About Us
Garden of Mary is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, under whose protection I place this little work. It is my hope that these pages may help preserve, teach, and hand on the Catholic Faith as it was believed, prayed, and lived before the upheavals of our own time. Here I hope to gather some of the Church’s great treasures — her doctrine, devotions, saints, prayers, customs, feast days, catechism, spiritual writings, and family traditions — so that they may continue to live within Catholic homes.
“Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same for ever.”
— Hebrews 13:8
The Catholic Faith is not something that changes with the spirit of an age. Truth does not become false because the world rejects it, nor does error become true because it becomes common. What God has revealed remains true, and what the Church has faithfully taught through the centuries cannot simply be set aside in favor of doctrines and practices unknown to earlier generations. For this reason, Garden of Mary relies chiefly upon traditional Catholic sources: Sacred Scripture, catechisms, papal teachings, councils, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, approved spiritual works, sermons, missals, and devotional books from before the revolutionary changes associated with Vatican II.
The crisis that followed Vatican II cannot, in my view, be reduced to questions of taste or preference concerning the liturgy. It touches doctrine, worship, ecumenism, religious liberty, ecclesiology, discipline, and the very question of how Catholics are to recognize and remain faithful to the Church founded by Christ. Garden of Mary therefore does not treat the post-Vatican II changes as a harmless development of what came before, nor does it assume that Catholics are bound to accept teachings and practices merely because they are presented under the Catholic name when they appear contrary to the Faith already received.
St. Paul gives the standard plainly: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” (Galatians 1:8). St. Jude likewise commands Christians to “contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3), while St. Paul tells the Thessalonians to “stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle” (2 Thessalonians 2:14). To St. Timothy he gives the same charge: “Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words” (1 Timothy 6:20).
These passages express the principle followed throughout this site: the answer to confusion is not to invent a new faith, alter the old one, or decide truth according to the standards of the age, but to hold firmly to what has already been delivered. When questions arise, the older and established teaching of the Church provides the measure by which later claims must be examined.
Garden of Mary is especially concerned with preserving this Faith within the home. Catholic life has never consisted of doctrine alone, but of a whole way of living shaped by prayer, the Sacraments, the liturgical year, devotion to Our Lady and the saints, Catholic customs, spiritual reading, and the instruction of children. When these things are no longer reliably handed on elsewhere, the Catholic home becomes all the more important as a place where the Faith can be taught, practiced, remembered, and passed from one generation to the next.
For that reason, Garden of Mary contains not only articles on Catholic teaching, but also saints’ lives, prayers, Marian devotions, feast-day customs, catechism helps, traditional family practices, spiritual reading, children’s materials, and printable resources. The aim is not simply to preserve old things because they are old, but to preserve what is true, holy, and useful for the salvation of souls.
Much of the material found here comes from Catholic writers, priests, religious, and teachers of earlier generations. Their works are valuable precisely because they allow us to hear the Faith expressed before the confusion of recent decades. Wherever possible, original sources are identified so that readers may examine them for themselves rather than relying solely upon modern summaries or interpretations.
Amid the noise and distraction of modern life, I hope Garden of Mary may remain a quiet place in which attention is turned again toward God, Our Lady, the saints, the duties of our state in life, and the salvation of the soul. This remains a growing work, and more prayers, articles, saints, customs, lessons, and resources will be added as the garden develops.
Everything here is placed beneath the mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the hope that she will guide those who enter this little garden always toward her Divine Son:
“Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.”
— John 2:5
May Garden of Mary remain rooted in the Catholic Faith received from our fathers, sheltered beneath Our Lady’s mantle, and useful in helping families preserve what they have received and hand it on faithfully to those who come after them.
Garden of Mary
The old Catholic Faith — lived, prayed, taught and remembered.
Rooted in the Faith. Kept in the home. Handed on with love.