Refurbished grotto blessed
-- for The Catholic Herald
MARYSVILLE (4/10/03) -- The renovated "Our Lady's Grotto" at Notre Dame School was blessed Sunday, on one of those glorious April mornings when even the birds cooperate.
Following the 10 a.m. "family Mass" at St. Joseph's Church, Father Soane Kaniseli and more than 100 celebrants gathered at the gated grotto located toward the back of the school compound.
A committee led by Judy Portillo began plotting the refurbishment in October 2002. Many people with special skills and knowledge were involved, including Master Gardener Jill Thompson, who designed the grotto's tidy new "floor plan."
Volunteers from the church and the school donated some 15 varieties perennials, shrubs and trees for the spruce-up, not to mention the hours of work it took to install a new irrigation system and replant the park-like setting.
Over the years, the grotto had fallen into disrepair and become overgrown, Portillo explained.
Contributions to the garden and the blessing event included a dogwood tree from the children of Notre Dame School and annual flowers from children of English and Spanish CCD.
"The fourth graders planted the marigolds and the rosemary bush<' said their teacher, Barbara Curry.
The modern irrigation equipment was donated and installed by Trent Glasgow.
Moreover, the large statue of the Virgin Mary that is the grotto's focal point had faded with time. It was restored and repainted by Deacon George, Avis and Morgan Lucas.
They statue restorers discovered that it had not been decorated in the traditional colors associated with Holy Lady's garments, and corrected it, according to Mary Gunderson, another person active in the grotto's revival.
"Mary Gardens" trace their roots in the East Coast, where in 1932 the first "Mary Garden" was established by the Angelus Tower of St. Joseph's Church, Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Mass., according to information published at the mgardens.org web site.
Originally constructed in 1938 by the senior class of what was then Notre Dame High School, "Our Lady's Grotto" was among the first to follow the example and spirit of the "Mary Gardens" movement.
"Mary Gardens" are meant to be peaceful, prayerful environments filled with flowers, plants, bushes and trees that have become associated through folklore and usage with the Virgin Mary, the site explained.
"The flowers of Our Lady were devotionally named as symbols of the life, virtues and mysteries of the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son n the oral traditions of the medieval countrysides," according to information provided by Portillo.
Among the plants incorporated in the Marysville grotto are Rose of Sharon, lavender, tulips, blue morning glory, sweet Scabiosa, purple azaleas and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Rose, according to a listing by Thompson.
Fr. Soane led the program of song and prayer and blessing with incense and holy water sprinkled around the growing flowers and bushes.
As Fr. Soane closed the ceremony with the singing of the "Ave Maria," two blue scrub jays and a vocal mockingbird -- as if on cue -- stormed into the tree branches above him adding their own natural chattering songs to the special moment.
Asked afterwards if he had somehow arranged the timely display of warbling birds, Fr. Soane smiled widely and chuckled.
No, he said, more likely it was God who did.
-- for The Catholic Herald
MARYSVILLE (4/10/03) -- The renovated "Our Lady's Grotto" at Notre Dame School was blessed Sunday, on one of those glorious April mornings when even the birds cooperate.
Following the 10 a.m. "family Mass" at St. Joseph's Church, Father Soane Kaniseli and more than 100 celebrants gathered at the gated grotto located toward the back of the school compound.
A committee led by Judy Portillo began plotting the refurbishment in October 2002. Many people with special skills and knowledge were involved, including Master Gardener Jill Thompson, who designed the grotto's tidy new "floor plan."
Volunteers from the church and the school donated some 15 varieties perennials, shrubs and trees for the spruce-up, not to mention the hours of work it took to install a new irrigation system and replant the park-like setting.
Over the years, the grotto had fallen into disrepair and become overgrown, Portillo explained.
Contributions to the garden and the blessing event included a dogwood tree from the children of Notre Dame School and annual flowers from children of English and Spanish CCD.
"The fourth graders planted the marigolds and the rosemary bush<' said their teacher, Barbara Curry.
The modern irrigation equipment was donated and installed by Trent Glasgow.
Moreover, the large statue of the Virgin Mary that is the grotto's focal point had faded with time. It was restored and repainted by Deacon George, Avis and Morgan Lucas.
They statue restorers discovered that it had not been decorated in the traditional colors associated with Holy Lady's garments, and corrected it, according to Mary Gunderson, another person active in the grotto's revival.
"Mary Gardens" trace their roots in the East Coast, where in 1932 the first "Mary Garden" was established by the Angelus Tower of St. Joseph's Church, Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Mass., according to information published at the mgardens.org web site.
Originally constructed in 1938 by the senior class of what was then Notre Dame High School, "Our Lady's Grotto" was among the first to follow the example and spirit of the "Mary Gardens" movement.
"Mary Gardens" are meant to be peaceful, prayerful environments filled with flowers, plants, bushes and trees that have become associated through folklore and usage with the Virgin Mary, the site explained.
"The flowers of Our Lady were devotionally named as symbols of the life, virtues and mysteries of the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son n the oral traditions of the medieval countrysides," according to information provided by Portillo.
Among the plants incorporated in the Marysville grotto are Rose of Sharon, lavender, tulips, blue morning glory, sweet Scabiosa, purple azaleas and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Rose, according to a listing by Thompson.
Fr. Soane led the program of song and prayer and blessing with incense and holy water sprinkled around the growing flowers and bushes.
As Fr. Soane closed the ceremony with the singing of the "Ave Maria," two blue scrub jays and a vocal mockingbird -- as if on cue -- stormed into the tree branches above him adding their own natural chattering songs to the special moment.
Asked afterwards if he had somehow arranged the timely display of warbling birds, Fr. Soane smiled widely and chuckled.
No, he said, more likely it was God who did.
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