The Ava Maria Grotto

"The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Earth shows forth His handiwork...."
My favorite Saints of the Church have to include St. Therese and St. Francis. How at home they would have felt at the Benedictine Monastery's Ava Maria Grotto in Alabama! Elizabeth was excited about showing us the beautiful and tranquil place. My heart was so much at peace there.

St. Francis, with his uncluttered life of devotion and his love of God's creatures, has always inspired me. The gardens around his statue reflected his character. The ordered and simple beauty of the landscape created a setting that was both soothing and uplifting.

I thought it beautiful, also, that so many flowers surrounded the statue of the Little Flower herself (St. Therese) and that a solitary pink rose, in my eyes the single most beautiful flower in the entire monastery, grew next to her statue. My heart smiled when remembering her appreciation of the minute handiwork of our Heavenly Father and her total dedication to Him in the most simple of earthly tasks.

May I be reminded by this time of quiet reflection to constantly guard my own heart and to realize anew the necessity of setting apart times of solitude and stillness in this mad, mad world. May I be grounded in what is truly essential. May I run with patience the race that is set before me, "setting aside the sin and the weights that so easily ensnare" me. May I rid my heart, not only of its sinful leanings, but of its propensity to be weighted down by whatever would take my eyes off His face.....

I think of The Little Prince's reflection, "It only with the heart that one can see rightly....for the things which are essential are invisible to the eye." How much easier it was to truly "see with my heart" in this lovely, God-blessed place.