When I was a little girl there were times that I would spend the weekend with my grandmother. She didn’t go to church every weekend but if I stayed, she would make the effort. Actually, she would get me all dressed up with a hat, purse and gloves. She would always give me a dime to put into the collection basket. I felt so big to be able to do that. I remember one Sunday we went through this. When the collection basket came around, I conveniently could not find my dime. I remember Mama looking at me like “what did you do with that dime?” A few minutes later I conveniently “found” my dime. It was in my pocket where it had been all along. I conveniently lost the dime because I knew that after Mass we would go up and light a candle. I wanted to use my dime to light a candle. Mama told me later that she was going to give me another dime.
I was raised at St. Joseph’s church in Louisville. That church has the most beautiful grotto. I would save my money so I could light a candle. Actually, I would have loved to have lit every one of them. It was so peaceful in that little room at the back of church. I always felt so holy when I was in there.
These days we light a candle every week at church, well actually two. We light a candle to St. Isidore, the patron saint of farmers, and one to the Blessed Mother. These candles burn all week. I feel that St. Isidore is going to take care of our farm and that the Blessed Mother is going to keep my children safe. I know that she takes care of them.
Even though our grotto at church is outside, I still feel that it is an intimate location when I am out there. I feel that is a place that is ideal to converse with the Blessed Mother and I strongly believe that she is there when I need Her.
Speaking of grottos, there is another beautiful grotto at one of the other churches in Louisville: St. Louis Bertrand. This grotto is dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes and the Dominicans who run that church keep holy water from Lourdes. My mother would go there and get holy water when there were special things that she was praying for. For instance, my brother had a lazy eye. Mom put the Lourdes Holy Water on his eye every night and it went away. He might have grown out of it but I tend to think that the Blessed Mother took care of him.
Our grotto at church is outside, right in the heart of Fancy Farm. For over 5 years we have been praying the rosary at the grotto. We pray every Wednesday regardless of the weather. I think we pray outside as a testament of our devotion to the Blessed Mother. We want people to see us out there. We pray that someone who needs our prayers will stop and pray with us. It has happened before. But what has really happened before is for us to feel the Blessed Mother there with us. There are so many times that it’s obvious that she is.
Okay, I’ll tell you a story about that. There was one Wednesday where it had looked like rain and they were calling for storms. As I was driving to the grotto, I kept watching the sky. I knew that the sky was going to open up at just any time. I was hoping that it would pass through before it was time to begin praying the rosary. As I sat in the parking lot, I watched the sky. It was getting darker and more treacherous. But it seemed to be holding off. We all got out of our cars with umbrellas and raincoats. We all watched the sky while we prayed. We obviously prayed very fast. The rain continued to hold off. But the minute we finished and began to walk to our cars the sky opened up. There are other stories like that, but the point is that we can feel her there with us.
So much of our faith is what we learned growing up.
To this day I keep a dime in my rosary case. You never know when you’re going to need it.
