THREE NEW STATUES
We are blessed to know people who support St. Anne's Shrine in numerous ways in advancing our mission of bringing the presence of our merciful God to the world. Our grounds are holy and we appreciate the financial contributions our friends make in keeping our property and facilities in good working condition. We are also indebted to those who make generous contributions to enhance the religious experience of our visitors through the purchase of devotional items. Through the generous contributions of several people, we were able to acquire three new statues of saints to expand the devotional aspect of our ministry.
We have a new statue of St. Anne with her child Mary of Nazareth which has been placed in the center of the green in front of the Boucher Building close to the road. This gift was made possible through the generous donation of Kathy and Florian Wawrzyniak of Northfield, VT who discovered the statue being stored in Riverton, VT. Installation costs were funded by contributions from Cynthia Wrigley of Williamstown, VT, Christine Pignonia of St. Albans, VT and Rick and Margaret Briand of South Burlington, VT.
A statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and patron of Retreats was donated by Valdemar and Bridget Garibay of St. Albans, VT. This statue was newly manufactured in Ohio and delivered in October 2015. It is housed in a newly constructed grotto and placed along the tree line behind the mounted Our Lady of Lourdes statue. As we conduct more retreats in our ministry at the Shrine, it is especially appropriate to have a statue honoring the saint who gifted the Church with the Spiritual Exercises which serves as the underpinning of many retreats today throughout the world. Fr. Brian is personally delighted by this gift since St. Ignatius is one of his favorite saints given his eight years of Jesuit education. The statue will serve for the greater glory of God. (In Latin, ad majorem Dei gloriam, St. Ignatius' hallmark missionary phrase).
Valdemar and Bridget Garibay again gifted us with another statue that was installed in October 2018, of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun called the “Little Flower,” who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. She saw in quiet suffering a redemptive suffering. Thérèse, like so many saints, sought to serve others, to do something outside herself, to forget herself in quiet acts of love: "Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them." We are indebted to the Garibays for these gifts which will enhance the devotional experience of pilgrims reciting prayers to particular saints.
MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE OUR GROUNDS
There are other opportunities to improve the worship experience of our pilgrims on our grounds. We are open to the acquisition of other statues of saints which hold special significance to our ministry. For example, St. Isaac Jogues (another Jesuit!) was known to have visited our grounds in the 1600s and some say he was tortured here before his eventual martyrdom. St. François Laval, the first Bishop of Quebec, visited here to celebrate Confirmations in 1668. I expect our sound system in the chapel Pavilion will need to be overhauled in the near future. There are items of deferred maintenance in the Boucher Building which was built in 1993 in need of funding as well.
If any of these needs are of interest to you in sustaining and enhancing our ministry, please contact Rev. Brian Cummings at bcummings@smcvt.edu or at 802-928-3362.
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