Marigold

I have already written about calendula, but the impressive blooms presently swaying back and forth before our chapel doors are surely worthy of further comment. It is commonly considered to be a Scottish marigold (though incorrectly, on a technicality), which comes from a contraction for Mary’s Gold, a reference to Christ’s mother.

Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics will wax lyrical about the Virgin’s excess merit which she magnanimously doles out to sinners who busily flatter her in prayer. This is nonsense, of course, as foolish a notion as her endless virginity, against which the scriptures speak, recalling her subsequent sons and daughters. Yet she was indeed entrusted with gold at the time of the magi’s visit. She and Joseph likely used it to pay for their Egyptian excursion at the time of Herod’s pogrom. That gold was used to defray the cost of the Lord Jesus’ early years: His food, clothing and accommodation. Mary was great because she gave to Christ, not because she gives to us.