Mary as "Enclosed Garden"

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Some of you may be familiar with the phrase “enclosed garden” as we read it in the Old Testament Book, “Song of Songs”, but perhaps you have never considered this title in reference to Mary. In his classic treatise, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary St. Louis De Montfort wrote:

1. We must do everything in Mary. To understand this we must realize that the Blessed Virgin is the true earthly paradise of the new Adam and that the ancient paradise was only a symbol of her. There are in this earthly paradise untold riches, beauties, rarities and delights, which the new Adam, Jesus Christ, has left there. It is in this paradise that he “took his delights” for nine months, worked his wonders and displayed his riches with the magnificence of God himself. This most holy place consists of only virgin and immaculate soil from which the new Adam was formed with neither spot nor stain by the operation of the Holy Spirit who dwells there. In this earthly paradise grows the real Tree of Life which bore our Lord, the fruit of Life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which bore the Light of the world.

In this divine place there are trees planted by the hand of God and watered by his divine unction which have borne and continue to bear fruit that is pleasing to him. There are flower-beds studded with a variety of beautiful flowers of virtue, diffusing a fragrance which delights even the angels. Here there are meadows verdant with hope, impregnable towers of fortitude, enchanting mansions of confidence and many other delights.

Only the Holy Spirit can teach us the truths that these material objects symbolize. In this place the air is perfectly pure. There is no night but only the brilliant day of the sacred humanity, the resplendent, spotless sun of the Divinity, the blazing furnace of love, melting all the base metal thrown into it and changing it into gold. There the river of humility gushes forth from the soil, divides into four branches and irrigates the whole of this enchanted place. These branches are the four cardinal virtues.

Mary, Enclosed Garden of God, enable us to enter your garden of perfect union with God. Please intercede for all your children!

 

[Brooklyn]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful passage. Our Blessed Mother, that beautiful garden from which came our Savior, never fails us. What a wonderful gift our Lord has given to us in His Blessed Mother.

 

[MarcoPolo]

“enclosed garden” as we read it in the Old Testament Book, “Song of Songs”, but perhaps you have never considered this title in reference to Mary.

Indeed it is great theology. I cited this biblical type in a blog post about Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

 

[svid2]

Pax Christi!

Thank you for sharing! This puts more (sun)light on the writings of the Little Flower.

Ah, I miss having a garden… With marigolds!

God bless!

 

[MariaChristi]

Thank you for sharing this beautiful passage. Our Blessed Mother, that beautiful garden from which came our Savior, never fails us. What a wonderful gift our Lord has given to us in His Blessed Mother.

Dear Brooklyn,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, Mary is more beautiful than we can even imagine. How grateful I am to God for giving all of us such a Mother!

 

[MariaChristi]

Pax Christi!

Thank you for sharing! This puts more (sun)light on the writings of the Little Flower.

Ah, I miss having a garden… With marigolds!

God bless!

Dear svid2,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I had actually forgotten little St. Therese’s insights into how the souls of God’s children are like different flowers in a garden. It also reminds me of the apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho in which Mary asked one of the seers to “water her flowers”.

 

[Dorothy]

I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for giving to us such a Mother. She is there for us!

 

[MariaChristi]

Indeed it is great theology. I cited this biblical type in a blog post about Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

Dear MarcoPolo,

Thanks for the link to you blog and your citing of this biblical type. Hope it’s ok to quote from your bog here:

… O virgin who surpasses Eden’s garden of delights!
St. Theodotus of Ancyra, On the Nativity of Our Savior, 21

God’s Eden is Mary; in her there is no serpent that harms...., no Eve that kills, but from her springs the Tree of Life that restores the exiles of Eden.
St. Ephraim, On the Annunciation of the Mother of God, hymn 3:302

Ineffabilis Deus makes reference to Mary as the type of “that garden enclosed on all sides, which cannot be violated or corrupted by any deceitful plots.” The encyclical refers to Song of Songs 4:12 which speaks of a “bride” who is “a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed” as well as other references to this bride as a “garden” throughout the chapter. That particular verse is also a testimony to Mary’s perpetual virginity and has been understood as such by the Church.3 Mary is also a “bride” to the Holy Spirit because their union brought forth the child Jesus.4 But I bring this up to further support the image of “garden” with Mary.

Now remember, Mary whom God chose as His dwelling place, is the superior type of her OT counterparts.

Venerable Fulton Sheen also emphasizes Mary as the “perfect Model” in his book on Mary, “[The World’s First Love”

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[MariaChristi]

I thank our Lord Jesus Christ for giving to us such a Mother. She is there for us!

Dear Dorothy,

Thanks for your reply - can we ever thank God enough for Mary? I think not. Nevertheless, let us continue to thank Him now and for all eternity for such a Mother!

 

[MarcoPolo]

Thanks for the link to you blog and your citing of this biblical type. Hope it’s ok to quote from your bog here:

Certainly.

 

[Mark121359]

MariaChristi; I continue to enjoy reading your threads. And I especially love when the subject is Mary! Your concerns about Catholics understanding of Mary is a valid one. In 1863 Father Frederick William Faber wrote this about Mary in the preface of his English translation of “True Devotion:

*“Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. It is frightened out of its wits by the sneers of heresy. It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about her. Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls, which might be saints, wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelised. Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them.” *

I have to believe that your efforts to bring attention to Mary brings great joy to Jesus! God Bless You MariaChristi!

Peace, Mark

 

[Dorothy]

MariaChristi; I continue to enjoy reading your threads. And I especially love when the subject is Mary! Your concerns about Catholics understanding of Mary is a valid one. In 1863 Father Frederick William Faber wrote this about Mary in the preface of his English translation of “True Devotion:

*“Mary is not half enough preached. Devotion to her is low and thin and poor. It is frightened out of its wits by the sneers of heresy. It is always invoking human respect and carnal prudence, wishing to make Mary so little of a Mary that Protestants may feel at ease about her. Its ignorance of theology makes it unsubstantial and unworthy. It is not the prominent characteristic of our religion which it ought to be. It has no faith in itself. Hence it is that Jesus is not loved, that heretics are not converted, that the Church is not exalted; that souls, which might be saints, wither and dwindle; that the Sacraments are not rightly frequented, or souls enthusiastically evangelised. Jesus is obscured because Mary is kept in the background. Thousands of souls perish because Mary is withheld from them.” *

I have to believe that your efforts to bring attention to Mary brings great joy to Jesus! God Bless You MariaChristi!

Amen!

Peace, Mark

 

[MariaChristi]

Dear Mark,

Thanks for your reply and for your encouragement. God has given me a great gift in Mary, and I believe He has given her to all of us. It is a mystery of grace, that some of us draw closer to her as we draw closer to Jesus, and some do not. It saddens me to see her unloved by those who feel Catholics give her too much attention, or for other reasons such as those Father Faber mentions. St. Louis De Montfort writes in True Devotion:

1. It helps us to imitate Christ

1. Our good Master stooped to enclose himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, a captive but loving slave, and to make himself subject to her for thirty years. As I said earlier, the human mind is bewildered when it reflects seriously upon this conduct of Incarnate Wisdom. He did not choose to give himself in a direct manner to the human race though he could easily have done so. He chose to come through the Virgin Mary. Thus he did not come into the world independently of others in the flower of his manhood, but he came as a frail little child dependent on the care and attention of his Mother. Consumed with the desire to give glory to God, his Father, and save the human race, he saw no better or shorter way to do so than by submitting completely to Mary.

He did this not just for the first eight, ten or fifteen years of his life like other children, but for thirty years. He gave more glory to God, his Father, during all those years of submission and dependence than he would have given by spending them working miracles, preaching far and wide, and converting all mankind. Otherwise he would have done all these things.

What immeasurable glory then do we give to God when, following the example of Jesus, we submit to Mary! With such a convincing and well- known example before us, can we be so foolish as to believe that there is a better and shorter way of giving God glory than by submitting ourselves to Mary, as Jesus did?

My Queen and my Mother, I am all yours. Keep me guard me, as your property and possession.