Are you a gardener? Do you love to plant flowers and vegetables? Do you ever dig in the dirt thinking about all the gardens in the Bible? God obviously loves gardens. He created the Garden of Eden and formed the man from its rich, fertile soil. (Kind of makes you think of the expression "older than dirt" doesn't it?) Jesus spent many hours in the Garden of Gethsemane praying. I wonder what that garden was like? When he was there in the Spring and Summer what scents filled the air? What bird calls provided background music for his meditation? What plants grew after being watered by His blood?
Mary no doubt had a kitchen garden to supplement their humble meals. Did they eat some of the same vegetables that grace our tables? Did some of Mary's titles originate from the flowers that grew in her own garden? Mystical rose, Lily of the Valley, Rose of Sharon? Doesn't her title, Star of the Sea, bring to mind underwater gardens filled with wonderful treasures like the sunflower star of the sea?
Saint Brigid wrote about Mary and her title, Mystical Rose, sharing Mary's own words to her about the reason for that title:
The rose gives a fragrant odor; it is beautiful to the sight, and tender to the touch, and yet it grows among thorns, inimical to the beauty and tenderness. So may also those who are mild, patient, beautiful in virtue, be put to a test among adversaries. And as the thorn, on the other hand, guards, so do wicked surroundings protect the just against sin by demonstrating to them the destructiveness of sin.
Saint Brigid added in her own words:
The Virgin may suitably be called a blooming rose. Just as the gentle rose is placed among thorns, So this gentle Virgin was surrounded by sorrow.
I think I will go out in my garden today to pray the Litany of Loreto.
Genesis 2:15} And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it.
ReplyDeleteI am a gardener. I had an excellent tudor from the beginning who wisely insisted that I not start a garden unless I was willing to take care of it. She wanted me to understand that plants need careful looking after. A garden requires time and effort. As with the Garden of Eden, the person who sets out to have a garden should be prepared "to dress it and to keep it." Otherwise what is the point to have bought plants and put them in the ground? It would be better to grow a lawn that is mowed easily than to have a garden of any size, big or small, that is in a state of perpetual neglect, as my neighbor's . Not everyone should have a garden, because very few people look at the care of plants as the responsibility that they are.
I always think about the Garden of Eden when I see videos of large cats- lions and tigers, for instance- become kittens around people that raised them. To me, it’s evidence of how it was meant to be in God’s plan.
ReplyDelete