Devotion blooms in garden dedicated to the resurrected Christ
Tempe parish home to outdoor Stations of the Resurrection

By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
July 5, 2007

TEMPE — Peggy Booth is an active parishioner. On June 24, she participated in three Sunday Masses at Resurrection Parish as a choir member, lector and cantor.

That’s a good thing, she said. Being active in the parish helps keep her out of trouble.

“But not too much,” she laughed.

After singing at the 7:30 a.m. Mass, she took a few minutes to walk through the parish’s new garden that features the Stations of the Resurrection. She cleaned off some of the stations and noted a tree that could use pruning.

It’s obvious that she has a great love for the garden, which was finished and blessed by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted last September. From concept to completion, the garden took half a decade and three pastors — and it was Booth’s idea.

Driven by the Holy Spirit

Five years ago, Booth was a member of the parish council when Fr. Fred Adamson — now vicar general for the diocese — was pastor. He led a retreat for the group at the Franciscan Renewal Center.

She took a walk through the Casa’s prayer garden.

“As I was walking, the thought just hit me,” Booth said. “We have the raw material to have something as beautiful as what the Casa has.”

She was referring to an empty lot of land in front of the church. Her idea of transforming the lot into a garden was ambitious, especially for someone who was only an amateur gardener.

“I think the Holy Spirit was driving me,” Booth explained. “I’ve never done anything like this before, and yet I was just bound and determined to do this.”

A couple years later, then-pastor Fr. Steven Kunkel gave her the initial go-ahead and came up with the idea to incorporate the Stations of the Resurrection into the garden, which he thought would be fitting given the parish’s name.

Franciscan Sister Anne Marie Smith, a pastoral associate for the parish, said the Stations of the Resurrection are an old devotion that have recently gained attention through Pope John Paul II’s support.

“It goes back to the early days of the Church,” she said. “The people began to go to the places where Jesus had appeared, and that brought back their memories, their stories. It gave them strength.”

The 14 stations run from Christ’s resurrection to Pentecost and include such post-sepulchral appearances as the road to Emmaus and Christ showing his wounds to doubting Thomas.

Sr. Anne Marie hopes that the stations will bring comfort and strength to those who visit through an appreciation of the resurrected Christ.

“It’s a healing place for people who have lost someone. They can come and experience that peace and healing in our garden by praying the stations,” she said.

Praying the stations has had just that effect on Booth, who said that the garden “has made Christ’s resurrection all that more real to me.”

“If you’re in a place of beauty, I think it just relaxes the soul and makes it so you’re more open,” she added.

Booth is involved in the Desert Botanical Garden and used some of that garden’s characteristics — especially its winding paths — as an inspiration for the stations.

The stations are on about an acre of land, but the way the path winds in and out of the trees and shrubs lends the area a more spacious feel, Booth said.

The garden’s design allows for some privacy at each station for those who wish to quietly mediate. At the same time, the area can accommodate larger groups of people.

Booth envisions prayer groups or people who want to make a little pilgrimage visiting the stations and praying them together.

She has written a booklet of prayers and meditations to help those who visit. The booklet is similar in style to the ones used for the Way of Cross and incorporates Scripture, mediations and prayer.

The booklets are available free of charge in the parish office and have helped generate great interest in the stations, Sr. Anne Marie said.

“This past Easter, we did a poster with the stations on them and we handed them out to all our parishioners as an Easter gift,” she said. “More and more people are familiar with it.”

For Booth, the greatest and most enjoyable surprise has been the cross-denominational appeal the stations have. She noted that many Protestants have visited the site and prayed the stations.

“The resurrection of Jesus is something to be celebrated by all Christians,” she said.

Stations of the Resurrection

-- Jesus rises from the dead

-- The disciples find the empty tomb

-- Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene

-- Jesus walks with the disciples to Emmaus

-- Jesus reveals Himself in the breaking of bread

-- Jesus appears to His disciples

-- Jesus confers on His disciples the power to forgive sins

-- Jesus confirms Thomas in faith

-- Jesus appears to His disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee

-- Jesus builds His Church on the rock of Peter

-- Jesus entrusts His disciples with a universal mission

-- Jesus ascends into Heaven

-- Mary and the disciples await the Holy Spirit

-- Jesus sends the Holy Spirit promised by the Father to His disciples