This month’s Bucket List takes you to three places created for prayer: a memorial, a former seminary filled with art and treasures, and a rural shrine:

• an outdoor memorial for martyred Jesuits
• Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center
• a shrine on the site of an amusement park

Go: See the Jesuit Martyrs Memorial at XU

Bellarmine Chapel
3800 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45207
(513) 745-3398

Recommended by: Karen Hurley. Commissioned by Xavier University for the 25th anniversary of the murder of the eight “Martyrs of the University” in El Salvador, the memorial outside Bellarmine Chapel was designed by Clete Benken at MKSK, Covington. Situated on a hill, it consists of a four “altar-tombs” (rectangular stone benches) set on a series of steps beneath a wall marked by a cross and a small memorial to Blessed Oscar Romero. Each limestone bench includes two bas relief portraits by Cincinnati sculptor Karen Hyle. A peace garden next to the memorial, also designed by Benken, features a colonnade of colorful wooden pillars decorated with the word for peace in different languages.

The memorial is located to the right of the chapel and is always open to the public. The cross is internally illuminated, so the memorial is visible at night.

Do: Make a Holy Hour at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center

5440 Moeller Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45212
(513) 351-9800
Olhsc.org

Recommended by: Anna Mitchell, host of the “Son Rise Morning Show” on Sacred Heart Radio. The newly renovated perpetual adoration chapel in the former seminary is open to all. While there, see the immense art deco crucifix hung in the Center’s main entrance, which depicts Christ in priestly garments. Its reverse depicts Mary. “It used to hang in the Holy Rosary Chapel, so no one knew Our Sorrowful Mother was there unless he was serving at that altar,” Mitchell said. “Seeing it was kind of a rite of passage for seminarians.”

The Center is open from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m., and for special events. You can explore two elaborate gardens and the grounds of the former archbishop’s house next door, a library, a bookshop, the main chapel, and the newly renovated Sorrowful Mother chapel. Daily prayer with the Sisters of Mary, daily Mass, retreats, and events are scheduled throughout the year.

Worship: Mass at the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima (Indian Lake)

Our Lady of Fatima Shrine
261 Chase Avenue
Russells Point, Ohio 43348
ASE-gbqfoundation.org

Recommended by: Staff. Once lit by colored lamps and surrounded by dancing waters, the statue of Our Lady of Fatima at Indian Lake was the tallest statue of Mary in the world when built in 1963. The lake was then home to San Juan Amusement Park, a Catholic alternative to other parks, which also held a life-sized statue of the Last Supper. Although the park closed in the 70s and the land has been developed, the shrine remains. St. Mary’s of the Woods Parish in Russells Point celebrates an outdoor Mass at the statue every August.

Father Shawn Landenwitch will celebrate the annual shrine Mass at 6 p.m., Aug. 11, assisted by Bishop Joseph R. Binzer. Park at St. Mary of the Woods in Russells Point; shuttles will begin leaving for the shrine at 4:30.

Bucket List Map