MARIAN GROTTO
There’s a memorable line in the Sound of Music by the Reverend Mother, stating “When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window”. When St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Muskegon celebrated its final Sunday Mass in June of 2025 a door was closed. However, the Spirit of God opened a window of opportunity that took a few months to realize. That open window was the opportunity to bring an all but abandoned statue of our Blessed Mother to a new home here at St. Luke’s. With official approvals, and funding available via Giving Tuesday, the winter months were invested in planning the move, selecting an appropriate site, developing a simple but appropriate design, researching contractors and validating the proper way to clean the marble. We also needed to address some minor repairs required to restore the statue.
As of this writing, the east side of the church just north of the canopy has been the site of a lot of activity. Some of the landscaping has been relocated, sprinkler lines rerouted and the grass has been removed. Minor excavating has leveled the area of interest and the crushed stone foundation for the paver bricks has been laid down. Bricks are being installed as of this writing and soon forms for the concrete pedestal will be erected in place and afterward the pedestal itself will be poured. Provisions are also being made for lighting the statue so it will be visible day and night. In addition, near future plans include adding benches for sitting quietly nearby.
While all the above, and more, is going on outside there is a very critical task being worked on in Fr. Rob’s garage. The statue of Mary has been moved there, where it is being carefully cleaned and repaired. Through the patience, generosity and skill of one of our parishioners, her damaged fingers on her left hand are being resculpted using small pieces of marble taken from hidden locations of the statue. If all goes as planned, they will replace the broken pieces without leaving a trace.
The construction team working on the grotto has estimated only two weeks time for their part of the work. Volunteers from St. Luke’s will complete the final landscaping in the coming months or during the spring of next year. Timing for the installation of the statue is difficult to estimate pending the successful cleaning and restoration, but we hope to have a dedication in early Fall. Stay tuned for further updates and any announcement of the dedication date. Thanks to all that have helped make this newly “opened window” a soon to be reality. God bless St. Luke’s!
