Our Mary Garden

One of my favorite things about summer is seeing the flowers bloom around Our Blessed Mother statue next to our front porch. Last year I did some research about planting a Mary Garden, which has been a Catholic tradition for centuries of planting flowers and herbs that are beautifully symbolic of Mary. More than 30 flowers and herbs bear legends about Mary’s life. The Rose, for example, represents Mary's love and beauty, as well as her deep sorrow. Mary has long been called "The Mystical Rose," and the term rosary comes from the Latin word for roses and is meant to remind us that when praying the rosary we are offering to Mary a spiritual bouquet of roses. The Lily represents her immaculate purity, innocence, and virginity. The Lily-of-the-Valley is also called "Our Lady's Tears," for these flowers are said to have blossomed from Mary's tears for her Son as she stood at the foot of the cross. The Columbine flower is nicknamed "Our Lady's Shoes," for legend says that these beautiful flowers sprung up under Mary's feet as she went to visit Elizabeth. The Bleeding Heart plant is a reminder of Simeon's prophesy to Mary in the Bible that her heart would be pierced as she witnessed the passion and death of her Son, the Messiah. To learn more about the various flowers attributed to Mary, visit:
http://www.americancatholic.org/messenger/May2000/feature2.asp.

We have a deep love for Mary in our family, simply because she helps us love Jesus more deeply. That has always been God's role for her. She was chosen to bring Jesus into the world, and as the loving mother of us all, she is still striving to bring her children to Jesus, the Savior of the world. Her desire for everyone to know and love her Son is so great that she has been appearing all over the world (Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, and even in the US) to people just like you and me, begging us to repent and receive Jesus into our hearts. She never seeks to draw attention to herself, simply to point us in the direction of her Son. Each time I walk by our Mary Garden, I am reminded to be more like her...more gentle, loving, submissive to God's will, pointing people to Jesus...and I find tremendous comfort knowing that she is interceding for my family and helping us become more like her Son. Here are a few photos of the flowers currently blossoming in our Mary Garden.

A pretty Poppy...

A Bleeding Heart blossom...

A Golden Lily...

One of our many rose bushes.