Rebuilt grotto a prayerful haven
Workers have nearly finished a new stone grotto at St. Therese’s Retreat Center on the East Side.
Donors are paying for the $50,000 project, which replaces a grotto that was razed because of safety concerns. James O’Shea’s Irish Stone in Clintonville is doing the work.
A new statue of Our Lady of Lourdes — a title given by Roman Catholics to Mary, the mother of Jesus — came from Italy and will replace another statue that found a home at St. Patrick Church Downtown.
The grotto also will feature benches and candles. Gardens are being donated by a women’s group at St. Matthew the Apostle Catholic Church in Gahanna in honor of 21-year-old parishioner Danny Arnold, who died after being injured in a canoeing accident.
The grotto inspires retreat attendees and has been frequented by clients of an adjacent assisted-living center as well as people who stop by to walk on the 8-acre grounds, said Mary E. Murphy, St. Therese’s director.
The grotto gives people “a place to go to be by themselves, to pray,” she said. “When churches are not available, they can come pray here in a very peace-filled environment.”
The center, with more than 70 sleeping rooms and a stone chapel, was opened in 1931 and offers retreats to adults, youth, clergy and others of various denominations and some nonprofit groups.