Medical Lake 'Meditation Garden' welcomes all

A patch of pesky grass has been turned into a place of peace and reflection at Medical Lake's St. Anne's Catholic Church.

Through the efforts of a dedicated core group of church volunteers, plus many others along the way, a place for anyone - not just parish members - has been provided to have a place to pray, or to just stop and think.

The St. Anne's Meditation Garden is a labor of love by the committee who oversaw the project that started a year ago and was dedicated in September. Jim and Betty Patterson, Ed and Marie Morrison along with Larry and Maggie Jay were the energy behind the project.

More specifically, the inspiration came from the Morrisons whose son was killed in a car crash a while back.

"The wife (Mary) and I, when that happens, you get tired of everybody trying to talk to you so we wanted a place we could go," Morrison said.

Morrison was the person Patterson credits with the idea to build the garden on ground that once had only spotty grass.

With the church often locked, the garden offered the answer as it was a place they could come anytime.

Within the first few weeks of the announcement of the project one of the parish council members jump-started fundraising with a check for $1,000. Since then there have been four other notable contributions.

The group came up with the idea of an area featuring inscribed bricks with a sponsor's name that sold for about $50 each. The patio consists of close to 160 bricks, some with logos that was a good money maker.

Along with monetary donations, one of the biggest boosts to the project came from a person who drove by one day while volunteers were wielding shovels and rakes.

That volunteer with a tractor and rototiller cleared the patch of ground and built the mounds for the flower beds all in a few hours. "It was going to be a horrendous job," Patterson said of all the manual labor to remove the sod.

The Morrison's started by working on an existing shrine that originally included a grotto and statue of the Blessed Virgin, built 10 years earlier and in memory of the passing of a parishioner's husband. "Then my wife said maybe we could do something else to make it nice," Morrison said.

It morphed from something simple to where it is today.

The entrance features glass blocks, cement caps and about 100 bricks that came from the recently demolished electric trolley sub-station near Spokane International Airport.

Patterson has an extra close relationship to those bricks as they came from the building his grandfather, Dale Hagel, bought in 1935 and originally operated as a taxidermy studio. Another family member later ran a popular haunted house on the property.

The present St. Anne's Church, built in 1931, also features used brick from a Medical Lake house that was torn down, and came from a factory that once operated in the town.

The brick-paved meditation area honors contributors and will soon have benches the will allow visitors to gaze upon the "Face of Jesus" mural and a water feature in the southeast corner with Morrison fabricating the cross.

A pergola pays tribute to the many priests who have served the parish since the founding in 1889, each honored with their name on an engraved brick.

The interior of the garden features two brick columns adorned with mosaic tile murals depicting a variety of moments in the life of Jesus. The works were produced by an artist from Acerra, Italy. Other similar art appears in the garden's stations of the cross, a staple of Catholic churches everywhere.

The group had considered statues, but some of the concerns were expense, "And to keep them from walking away," Jay said.

A parish time capsule will be placed in the garden, unearthed and opened at the 150th anniversary of the church in 2039.

While on the premises of a Catholic church, organizers say the garden is open to everyone.

A lot of people stopped to inquire if it was intended solely for St. Anne's Parish, or if visitors had to be Catholic. "We welcome anybody," Patterson said.

One regular visitor is a Mormon and stops in two to three times a day, praying to his wife who passed away about two years ago.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].