Fr. Tuyen Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Westminster, center, joins Maria Cristina Barba, left, and Jojo Penning, as they sit in the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The beams of metal and wood atop this section are meant to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Christ Cathedral opens a new Marian Gardens on Wednesday, May 29, where Catholics and all will be welcome to reflect in peaceful prayer or to enjoy the international art, marble statues and architecture that constitute the $3.6 million, 3,500-square-foot addition to the grounds.
The gardens feature a Rosary walk, a four-part experience celebrating Jesus through the life of the Virgin Mary, that complements the cathedral’s Our Lady of La Vang shrine — a 12-foot-tall Virgin Mary statue in a traditional áo dài dress representing the Marian apparition said to have appeared in 1798 in central Vietnam to comfort persecuted Catholics who took refuge in a forest. The shrine was completed in 2021 and quickly became a popular destination.
Fr. Tuyen Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Westminster, checks out the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The beams of metal and wood atop this section are meant to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A version of the Garden of Gethsemane, named after the garden in Jerusalem where Jesus was arrested before his crucifixion at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Fr. Tuyen Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Westminster, and Maria Cristina Barba visit the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. This section features Copper and bronze artwork depicting the suffering and agony of Jesus Christ during his Passion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Fr. Tuyen Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Westminster, checks out the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The beams of metal and wood atop this section are meant to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A version of the Garden of Gethsemane, named after the garden in Jerusalem where Jesus was arrested before his crucifixion at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The beams of metal and wood atop this section are meant to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Luminous Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Joyful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Elysabeth Nguyen, CEO of OLLV Foundation, shows off the future spot of fusion glass artwork that her family sponsored in the Luminous Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Detail of a mosaic depicting ‘The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea’ in the Joyful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Fr. Tuyen Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Westminster, center, joins Maria Cristina Barba, left, and Jojo Penning, as they sit in the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The beams of metal and wood atop this section are meant to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Pieces of crushed glass are embedded in the walking paths of the new Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The colors are different in each section based on the Biblical stories being told in the walk-through Roasry. The gardens have four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Copper and bronze artwork depicting the suffering and agony of Jesus Christ during his Passion in the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Maria Cristina Barba, left, and Jojo Penning, check out the Glorious Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Joyful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Joyful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Fusion glass artwork that is illuminated from behind depicting ‘Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan’ in the Luminous Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Detail of a mosaic depicting ‘The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth’ in the Joyful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Panels made of Botticino limestone depict the triumph of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in the Glorious Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A copper sculptor at the Chacas, Peru, workshop of Artesanos Don Bosco, a Peruvian nonprofit, works on a piece of sacred art planned for the Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. The gardens will have a public blessing and Mass on May 29. (Courtesy of Bradley Zint, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange)
Elysabeth Nguyen points to a mosaic held by Fr. Christopher Pham that is going into the Marian Gardens project at Christ Cathedral. Nguyen is chief executive of the OLLV Foundation, which is fundraising and managing the gardens project on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. (Courtesy of Bradley Zint, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange)
Elysabeth Nguyen, upper left, and Fr. Christopher Pham, center, look at the progress being made on mosaics that are going into the Marian Gardens project at Christ Cathedral. Nguyen is chief executive of the OLLV Foundation, which is fundraising and managing the gardens project on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. (Courtesy of Bradley Zint, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange)
A copper sculptor at the Chacas, Peru, workshop of Artesanos Don Bosco, a Peruvian nonprofit, works on a piece of copper art planned for the Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. The gardens will have a public blessing and Mass on May 29.(Courtesy of Bradley Zint, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange)
Fr. Christopher Pham looks at the conceptual drawing for a copper artwork being crafted in Peru for the Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral. (Courtesy of Bradley Zint, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange)
Fr. Quang Chu, left, takes a picture of a fusion glass art piece that’s planned for Christ Cathedral’s Marian Gardens as his fellow priest, Fr. Christopher Pham, center, smiles. (Courtesy of Bradley Zint, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange)
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Fr. Tuyen Nguyen, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Westminster, checks out the Sorrowful Mysteries section of Marian Gardens at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The beams of metal and wood atop this section are meant to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion. The gardens are a walk-through Roasry with four areas – joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious – each devoted to one segment of the Mysteries of the Rosary. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
“While the Our Lady of La Vang Shrine is for Masses and other large celebrations, the Marian Gardens are serene. It’s a park-like prayer area,” said Elysabeth Nguyen, CEO of the Our Lady of La Vang Foundation.
Each of the four section of gardens represents elements of the mysteries of the Rosary: joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious. The gardens are meant to be walked through in that order and the serpentine, glass-speckled walkway that weaves between them changes with the motif. For instance, yellow and orange glass in the joyful garden give way to somber shades of wine red and burgundy in the sorrowful garden — the passion and blood of Christ.
The meditation gardens, while meant to be enjoyed individually and as a break from the bustle of urban life, simultaneously are laid out to feel like a procession — a ritual integral to numerous Catholic traditions in Europe, Latin America and Vietnam, said Bishop Thanh Thai Nguyen. He added that by concretizing the Rosary, he hopes the gardens make it easier for the faithful community he serves to see a clear message in their prayers: A path forward.
In the joyful garden, vibrant mosaics depict Jesus’ childhood. In the luminous garden, five fusion-glass works illuminated from behind with embedded LED lights emit a fire-like translucence and tell the story of his baptism and adulthood. The sorrowful garden has artwork made of copper and bronze, evoking feelings of Jesus’ sacrifice and the heavy burden he carried for humanity, church officials said.
Meanwhile, the glorious garden has bright limestone panels that tell of the triumph of Jesus and the Virgin Mary after Jesus’ resurrection. That garden will eventually be completed with the installation of a Carrara marble statue, “The Love of Mother Mary,” depicting the virgin mother and her child, Jesus.
Each garden is partially enclosed by rotund cement walls, a material choice deliberately made by architect David Pfeifer for its tangible subservience to the eye-catching stainless steel behind the nearby Our Lady of La Vang shrine, he said. The complement of the cement to the steel symbolizes the Catholic symbology of alpha and omega, he said.
Pfeifer, a practicing Christian, designed every bit of the gardens with careful and often allegorical intentions. During the design phase, he said he asked himself and his partners, “How do we convey joy and sorrow through concrete, metal, wood and art to help those who are praying the rosary to experience those messages, those stories, in a more holistic manner? Rather than just read and think, you have walls and surfaces that hopefully are ringing those same adjectives.”
The cement walls of the sorrowful garden are particularly narrow to evoke feelings of enclosure, encapsulation and imprisonment, church officials said. Unlike the others, this garden has a latticed roof structure of metal beams and wood to symbolize the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his crucifixion.
And, whereas other gardens have multiple benches for observers to meditate close to others, this garden has only one bench — to represent the singular loneliness of the Virgin Mary in knowing that she was losing her son and could not protect him, they said. Conversely, the cement walls of the next garden over, the glorious garden, provide a sense of calm and airiness as they spiral upward, representing Mary’s assumption into heaven.
The landscaping features mature olive trees that beckon to the Mediterranean flora of what would be the life and times of Jesus, while smaller succulents surround the trees as an ode to the garden’s place and time in Southern California. In a year or so, ivy is expected to grow in to cover a canopy above the luminous garden, complementing crushed blue glass in the walkway with lush greenery above, symbolic of the relationship between sky and earth.
Although the gardens tell the story of Jesus through his mother’s eyes, Bishop Nguyen emphasized that the focus of prayer in the Catholic faith is on Jesus. Thus, Pfeifer designed the last spiral of the glorious garden to open to a view of the massive crucifix atop the Tower of Hope on the Christ Cathedral campus far beyond the Marian Gardens.
In addition to the Marian Gardens, Christ Cathedral has built its version of the Garden of Gethsemane that contains a walking path, benches and a Carrara marble statue of Jesus in prayer. Symbolically, the placement of his statue puts Jesus centered between his earthly mother to his right — as depicted in the Our Lady of La Vang statue — and his heavenly father inside the cathedral, officials said.
The Marian Gardens will officially open to the public after a 5:15 p.m. Mass on Wednesday, to be presided over by Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann.
