By Jay Sorgi • Posted July 31, 2025

The southwest wall of St. Joseph/St. Robert Catholic School in Warrington now has a new garden alongside it, but it’s not floral in the traditional sense.

Prayer, devotion, love of God and neighbor will grow from this garden — a Marian and rosary-themed prayer garden developed by Josh Wood, a teenager on his way to becoming an Eagle scout.

“It will allow students to go outside, connect with God and nature, and overall just be peaceful,” said Wood, the graduate of St. Joseph/St. Robert who turned the prayer garden from his family-inspired brainstorm into reality. He’s now a rising senior at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster.

His mother Ann Wood, a fourth-grade teacher at the school, “always wanted an outdoor teaching area,” he said.

“I thought it would be a good idea to put in a prayer garden.”

The annual tradition of honoring Mary in May inspired Josh to conceive of the garden.

“We do a May procession which has always kind of stuck with me, where we honor our Blessed Mother by processing around the school and praying,” he said. “I just thought that Mary would be a perfect candidate for my prayer garden. I’ve always felt a connection to Mary.”

Jennifer Durkin, the principal at St. Joseph/St. Robert School, said the design of the garden creates an opportunity not only to pray, but to walk the path of Christ through his mother.

“Josh made each one of those stepping stones,” which are arranged in the pattern of the rosary, Durkin said.

“You can walk the rosary. There’s a lovely bench and a beautiful statue of Mary.”

Beyond donations of $1 and $2 from students, the school “really went above and beyond in providing us with a lot of the funds that we needed,” said Ann Wood. “We had donations from Home Depot, and then discounts from the place where we purchased the statue and the bench.”

The 50-plus stepping stones each include noticeable glass beads, with one color themed for each of the five decades of the rosary.

Setting those beads into the concrete stones became an arduous months-long process that at first tested then eventually grew Josh’s patience.

“I wanted to make each decade special, so I’d pour the (concrete for the) stepping stone, and then I put these little different colored glass beads in the stepping stone for each decade, so that each decade was a different color,” said Josh, who received lots of help from his dad in this process.

“The little beads were coming out pretty easily. Those pop off, so I’d have to redo them. There were probably a hundred stepping stones made in this process in order to come up with the appropriate number to make it actually work. It kind of turned our garage from this somewhat neat place to this concrete factory.”

Ann Wood admitted there were many days when her son said, “Mom, we can’t do this. We’ve got to come up with something else. This isn’t working,” she said.

“But he pushed through, which I think was a testament to God’s fire in him. Determination certainly showed its way through him.”

All the effort culminated in one day of landscaping on Saturday, June 14 when more than a dozen people donated their time and skills in turning Josh’s concept to a tangible place for Marian prayer.

“I was just so incredibly proud of Josh after seeing through the whole process, but then seeing the final product, not just for the beauty of it, but just for the beauty of his thoughtfulness and the faith that inspired it,” said Durkin.

“I can say from my perspective as somebody who’s gone in and prayed in it, it’s just lovely. I love the bench there. It’s just provided this beautiful, inspiring, holy place that’s outdoors.”

“To see Josh bring his leadership, his persistence and his prayerfulness all together in this one initiative, I think it was really impressive,” Ann Wood added.

“I think the fact that it will benefit his entire elementary school community for many years to come, it was very inspiring to me,” she added through the happy tears of a mom. “He’s a good kid. He’s worked hard. I’m proud of him.”

Don’t be surprised if that good kid, a lover of the outdoors, finds himself heading back to his old school grounds, taking time for a prayerful moment in nature.

“One of the reasons why I wanted to use that space was because that back area is always full of nature,” Josh said.

“There are always deer, foxes, rabbits and squirrels, and you never know what you’re going to find out there. I hope some frogs appreciate my prayer garden.”

No doubt they will, along with a lot of prayerful people.