Mary, Master Gardener...

John Waterhouse Painting

'The Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bridget and said to her this:

     "I, who speak to you, am the Queen of Heaven.  I am, as it were, a gardener of this world.  For when a gardener sees the rise of a strong wind harmful to the little plants and the trees of his garden, at once he runs to them quickly and binds them fast with sturdy stakes as well as he can.  And thus he comes to their aid, in various ways according to his ability, lest they be broken by the rushing wind or wretchedly uprooted.

     "I, the Mother of mercy, do the same in the garden of this world.  For when I see blowing on the hearts of human beings the dangerous winds of the devil's temptations and wicked suggestions, at once I have recourse to my Lord and my God, my Son Jesus Christ, helping them with my prayers and obtaining from him his out-pouring of some holy infusions of the Holy Spirit into their hearts to prop them up and savingly confirm them that  they may be kept spiritually uninjured by the diabolic wind of temptations lest the devil prevail against human beings, breaking their souls and plucking them up by the stem in accord with his wicked desire.  And thus when, with humility of heart and active compliance, human beings receive this said stakes of mine and my assistance, at once they are defended against the diabolic onslaught of temptations; and remaining firm in the state of grace, they bear for God and for me the fruit of sweetness in due season."

                                                                                      Saint Bridget of Sweden.


Sweet Mary, thank you for always coming to the aid of your weak little daisy when I am forever, blowing this way and that!  Do not allow me to be completely uprooted, however hard the devil tries to do so!  Instead, nourish your miserable little weed and cultivate me into the beautiful flower, your Son intended me to be!  

My Secret Garden....

The Rose of All Roses, Wilhelm Menzler

Today at Mass, the Priest mentioned how our souls are a little plot of land that God gives us and that it is our responsibility to tend the plot and hopefully, make a beautiful garden out of it!  What a lovely image that is and it really got me to think of my own little garden.

  For many, many years I didn't even know that I HAD a plot!  So, when I realized that I did...I had a lot of cleaning up to do!  The plot was hard, dry, and lifeless!  So ugly and un-appealing that I really didn't even like to be present there.  I made excuses like, "It's too hard, too much work, how come everyone else's plot is so much better than mine?"....I could go on and on.  Then, I must have just started slowly weeding out some of the  weeds.  I'm sure I didn't  weed them all out  at once, but must have, at some point, realized that it was kind of nice and relaxing to be in my little private plot, to be alone and aware that things had to get cleaned up.   I must have started watering my  plot with prayer and scripture and good books and began to notice that my garden wasn't hopeless after all...so then, I started planting a few flowers.   Flowers like St. Therese, St. John of the Cross, Liturgy of the Hours, St. Teresa of Avila, the Rosary,warm words from my Bobonne, my Carmelite Group (which by the way, Carmel means 'garden')....and before I knew it...I had a beautiful little sanctuary to go to whenever I wanted to be alone with the One I love!  Now, that I am aware of this little Garden, with God's grace, there will no stopping me!  I will make it a perfect, holy place to share time with Jesus.  We will walk around it together and Jesus, the MASTER Gardener, will point out things to me and share with me how I might change it to make it even better!  He'll tell me not to worry because He will always be there to help me and we will tend our little, hidden and secret place together!  Ah!  He loves us!

"The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
  Isaiah 58:11