Something Beautiful for God: The Mary Garden Contest

Fr. James Phalan, C.S.C., encourages you to create a Mary Garden and enter the contest sponsored by our sister ministry, the Museum of Family Prayer.

Through Family Rosary’s Museum of Family Prayer, a “sister” ministry to CatholicMom, we’re launching now (July 10) our First Annual MARY GARDEN CONTEST, to prepare for the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, August 15. The idea is that people send us photos of their “MARY GARDENS” and we will give some prizes to the best.

There is a very old tradition of creating enclosed gardens with an image of Blessed Virgin in the middle, surrounded by all sorts of flowers and herbs that carry her name. You may not realize that there are literally of hundreds of plants named after Our Lady in some way!

However, we’re going to open it up a bit. We’re inviting submission of all sorts of gardens and sacred places with an image of Mary where people go to pray, in peace and beauty.

I am really happy we are doing this! IT’S VITAL THAT WE SOME FIND PEACE AND LIVE CONTEMPLATING GOD’S BEAUTY NOW! I thank many CatholicMom contributors who have been writing from this perspective, too, in various ways. There has always been a deep awareness of beauty in the Catholic sense of living and sharing the Good News: a consciousness of how we are attracted to Him Who Is Beauty.

Our Mary Garden Contest is a simple attempt to promote living in God’s Peace and Beauty as we try to move through the pandemic. If you like, please send us a photo of garden/place of prayer with Mary, and keep an eye out as we talk more about this interesting aspect of Marian tradition! MOST IMPORTANTLY NOW: DO, CREATE, AND SHARE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL FOR GOD in simple, everyday ways in your beautiful family  – with Mary Immaculate, the pinnacle of the beauty of His Creation. 

Find out more and follow the Marian Garden Contest on the Museum of Family Prayer page on Facebook.

How to enter:

Visit the pinned Mary Garden contest post on the Museum's Facebook page, submit your photo or video, add your caption and contact information.

Our Mary Garden Contest is a simple attempt to promote living in God’s Peace and Beauty as we try to move through the pandemic. #catholicmom

Copyright 2020 Fr. James Phalan, C.S.C.
Image: Pixabay (2016)