Wednesday, April 4, 2007



On Monday, every student in our Digital Journalism class was gifted a branch of freshly picked rosemary. It was a gift from Fr. Lucas S.J. a visual arts professor at USF. Fr. Lucas is a resident of Loyola Village on Lone Mountain and the caretaker of one of the most spectacular private gardens in San Francisco.

Fr. Lucas led us through his hilltop sanctuary and he spoke of his personal reflection on the garden. “There are a lot of metaphors in gardens. Gardens are about memory…you have to remember what you planted and always be thinking ahead about what’s coming up,” said Fr. Lucas.

Walking through the garden you can see the dedication that went into creating such a lovely space. Fr. Lucas talked about the different cycles of life and blooming that took place in the garden and it was clear he was very much in step with those rhythms. He said, “It’s (the garden) constant work, like life well-lived is constant work.”

The gift of rosemary could not have been more appropriate. Fr. Lucas gave us this herb saying, “Shakespeare says that rosemary is for remembrance.” As I searched for this quote in Shakespeare’s archives, I was amazed to see what the full quote truly is.



“There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember.” These are the words of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Prayer, love, and remembrance; three actions that the Loyola Village Garden truly evoked and actions we could all spend a lot more of our time doing.

7 comments:

SKBlackburn said...

Touche on finding the Shakespeare quote, I love it. Hamlet is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and I like that our garden adventure tied into it.

Michael Vick said...

I love that you found out from where the Shakespeare quote was taken. I was curious about that, but completely forgot to look it up. I've also read Hamlet, so I ought to have known it already.

Anonymous said...

The rosemary was probably my favorite part of the visit; I like free stuff. Really good that you chased down the quote and put it in place for us.

eerickson said...

great reference to shakespeare... even better that Silver likened Ophelia to a tripper. Good quotes from Father Lucas

C said...

Well written and nice quote; “There are a lot of metaphors in gardens. Gardens are about memory…you have to remember what you planted and always be thinking ahead about what’s coming up,” I also liked the picture of St. Joseph next to talking about prayer.

Anonymous said...

Good job researching what the quote was and who said it. I like how you said "hilltop sanctuary". nice incorporating the quote into the blog.

Anonymous said...

really nice quotes.

kudos for your curiosity about that shakespeare quote.