My "Place" - The Prayer Garden

Do you have "the place" in your life?  That special place that just allows you to take a deep breath, relax and amazingly everything gets a little better?  I would love to say that place is when I am in mass, but with three little ones, it is still sometimes a stressful experience.  Thankfully our parish St Robert's has the most beautiful prayer garden, and in this place, I am in peace, our children are in peace, and God is THERE! 

 

Everything about it is amazing!  First of all it is gated, so with little ones I have no fear of them getting away if they are exploring or I am taking some quiet time in my own prayer.  During the summer they have beautiful plants and flowers, and now in the winter they just laced the evergreen trees with beautiful white glowing lights!  They also have different spaces with benches to pray before the crucifix or the beautiful statue of Mary.  They also have an outside stations of the cross which I know we will use a lot during Lent this next year!

 

I cannot even tell you how many times we have gone there since we joined the parish this summer when we moved back to our hometown!  When I have had a stressful morning at the grocery store we stop by before going home, when we are ending a nice day we stop by before or after dinner.  One thing that I love about homeschooling is that we can change things up with our daily schedule and location for learning.  There were many beautiful days this fall that we would just pack up a few books and head over to the prayer garden!  We would say our daily decade of the rosary and then read for a while.  Every Sunday after mass we cannot leave without our children wanting to go visit the prayer garden!  With no direction from my husband or I they run down there, go to the statue of Mary and start praying the Hail Mary.  We always all leave more calm, and more connected with God and each other. 

 

 

It has truly become "my place" and after I go I always find myself more patient, caring, calm, and ready to connect with my family.  After taking a special trip to the prayer garden tonight to see the new lights after dinner we were all ready to snuggle up on the couch for a fun movie night and popcorn!