Hey MomsCalling, I see you live in Northern Il. I live in Crystal Lake,Il. St. Thomas The Apostle parish, awesome! I used to go to mass at St. Peter's in Volo when we home-schooled.
I live west of Rockford, more in the boonies than you do...but my retreat place of solace is Marytown in Libertyville. Also, we spend quite a bit of time at Notre Dame. Last time we were there we visited the site nearby where Our Lady of America first appeared. In Rome City, IN. This area is quite rich with places to go and shrines to see, and places to "retreat" to!
Thanks for that info on Rome City,In, never been there. I love Marytown, awesome holy place. Is Fr. Anthony still there? One of the holiest people I have ever met. I also love Holy Hill in Wi. Hope to make a road trip there this week end.
I've never been to Holy Hill but want to get there one if these days. Is Fr. Anthony an Aussie? If so then no, he's gone, but he came back for a Franciscan retreat a couple years ago and I was fortunate enough to attend his talk (I was there for one of my personal retreats but the Marytown group invited me to join them.
Fr Anthony Jelenek. He is from Hungary. He reminds me a lot of our current Holy Father,. He always said we don't need more priests we need more holy priests.
Oh, I know who you mean. He went back to Hungary last fall, I believe. Marytown is my sanctuary. I love going there. It gives me peace, and in some ways reminds me of the way I used to feel at my grandmother's house when I was a little girl. God speaks to me there, not in words, but in actions and through others I meet, and through dropping books at my feet when I'm browsing in the bookstore! (That really happened.) I am so very blessed to have found Marytown. I wish it were closer to me so I could go there all the time, and join the fraternity there. Our parish priest is from that area though, so I always have a connection. His mom is in the SFO fraternity that meets there. Small world.
I agree. Marytown is a great blessing. I live in southeast Wisconsin, but work near Lincolnshire, Illinois, so every day I either attend daily Mass at noon at Marytown or I go there on my way home to pray a rosary before the Eucharist (or if its a Tuesday or Thursday, its confession 6:45-7:45 PM. Usually there are 4 priests hearing confessions both days...). I am very thankful I can pilgrimage there, every day... and it does feel like that every time.
Marytown, Libertyville, IL: Shrine of Maximillian Kolbe side Sorrowful Mother side chapel 5 feet tall
I've never been to Marytown in person but go there often via the web http://www.justin.tv/marytown#/w/6028359632/226
Thank you Jon for those gorgeous pictures. I have not been there in a while and seeing them makes me want to make it a priority to go. It is like a slice of heaven! Fantastic exhibit of St Maximillian Kolbe behind the iron grates in the main church! What an inspiration!
Those are great photos! I have a lot of them too from all my times going there. I always carry my camera. Well Jon, we may have bumped elbows at some time, when I go there I try go on Thursday evenings for confession and then stay the weekend if I can. It is refreshing because there the confession lines are often long. I like that and don't mind waiting because it gives me joy to see so many in line with me...including young people! Unfortunately Marytown is over an hour and a half from my house, so I don't get there often enough. Hope, thanks for posting the webcam link. I visit that way too. I especially like joining in on the daily prayers and vespers.
lol you got my head ticking so I started to look up advice on hot air balloons well I haven't laughed as hard in a long long time this comment was on an FAQ section on flying balloons.. someone had asked What happens if a bird flies into a hot air balloon? the reply from the expert Blind birds are very rare.
Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin is another beautiful place to see and pray in http://www.guadalupeshrine.org/ founded by Cardinal Burke.
This is a BBC documentary about a possible megathrust quake on the Cascadian subduction zone. Geologists say that in the history of America, (with the exception of the big San Fran quake) these Cascadia events seem to trigger big San Andreas Fault quakes in California.
We here in NZ have a trench/ trough, the Kermadec Trench, offshore North Island of NZ and on up to Tonga, that could also potentially be the cause of a large Tsunami generating Quake...(please note that the youtube below is 2 years old) http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpr...megathrust-earthquake-threat-for-new-zealand/ And so you see, if you happen to be fortunate enough to live in New Zealand, you can run, but you can't hide. The plate boundary dissects the narrow South Island on which I live, and the beautiful Southern Alps are a monument and a testimony to the power of many thousands of years of earthquakes. No use running to the North Island either - they have the Hikurangi Trough and the Kermadec Trench to contend with. It would not be hard to envisage the annihilation of our tiny nation. A large magnitude Alpine Fault quake could almost reduce our cities to the condition of Port Au Prince.
When I first read through this thread back over the summer when I was still a guest and not a member of the board it really got me thinking. One night I was sitting on my front porch in Northern Kentucky looking to a huge storm coming from the west. I absolutely love storms and love watching them role in but for some reason this storm had me a bit troubled and I instantly thought of safety and thought of this thread. I was in prayer and looked to the sky and humbly asked the lord if there would be a place of refuge or a retreat so to speak close to where I live. The most amazing turn of events happened for me after this. Literally as soon as I said this little prayer there was a huge crack of thunder that was one of those kinds that would shake the house and your soul. At that moment I decided to pull out my phone and look at the radar for the first time at what kind of storm was coming in. When I first opened the radar I saw a rather small town stick out on the radar that just seemed unusual to me. It was unusual to me because small towns like this would not normally show up on a national radar map. The town was due west of me about 25 miles away called Canaan, IN. Now obviously this would stand out given Canaan was the promised land of refuge for all the Jewish people. Now I was obsessed to look all around this small town in Indiana. I pulled out my google maps and began to search. What I discovered was absolutely amazing to me. Just west of this town is quite a large wildlife refuge called the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge is 15 miles north to south by 6 miles east to west so quite the amount of area around it. There are not many entries into this place and upon further research it is Government and military owned land where only a few days a week people may enter. Inside of the land there is a a large old lodge called Old Timbers Lodge Jefferson Proving Ground. This is where it really got even more amazing for me in my discovery of this place. There is a small road that enters this refuge that takes you to Jefferson Proving Ground. The road moves west out of this even smaller town called New Marion, IN. There is not much in New Marion, IN but some houses and on Catholic Church, St. Magdalene. As you follow the road west out of New Marion into the refuge and past Old Timbers Lodge you come to an unusual area in the refuge that clearly is a small airstrip and then a pattern in the form of the star of David. As you continue to the west out of the refuge you come to the larger town of North Vernon, IN. This town also has a Catholic Church called St. Mary's. So I was just astounded by all of this. Here is this large refuge that came to me right out of a prayer as this large storm was coming but not here yet. I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this.
