"You are fruit snatched out of life,
a berry hanging round and sweet;
simply let us taste how you melt
on the tongue of eternity."
~Rilke
The Virgin is so present in gardening - more than half our flowers belong to her. St. Joseph has nasturtiums, the Baptist has St. John's wort, but Mary has roses, sunflowers, marigolds, lady-slippers, batchelor's buttons, and an abundance of others. Some flowers belong to both Mary and another saint, but Mary herself is never short of flowers, ferns, and herbs. It makes it easy to find flowers for her feast days, easy to plant a Mary garden in any climate, and easy to apply her, through her flowers, to any situation requiring intercession - but I do feel badly for the neglected saints, lucky if they have even one plant to call their own.
Oh, I dream of planting a Mary garden someday. (It's hard to do while renting, and when your cat destroys your houseplants. But someday...)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. I didn't know about St. Joseph and nasturtiums, but I love those. And it would be lovely if every saint were associated with a plant. My confirmation saint, Therese of Lisieux, called herself the Little Flower... I wonder if she has any? Hmm.
Thanks! St. Therese usually just shares roses with Mary, she came along a little past the time when flowers were given to particular saints. But I'm sure Mary won't hold it against you if you plant a rose-bush for St. Therese.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked it!