I’d invited a group of girlfriends to join me for a mini-pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Rockies in Butte, Montana. We flew into nearby Bozeman, piled into a rental car, and about an hour later, poured out into a quirky rental — a former Baptist church basement social hall that had been remodeled for living space where we would pray our rosary together every night.
The next day, we climbed aboard a school bus to make the 40-minute trek from Butte up to the Continental Divide where Our Lady of the Rockies is situated.
The first 20 minutes were easy, paved roadway. What we didn’t know was that the last twenty minutes consisted of treacherous switchbacks on a dirt road with no guardrails in a school bus that was rather geriatric. There were more than a few moments when I had to simply close my eyes and pray the bus did not tip over and start rolling down the mountain. As we lurched back and forth up the narrow passage, I prayed earnestly that I had not invited my dear good girl friends to their deaths.
Alas, Our Lady was worth a few perilous moments.
Our Lady of the Rockies is dedicated to all women, especially mothers. She was built through the remarkable devotion and vision of the local people and stands 90 feet tall weighing more than 400 tons. She was placed on the mountain by an Air National Guard team in four parts using a Sikorski Sky Crane, an unbelievable feat in itself, and she shares the Butte skyline with a few new cell and radio towers looming next to her.
Though there have been miraculous healings reported through Our Lady of the Rockies, and there are hundreds of rosaries draped there in testimony to answered prayers, we came to understand that she’s had her share of controversy. There are those who resent her presence. Still, there she remains, beautiful, dazzling white, arms open, inviting all the world below to know her.
The day after our return from Montana, Roe v. Wade was overturned. In the aftermath of this announcement, like many people, I imagine, my husband and I wanted to pull up roots and move some place where anti-abortion laws are far more likely to stick. I wanted to “come out from among them” and hole up somewhere I wouldn’t be targeted as a Catholic.
But then I pictured Our Lady of the Rockies overlooking Butte, she who fights quietly, beautifully for her right to be there, good seed among the weeds. In the parable of the weeds among the wheat (Mt 13:24-30), Jesus says the Kingdom of heaven is a like a field sown with good seed, until the enemy comes in the night and scatters weeds among the good seed. The slaves ask their master if they should pull up the weeds, but the master replies, “‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn.”’
Though I may want to escape my culture, run away to some place I imagine to be safer, I am reminded that at this time, the Lord might be calling me to be more like Our Lady of the Rockies, standing with the weeds, trusting in the impending harvest and the Mighty, Master Harvester.
Our Lady, pray for us, that we may stand our ground as gently, steadfastly, and as invitingly as you do.
Liz Kelly Stanchina is the award-winning author of ten books, including “Love Like a Saint: Cultivating Virtue with Holy Women.” Visit her website at LizK.org.
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