Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

We made the long trek to see the incredible Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The air conditioner.... ummm.... I didn't take this picture!

Nor this one!

There is a 1/2 mile trek from the parking lot to the church. So if you want to get to Mass on time, don't arrive on time.... arrive early.... it's uphill!

(I didn't take this picture, I'm just borrowing it)

The huge and beautiful image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Sanctuary.

The Church.

The rectory.

Such a poor quality picture of an incredibly beautiful crucifix.

The dome.

St. Cyril

St. Peregrine was a member of the Order of Servants of Mary (Servites) and was diagnosed with cancer of the leg at the age of 60. On the night before a scheduled amputation of his leg, he experienced a trance-like sleep in which he saw Jesus curing him from the cross. Upon waking, he discovered that his leg was completely healed.

I had to take this picture from the artist's website (Noah Buchanan) as it was so beautiful. I really wanted to buy a print of this but they only had postcard size. :( This was of St. Maria Goretti, my confirmation patron. The story goes...

In 1902, Maria's 18 year old neighbor, Allesandro, tried to attack her. Maria resisted and pleaded with him to understand how displeasing his action was to God. In a rage, he brutally stabbed her, leaving her to die. On her death bed, she not only forgave him for his deed, but wished for him to one day join her in Heaven.

Allesandro, sentenced to 30 years in prison and unrepentant, was blessed to receive a heavenly vision of Maria, appearing to him and giving to him beautiful lilies - her act of forgiveness transformed him from that day forward.

I never knew the story of the lily before today.

This a relic of St. Maria Goretti that is under the oil painting. We have one in our home as well. A gift I received for my Confirmation.

St. Giana Beretta Molla

St. Gianna was a devoted wife and mother as well as a pediatric surgeon who lived a joy-filled life in Italy. When pregnant with her fourth child, she developed serious uterine tumors. The doctors advised her to terminate the life of her baby or risk possible death herself. She chose the life of her baby and died a few days after giving birth at the age of 39.

The Altar

St. Therese the Little Flower

These two are the ceiling paintings in the foyer in the back of the Church. The visions of Guadalupe.

My sister and I took all the kids but Sam (that would be 9 children if you can't do the math, it's difficult when there are "so many" children...!). He had farm work to do with Aragorn.

This is the statue as you enter the shrine of the Unborn. This is Our Lady hold little tiny babies. It was very touching.

The Rosary Walk

This is the tile depiction of the Presentation. Each decade of the Rosary has it's own "window".

This is what a full "set" of Mysteries looks like.

Shrine of the Unborn. Inside the open-air building are tiles that can be engraved with the loss of an unborn baby. The cost is $2,000 per inscription.

Stations of the Cross

The Way of the Cross.... literally.

In the basement of the church they had several paintings of "venerables". This is Venerable Solanus Casey.

Kateri Tekakwitha

The votive chapel has, I think, over 500 votive candles. This is what the children remembered most from the pilgrimage... that in this votive chapel they use a lift to light the candles at the top.... go figures!

Another poor picture but these windows were so beautiful.

Frodo lit the candle. When asked what we had the candle lit for I didn't know as I had too many requests so we'll just leave it to God to decide. I probably easily could have lit 500 candles.

Our Lady of Good Success
The Votive Chapel on the left and the Visitor's Center on the Right.

I wondered later why we stopped at dairy queen.....

Though they did have a pretty pond and life sized ice cream cones.

Since we saw a sign "1 mile to Natural Bridge State Park" we decided to stop there. (it was the longest "1 mile"......)

We had to make Bilbo be our family fashion plate after his tummy decided that dairy queen was hardly the royal treatment. We did find a pair of pants but the shirt choices were either Mommy's navy blue or Poppy's bright pink..... So we converted my shirt into.... "worst fashion for 2010"

Not bad from the front.

Voila! This is the natural bridge, some 35 feet up. It's really neat. It was formed by natural erosion and things like that.

This is the cave underneath.

This is a crane we saw on the ride home. We also saw a fawn, baby raccoon, the 3rd set of mother and baby ducklings cross the road in front of us since yesterday.....

It made for a fun yet very tiring day.