th) the practice of erecting home and
classroom May altars of flowers, honoring Mary's Queenship, has
been largely discontinued; replaced, however, by the offering to
Mary of carnations ("Mary's Rose") and other flowers on Mothers'
Day, the second Sunday in May, in honor of her Divine Motherhood -
again as in "The May Magnificat".
Scriptural Passages Of The Mysteries
For their reflection on the Visitation, students are directed to
Mary's words to Elizabeth, of the "Magnificat", in which she
affirms her blessing as the prophesied Virgin Mother of the Messiah
for the redemption of the world and the building of the prophesied
earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
First, her glorification of God:
"My soul doth magnify the Lord",
Then the affirmation of her loving communion with God in
celebration of his goodness in fulfilling the prophecy of our
Redemption:
"and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior",
Both enabled through the graces and providence bestowed on her:
"Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid".
This is then followed by her prophecy of the building/coming of
God's Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom:
"He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart,
He has put down the mighty from their seat,
He has exalted the humble;
He has filled the hungry with good things
And the rich he has sent empty away",
Concluding with her affirmation of the future continuation of God's
love:
"and his mercy is from generation to generation".
Such reflection on the scriptural words of the Gospel story when
meditating on the Rosary Mysteries is in accordance with the
counsel of Pope John Paul II,
"In order to supply a Biblical foundation and greater
depth to our meditation, it is helpful to follow the
announcement of the mystery with the proclamation of a
related Biblical passage, long or short, depending on
the circumstances. No other words can ever match the
efficacy of the inspired word. As we listen, we are
certain that this is the word of God, spoken for today
and spoken 'for me'.
"If received in this way, the word of God can become
part of the Rosary's methodology of repetition without
giving rise to the ennui derived from the simple
recollection of something already well known. It is
not a matter of recalling information but of allowing
God to speak."
(par. 30):
We are to counsel students likewise to turn to the scriptural
content of the mysteries on which they are quickened to reflect by
their flower symbols.
In their reflection on the Visitation and the words of the
Magnificat, students are counseled that they are to begin their
contribution to the building of God's Kingdom - of truth, justice,
love and freedom - through honesty, fairness, love and respect in
their own lives and immediate personal relationships.
The Nativity
In their reflection on the Creation of the world of nature, and on
Mary's mysteries of the Annunciation and Visitation, students are
presented with Mary's unique and exemplary fulfillment the purpose
human life - purity, humility, sanctification and development of
individual potentials and endowments that one may discern and follow
the promptings of God's grace for one's unique personal spiritual
flowering and contribution to the coming of God's kingdom in the
redeemed world.
The carrying out of this purpose is then given further specificity
through reflection on the other Mysteries of the Rosary - "that
while meditating on these Mysteries of the most Holy Rosary of the
Blessed Virgin Mary we may imitate what they contain and obtain
what they promise...."
In reflecting, next, on the third Rosary Mystery, the Nativity of
Christ, students meditatively recall the actual incarnational birth
of the Second person of the Trinity, God the Son, to accomplish the
redemption of the world for the resumption of the building, in
grace, of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom of divine/human sharing,
for transfiguration on the last day, with the General Resurrection,
into the eternal New Heaven and New Earth.
The Blossoming Rod of Jesse of Isaiah's prophecy of the Virgin
birth of the Messiah was seen by medieval Christians to be the
Rose, which thus became the primary Nativity symbol - as in Dante's
"Behold the Rose wherein the Divine Word was made incarnate"; in
the central Rose Rose Windows of the Gothic Cathedrals; and in the
carol, "Lo, How A Rose E're Blooming".
The rose symbolism of Christ's birth is mirrored in the European
legend of the "Christmas Rose" - extended to the winter-blooming
"Holy Night" (Poinsettia) ) in Mexico. According to this
legend, the Christmas Rose miraculously bloomed at the side of a
poor girl for her to present as her gift in adoring the newly born
Christ Child as the Infant Savior of the world.
The flowers commonly known today as "Star of Bethlehem" were
reputed by legend to have sprung up from bits of the star which
burst and fell from the sky after it had led the three Wise Men to
the Manger in Bethlehem.
Similarly, when the star stopped overhead, golden chrysanthemums
were reputed to have sprung up before the entrance to the Manger,
showing the Wise Men where to enter.
These legends, Christmas trees, lights and the Christmas creche
Manger scenes introduced by St. Francis, together with Christmas
carols, combine in adding to the sense of joy, glory and wonder of
the Gospel story of the birth of Christ.
In the Mary Garden there are also flowers mirroring other truths of
the Nativity.
Thus, there is "Our Lady's Bedstraw" (Gallium verum), which by
legend burst into its golden blooms when the new-born Christ Child
was laid on it - mirroring his glorious divinity; and "Our Lady's
Milkdrops" (Lamium maculatum), by legend receiving the white spots
on its foliage when drops of nursing Mary's milk fell on them -
witnessing his humanity. Christ: True God and True Man.
Mary's mindfulness of the prophecies that the infant Messiah was to
be the Sacrificial Redeemer was signified in Germany by the
envisaging of the Passion Flower - the multiple symbol of Christ's
prophesied Passion and Cross - as the "Mother-of-God's Star" (of
Bethlehem). For the Three Kings the star signified the birth of
the New Born King; for Mary it signified that the tender Infant
Savior and King in her arms would grow up to be the Suffering
Servant sacrificially redeeming the world.
In the Mary Garden these doctrinal flower symbols are important
means for students' instruction in the fuller incarnational truths
of the Nativity of Christ - of his divinity and humanity at birth
as True god and True Man, and of his destined redemptive suffering.
Mary's Perpetual Virginity
Another doctrinally important Nativity symbol in the Mary Garden is
the strawberry, symbol, through its continued flowering while in
fruit, of the truth of Mary's Perpetual Virginity - a truth held
from the earliest Christian centuries, defined as dogma in the 6th
century, and confirmed by Mary herself in her appearance to Juan
Diego at Guadeloupe in the 16th century, identifying herself to him,
saying, "I am the Ever Virgin Mary."
Symbols of the truth of Mary's perpetual Virginity are largely
absent from many Christmas scenes, and, strikingly, the affirmation
of this truth was even eliminated from the translation by Theodore
Baker in 1894 from the original German "Es Ist Ein Rose" of the
Christmas Carol, "Lo, How A Rose E're Blooming" - as found even in
Catholic carol books.
In this English translation of Baker's of the second stanza:
"Isaiah 'twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind;
Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God's love aright, she bore to us a Savior,
When half spent was the night."
the last line, "When half spent was the night", is a repetition of
the last line of the first German stanza, rather than a translation
of the actual last line of the second German stanza:
"Und blieb ein' reine Magd."
which translated literally is:
"And remains a pure Maiden."
While Mary's miraculously preserved virginity - in the conceiving
and birth of Christ - was divinely privileged, as was her
Immaculate Conception; students are to learn from Mary, their
spiritual model, that the full, virginal focus of love for God is
essential to the development of their own youthful interior
spiritual love; and also for the further direct, affective
development of this love in the adult state unless replaced by
reception of the sacrament of matrimony for the development of love
of God through marital love. This is in emulation of Mary, whose
perpetual virginity was divinely preserved for her own sublime
continued spiritual development after the birth of Christ, as she
pondered the acts and words of her Divine Son in her heart, as we, in
imitation of her, are to ponder them in the Rosary Mysteries.
Nazareth Flowers Of Our Lady
While there is no Rosary Mystery of the life of the Holy Family in
Nazareth, we have the Mystery of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple,
in which we have the examples both of the finding and developing by
the Boy Jesus of his personal vocation of divine teaching, and of his
just obedience as child to Mary and Joseph as he returned to Nazareth
and "grew and waxed strong, full of wisdom: and the grace of God was
in him" (Luke 2:40).
Of this, Pope John Paul II states:
"The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as
she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in
the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and
to mold us with the same care, until Christ is "fully
formed" in us."
(par. 18)
In this we reflect that the same perfection we envisage of Mary's
purity, love and humility in her utter fidelity to the privilege
and graces of her Immaculate Conception - which opened her to the
fullness of grace quickening her total assent to her call to the
Divine Maternity - was likewise extended to all her virtues, and to
her spiritual intentions, in and for her motherly example and
nurturing of Christ's spiritual growth.
We thus counsel students to reflect on Mary's perfection in her
principle virtues, which St. Louis de Montfort speak of as: her
"profound humility, lively faith, total obedience, divine purity,
ardent charity, heroic patience, angelic sweetness and divine
wisdom." (True Devotion, par.250)
More generally, students are counseled to envisage and to reflect,
in each act of their daily lives, on Mary's spiritual intentions as
she performed her own daily household and motherly tasks.
Of these St. Louis de Montfort has said, giving the example of
Mary's sewing work:
"(Mary's) intentions are so pure that that she gave more
glory to God by the smallest of her actions, say, twirling
her distaff, or making a stitch, than did...all the saints
together in all their most heroic deeds.
("True Devotion" par. 222)
From this students are to understand that whatever may be their
immediate spiritual intentions in their actions, the ultimate
spiritual intention for all their actions is to be the greater
glory God. This is to be expressed virtually each day in their
prayer of morning offering, and actually as they make the Sign of
the Cross before undertaking each action.
This is in accordance with our faith that everything directly
created by God in the world was so created, and then redeemed, to
show forth and share with us the divine goodness and glory.
Everything we do is to be undertaken as an enhancement of these
things of Creation for a greater showing forth and sharing of this
goodness and glory - in emulation of Mary's "My soul doth magnify
the Lord".
de Montfort:
"In all our actions we must look upon Mary, although a
simple human being, as the perfect model of every virtue
and perfection, fashioned by the Holy Spirit for us to
imitate, as far as our limited capacity allows. In every
action then we should consider how Mary performed it or
how she would perform it if she were in our place. For
this reason, we must examine and meditate on the great
virtues she practised during her life."
(par. 260)
And as plants further show forth God's glory with the blooming of
each new flower, so do students show forth his glory further with
the blooming in grace of each new virtue as they follow the path of
spiritual growth and perfection.
The beauty and purity of Mary's household articles, as envisaged
through their flower symbols, serve to mirror for us the purity of
her intentions as she worked with them - reminding us that, in
emulation of Mary, we ourselves are likewise to undertake all our
own daily tasks for spiritual intentions.
In southern Germany, where popular Catholic culture has continued
unbroken from medieval times to the present day, a nineteenth
century writer observed:
"According to long-established folk outlook, the flower
kingdom was given over to the household articles and the
apparel of the Mother of the Child Jesus. In order that
in the loving eyes of children looking backwards in time
to where Jesus was born in the flesh, nothing associated
with the Mother of the Heavenly Child, no matter how
insignificant would fail to excel everything else on earth,
or would appear too insignificant for the Mother of the
Heavenly Child not to have the best before all others, it
was seen as fitting that she thus be served by the direct
creations of God.
"Legendary stories often provide the explanation for
these and other names: and if legends, and also the
outlook, generated by a childlike sense, for which we
no longer find much room - or which, rather, are like
flower petals blown away from the stems - if the sweet
fruit of evangelical truth begins to ripen on these
stems, then the blown away petals still have at least as
much right as each bloom and each children's game to
bring us joy. Many of the names are explained by legends
and associations to which, alas, the key is missing. Is
it indeed possible to find it again?"
- Johanne Nathusius, "The World of Flowers -
According to their Names, Sense and Meaning",
1869 (translated from German).
Her features - her face, eyes, smile, tresses,
hands, fingers, Thumb Print;
Her Apparel - her mantle, smock, apron, veil,
nightcap, earrings, gloves, shoes,
purse;
Her Household Articles - her duster, little brushes, comb,
knives and forks, little ladles,
drying plant, bread, cheeses,
needlework, thimble, pincushion,
candle, bells, keys, basin, hen
Plants of Her Garden - Mary's lavender, onion, flower, sorrel,
plant, mushroom, grass, lentil, root,
flax, vine, ear of corn, mint, berry,
leaf, nut, clover.
Glorification Of God
Our intention of proclaiming and magnifying God's glory is affirmed
virtually in our prayers of morning offering; and then actually as we
recollectedly offer to God, through Mary's Immaculate Heart, each
prayer, act or sacrifice during the day. As over time we grow in
union with God, our glorification of him becomes, more fully, a
sharing - in affective spiritual communion with him - of the joy of
our experience and appreciation of the glory of his Creation, and of
our co-creative "magnification" of it through our grace-inspired
prayers, acts and works.
God created the world to show forth and share the interior divine
goodness and glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with us
exteriorly of the Heaven of the Trinity. "Goodness likes to share
itself." God, who is infinite in everything but number of persons,
created the world that the divine glory might be shared with
billions of human persons, created to this end in the divine image
and likeness. We glorify God through our communion with him in
appreciating and celebrating his glory as shown forth in Creation,
and as co-creatively magnified by us in love.
The glory rendered to God by Mary is surpassingly great because of
the utter purity of her intentions; because of the fullness of
grace infusing her prayers, acts and works; and because of the
totality of her union and communion with God through which she
rejoices in her sharing with him of the glory of creation, and her
co-creative magnification of it.
As we advance in holiness, we increasingly look to Mary's
mediational offering of our work for the coming of God's Kingdom,
and thus "offer up" or consecrate to her the immediate fruits of our
work; the ever-increasing actual graces merited by our intentions;
and our glorifying communion with God. Of this de Montfort says,
further (224),
"Our Blessed Lady, in her immense love for us, is eager to
receive into her virginal hands the gift of our actions,
imparting to them a marvelous beauty and splendor, and
presenting them herself to Jesus most willingly. More
glory is given to our Lord in this way than when we make
our offering with our own...hands."
In sum, our glorification of God is our mirroring back to him in
love, spiritual communion, thanksgiving, praise and joy of:
- our appreciation of the glory of the world and its
creatures, which he created that he might share with us
in them the divine goodness, beauty, truth and glory, and
- our works of stewardship, use, discovery, renewal and
co-creative development of the world and its creatures
undertaken for the magnification of his glory, with
culmination to be in the grace-inspired building of the
earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
The Catholic Encyclopedia ("Glory"):
"The summer flower, though only to itself it live and die,
is a silent witness before (God) of His power, goodness,
truth, and unity; and the harmonious order which binds
all the innumerable parts of creation into one cosmic
whole is another reflection of His oneness and His wisdom.
Yet, as each part of creation is finite, so too is the
totality; and therefore its capacity to reflect the Divine
Prototype must result in an infinitely inadequate
representation of the Great Exemplar. Nevertheless, the
unimaginable variety of existing things conveys a vague
hint of that Infinite which must ever defy any complete
expression external to Itself. Now this objective
revelation of the Creator in terms of the existences of
things is the glory of God."
Students can thus be instructed to see God's glory in flowers - of
which Jesus said,
"Consider the lilies; not even Solomon in all his glory
was like unto one of these."
and instructed in the further glorification of God through the
offering to him of their own awe of his glory as they behold the
beauty of flowers; of which, for his grater glory, they undertake
their stewardship in Mary Gardens.
As students contemplate the beauty and glory of a flower, their
imagination rises to envisage the beauty and glory of its divine
essence in God which it mirrors. Returning to the flower they come
to see that it is more that a mirror - that it is infused by a ray
of God's light imparting to it an aura of his glory. From the
perception of the showing forth of the light of God's glory in
particular flowers, they rise to envisage the totality of his
glory, which they then see as infusing all Creation. Henceforth
they see the world and its creatures no longer as just secular,
material "things", but first of all as showing forth and sharing
God's goodness, truth, beauty and glory.
Yet, no matter how sublimely students may glorify God in their
appreciation, mystical perception and embellishment of Creation,
this glorification, as said, is immeasurably magnified by Mary
when is offered to God through her mediating hands.
Spiritual Communion With Mary
On sensing Mary's presence through through her flowers, students
may find that enter into spiritual communion with her - as before
her statue in church - offering to her their prayers for the
spiritual needs of their lives, of the lives of others, and of the
world.
This is enhanced by the priestly sacramental blessing of classroom
dish or windowsill Mary Gardens as holy objects - as outdoor Mary
Gardens are blessed as holy places - mindful that sacramental
blessings "produce the...excitation of pious emotions and
affections of the heart." (Catholic Encyclopedia).
In their innocence and purity, younger children quickly sense
Mary's presence with her flowers, as with her image, thereby
entering into spiritual communion with her through them.
Spiritual communion is one of the earliest experiences of children
as they bond, through eye contact, with their mothers or other
caring adults. They then enter into loving communion with their
fathers and other family members; and perhaps, outside the home,
with a classmate - in the innocence and trust of pre-school or
kindergarten.
In giving thanks before eating, they learn spiritual communion with
God through the things of Creation. Praying, "Taste and see how
sweet is the Lord" they enter into communion with God in loving
appreciation and thanks for His shared goodness of banana, egg,
vanilla, chocolate....
As they grow older and become cognizant of the world, they pray in
words such as:
"Grant, we beseech you that we who receive your gifts
may commune with you in loving thanks for the sharing
of your goodness. May we be inspired to work and pray
for a sufficiency of material goods for all on earth,
for the fullness of the sharing of your goodness by all."
Through these experiences children are spiritually attuned to
enter, in grace, into communion with Jesus in his Real Presence in
the Blessed Sacrament, or through the imaginative sense of his
presence in the Crucifix; with the Holy Spirit through his
promptings in their hearts and souls; with God the Father, "the
Eternal Beauty, ever ancient, ever new", through his goodness and
beauty shown forth in Creation; and with Mary through her likeness
in pictures and statues, and through her flower symbols.
When the use of religious images was attacked as idolatrous by
iconoclast Christians, the Church was quick to defend them for
their importance as aids to religious teaching and prayer. Images
are an universal language, and by them the illiterate are enabled
to read. An image is not the person imaged and is not to be
venerated in itself; but it represents the truth of the person,
helps make the person present in the mind of the beholder, and
serves as an aid in directing prayers to the person. Homage
rendered to an image extends to the person imaged. Likewise with
symbolism, and the symbolism of flowers.
Nazareth Bonding Of Mary And Jesus
In addition to teaching students of Mary's purity of intention, and
of her virtues enabling and safeguarding this purity, the Flowers
of Nazareth, through old legends serve also to quicken their
envisaging of the loving communion between Mary and Jesus in their
daily home life.
Happily, a number of legends have been preserved - such as those
for thirty Flowers of Our Lady collected in "Mary's Flowers...", by
Vincenzina Krymow - which assist us in better envisaging the
Nazareth lives of Mary and Jesus; in sensing the reality of their
spiritual presence; and in entering into spiritual communion with
them.
One such legend is that of the Forget-me-nots:
"The young Jesus, looking into his mother's eyes one day
in front of their home in Nazareth said, 'Mother, your eyes
are so beautiful, everyone looks at them in wonder. What a
pity those who will be born to future generations will not
be able to behold them. Because in your eyes one can see
my paradise, and whoever looks into them cannot help but
be drawn toward it.'
"Then he touched her eyelids and passed his hands over the
ground as though sowing seeds. Immediately there sprung up
Forget-me-nots, hundreds of tiny blue eyes with golden
centers, as a reminder for people of future generations of
Our Lady's pure eyes."
This legend provides depth to our envisioning of the Nazareth life
by bringing us imaginatively to the spiritual communion of the
Child Jesus with his Mother through their eyes, the "windows of the
soul" - a communion beautifully represented by the statue of Mary
and the Child Jesus, "Mary of Nazareth", in the Mary Garden of St.
Mary's Church, Annapolis.
Legends Of Mary's Nazareth Sorrows
Legends tell also of Mary's sorrows in Nazareth - from the
prophecies of the Psalms that her beloved Child Jesus would grow up
to suffer a sacrificial death, and from Simeon's prophecy at the
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple that she would co-redemptively
participate in this through her motherly sorrows, in which her "own
soul a sword shall pierce, that the thoughts of many hearts will be
revealed".
One Nazareth legend which brings to mind Mary's mindfulness of
Christ's future suffering is that of "Our Lady's Little Brushes"
(Fuller's Teasel), of which it was said,
"After Simeon confirmed for Mary the Old Testament
prophecies of the Suffering Redeemer, she sorrowed
as she brushed the child Jesus' hair - knowing it
would one day be matted with his Precious Blood."
Another is that of "Mary-Loves", (English Daisies),
"One day the Child Jesus first cut himself - on his
hand - with a sharp object, in the yard of their
Nazareth home. Some drops of his Precious Blood
fell on the all white little blooms of the English
Daisies at his feet, some of which then turned blood
red - and remained so henceforth - so that ever after
when she saw the flowers, and other red flowers in
the yard, Mary, with a rush of sorrowful love,
reflected on Jesus' future shedding of his blood."
The Sorrowful Mysteries
In praying the Aves of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary,
students learn to reflect and meditate on Christ's sufferings as
seen through Mary's eyes of motherly compassion.
This view is quickened with an imaginative vividness by Flowers of
Our Lady such as "Mary's Sword" (Iris spear foliage, recalling
Simeon's prophecy of sword of sorrow to pierce Mary's soul);
"Mary's Tears" (Lily-of-the-Valley and many other tear-like
flowers, reputed by imaginative legends to have sprung up from the
ground where Mary's tears fell beneath the Cross); and "Mary's
Tresses" (Maidenhair fern and other plants imaginatively resembling
purported relics brought back by pilgrims from the Holy
Land of Mary's tresses, torn from her head in the anguish of her
sorrow at the foot of the Cross, and saved by St. John).
In Ireland, Elegant St. Johnswort (Hypericum pulchrum) - known
elsewhere as "Christ's Sweat" from the red dots on its flower
petals - was known in Gaelic as "Allus Mhuire" ("Mary's Sweat"),
suggesting that Mary shared physically in Christ's bloody sweat of
the Agony in the Garden.
Other sorrowful Flowers of Our Lady include "Our Lord's (bloody)
Lash"
(Polyganum persicaria); "Our Lord's (bloody) Back" (Achillea
millefolia); "Crown of Thorns" (Euphorbia splendens); "Christ's
(bloody) Knee"(Tigridia pavonia); "Tree of the Cross" (Cornus
florida); "Our Lord's Nails" (Geranium pratense); "The Five Wounds"
(Sedum acre); "Christ's Blood Drops (Lythrum saliceria) and
(Saxifraga umbrosa ); "Christ's Lance" (Ophioglossum vulgatum);
"Heart of Jesus" (Dicentra spectabilis); and the multiple Cross
symbolism of the "Passion Flower" (Passiflora caerulea).
Through the division of the Rosary meditations on Christ's Passion
and Death into the five Sorrowful Mysteries, we are assisted in
meditating and acting upon them as experienced through his several
faculties, and then his life itself:
- Will - The Agony in the Garden - "Not my will but
yours be done".
- Flesh - The Scourging at the Pillar
- Intellect - The Crowning With Thorns - The Mocking of Christ
- Emotions - The Redemptive embrace of suffering - The
Carrying of the Cross -
- Death - The Crucifixion
In thus meditating on the five Sorrowful Mysteries, drawing on the
experience of their own sufferings, students come to comprehend
that Christ takes on their individual sufferings, together with
those of all the world, as his own in his redemptive sacrifice.
With this, they understand that they are thereby enabled to offer
their own sufferings sacrificially in union with Christ's offering
of them - "making up what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ"
(Col., i, 24) - daily as they occur and not just when meditating on
them while praying the Rosary, or when viewing their flower
symbols.
In this students come to reflect that in God's original creation of a
perfect world, sins and effects of sin were absent, and that in the
Peaceable Kingdom to come, they will be absent again, through
Christ's sacrificial satisfaction and the fullness of our sacrificial
sharing in his reparation. Therefore, even the slightest irritation
or inconvenience today is contrary to God's will, which is why at
Fatima Mary called not only for our prayers for the graces of peace
but for "the sacrifice of every person (of) the fulfillment of his
duties in life".
The Church's specification of indulgences for some prayers serves to
remind us of the reparational efficacy of all prayer, in the world of
spiritual cause and effect. We are to pray and sacrifice for
reparation of the effects of sin circulating the world with the same
fervor that we pray for the reparational repose of the souls of the
faithful departed in purgatory.
Those students undertaking the ascetic/mystical path of spiritual
perfection (purgative, illuminative, unitive) of Saints Teresa of
Avila, John of the Cross and Francis de Sales can make recourse to
the Sorrowful Mysteries and their flower symbols for
self-examination of their faculties for confession of their faults.
In Lent students are to intensify their meditations on Christ's
Passion and Death through the flower symbols of the Garden Way of
the Cross.
We envisage that the communion of Mary and Jesus, beginning in
Nazareth, reached a sorrowful intensity when their eyes met on
Jesus' Way of the Cross. Students can envisage this through
paintings of the relic, Veronica's Veil, which reputedly retained
the image of Christ's face as, during a pause in the carrying of
the Cross, Veronica ("true image") used it to wipe the perspiration
from his brow. Dominating the veil image are Christ's
penetratingly imploring eyes - an image impressed so vividly in the
minds of the medieval pilgrims by the relic that it was recalled
not only by the many flowers known as "Christ's Eye", but also by
the characteristic two unique white dots on the blue flower,
"Veronica" - a naming retained as both the botanical and the common
name of this flower today (and corroborated by the Oxford English
Dictionary as being of medieval origin).
Theologically, students are instructed to meditate on the Sorrowful
Mysteries of Christ's taking upon himself all the human suffering
of the world in his Passion and Death on Calvary, and continued
daily in all the masses of the world, such that:
- with Christ's divine/human sacrificial immolation and
death, the world's sins are banished into the
nothingness of the outer darkness, in satisfaction
for their offense to the Father, with accompanying
redemptive restoration to the world of the original
graces of Creation, for resumption of the building
of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom
and
- through meditation on the sacrificial immolation of
Christ's faculties - will, body, intellect and
feelings - each individual is able experience the
sufferings of his own faculties as taken on also by
Christ, and thus to offer them sacrificially with
Christ in reparation for the effects of sins still
continuing in the cause and effect of the world
after Christ's redemption satisfaction for the sins
themselves.
Reparation For The Effects of Sin In The World, Blocking
Kingdom
Students are to understand that the challenge of our times is the
fuller and habitual daily sacrificial offering to and with Christ,
by individuals, of all their daily prayers, acts and sufferings for
the reparational dissolution and dissipation of the grace-blocking
effects of sin in the world - that the hearts and souls of leaders
and all my be freed to respond to the promptings of prayed for
graces of peace, for the building of the earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
Just as in creating the world for a fullness of divine/human sharing,
God wills our grace-guided cooperative action in love for the
completion of Creation in the Peaceable Kingdom; so, too, does he
will our loving grace-guided sharing in the completion of the
Christ's redemptive reparation for all the effects of sin
continuing to circulate in the world after the redemptive
restoration of grace - so that the work of Creation's completion may
be resumed.
That the sacrificial daily offering of our prayers, works and
sufferings to and with Christ is essential to the accomplishment of
world peace was revealed by God through Mary at Fatima in 1917:
Students thus learn that while they are to work to eliminate or
overcome the obstacles and sufferings of their lives - so that they
can work most fully for the development of their own endowed
individual potentials for contributing to the coming of God's
Peaceable Kingdom - they at the same time are to offer the
experience of these obstacles and sufferings of the fallen world
sacrificially with Christ in reparation for and dissolution of the
effects of sin still circulating in the world .
In the fallen and redeemed world, students, under Divine
Providence, are both "to do, and to suffer" as they share with God
in the furtherance of the world's Redemption and Kingdom.
One of the most neglected teachings of Christianity is that of the
good, redemptive aspect of suffering, as in "Good" Friday. It is
due to insufficient cooperative, co-redemptive, sacrificial
offering of individual sufferings in the divinely desired loving
union with and sharing in Christ's sacrifice that injustices,
oppressions and wars have continued for 2,000 years since Calvary,
perpetuated by the unrepaired consequences if sin continuing to
circulate in the world.
While the world has been, and continues to be, redeemed, and grace
restored, by Christ's infinite sacrifice to the Father in
satisfaction for all sins, the finite effects of sin (darkness of
intellect, weakness of will and disorderly affections in respect to
God's truth, will and love) continue and will continue, in the
cause and effect of world culture, to block action for peace until
a "critical mass" of Christians live their daily lives as
sacrificial offerings for the reparational offsetting and
dissolution of these grace-blocking effects of sin. Only then can
the grace-prompted building of the Peaceable Kingdom of truth,
justice, love and freedom be effectively resumed.
Those who learn to value and embrace the reparational value of the
sufferings which come, turn to Francis Thompson's poem, "The Sere of
the Leaf" and its immortal lines,
"I know not equipoise;
only purgatorial joys."
And, in our faith that God's Kingdom WILL come and that his will
WILL be done, on earth as it is in heaven, we have faith that there
will in time be the widespread offering by the faithful to Christ
of the sacrifices of their daily lives needed for reparation for
the effects of sin which have been blocking the promptings of
prayed for graces of peace on earth.
We are not to pray for peace as helpless dependents on God, but as
persons created to share cooperatively in the divine goodness and
action, following the promptings of grace - both in prayerfully
building of God's Peaceable Kingdom and in sacrificially repairing
for the effects of sin in the world in completion of God's
Redemption, so the building of the Kingdom can proceed, in peace.
Dependent prayers to God for personal healing and social peace are a
beginning aspect of faith, but the fullness of sharing desired by God
requires, further, the prayerful offering by all of the sacrifices of
their daily lives to and with Christ in his Sacrifice of Calvary, in
reparation for the effects of sin in the world - the ultimate cause
of illness and war.
Thus, in reflecting on the flower symbols of Christ's sorrows - as
in meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary - students
are both to examine themselves for, and to undertake needed further
mortifications for, the spiritual perfection of their wills,
bodies, intellects, feelings and life; and to offer sacrificially
any experienced sufferings or diminishments of these in union with
Christ's sacrifice.
And - as in offering the intentions for their works and prayers -
students are to offer their mortifications and sacrifices, also,
through the mediation of Mary's Immaculate Heart, for their
enhancement and magnification as also hers, in their offering to God.
Mary's Communion With God The Holy Spirit
When Mary entered into intimate union and communion with
overshadowing, indwelling, espousing God, the Holy Spirit at the
Annunciation, the Holy Spirit, as St. Louis de Montfort says,
became her Spirit. In Annunciation paintings the traditional
flower symbol of the descending Holy Spirit is the dove-like
columbine (Aquilegia), found with white lilies of Mary's immaculate
purity.
At Pentecost, in her continuing union with Jesus, now ascended into
Heaven, Mary, on earth, joined with him, mediatingly, in his promised
sending of the Holy Spirit to the disciples, with restoration of
grace to the world. The Pentecostal descent of the Holy Spirit as
tongues of flame was symbolized by vines branches of pendant flowers,
such as the Holy Spirit philodendron, symbolizing the descending
flames of the Holy Spirit; and the red peony (Paeonia officinalis),
in bloom in temperate climates at the time of the liturgical feast of
Pentecost, and symbolizing the soul inflamed with the Holy Spirit.
The Pentecostal Holy Spirit is also symbolized by "Mary's Pink"
(Dianthus plumarius) with its serrated petals, recalling the pointed
tongues of flame in which it descended - adopted also because of its
bloom in Holland at the late May or early June season of Pentecost
(known there as "Pinkster"); because of its pink color; and because
of its uniquely serrated symbolic petals, from which garment "pinking
shears" receive their name.
In all, some twenty flowers have been found in our research to
have been found from their time of bloom to have had the religious
folk names of "Pentecost Flower".
As a poetic affirmation of Mary's heavenly mediating distribution
of the Holy Spirit, a couplet from the German, applied to the
flower "Mary's Candle" (giant mullein, Verbascum thapsis), also
known as "Heavenly Radiance", reads (translated):
"The Virgin Mary flies all over the land,
With heaven's fire in her hand."
Also, Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis, Mary's Heart) is known
as "Holy Spirit" in France from the "tear" of Spirit precessing to
earth through her universally mediating Immacuate Heart.
The Glorious Mysteries - Prayers To Heavenly Mary
Through the fullness of Mary's union with God - entered into in her
acceptance of the Divine Maternity at the Annunciation, and extended
in her union at the foot of the cross with Christ's redemptive
sacrifice - God, assuming her, body and soul, into heaven, was
enabled, as the ultimate accomplishment of divine/human sharing, the
purpose of the creation of humans and the world, to make her the
universal Mediatrix of all divine grace, light, wisdom, power and
providence bestowed on the world.
Students are therefore to make ever renewed prayerful recourse to
Mary's divinely ordained universal prerogatives - for their
protection, guidance, inspiration, advocacy and intercession, and for
the mediation and distribution of all grace, light wisdom, power and
providence, in her continuing union and cooperation with God, as
heavenly crowned Spiritual Mother and Queen.
Recourse to Mary, our Heavenly Queen and universal Intercessor and
Mediatrix, for the guidance and graces needed for our co-creative
building with God of the Peaceable Earthly Kingdom, is clearly the
pivotal need for the culmination of the Sacred History of the
world, and especially for our times, as we - with modern science,
technology, industry, communications and transportation - are now
able to envisage concretely the practical feasibility of fulfilling
God's command to dress and keep the world and to increase and
multiply to fill it, in culminative fulfillment of his desire and
plan for divine sharing with humans through Creation.
As students turn to heavenly Mary, the flower symbols of her divinely
bestowed prerogotives, and of her motherly love and mercy, impart to
these an imaginative specificity, serving to intensify recourse to
them:
"Mary's Crown" (Centauria cyannis) reminds students to pray to Mary
for her mediation of the graces prompting them in their
contributions to the building of God's Kingdom, of which she is
Queen.
The gold rose, the Marygold, and other golden flowers, symbolize
Mary, the "Queen in gilded clothing", who, from the interior of the
Heaven of the Trinity, "comes forth as the morning rising, fair as
the moon, bright as the sun and terrible as an army set in battle
array", with her Divine Child, to minister in love, as our Heavenly
Mother, to us, her spiritual children on earth.
Forget-me-nots, "Eyes of Mary", quicken students turning of their
thoughts to Heavenly Mary, petitioning,
"Turn, then, Most Gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy
towards us,"
as do daffodils (Narcissus psuedonarcissus) - seen from their
characteristic downwards inclined flower heads as "Mary Looking
Down From Heaven".
"Our Lady's Keys" (Primula veris) remind them of her access, for
distribution, to the heavenly storehouses of the grace from
meritorious actions of the Church on earth.
"Mary's Heart" (Dicentra specabalis) quickens their confidence in
and recourse to the intercession and mediation of her glorified
heart in heavenly union with the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Likewise,"Mary's Bells" (numerous),
"The bell when struck,
sends forth melodious sound,
The heart of Mary, when shaken through earnest prayer,
Scatters grace and love everywhere."
"Our Lady' Mantle" (Alchimella vulgaris) quickens confidence in
Mary's heavenly spiritual protection.
"Mary's Hands" (Potenilla nepalenis) prompt students to turn to
Mary's distribution of heavenly graces through her fingers, as in
the Miraculous Medal revelation at Paris.
The Luminous Mysteries - Building the Earthly Kingdom of Mary's Queenship
Since the Luminous Mysteries follow upon the Glorious Mystery of
Mary's crowning as Queen of Heaven and Earth, students are
instructed to view them as mysteries of the mediations of grace of
Mary's queenship for the building and coming of God's kingdom on
earth as it is in heaven, - therefore appropriately represented as a
group by the heraldic color of purple, for Royalty; in addition to
white for the joyful, red for the sorrowful, and gold for the
glorious mysteries.
The symbolism of individual flowers for each of the luminous
mysteries, as for those of the other mysteries, is through their
various forms or colors; but the overall color symbolism for each
group serves to quicken corresponding reflections on flowers
viewed from a distance, as in approaching a garden.
One flower, the purple iris, has come to represent the fleur de
lys, heraldic symbol of royalty - originally represented by the
lily, and then the yellow flag iris. Ten fleur de lys, for
example, surround the figure of Mary and Jesus in the rose window
of Chartres Cathedral as an Annunciation symbol of Mary's "Root
of David" earthly royal descent.
Suggested flower symbols of the individual Luminous Mysteries are
1. Christ's baptism in the - Columbine, symbol of the
Jordan River. descending baptismal Holy
Spirit, as a dove.
2. Christ's self-revelation at - Grape, symbol of the wine
the marriage of Cana. of Christ's first miracle;
Mary's first intercession.
3. Christ's announcement of the - Mustard, Gospel symbol of
kingdom of God with the the growth of the kingdom
invitation to conversion. like that of the tall
mustard plant from a tiny
seed.
4. Christ's Transfiguration, - Goldenrod, "Heavenly
when he revealed his glory to Radiance" on earth.
his Apostles
5. The institution of the - Honesty, with its thin
Eucharist at the Last Supper round, white seed pods
as the sacramental expression resembling hosts.
of the Paschal Mystery. Also,
wheat, from which hosts are
consecrated.
In accordance with the concluding prayer of the Rosary,
"Grant...that while meditating on these mysteries of
Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary we may
imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise",
students are thus to be instructed in meditate on the luminous
mysteries as they illumine our contribution to the earthly/heavenly
culmination of the divine plan for Creation: through sanctifying
grace and grace-inspired action (1st Mystery); through recourse to
Mary's intercession for Christ's action (2nd Mystery); through
specific action for the building of God's earthly Kingdom (3rd
Mystery); inspired by our envisioning of the ultimate
transfiguration of God's kingdom at the Last Judgement and General
Resurrection into the eternal New Heaven and New Earth (4th
Mystery); with primary focus now on our union with Christ through
the Eucharist and Mass (5th Mystery).
1) Meditation on the Baptism of Christ brings to mind
first of all - as we are instructed in the Finding in
the Temple - that Jesus, while True God Incarnate, as
True Man grew in grace through the nurturing of Mary and
Joseph; was guided in his ministry and passion by the
promptings of grace; and from the Cross returned his
Spirit into the Father's hands - thus emphasizing the
imperative that we all are to purify our thoughts . . .
that we, likewise in our humanity, may always, in
imitation of Christ, live by and be responsive to the
inspiration and promptings of the bestowed graces by
which we are to cooperate and share with God in the
building and coming of the Earthly Peaceable Kingdom.
We are ever prompted in grace to offer all our duties
and works, and also all our daily frustrations,
sorrows, and pains, sacrificially for and with Christ
in redemptive reparation for the effects of sin in the
world, that - thereby increasingly delivered from the
evil of these effects - all, and especially world
leaders, dissidents, and insurgents, may, in their
innate created goodness, be responsive to the graces of
peace and renewal whereby we are prompted and guided
in the building of the Kingdom in the fullness of
divine/human sharing for which God created the world.
2) Mary's intercession with Christ for others at Cana,
and Christ's self-revealing response, signify both
Christ's divinity and also his union with Mary as
mediative sharer in his divine action, as well as mother.
Jesus' affirmation of Mary most broadly as relating
spiritual person, as well as mother and woman, is
evidenced by his Gospel response to "Blessed is the
womb that bore you . . ." of "Yea rather, blessed are
they who hear the word of God and keep it"; and to
"Thy mother and thy brethren stand without . . ." of
"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word
of God and do it," - such that Jesus relates to Mary as
spiritual soul, as well as mother, and she is thus
more broadly seen as co-redemptrix, intercessor and
universal mediatrix; and also "bridally" for our
emulation in the mystical marriage with Christ to which
we all are called, men and women, as imaged by the
relationship of the spouse and the beloved in the Song
of Solomon - in culmination of God's creational desire
for divine/human sharing, for which he has created us
"in the divine image and likeness."
3) In our prayers and work we are to be converted to a
fullness of seeking the coming of the Kingdom of God here on
earth, in accordance with God's will - for which we pray in
the Our Father - in fulfillment of the divine/human sharing
desired by God in creating the world: in truth, justice,
love and freedom; as well as devotionally, morally and
mercifully in the personal hope of heaven when we die.
Of this, Pope John Paul II has said,
"This is our great hope and our invocation: 'Your
Kingdom come!' - a Kingdom of peace, justice, and
serenity, which will re-establish the original
harmony of creation."
4) As motivation for kingdom we are ever to envision its
ultimate luminous transfiguration, at the Last Judgement
and General Resurrection, into the eternal new heaven and
new earth of divine/human union and sharing.
5) Contemplative adoration of Christ in his real presence
in the Eucharist furthers our effective union with him; and
our sharing in his sacrifice of Calvary, as enabled through
its continuation and re-enactment in the Mass.
In the Mass we first of all participate in the infinity of
Jesus' sacrifice as God the Son in satisfaction to God the
Father for all the sins of the world, including all new sins
since the last Mass - thus continuing the Pentecostally
restored distribution of the graces of sanctification,
redemption and kingdom to the world.
Secondly, through Jesus' taking upon himself of all our
personal difficulties, frustrations, sorrows, and pains,
along with those of all the persons of the world - for
inclusion in his sacrifice as True Man - our own sacrificial
offering of these for and with him, becomes a fulfillment of
God's creational desire for the sharing with us, and for our
sharing in, all the divine action for and in the world,
"filling up those things that are wanting of the sufferings
of Christ" (Col., i, 24), which sharing, Jesus, as true God,
applies in reparation for the temporal effects of sin in the
world.
In her divine revelation at Fatima, Our Lady beseeched a fullness of
such personal sacrificial offerings, through her Immaculate Heart,
for and with Jesus, in reparation for the aggregate temporal effects
of sin in the world that, as said above, the hearts and minds of
all, and especially of world leaders and dissidents, delivered from
the evil of these effects, may, in their innate created goodness,
respond to the graces of peace on earth beseeched in all the Rosary
prayers and sacrifices of the faithful - for the building and coming
of the earthly kingdom of God and its transfiguration into the
eternal new heaven and new earth.
o O o
Commentary, following the death of Pope John Paul II - April, 2005
At this point in sacred world history of the building and coming of
God's earthly kingdom, for its transfiguration on the last day, with
the general resurrection, into the eternal new heaven and new earth
of divine/human sharing - in which we have faith, and for which we
pray each day in the Our Father - human society has reached the
point where we can see how this is indeed materially possible
through the arts, crafts, manufacture, science, technology, finance
and trade.
However, we humans have been blocked in the building of God's
Kingdom through our insufficient attunement to the divine grace,
light, wisdom and power lovingly offered by God to this end in
creating the world, and in redeeming it from its fall - such that we
have failed both 1) to undertake sufficiently the hardships,
adversities, sorrows and sufferings of life for and in union with
the redemptive sacrifice of Christ on Calvary in reparation for the
kingdom-blocking effects of sin in the world; and have failed also
2) to live sufficiently by the Gospel teachings of Jesus, in the
Sermon on the Mount, of the forgiveness, mercy, turning the other
cheek, going the second mile, returning good for evil, praying for
those who persecute us, etc. in order to live in the truth, justice,
love and freedom bringing peace.
Rather, national leaders, have sought for two thousand years, and
continue to seek, world peace, and now universal sufficiency of
material goods, primarily - and therefore unsuccessfully - only
through human idealism, dialog, negotiation. compromise and
cooperation within the overall context of the strategy, tactics,
timing of diplomatic and military power - with consequent wars and
terrorism of ever-increasing violence and expenditure of material
resources.
In the midst of all this, the late Pope John Paul II, of blessed
and holy memory, R.I.P., has given the world an unique personal
example of reaching out to all peoples in love, justice and
sacrifice as the necessary basis for peace. But more than this, he
has shown us the spiritual way to be emulated by us all for this -
of mystically opening ourselves to the heavenly grace, illumination,
wisdom and power to reach out to others steadfastly in peace in all
regions and at all levels of world society.
The spiritual way for us to this is not our attempted emulation of
John Paul II's outward spiritual practices, but, more profoundly,
our emulation of his inner meditative, contemplative, communing
mystical opening to the heavenly grace, light, wisdom and power
which enabled him, according to God's will, to live, work and pray
in the world redemptively and renewingly in love, for peace and
kingdom. He has distilled this way for us all to emulate in his call
for meditative praying of the additional five luminous mysteries of
the Rosary.
The meditative key of these five mysteries - following the call of
the first two to recourse to the movements of grace and to Mary's
heavenly mediation - is the graced, illuminative, transfiguring
viewing, of the third and fourth mysteries, of the world and its
creatures according to their ultimate kingdomal and eternal
transfiguration in Christ. This illuminative view of creatures
comes through our contemplative perception of their penetration with
a ray to earth extending from their radiant heavenly essences, such
that in following this ray back to heaven, our souls, in emulation
of Mary's Assumption, are received into the heavenly levels, as with
Dante in the Divine Comedy.
Ultimately our souls are drawn, with Mary's guiding, to the Heaven
of the Trinity, and then, in emulation of Mary, come forth back
to earth "as the morning rising; fair as the moon, bright as the
sun, and terrible as an army set forth in battle array", in divine
grace, light, wisdom and power for kingdom and transfiguration.
In this we are to emulate St. Paul's example that when our souls are
drawn mystically to heaven, we are ever to return our focus to earth
and the guidance of our actions by God's grace, that spiritually
empowered, we may reach out to others in redemption and peace for
the building and coming of God's kingdom.
" . . . For such an one (mystically ascending) I will
glory: but for myself I will glory nothing but in my
infirmities. . . And (the Lord) said to me: My grace
is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in
infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I
powerful."
(II Cor. 12:1-10)
In this, we have the example ("to imitate what it contains and
obtain what it promises") of Mary's mystical rising to heaven when
she was on earth - in the words of the lesson in the Liturgy of the
Hours for the feast of Mary's Queenship, August 22nd:
"While still in the flesh, at one moment she withdrew to God
in ecstasy; at the next she would bend down to her neighbors
with indescribable love."
Once our souls, in heavenly mystical union with God, have been
filled the divine grace, light, wisdom and power, and have returned
to earth, following the example of St. Paul, for contribution as
members of Christ to the work of redemption and kingdom, we are ever
spiritually refreshed through our earthly unitive sacramental
communion with and adoring contemplation of Christ in the Most
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar - to which we turn on meditating on
the fifth luminous Rosary mystery.
With the observation that "Mystics are not special kinds of persons;
rather, each person is a special kind of mystic" and that "Each
person, like each flower, is created for perfection", we view a
major challenge of Pope John Paul II's legacy to be to motivate
commitment of his many young admirers to emulation of his mystical
and eucharistic recourse to the divine grace, light, wisdom and power
to reach out to all in love.
A key to this is the inspirational instruction of these young
admirers that moral discipline, and the sacraments of Holy
Communion, Reconciliation and Confirmation, are ever to purify us
that we may become mystically opened to and receptive of the divine
grace, light, wisdom and power effectively to further the building,
coming and eternal transfiguration of God's earthly kingdom.
Our own experience at Mary's Gardens, over a period of years, has
been that while meditating devotionally on sacramentally blest
flowers - as we have cultivated them, examined them, and reflected
on them for their symbolic mirroring of revealed truths - their
luminosity as God's beautiful, pure, direct creations, has quickened
our illuminative perception of them, with mystical drawing of soul
to heavenly filling; from which we now appreciate the universal
kingdomal and transfigurational potential of Pope John Paul II's
luminous Rosary Mysteries, with their culminative leading to our
constant inspiration through devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed
Sacrament of the Altar.
May Mary and the Holy Spirit, with Pope John Paul II's heavenly
intercession, inspire the discovery of as many ways as there are
persons to the mystical reception of the divine grace, light,
wisdom and power for the peaceable building, coming, and eternal
transfiguration of God's kingdom in love and justice!
Bloom Periods
Since the Flowers of Our Lady have their origin in oral religious
traditions of the countrysides - where only a few were viewed in
bloom at any given time - the many listed in this reference, if
only read as a list, would generate a verbal overload as compared
to the few at a time reflected on symbolically in nature. It is
thus important to assemble an album of flower photos, with their
religious names, for classroom virtual reference a few at a time,
together with one or more dish or windowsill Mary Garden for
continuing devotion to Mary.
Meditating on five Rosary Mysteries in a given day, and 15 (now 20)
overall, likewise provides for a meditative focus and context
within which to read and reflect on the Gospel. G. K. Chesterton
observed that "Protestantism was a prejudice of those who learned to
read" - viz. losing the overall view of the Creed and deposit of
faith by dwelling on meanings of words from other sources. St.
Bernard serve as an example of reading the scriptures from the
viewpoint of the creedal deposit of faith - saying, for example,
that he could meditatively find Mary in every verse.
In meditating on the Flowers of Our Lady in the order of their
bloom in nature there are some whose symbolism is related to the
time of the liturgical feasts near which they bloom each year. It
is instructive for students to understand that the time of bloom of
many plants, in temperate climates, is "thermotropic", associated
with the arrival of a certain temperature in certain climatic
zones; while that of others is "heliotropic", associated with a
certain length of day. Thus, Candlemas Bells, St. Joseph's Bells,
Lent Lilies, Easter Spikes, Easter Flower,