Wayside Shrines in Miniature

And oh, when the heart faints with longing,
He is there, though our eyes cannot see;
The Compassionate One, bending o'er us,
Stoops to hear the heart's sigh, "Pray for me!"

--from The Wayside Shrine by Martha Elvira Pettus

When I was a small child, I fell in love with the roadside shrines of Ireland. It makes me smile to think back upon one afternoon in particular: As my father cast a hopeful line over the River Blackwater in County Cork, I piled wildflowers at the foot of a shrine to Our Lady.

In hopes of recreating this sweet and simple memory, we spent the weekend fashioning miniature wayside shrines small enough to grace a pot of pansies, but so lovely they just might remain in my children's hearts forever.

Several months ago, I purchased these church-shaped wooden garden stakes at the craft store for fifty cents each:

We began by painting a base coat in acrylics:

We added moss, silk flowers, small statues and crucifixes, and other embellishments.

Here are a few of the shrines we made so far:

Our Lady of Mount Carmel (spring theme):

Roadside Crucifix (winter theme, complete with a touch of artificial snow):

St. Anthony (summer theme):

Thirteen-year-old Agnes' St. Jude (Agnes is taking "Judith" for Confirmation this year):

Seven-year-old Marie's St. Joseph:

Ten-year-old Margaret's adaptation--Holy Water Font:

Materials and Ways to Improvise

I found the wooden church stakes in A.C. Moore craft store. They were made by Nicole Crafts, reference number WOD 1204. It is often difficult to find specific craft items online, and your local store may not stock these. Any paintable wooden garden stake might be used or adapted (we used flat heart-shaped stakes to make an entire set of the Stations of the Cross years ago--we also made Sacred and Immaculate Heart shrines from heart-shaped stakes a while back). If you are unable to find stakes, small wooden churches or birdhouses would work quite well, as you can see from the rear view last year's St. Francis birdhouse craft. I often challenge the children to figure out ways to bring ideas to life from natural materials found outside. These shrines would be beautiful created from pieces of wood, bark, moss, acorns and stones gathered in the backyard--or perhaps items you might otherwise discard, like clementine crates. Can you imagine a little shrine tucked away in the knot of a tree?

The possibilities for embellishment are endless, and religious images may be taken from paper holy cards, catalogues, broken bracelets, pins, or rosaries. DiscountCatholicStore.com sells mini-pocket saint statues (3/4 inch) for $1.55.

May the saints bless you on your way, now and always!

For more Wayside Shrine Samples, please see: http://alice.typepad.com/cottage_blessings/2007/11/wayside-shrines.html

 

Alice Gunther is an attorney who gave up practicing law over a dozen years ago to nurture and home educate her seven children, now ages thirteen to one. She blogs about Catholic family life at her weblog, Cottage Blessings, and writes a column for The Long Island Catholic called “The Catholic Home.” For the past nine years, Alice has run a popular Catholic Children’s Club, celebrating the Liturgical year through crafts, prayer, stories of saints and scripture, and “Liturgical Teas.” The Teas feature symbolic menu offerings to tell the underlying stories of faith, teaching children and adults in a unique and memorable way. She is currently working on two books about home education and catechesis.