I Recommend a Beautiful New Book: “A Catholic Gardener’s Spiritual Almanac”

Margaret Rose Realy, Obl. OSB, is a contemplative lay hermit. She grew up just outside Detroit, sharing a home with her maternal grandmother where the love of gardening flourished. Margaret reveals her love of nature and learning about the Creator through his creation in her books, columns, and presentations. She is a regular contributor to Catholicmom.com, and writes for the Catholic Channel on Patheos.

Margaret’s third book, A Catholic Gardener’s Spiritual Almanac is the first book to offer gardeners spiritual resources and creative projects that connect a love of gardening with their Catholic faith. Margaret writes from a Benedictine spirituality, and as an advanced Master Gardener, retreat leader, and writer, presents this spiritual companion that follows the natural and liturgical seasons and offers gardening tips and easy-to-do projects for each month of the year.

Here is an excerpt from the book, a portion of April’s section on Faith Filled Gardening:

Easter Season

Easter Sunday! The Lord is risen; He is risen indeed! It is a day of new life and light, of breaking bread with God and family and friends.

The garden on Easter Sunday can be much more than a hunting ground for colorful hard-boiled eggs hidden around the lawn.

On Holy Saturday, before you went to Mass, you removed [from the penitential garden] all of the reminders of Lent. For Easter, you can now decorate your garden with white and gold accents. Hang tiny white Christmas lights, or white paper lanterns around your outdoor prayer space.

The holy women that came to the tomb of Jesus brought myrrh along with other herbs for anointing. Myrrh was also present at the birth of Jesus. If you had purchased some of this resinous incense at Christmas, pull it out of storage and use it during Easter to make your garden fragrant.

You can make or buy a Resurrection Cross to add to your garden. Paint it white and adorn it with what brings you joy. Because Christ is risen, a crucifix with raised arms is more appropriate than the crucified corpus.

If you desire to create an Easter Garden, use elements that remain true to the Easter season. White and gold colors are prominent. Include an assortment of white lilies that will bloom at different times as well as other white and gold flowering plants. You could also use plants that symbolize the theme of resurrection and ascension. [In the book a table follows that lists several plants that connote these sentiments.]

“What delighted me most in the writing of this book was sharing my love of gardening and God. Each section of a monthly chapter brought some level of joy. I often felt that I was doing an odd sort of evangelization by offering some of what our church teaches in a way that brings to light the Bible parables that were related to nature. It was fun researching and then correlating spiritual themes, and then to actualize them in a garden setting. I pray that those who read my book might apply some of the gardening themes to their own outdoor prayer space and in doing so draw closer to Our Lord.” ~Margaret Rose Realy, Obl. OSB