Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
August 9, 2000
Gazebo recalls legacy of Saint
By Edna Fiore
For the past 46 years, Mother Ignatius Miceli hoped and prayed for a gazebo on the site Mother Frances Xavier Cabini chose for the summer camp for Queen of Heaven Orphanage. Sunday, July 30 Mother Ignatius' fondest hopes and dreams were fulfilled with the dedication of the structure by Father John Lager, O.F.M. Cap.
The wrought iron gazebo and new fence surrounding the Stone House were designed, donated and constructed by David and Agnes Pino, longtime supporters of the shrine.
Situated on the northeastern heights of Lookout Mountain, the gazebo overlooks the city of Denver and faces the main entrance of the Stone House where in 1912 Mother Xavier Cabrini placed her cane and stated, "It is here I want the house built."
On top of the gazebo's roof, a blue steel ball represents the "blue planet earth." Surrounding the globe, in sculptured relief, the continents revolve around the globe as the wind blows. These symbols represent Mother Cabrini's view of the world, which she said, "was too small" for her. She wanted to embrace all of humanity and bring all of the people of the world to a closer union with God the Creator and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Her desire from earliest childhood was to go as a missionary to China. Instead Pope Leo XIII sent her "Not to the East but to the West" to minister to the Italian immigrants in the United States.
The symbol encompasses Cabrini's ideal, that of bringing the whole world to Christ. She named her institute the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Today her missionaries are traveling and working on every continent throughout the world. Ironically, the one country bereft of Cabrini's influence is China. The communists expelled the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart during World War II.
Here in the stillness of the gazebo, looking over the wonders of creation that she so admired, we, too, can join Mother Cabrini in prayer and say with her "the world is too small." With faith we, too, can join her in bringing all of humanity to His Divine Heart.
