When the Passionists came to New York City in 1924 they looked to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to guide their new foundation. She’s there at the front door of our monastery. She has a prominent place with us. Her statue stands outside our church.

Mary’s in the great window in the back of our church announcing the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the title of our monastery and parish. She is flanked by St. Catherine Laboure and St. Bernadette.

Mary appeared to St. Catherine Laboure in Paris in 1850 and to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858. It was a troubled age, battered by the skepticism of the Enlightenment, the anti-religious activity of the French Revolution and the degradation to human dignity brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

Mary, free from original sin, brought the wisdom of God to that world. Her message was that God “scatters the proud and lifts up the lowly.” God’s wisdom is greater than the wisdom of this world.

In the 1950s, as we faced continuing wars and the threat of nuclear war, we saw Mary’s appearance to Catherine Laboure and Bernadette a sign that God is still with us. Retreatants from our monastery retreat house memorialized Mary’s appearance at Lourdes by building a beautiful grotto in her honor in our garden. “All generations will call me blessed,” Mary said.

Today, we have a sign of Mary’s presence to our generation facing the threat of climate change– a Mary Garden, which we blessed on September 23, 2018

Mary Gardens originated in Europe following the Black Death, a pandemic that caused millions to die in Europe in the 14th century. Gardens in monasteries and churches, reminded people that God brings life, not death, from the earth.

The Mary Garden with its flowers, medicinal herbs and edible plants is a sign of the beauty, healing and nourishment God gives us on this earth. Mary presenting her Child stands in the midst of the garden, promising life and hope. “Make us worthy of the promises of Christ,” we pray. We have a small Mary Garden at the entrance of our chapel as we pray for the vision to see the beauty of God’s creation and the wisdom to care for it.

We have also repositioned our retreat house in the light of climate change and renamed it Thomas Berry Place, a non-profit center for spirituality, community empowerment, and ecological stewardship, in New York City. Father Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was a Passionist scholar who lived in our Passionist monastery in the 1960s and taught at Fordham University. Father Berry was an internationally recognized environmentalist who believed in taking steps to preserve the planet.

The current Passionists have embraced that goal. 

“We are dedicated to serving those who are suffering. We also want to expand that to include helping a suffering planet,” said Father Jim O’Shea, C.P., the provincial for the Passionists for the Eastern U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and parts of the Caribbean. “Thomas said we need a new story.”

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