A Mary Garden: A Great Mother-Daughter Spring Activity!

It is a Catholic tradition to acknowledge and honor the unselfish and holy life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. One way of doing that is to plant a Mary Garden.

In the Middle Ages, missionaries and travelers spread stories across Europe about flowers named after Mary and various times of her life. Mary Gardens that featured these flowers became popular there, and later the tradition made its way to America. Around 1932 it is believed that the first Mary Garden in the United States was constructed on the grounds of St. Joseph's Church in the Woods on Cape Cod.

Now, many flowers that symbolize the name of Mary grace gardens throughout this country. If you, too, would like to honor our Blessed Mother through flowers, perhaps you would like to create your own special garden spot that showcases plants that carry her name. The center focus of the garden is a statue of Our Blessed Lady. The size of the garden does not matter. In fact, people with limited space can use a small area and a few select flowers to surround their statue. If you are an apartment dweller, you can set up your Marian Garden in a window box or even use a small statue with a single flowering plant. Reflecting on Marian flowers can be a perfect starting point for meditating on the life of Christ through Mary.

To help set up a Marian Garden, flowers and their meanings are listed below. This list is far from complete but should give you enough information to begin.

1. Lily: Legend tells us that the Angel Gabriel held a lily in his hands when he came to tell Mary that she was chosen to be the mother of the Savior. Lilies are often depicted in pictures of Mary as an indication of purity and grace.

2. Columbine: This flower is often called Our Lady's Slipper. Legend says that this flower sprang from the earth where Mary's feet stepped when she was on her way to visit Elizabeth.

3. Rose: The rose symbolizes Mary as the Queen of Heaven. The red rose represents sorrow. The white rose shows joy, and the yellow rose stands for the honor bestowed upon Mary.

4. Violet: The violet is a symbol of modesty and simplicity; humble acceptance to the words from the angel Gabriel...."Let it be done unto me according to Your will."

5. Carnation: Legend says that the carnation bloomed on the night of Jesus' birth; a sign of Mary's joy at the Child's birth.

6. Oxeye Daisy It is said that when the wise men reached Bethlehem they looked for a further sign to guide them to the new king. King Melchior saw a white and gold flower and knew which building to enter.

7. Star of Bethlehem: The shape of the flower is said to resemble the star that the Magi followed to find the Christ Child.

8. Snowdrop: The snowdrop is said to have bloomed in February when Mary took Jesus to the temple to present him to God.

9. Rosemary It is believed that Mary hung the linens of the Holy Child on the rosemary bush to dry. Afterwards, the bush carried a sweet aroma.

10. Forget-me-not The tiny blue flowers of this plant represent Mary's eyes.

11. Meadow Cress: This plant is called Our Lady's Smock. It stands for the fine linens made by Mary's hands. It is said that Mary learned to weave as a young girl.

12. Lavender This fragrant plant represents purity, cleanliness and virtue – Mary’s spotlessness and chastity.

13. Marigold: Early Christians placed marigolds around statues of Mary in place of coins calling them Mary's gold.

14. Bluebells: These bell-shaped flowers resemble tiny thimbles and represent Our Lady's working hands. They were often called Our Lady's Thimbles.

15. Speedwell: This plant is also known as Mary's Resting Place. A legend tells that its blossoms marked each spot where the Blessed Mother rested during the flight into Egypt.

(This excerpt is reprinted with permission from All Things Girl: Truth for Teens, 2014 release)

The Company We Keep!

If we are known by the company we keep, then hats off to one of my favorite authors--Laura Pearl--for the company she is keeping on Amazon!

Check it out:

Customers who bought Finding Grace by Laura Pearl also bought The Ear of the Heart by Mother Dolores Hart; Come My Beloved by Ellen Gable Hrkach; Past Suspicion by Therese Heckenkamp; and Frozen Footprints also by Therese Heckenkamp (which I am currently reading and loving!).

Congratulations, Laura!

check out Laura's blog at: http://mumsie2five.blogspot.com/

or follow Laura on Twitter @Finding_Grace_

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Hang New Curtains this Lent!

Did you ever notice that the Lenten season seems to come and go in the blink of an eye? All of a sudden you find yourself at Easter Mass wondering how time so easily slipped through your fingers. Darn! You had promised yourself that this Lent would be different. You wouldn’t be caught by surprise, yet again!

But already you can feel it happening again; you are not experiencing Lent the way you wanted.

However, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can make the conscious choice—right here, right now—to stop in your busy tracks and embrace the Lenten season.  

Lent is a season of preparing for the resurrection of Christ—to be ready to live in that resurrection  

Prepare room so that he may dwell in your heart: Your heart is where Christ wishes to dwell and where his resurrection can be most noticeably felt. Lent is the perfect time to make room in it for His presence. If your heart is filled with unforgiveness, it has no room for Christ. This Lent do an honest, even painful Examination of Conscience wherein you ask your Heavenly Father to reveal to you any unforgiveness that exists in your heart. Remember that as God has forgiven you, you are also asked to forgive others.

Clean out the cobwebs: After an Examination of Conscience where you ask God to reveal any unforgiveness that you are holding, it is important to clean out the vestiges of cobwebs that may still be lurking in the dark corners of your heart. A beautiful time to do this is during a Stations of the Cross service. As you move through the Stations of the Cross and participate in the responses, you will find the cobwebs being dusted away and preparing you for the resurrection.

Hang new curtains: The room of your heart is now ready: unforgiveness and cobwebs have been cleared out. Now it is time to hang new curtains! Many of us fall into a rut in our daily lives and forget how to live in joy. You are preparing for Christ’s resurrection and that ought to bring great happiness! So throw out the old curtains of fear and despair and exhaustion and hang new curtains of joy and praise for the resurrection.

Get out the fine china and set the table: Company is here! We aren’t doubtfully thinking that maybe He’s been resurrected. We are certain in our belief of His resurrection and every cell in our body joyfully shouts, “He lives!” This is the time we get the fine china out of the cupboard to celebrate the resurrection. Our fine china goes so well with our new curtains!

Open the front door: Whenever we have company in our home, after all the preparation is complete, we open our front door and wait expectantly, excitedly on our couch. We can’t wait to visit with our company. The same is applicable now: let’s rejoice in the resurrected Lord and celebrate by the way we live and love.

 

All Things Girl: Truth for Teens

Heather Renshaw, the contributor for the chapter on vocations and motherhood in the new 2014 release of All Things Girl: Truth for Teens invites you to connect with her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

Come and join the fun!

Here is the FB page:  

https://www.facebook.com/AllThingsGirlTruthForTeens?ref=hl

The Twitter feed:

www.Twitter.com/ATGTruth4Teens

Man Up!

The ultimate men’s conference is now here…easy to attend in the comfort of your own home!

Jared Zimmerer has accomplished a herculean task and gathered some of the best voices together for Man Up! Becoming the New Catholic Renaissance Man.

Fr. Robert Barron endorses Zimmerer’s work and writes: What does it mean to be a man and a disciple? For too long, the Church's outreach and witness to men has suffered from a lack of coherence, vision, and zeal--a sad situation that has left too many men at the margins of the Church's missionary endeavors. Man Up! is evidence that a hope-filled change is in the making. Jared Zimmerer, with his "Man Up!" team, is boldly taking the lead into one of the great peripheries of the New Evangelization.

Catholic Apologist, Matt Fradd says of Man Up!: This book encourages men to become who they are—who they were created to be. Jared Zimmerer, and his extraordinary contributors, offer sage advice to a culture of men gone soft. I believe that it will contribute a significant amount to the renewal of authentic masculinity in the Church.

Perfect for hubby’s Easter basket—or for dad or brother—Man Up! truly is the best “men’s conference” in a book.

Check out the video, too!

Are You Setting Yourself Up for Failure This Lent?

This Lent I’m doing some different things. Or maybe I should say I’m doing things differently.

Regardless of my intentions, I’ve noticed that the last few Lenten Seasons (and Advent, too) have started out as gangbusters but then have really petered out. I’m reminded of the saying “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Talking with some friends, I’ve found that it is a far more common occurrence then most of us are willing to admit. We purchase the Lenten book, we buy all the pieces for the Advent wreath, we envision the holy and anointed times that will take place in our homes and in our hearts during these sacred seasons.

Of course, the more we plan, the more likely we are to fail. After all, 40 days is a long time to stay committed. It is test of endurance and we unwittingly set ourselves up for failure because we aren’t always realistic in what we set out to do.

So this Lent, I’m doing something different: I'm setting myself up for success.

This Lent I’m re-reading a couple of books that I have loved over the past few years; books that have fed my soul AND kept my interest. I’m not about cutting down bare tree branches and painting them and hanging Easter eggs on them (yes, that was one activity we did years ago that had less than successful results! LOL!).

This Lent I’m excited to pick up Nancy Carabio Belanger’s latest book The Gate and delve back in. It is such a great story and one that seems so fitting for my Lenten reading.

I’m also going to re-read Rosemary McDunn’s The Green Coat. Every time I read her book my heart is filled with a renewed sense of hope in all things. Perfect for Lent!

Last month I was invited to be a guest on Catholic Television’s This is the Day and talk about Young Adult literature. The fastest growing segment of the YA market is adults! This Lent I am reminded why that is the case and will be enjoying great Catholic YA literature—and invite you to do the same.

It is something I promise you will finish and feel nourished.

Elizabeth Ficocelli and the Conrad Hilton Foundation Have a Lot in Common

It turns out that Elizabeth Ficocelli and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation have a lot in common.

Ficocelli authored a series of children’s vocation-awareness books with a beautiful entry titled “Where Do Sisters Come From?” Elizabeth has shared her story behind the vocation-awareness series on Catholic radio and on a number of Catholic websites and in print. A convert, Ficocelli explains how her own interest in understanding consecrated life was the impetus behind writing the first entry “Where Do Priests Come From?” which was then followed by “Where Do Sisters Come From?.” The final entry in the series is “Where Do Deacons Come From?.”

So when it was recently announced that March 8 through March 15^th is Catholic Sisters Week, Ficocelli was not surprised. Her own passion for helping young children learn about vocations was acknowledged in that announcement. Ficocelli’s life work and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation had oddly crossed paths around the consecrated life of sisters!

Catholic Sisters Week is the enterprise of St. Catherine University out of St. Paul, MN and is backed by over three million dollars from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. It is a vast undertaking and, according to Andrea Lee, IHM, president of St. Catherine University, it will essentially be “Fostering meaningful relationships between college-age women and accomplished American women religious will be a powerful inspiration for some to consider religious life.”

Rosemarie Nassif, SSND, program director of the Catholic Sisters Initiative at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation adds, “The Hilton Foundation’s vision is to create a movement that ignites a national awareness around the lives and profound contributions of Sisters, inspiring girls and women to be open to a potential call to religious life.”

For Elizabeth Ficocelli, it is an exciting time to introduce the beauty of vocations to Catholic families and classrooms. “Even if the youngsters aren’t called to a consecrated vocation, being aware of them as a special call from God increases everyone’s respect and appreciation,” Ficocelli has said in radio interviews.

It looks like the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation agrees!

(illustration is from Where Do Sisters Come From?)