Skip to main content

Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer

Make a Rosary Garden—Planting Flowers and the Seeds of Prayer: 

On the lawn outside of my family's parish, there is a stepping-stone Marian-Rosary garden. Often, after attending daily Mass, on warm or non rainy days, my children love to run around the rosary stones, encircling the statue of Mary, and sit upon the garden's benches. The days when they would run around, only able to exclaim the words, "Hail, Mary! Hail, Mary! Hail Mary!" for each stone, are precious treasured memories I hold within my heart.

When we entered the pandemic shutdown, in the spring of 2020, I didn't realize just how much I missed the rosary garden tradition my children and I had after Mass. When my husband and I scheduled confession with our pastor, twelve days into the shutdown, we took turns waiting with our children and letting them play and pray in the rosary garden, while we participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I'd always desired to make a Mary/Rosary garden in our backyard, but I think seeing my children romp around the stones on that beautiful and tranquil beginning of spring afternoon, made me desire making one even more. May arrived. We had a “May Crowning” ceremony at our kitchen table with the statue of Mary that resides on our mantel, and I couldn't help but think how nice it would have been if we'd had a Mary/Rosary garden outside. Mother's Day arrived, and my husband bought flowers for our kids to give me. I told our children to each pick a couple of flowers from my bouquet, and as a family, we drove to church so our kids could lay their flowers at Mary's feet in the rosary garden. After this, I decided it was time to make my Mary/Rosary garden dream a reality, and I began researching statues and plants. Filled with excitement, I watched the shipping and tracking updates and saw that my family’s statue of Mary had finally arrived! And on August 13, 2020, my husband’s birthday, we placed a statue of Mary in our backyard! 

Over the course of the year, we've been creating our Mary/Rosary garden and shaping it into our outside prayer space We've added mums, crafted stepping stones, and are in the process of adding more flowers. Having our children help make the stones, has given them ownership over our project, and when you work hard to make something, you will use it. As we've planted and crafted, we've spent time together as a family physical building something together, creating an outdoor prayer and reflection space, as well as building our family’s prayer life. The space we have built we know will inspire and help us grow in our faith continually. Having the Mary/Rosary garden has also helped us to teach our children to be stewards of nature, since they have the responsibility of watering the flowers and helping to pick weeds. The seeds of prayer and stewardship have been planted, now we must continue to help them grow. 

May is the month the Catholic Church dedicates to The Blessed Virgin Mary. If you and your family don’t already have a Mary or Mary/Rosary garden, think about creating one.

Below are pictures of my family’s Mary/Rosary garden so far, as well as an enthronement prayer for your statue of Mary that I wrote.

Enthronement Prayer for Mary Garden Statue:

Mary, Guiding Star, Month of May 

Oh, guiding star, and compass pure, you lead the way unto your son. Help us listen with our hearts and souls, for the whispered will of God. Listening with your heart and soul, trusting, never doubting, all was God's holy will. We dedicate this month, this garden to you, oh Mother most humble and holy. May we look to you, to lead us closer to your divine Son.

Amen.

Additional Resources:

The website, “Catholic Culture,” has a list of flowers you can plant in your Mary/Rosary garden.

The website, “Roses for Mary,” promotes placing roses by statues of Mary that are in front yards, and also provides opportunities to win statues of Mary.

The website, “Catholic Mom,” has great step-by-step directions for making a stepping-stone rosary garden. 

(Our Mary/Rosary garden in the fall of 2020)
(Our Mary/Rosary garden prepped with spring flowers and stepping-stones April 2021)

(The stepping stones for our decade rosary to go around our Mary statue. We used plastic plant sauces for our concrete molds and also purchased a large stepping-stone kit with stamps from Hobby Lobby)




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day: Nov. 17th  Saint Elizabeth of Hungary has always held a special place in my heart since she is my confirmation saint. If I'm being honest, when I was reading about saints back in the eighth grade, trying to choose which saint I wanted to take as my patron, my requirements were as follows: (1) She couldn't die a horrible death, (2) She was married with kids, (3) and her life was pretty good allowing her to serve God and others through the blessings she'd been given. In hindsight, my list of "requirements" was probably a little superficial, but now as an adult I focus more on the virtues and saintly qualities of Saint Elizabeth, and find inspiration in how she lived. She was humble, a kind and loving wife and mother, and very generous to the poor. She also made plenty of time to pray and grow in her relationship with the Lord. On her wedding day, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, who was a princess, did not wear a crown. Instead she s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Study the Saints

Study the Saints: As I write this post, four days into the New Year, I’m called to reflect upon what New Year’s Resolution I can make that will be the most beneficial for my family and myself. A word that’s inspiring and that comes to mind is “Saints.” Celebrating the Saints on their feast days is wonderful and has been a blessing to my family. My children have learned about various holy men, women, and children from all places of the world and times in history, and they have been able to try foods from various cultures. I love how the Catholic Church is universal! Matthew Kelly wrote a book entitled Rediscover the Saints that I read last year, and I believe it has been part of a catalyst that has taken me to the next level of learning about the Saints. Celebrating saintly feast days is wonderful, but taking the time to read the actual writings of the Saints can be an even bigger game changer and blessing in your life and the lives of your family members. To date, I’ve only read the D...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saint John Neumann

Saint John Neumann: Feast Day Jan. 5th Saint John Neumann, the first American Bishop to be canonized and Patron Saint of Catholic Education, has a special place in my heart. My late grandfather’s name was John Neumann, and when my brother was confirmed, he selected our grandfather to be his sponsor and chose Saint John Neumann as his patron. I like to reflect on the reality that as our grandfather, John Neumann, stood beside him as his sponsor, Saint John Neumann prayed in Heaven for my brother at his Confirmation. Aside from this neat family name connection with a Saint, as a former teacher I also find Saint John Neumann to be inspiring, since he helped increase the number of Catholic schools while he was Bishop of Philadelphia and brought numerous religious sisters into the schools to teach. Faith instruction of children and young people was definitely important to Saint John Neumann. If you are interested in reading more about Saint John Neumann, check out this article from Francis...
Post a Comment
Read more