Rosary Gardens at Catholic Churches

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A local church to me has a rosary garden(the ones with the stones to step on for each bead in the rosary). I was wondering if that is common elsewhere. In my area there are probably 20+ Catholic Churches, but that is the only one that has one.

Are these common in other areas? If not, why aren’t they? I love spending time outside praying the rosary.

I will add pictures shortly. I’m about to go there before I go to work.
 
I have never seen one, but it sounds like a very nice idea.
ajg said:
Are these common in other areas? If not, why aren’t they?
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A church would have to have the land for a garden like this, and churches in the town or city often do not have any land to speak of other than what the building sits on and maybe a parking lot. Perhaps a rural parish would have more space for it–although I have never seen one at a rural parish, either.
 
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The one here is not an actual garden and only takes up a little bit of room. I’m about to take a picture to post for everyone
 
They seem to be really common at more rural churches but not so much with city ones. Almost all the churches with any land in my area have outdoor meditation areas–stations, rosary, saints grotto, etc. But the ones in town and cities do not.

Space and zoning can be issues. You can’t just erect signs and monuments all over your property in the middle of the city.

And of course, there are always things like this amazing gem

http://www.fatimashrine.com/

Its far, but I want to go there again with all my heart.
 
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My parish has one… one of the better landscaped portions of the parish- its really pretty
 
That’s wonderful, but still requires a fair bit of land. My suburban church has no garden at all, so there’s no place to put anything like this.
 
I’ve never been to one that has stones for the rosary, but I’ve seen plenty that a statues and benches for outdoor prayer

Most that I’ve seen call it a “Mary Garden,” “Marian Garden” or even “Rosary Garden,” but they don’t al have stones for the rosary
 
I haven’t seen that but at the Cathedral in Santa Fe, NM, they have a lovely outdoor stations of the cross garden. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Been to both. FUS’s isn’t nearly as amazing…especially in the twilight of a warm summer afternoon.
 
Our Parish has an outdoor garden with a statue of the Blessed Mother. It is their that our Legion of Mary prays our weekly outdoor Rosary, weather permitting.
 
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They are more common at Marian shrines or retreat centers, where there are often some outdoor grounds to go and pray. I think the cost of putting them in, plus the upkeep required to keep them nice, plus the fact that they attract people to come onto the church grounds at odd hours unless there’s a fence or gate (which most churches don’t have), kind of dissuades a lot of local churches from putting them in. Same for outdoor Stations of the Cross - I was happy to find these at a local church to me because it means I will be able to make the Stations during hours the church is closed and locked, but only the one church has these.
 
ajg said:
The one here is not an actual garden and only takes up a little bit of room. I’m about to take a picture to post for everyone
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Pretty! It is a great idea, and the picture shows that it can be done simply.

For parishes in the city, though, many don’t even have the small bit of land shown in your picture. There are 5 parishes in my city, and not one has a square of extra land that big.
 
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The parish I am a member of has a small plot of land that is not used. I’m thinking about setting up a meeting with my priest to see if I can pitch the idea for a rosary garden.
 
Yeah, a church near my town has an out door stations of the Cross walking path with the Rocky mountains as a backdrop.
 
We built one at the entrance to the Catholic school where I taught for 10 years. Each stepping stone was made shaped like a rose by one of the parents who was a stoneworker. PArent sponsored a stone for $10 each, and the man donated a huge Celtic cross stone.
I don’t know if the children still use it, but I used to take them out to pray the rosary that way, (and to get them outdoors). 😊
 
If you are in the US, you can ask one of The Eagle Scout candidates to take it on as his big project That way the community at large will pay for it. We had a scout do outdoor path with Stations fo the Cross.
 
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