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Intro Mary Garden
Flower Theology II
John S. Stokes Jr.
Introduction
In "Flower Theology" (1995) it was shown - for reflection and
meditation - how the numerous "Flowers of Our Lady" of the popular
religious traditions of the medieval countrysides symbolize the
lives and mysteries of Mary and Jesus.
Here it will be shown how flowers, as direct creations of God, are to
be seen as mirrors of basic Christian truths.
Christianity sees plants and flowers as created by God to show
forth and share with humans the divine goodness, beauty and truth -
the purpose of all Creation. In this flowers may be enjoyed simply
and directly in themselves as showing forth God's goodness and
beauty, or, more fully, as archetypes, signatures, symbols, and
bearers of legends, mirroring the revealed articles of Christian
faith - thereby serving as means for their teaching, recollection,
contemplation and celebration.
Christian Nature Tradition
Christianity has assimilated many of the flower symbols and legends
from other world religions, but has ever transformed them in
accordance with the unique fullness of the Christian revelation of:
the Trinitarian Godhead; the eternity of Creation, the redemptive
Divine Incarnation, the building of the earthly Kingdom of God
through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the culminating divine
transformation of Creation into an eternal New Heaven and New Earth
at the end of time.
Christian nature symbolism is the ultimate fulfillment of the quest
of all who seek the religious meaning of nature. The English
experience is a case in point. After the Christian flower names and
symbolism of the medieval countrysides were, as a consequence of
the Reformation, largely excluded from the first printed gardening
books in the 16th century, Milton and other writers sought an
alternate religious meaning of nature in classical models.
Unfulfilled by this, Wordsworth and the romantic poets then sought
this religious meaning in poetic imagery drawn from nature itself.
Yet, after years of this poetic quest, Coleridge came to the
conclusion that he and the other romantic poets only discovered in
nature what they put into it - language and poetic imagery having
roots in religious scripture and tradition. While this romantic
quest for the intrinsic spiritual quality in nature was ultimately
unfulfilled, it opened up the sublime appreciation of nature of
present-day English gardening tradition, which will provide an
exquisitely beautiful and esthetic setting for the eventual
rediscovery of the full Christian nature values - supplanting the
inadequacy of current secular plant lore and the Victorian
sentimentally imaginative "language of flowers".
What follows is a summary of Christian revelation in nature - with
some instructive comparisons with religious flower symbolism in
other world religious traditions. These other traditions are
viewed as repositories of truths carried down from the primordial
revelation of Eden and the priesthood of Noah, as filtered through
the "turning of the wheel," the confusion of tongues at Babel, and
then supplemented by subsequent sustaining and augmenting
revelations - in readiness for the culminating revelations of
Christianity.
Christian Floral Archetypes
As a starting point will be taken the principal archetypal
creedal flower symbols of Christian tradition:
- The beauty, forms and colors of flowers - showing forth and
sharing the pure goodness, beauty and mystery of the creating
God, the Father - (Eden, Flowery Meade, Paradise).
- The upreaching of flowers, especially golden flowers, to the
light of the sun - symbols of the turning of hearts and souls
to God, the illuminating Holy Spirit (Marigold, Sun Flower).
- The blossoming of flowers - symbol of the miraculous virgin
birth of God the Son, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the
Mother of God (Rod of Jesse, Rose, Carnation, Peony,
Mistletoe).
- The seasonal death and rebirth of flowers - symbol of the
death and resurrection of the redeeming God, the Son (Easter
Lily, Resurrection Flowers).
- The three-fold forms and colors of flowers and foliage -
symbols of the mystery of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit (Shamrock, Fleur-de-Lis, Pansy, Aloe).
- The sowing and germination of seed - symbol of the hearing and
keeping of the word of God in hearts and souls; and of the
rooting of the supernaturally infused virtues and gifts (The
Parable of the Sower).
- The total dependence of flowers on earth, water, air and sun -
symbol of total abandonment to God's Providence in human life
("Consider the Lilies")
- The symbiosis of vines with trees - symbol of the intimate
union and close cooperation of Mary with Christ, the redeeming
Divine Son - as Mother, Co-redemptrix, Advocate, Intercessor,
Mediatrix and Queen. (Mistletoe, Vines).
On entering the Mary Garden mindful of these archetypes and
symbols we pray:
"Bless us, O Lord, and these your gifts through which you
show forth and share with us your divine goodness, beauty and
truth."
Signatures
The Christian meaning of nature takes as its starting point the
teaching of the Prologue of the Gospel of John that all things in
heaven and on earth were created through the Divine Word - with
consequent unity and correspondence between the things of heaven
and the things of earth: "As above, so below". These
correspondences, while present in nature, are to be discovered
through the examination of its forms in the light of the truths of
religious revelation, as Adam was instructed by God to name the
creatures of Eden - not by an empirical examination of nature in
itself, however poetic or scientific.
From this is derived the medieval doctrine of "signatures" - of the
discoverability in creatures of their showing forth of God's truth,
as well as his goodness and beauty, for the fullness of divine
sharing with humans - the very purpose of Creation.
The Goodness, Beauty and Truth of Flowers
- The beauty, forms and colors of flowers - showing forth and
sharing the pure goodness, beauty and mystery of the creating
God, the Father - (Eden, Flowery Meade, Paradise).
While this first of the floral archetypes - the showing forth and
sharing in the forms, translucence and colors of flowers of the
pure goodness, beauty and mystery of the creating God - would
appear to be common to all religious traditions, Christianity is
unique in seeing Creation as divinely willed, sustained, redeemed
and eternal. This is to be differentiated from Eastern religions
which, while they see the world as a mirroring emanation from God,
they at the same time see it as ultimately illusory, impermanent
and cyclical, and thus eventually to be reabsorbed in God.
The consequence of the Christian revelation of the eternal
character of Creation - divinely redeemed and saved for this end -
is our call as Christians to work, as co-creators and co-renewers,
for the building of God's earthly Peaceable Kingdom, nature's
culmination, that on the last day all may be transformed into the
new heaven and earth in which we, with our eternal souls and
resurrected bodies, are to share eternally in the life and
attributes of God, both created and uncreated.
Through the infusion of divine grace, light, wisdom and power,
Christian mystics, like those of the Eastern religions, rise in
soul from the world of the body and senses to spiritual union with
the transcendent one God, in an ecstasy transcending and surpassing
that of all natural or chemically induced ecstasy. However,
penetrating further into the interior of the crucible of the divine
love, Christian mystics then enter into the ultimate union with the
three divine persons of the one God therein encountered - revealed
exteriorly as the creating Father, the redeeming Son, the
sanctifying and renewing Holy Spirit. In union with the will of
the Trinity to show forth and share the divine goodness, love and
action exteriorly through Creation, Christian mystics then return in
soul to earth for the work of building of the culminating Peaceable
Kingdom of truth, justice, love and freedom.
This differs from Eastern mysticism, which dwells on the paths
through all the subtle, preternatural states, modes and spheres
linking God and Creation - that the soul, the subtle nature, may
attain ultimate reabsorbtion and rest in God, in liberation from
envisaged successive cycles of bodily reincarnation into the world,
believed to be an illusory, separative emanation from God. In this
is sought the Nirvana of Buddhism, Identity with the Supreme Being
of Hinduism, the Eternal Harmony of Taoism, the Paradise of Islam,
etc.
Therefore, while Christians respond to the call of the pure
goodness and beauty of flowers to rise through and from them into
contemplative union with God, in this union they encounter the call
of divine will to return to the building of the earthly Peaceable
Kingdom - that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven - as
distinct from the call of the Eastern religions to a finality of
ascent to God in liberation from earth and creatures.
The Upwards Reaching of Flowers
- The upward opening and reaching of flowers, especially golden
flowers, to the light of the sun - symbols of the opening of
hearts and souls to God, the illuminating Holy Spirit
(Marigold, Sun Flower).
The guiding counsel for Christian mystical ascent is the teaching
of St. Paul in II Corinthians 12 that when he was caught up
mystically into paradise he was instructed by the Lord not to
pursue this path, but to do God's will on earth: "My grace is
sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." Thus,
while God may choose to elevate us mystically to various spiritual
levels, for the fullness of the discovery and sharing of his glory,
what we are ever to aspire to is the purity of the opening of our
hearts and souls to filling with the grace, light, power and wisdom
of the Spirit in this world, for our sanctification and for the
building of God's Peaceable Kingdom on earth, in accordance with
his will.
In the Eastern religions, with their greater emphasis on the return
of the soul to God from what is believed to be an illusory
Creation, the upwards opening flowers is employed extensively as a
symbol of the opening of the soul in various higher states of being
encountered on this path. The Christian ascetic/mystical theology
of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis de
Sales similarly distinguishes the various spiritual modalities
through which the rising soul passes, but, following the mystical
counsel of St. Paul, does not attribute to them the importance of
the Eastern religions. Nevertheless, the Eastern fullness of
mystical experience and truth adds sublimely to the Christian
mystical sharing and celebration of God's glory.
Kundalini Yoga, of Hinduism, for example, instructs us extensively
in the many religious correspondences of flowers. It does this
through its teaching and discipline of ascetic/mystical spiritual
growth through the successive purifications of seven centers or
"Shakras" of the body from the base of the spine to the top of the
head - accompanied by the emergence of interior subtle spiritual
flowering branches from each. In this, for example, the
purification of the three lower centers, corresponds, respectively,
to the Christian disciplines of chastity, poverty and obedience.
While these Christian disciplines do not require specific knowledge
of the formation in grace of various subtle interior flowers which
bloom with ascetic progress in mortification and virtue,
knowledge of them is helpful for our understanding and
appreciation, for example, of the original Communion Verse for the
Mass for the feast of the Rosary of Mary (October 7th), established
in 1573:
"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)
This in turn contributes to our appreciation of the renaming of the
"Psalter of Our Lady" as the "Rosary", which came about as a
consequence of "an early legend which after traveling all over
Europe, penetrating even to Abyssinia, connected this name with a
story of Our Lady, who was seen taking rosebuds from the lips of a
young monk when he was reciting Hail Marys and to weave them into a
garland which she placed upon her head. A German metrical version
of this story is still extant dating from the thirteenth century."
(Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) Vol 13, p.187).
As set forth for western readers by Carl Jung in his book on
Kundalini Yoga, The Secret of the Golden Flower, the ultimate
mystical blooming of the head center is that of an infinite-petaled
golden flower whose petals guide the soul upwards to union with the
Divinity. This would appear to be the culmination of the
archetypal flower symbolism of the rising of the soul to the
light of the Holy Spirit, symbolized in art by the halo, and in the garden
by the marigold, "Mary's Gold", referring to the rising to God of
the glorious soul of Mary, Queen of Mystics.
The Blossoming of Flowers
- The blossoming of flowers - symbol of the miraculous virgin
birth of God, the Son, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the
Mother of God (Rod of Jesse, Rose, Carnation, Peony,
Mistletoe).
This leads to a consideration of the third flower archetype: The
virgin birth of God the Son, as symbolized by the blossoming of
flowers - especially those with the fleshy fullness of the rose, as
distinct from those whose upwards reaching is characteristic.
Here there is a closer similarity between Christianity and the
Eastern religions, in which the birth of the Buddha and various
Hindu deities, like the birth of Christ, is similarly represented
as coming through the opening of the lotus or other flower.
In Christianity, the opening of flowers is the "down to earth"
symbolism of the prophecy of Isaiah of the birth of God Incarnate
as the blossoming Rod of Jesse. The blossoming vine with flower
was thus also seen to represent the birth-giving Blessed Virgin
Mary; and in celebration of this, the Church Fathers attributed to
her all the flower references in the Sapiential Books of the Bible.
This culminated in Dante's image of the Virgin as "the rose
wherein the Divine Word became incarnate", centrally portrayed in
the images of the Virgin and Child in the Rose Windows of the
medieval cathedrals, and in the Christmas carol, "Lo, How a Rose
e'er Blooming".
Marian flower symbolism was then extended to a "galaxy" of flowers
of the medieval countrysides in the traditions of St. Bernard, St.
Francis and St. Francis de Sales - a fitting culmination of
religious flower symbolism, just as recognition of Mary's position
in the divine plan of Creation, Salvation and Kingdom is coming to
be seen in the Mind of the Church as a culmination of theology.
From her love of God, of Creation, and of the prophesied coming of
the Messiah as the Suffering Servant, the Redeemer of the world, to
be born of a virgin, Mary first gave birth to Christ in her heart -
symbolized also by the blossoming of the rose - before giving him
birth in her womb. As Mother of the Church and Mediatrix of all
grace, Mary continues to give birth to Christ in the hearts of
others that they may be converted and baptized, as his members.
We pray to Mary that she may make use of us in her giving of birth
to Christ in hearts; and in the Mary Garden we are quickened to
this as we behold the rose.
The Death and Rebirth of Flowers
- The seasonal death and rebirth of flowers - symbol of the
death and resurrection of the redeeming God, the Son (Easter
Lily, Resurrection Flowers).
The fourth archtypal symbolism, of the death and rebirth of
flowers - their death at the end of the annual growing season and
their rebirth when it starts anew - is, from the viewpoint of the
manifestation of the essential aspects of divine truth in nature,
seen to be of central importance, as the symbol or "signature"
of Christ's death and resurrection, and therefore of our own death
in Christ, and of our resurrection in him at the Last Judgement
culminating this world.
The annual death and rebirth of flowers is at the same time a
symbol of their own eternal rebirth, as flowers, in the New Heaven
and New Earth at the end of time. For this, through our love of
them in Christ - through "charity, which endures forever" - they
are, supplementing their existence as heavenly essences, preserved,
after their earthly death, in the heavenly Book of Life, through
the years of sacred history, as God's creatures and signatures,
that they may burgeon forth and share the divine goodness, beauty,
truth and mystery, for which they are loved on this earth, with our
eternal souls and resurrected bodies forever in the New Heaven and
New Earth.
There is indeed a celebration of the Resurrection in the flowers of
Easter, but the other half of the archetype - the preceding Lenten
mortification, Passion and death of Christ, in which we are also to
participate - is less celebrated in nature and the garden.
Pained with the absence of the archetypal sense of the Passion of
Christ in a monastery garden he visited, the poet, Brother
Antoninus (William Everson), wrote (in Ramparts, September,
1962):
"The entire garden is conceived in the pattern of the Italian
Renaissance, and in my sojourn here it has filled me with
distinct repugnance. From the first I judged it more fit for
the resorts of the world out there than in the very heart of
a monastery.
"In a cloister I wanted nothing more for vegetation than the
long-bladed cactus that grows in the desert. I wanted it set
in otherwise denuded earth, with one of those unforgettable
Spanish crucifixes dominating the center. I wanted
everything here to evoke, call up and project, yes, cry out
the Passion and Death of Our Lord, Jesus, King and Redeemer
of men, that we might be called hourly to our own passion,
that death of self, that redemption of the interior man, in
the eternal crucifixion which is the life of man in God."
While the author was writing in intensely purgative mode, the
quotation importantly sets forth the death side of the death and
resurrectional archetype of flowers, so little meditated on in the
garden.
Always, the teaching of the Resurrection presupposes and derives
from, and therefore reinforces, the Christian teaching that
Creation is eternal; for it is all Creation which is resurrected on
the Last Day.
When the world - created to show forth and share the divine
goodness, beauty, truth and action - fell from grace and from its
original integrity and harmony, to a state of disequilibrium,
illusion, sickness and death, through the self-centered excercise
of free will of humans, God, in view of its eternal end, lovingly
and mercifully redeemed it through Christ's sacrificial death and
resurrection.
Thus redeemed from the evil of the Fall, the world - after the
culminative consolidation of Christ's victory over evil through the
redemptive participation of those joining their sorrows and
sufferings with his for his intentions, through history - will be
transformed on the last day into the eternal new heaven and new
earth, in which our eternal souls and resurrected bodies will be
accompanied by transfigured and regenerated animals, plants,
minerals and artifacts showing forth and sharing the divine
goodness, beauty, truth and action for all eternity, as originally
willed by God.
Three-Fold Forms and Colors of Flowers
- The three-fold forms and colors of flowers and foliage -
symbols of the mystery of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit (Shamrock, Fleur-de-Lis, Pansy, Aloe).
The Irish shamrock, Oxalis acetosella, of St. Patrick and many
other "shamrock" plants with three-lobed leaves are seen as symbols
of the Trinity; as are many three-petaled flowers such as Trillium;
tricolored flowers, such as the wild pansy, or "Trinity Flower";
and the three-leaved growth nodes of the aloe. While all flowers
through their beauty and purity serve to raise our thoughts to our
one God, the Trinity symbols quicken our garden thoughts to fuller
reflection on God as the three Divine Persons: the creating and
sustaining Father, the redeeming Son and the sanctifying and
guiding Holy Spirit.
The Parable of the Sower
- The sowing and germination of seed - symbol of the hearing and
keeping of the word of God in hearts and souls; and the
rooting in them of the supernaturally infused virtues and
gifts (The Parable of the Sower).
Through the created correspondence of gardens to hearts and souls,
the forms and qualities of plants and flowers - especially when
worked with daily - serve to impress on the senses and the
unconscious imagination psychological matrices or archetypes for
the reception and cultivation in the heart and soul of the divinely
bestowed spiritual "seeds" (words) of the virtues - as taught in
the Gospel Parable of the Sower.
This is especially so when the care of plant life is undertaken out
of love - even if there is no familiarity with spiritual plant
symbolism, nor belief in the divine infusion of the seeds and roots
of the virtues in the soul. In this, plant "signatures" of the
growth of the virtues in our hearts and souls serve as illuminative
forms which our active imagination psychologically interiorizes as
matrices of divinely bestowed spiritual seeds or roots of faith,
hope and love and the other virtues.
This natural archetypal impress of signature plants on hearts and
souls is enhanced with their sacramental blessing - through which
they, like other blest images, "produce...the excitation of pious
emotions and affections" ( Catholic Encyclopedia) in those who
behold or work with them.
Speaking of the interior spiritual rooting of the tree of love in
his heart, St. Francis of Assisi says, in "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 . . . ."
Consider the Lilies
- The total dependence of flowers on earth, water, air and sun -
symbol of total abandonment to God's providence in human life
("Consider the Lilies")
We are instructed by the example of flowers that we are to rely on
what God's Providence brings us: for our spiritual growth, for the
fulfillment of our obligations in life, and for the building of
God's Peaceable Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, in truth,
justice, love and freedom. This includes making redemptive use of
encountered adversities, diminishments and sufferings in union with
the sufferings of Christ on the Cross; rather than living by
calculation, strategy, tactics and timing directed to a maximum of
worldly pleasure, possessions, advantage, power and acclaim - apart
from the goal of Kingdom
Noting that all flowers bloom to perfection in their growth under
Providence, we are called to abandonment to Divine Providence for
our own, spiritual, perfection. "They never toil nor spin...but
not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these".
The Symbiosis of Vines With Trees
- The symbiosis of vines with trees - symbol of the intimate
union and close cooperation of Mary with Christ, the redeeming
Divine Son - as Mother, Co-redemptrix, Advocate, Intercessor,
Mediatrix and Queen. (Mistletoe, Vines)
Mary's fullness with the Holy Trinity, "God with her", necessary
for her Divine Maternity, was initiated through her fullness with
the overshadowing, indwelling, conceiving Holy Spirit; whereby she
became the Mother of God - co-parent, with God the Father, of
God the Son incarnate. Her fullness with the Divinity was then
further manifested in her intimate union and close cooperation with
Jesus as mother, and as companion in his ministry, Passion, and
death on the Cross. Marian theology has therefore traditionally
derived Mary's other blessed prerogatives from that of her Divine
Maternity, the first Marian doctrine dogmatically defined.
Thence have come the definitions of Mary's Perpetual Virginity,
symbolized in the Mary Garden by the strawberry, which remains
still in flower while in fruit; of her Immaculate Conception,
symbolized by the Lily Among the Thorns; and of her Assumption body
and soul into Heaven, symbolized by the white Lily, and especially
by the Assumption Lily - blooming in northern temperate climates at
the time of the liturgical Feast of the Assumption on August 15th.
Development of the further traditional doctrines of Mary's
Co-Redemption, Advocacy and Universal Mediation with Christ may
likewise be undertaken from the basic viewpoint of Mary's union of
fullness with the three persons of the Trinity, implicit in the
revelation of her Divine Maternity.
Because all Marian doctrines are derived ultimately from Mary's
union with God, we search for a "signature" of this union in
nature. The Mistletoe - a traditional Immaculate Conception symbol
because of its "miraculous" greening and fruiting in winter - is
included here as floral archetype of this union because of the
dynamic union symbolized by its growth - by it's symbiotic union
with the winter tree trunks - symbols of the Cross - around which it
entwines, from which it obtains its sustenance, and with which it
seems almost a part.
"Lady-Lords" (Our Lady and Our Lord) - a floral symbol of the
Madonna and Child enthroned - the image adopted by the Church as
symbol of the Divine Maternity after its definition at the Council
of Ephesus - is a more traditional, but less dynamic, union symbol
of Christ frontally seated in his Mother's lap.
The Union of the Human with the Divine
The hypostatic union of human nature with the divine nature in the
divine person of Christ, true God and true Man, demonstrates the
potential of all human nature, created in the divine image and
likeness, as a vehicle for the divine action.
Christ was a divine person incarnate in human nature. For there to
be a true human sharing of the divine action - in fulfillment of
the purpose of Creation - there is to be a sharing of the divine
with human persons. The personal accomplishment of this
divine-human sharing is found most fully in Mary, providing the
basis for our veneration of her and for our recourse to her in the
divine plan as co-redemptrix, spiritual mother, protector,
advocate, intercessor, mediatrix and Queen of heaven and earth.
This fullness of the divine sharing was accomplished in Mary - in
her total love of God and of the divine plan for Creation and
humans - through her Immaculate Conception and her fidelity to its
graces; through her humble "yes" in response to the angelic call to
the virginal conception and motherhood of the Divine Word to be
made flesh; and through her fidelity to the graces bestowed on her
and through her, "her station keeping," at the foot of the Cross.
Filled with the divinity - through her humble openness and free
assent to the bestowed overshadowing, indwelling and espousing of
the Holy Spirit of God, for the Divine Motherhood - Mary was
united, as has been said, with all three divine persons, to the
fullest receptivity and responsiveness of her human nature, created
in the image and likeness of God: with the Father, with the Son,
and with the Holy Spirit.
After the accomplishment of Mary's union of filling with the God,
the Holy Spirit, and of his conceiving in her of the Son of God,
Mary, at the Visitation, then proclaimed in the Magnificat her
accompanying union of fullness with God the Father - with his
providential guidance of sacred history - virtually actualized
through the mystical rising of her soul to union with the eternal
heavenly essences of the divine wisdom:
"He has shown might in his arm,
He has scattered the proud
in the conceit of their hearts;
He has put down the mighty from their seats,
and has exalted the humble.
He has received Israel his servant,
being mindful of his mercy,
as he spoke to our Fathers,
to Abraham and the prophets, forever."
(Luke 2: 46-55)
Similarly, Mary was seen by the Church Fathers as also
participating, virtually, through the same mystical union, in the
Father's action of creating the world, as attested by the
application to her in the liturgy of the passage on the created
wisdom from Proverbs 8: 22-31:
"The Lord begot me, the firstborn of his ways,
the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago.
From of old I was poured forth;
at the first, before the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no fountains or springs of water;
before the mountains were settled into place,
before the hills, I was brought forth;
while as yet the earth and the fields were not made,
nor the first clods of the world.
When he established the heavens I was there,
when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;
when he made firm the skies above,
when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
when he set for the sea its limit,
so that the waters should
not transgress his command.
Then was I beside him as his craftsman,
and I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of his earth;
and I found delight in the sons of men."
Similarly, from the application to Mary by the Church Fathers, in
the liturgy, and in her litanies, of the scriptural images, "Seat
of Wisdom", "House of Gold", "Tower of Ivory" and "City of God", we
are instructed that the crafted artifacts of the earthly city -
co-creations discovering, further showing forth and applying the
divine wisdom, first revealed by direct creations - are matrixed
through Mary's continuing actual mediational fullness of sharing of
the creational and providential wisdom of the Father.
Mary's mediation, through her fullness of union with God the
Father, of Divine Providence has traditionally been symbolized by
her heavenly, angelic, mantle with which she, as Queen of Angels,
and Queen of Divine Providence, encompasses the faithful to protect
us from evil, through her sharing of the divine power. In the Mary
Garden Our Lady's protecting mantle is symbolized by several
different flowers known as "Our Lady's Mantle".
Mary, Mediatrix and Distributrix of Grace
While Mary's fullness of grace and union with the overshadowing,
indwelling, espousing Holy Spirit is first shown by her conception
of the Divine Word made Incarnate, it is further manifested in the
divine plan by her mediational distribution at Pentecost of the
sanctifying and inspiring grace, light, wisdom and power of the
Holy Spirit to us, her children, to whom, at the foot of the Cross,
she was given as our spiritual mother.
In the Mary Garden, this is symbolized by flowers with serrated
petals recalling the pointed tongues of flame in which the Holy
Spirit, promised by the ascending Christ, descended, through Mary's
mediation, on the Apostles in the upper room at Pentecost.
Prominent among these flower symbols is "Mary's Pink", adopted both
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.
Mary as Mediatrix, with Christ
Some question the doctrine of Mary's universal spiritual mediation
on the basis that they see it as placing Mary in the position of
diminishing or usurping Christ's role as the "one mediator" with
the Heavenly Father. In this there is a failure to understand that
her sharing in Christ's mediation, like her sharing in his
redemption as co-redemptrix, is the initiation in and through her,
of the fulfillment of God's purpose for the world of sharing
the divine goodness and action with finite human beings.
Mary's Universal Mediation is a consequence not of her personal
excellences, but, in her all-consuming love of God, of her humble
openness to, her freely willed acceptance of, her filling with, and
her total responsive fidelity to the divinely bestowed graces of
the priviliges and prerogatives of her Immaculate Conception, her
Divine Motherhood, her Perpetual Virginity, her Transfixion, and
her glorious Assumption into heaven as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
Her Universal Mediation does not detract from or usurp Christ's one
mediation with the Father; it shares it - in the union of the
Sacred and Immaculate Hearts.
Thus, in the Liturgy of the Roman Rite for the feast of Our Lady,
Mediatrix of all Graces, May 31st, we pray in the Invitatory:
"Christ, the Redeemer, who has willed that we receive all graces
through Mary, Come let us adore," and, in the Prayer: "O Lord Jesus
Christ...mercifully grant that whosoever draws near to you to
beseech your benefits may rejoice to obtain all things through her"
The Necessity of Prayer
Jesus teaches that we are both to work and to pray for the coming
of the Father's Kingdom, beginning with the Our Father, the Lord's
Prayer. In this we are to "watch" and pray, that we may discern
personal and social moments of openness and receptivity through
which God's bestowed grace may be chosen by free wills. For the
fullest progress towards Kingdom we are to honor St. Paul's
exhortation to "pray always". And by praying for the blessing of
our work through Mary's mediation, we pray with the confidence that
our prayers, in addition to petitioning the necessary divine
guidance, will at the same time provide an opportunity for Mary,
thus petitioned, to extend the exercise of her ordained sharing in
the divine action as Mediatrix - in each mediation further extending
the sharing of the divine with humans in accordance with the purpose
for Creation.
While praying for the blessing of our work for the coming of God's
Kingdom, we at the same time ever continue our prayers of divine
praise, adoration and mystical union with the Trinity, so that we
may remain in the closest conformity with the imperative of the
divine will for Creation and Kingdom. In this we emulate Mary, of
whom it is said, 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. In heaven angels served her,
while here on earth she was venerated by the service of
men. . . . And both obeyed her with loving devotion."
With Mary now ascended into Heaven, we in our earthly work for
Kingdom prayerfully sustain our heavenly mystical union both with
the Trinity and the divine will for Creation and Kingdom, and also
with Mary and her heavenly mediation of the distribution of the
divine grace, light, wisdom and power for the building of God's
Kingdom, in accordance with the divine will, "on earth as it is in
heaven."
In the Garden
On initially entering and beholding the entire garden, we are first
reminded of the Garden of Eden, of Creation, and of the purpose of
Creation: the showing forth and sharing with us - here through
flowers - of the divine goodness, beauty and truth, and of our
divine call to participation as co-creators, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, in the filling of the earth and the building of
the eternal Kingdom of God. In this the shamrock, pansy, trillium
and aloe quicken reflection on the Trinity of divine persons in the
one God; and the rose, peony, carnation and other full-fleshed
flowers quicken us to reflection on the redemptive Incarnation of
God the Son.
The growth of all the plants of the garden from seeds and roots
keep us mindful, in accordance with the Parable of the Sower, of
the need for our loving, mortified reception and cultivation in our
hearts and souls of the seeds and roots of the supernatural gifts
and virtues necessary for progress in the ascetic/mystical ascent
of our souls toward union with God and with the divine will for
Creation and Kingdom ("Gardening With Mary").
In this, spent blooms, shriveled leaves, dead plant branches, and
other plant damage remind us of Christ's death, resurrection, and
re-opening of the world to grace, which make possible our growth in
spiritual virtue and our mystical rising to union with God and
God's will.
The many flower symbols of Mary's Rosary mysteries quicken us to
reflection and meditation on them "that by imitating what they
contain, we may obtain what they promise" ("Flower Theology" and
"The Garden Way of the Rosary").
And as we thus grow into ever closer and more loving union with God
and Mary, we are moved to conform our lives with ever increasing
fervor to the implementation of "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven" of the Lord's Prayer. In this
we become ever more aware of our need for openness and attunement
to the quickenings, promptings and inspiration of the processing,
spirating Holy Spirit, through whom the renewal of the face of the
earth and the building of God's Peaceable Kingdom are to be
accomplished - in accordance with the "Come Holy Spirit", and in
emulation of the opening and reaching of flowers to the light.
That we may have custody of heart, and quiet, waiting on the
movements of the Holy Spirit, we - "considering the lilies" -
abandon ourselves with equanimity to what Providence will bring
us to do and suffer during the coming day. Then, quickened by
violets and other low, hidden plants to emulate Mary's humility,
we empty ourselves of our own inclinations and interests, for full,
humble responsiveness to the Spirit.
In our call to collaborative, co-creative participation in the
building of God's earthly Kingdom, we pray for the mediation of Our
Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Mother of Good Counsel, for our
spiritual guidance in making the decisions and in undertaking
initiatives leading most immediately to that end - ever mindful,
through the mistletoe and other symbiotic or tree-encircling vines
of Mary's intimate union, close collaboration and fullness of
sharing with Christ, the one Mediator.
For matters arising during the day requiring spiritual discernment
and elections, we turn to the "Spiritual Exercises" of St.Ignatius
of Loyola and the mediation of Our Mother of Consolation. In this,
we first compose ourselves in spiritual quiet and custody of heart,
considering the alternatives before us directly in themselves, and
noting by self-examination which, as considered, is accompanied by
a grace of spiritual consolation - indicating that it is the one to
be chosen or elected.
If such a discerning consolation is not experienced therein, we
then repeat the exercise - considering the alternatives more
broadly from the viewpoint of the purpose of Creation and the
movement of the world in history towards the earthly Kingdom; or
finally, from the viewpoint of their expression and implementation
of the Divine Love.
The key to spiritual discernment is our emulation of Mary's
humility, symbolized by the modest lowly violet - the humility
through which her spirit "rejoiced in God (her) Savior"
(Magnificat); the humility opening us so "that we may be
truly wise, and ever rejoice in His consolation" (Come, Holy
Spirit).
Thus attuned to and inflamed by God's will, we return from the Mary
Garden to our life in the world, praying:
"All for you my Jesus, through Mary, for the love of
Creation, Salvation and Kingdom - for all eternity."
Copyright Mary's Gardens 1998