Prayer Garden

  • The St. Odilia Prayer Garden includes columbaria with niches for cremated remains as well as traditional in-ground burial plots. This is a sacred place where we bury our dead in the spirit of our faith and hope in eternal life.  It is a place for our community to gather for prayer and a sacred place offering a quiet place for individual reflection and meditation.  The natural beauty of the garden with the pond surrounds each visitor with the peaceful presence of the Creator. We are confident that this ministry at St. Odilia will be a source of comfort and hope for generations to come.  

    This sacred place is also a visual reminder of our belief in the Communion of Saints as we will eventually be surrounded by our ancestors in faith who have completed their life journey to God.  A walk through this garden reminds us of those holy members of our community who have enriched the life of this community by their presence and gifts.  Future generations will continue to build on the foundation of faith represented by those who rest in our Prayer Garden.

Our Blessed Mother's Shrine

  • Overlooking the St. Odilia Prayer Garden is Our Blessed Mother, Mary. 

    The statue of Mary in our Prayer Garden was truly rescued from a demolition pile as the former Home of the Good Shepherd was being taken down in North Oaks!  It was discovered by one of the builders who then contacted Larry Langer of our parish to see if we might have a place for it on our campus.  It was in need of repair but money was raised by the Morning Mass group to do that.  We do have a special connection with that statue of our Blessed Mother.  It stood outside the Convent of the Contemplative Sisters of the Good Shepherd at the Home of the Good Shepherd since the Convent was built in 1969.  The Contemplative Sisters prayerfully baked the altar bread that we used at Mass here at St. Odilia for decades!  When the statue was installed in our Prayer Garden the school children all stood in the Prayer Garden praying the rosary to welcome our Blessed Mother!  Afterward, some of the children went to play at the playground and one of the little girls exclaimed:  “Look, Mary is watching over us even when we are playing!”   Our Blessed Mother’s shrine in our Prayer Garden is a very special place of prayer for our school children throughout the year.  The second graders especially love to spend time with Mary in the Prayer Garden.  Second grade is a special year of preparation for First Reconciliation and First Eucharist and the children begin the year by asking our Blessed Mother to journey with them as they prepare to meet her Son in these two very special sacraments.  This past year we spent even more time praying there as Pope Francis called us to “run into the arms of our Mother” during the pandemic. 

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