Pilgrimage promotes family prayer

Special to the WCR
Drayton Valley

The five-day pilgrimage to the 27-metre statue of Our Lady of the Rockies will feature talks by several speakers, including Lee Roy Lee who spearheaded the project to build the statue between 1979 and 1985.

The event will run July 18-23 in Butte, Mont. It is coordinated by Lyle Thorne, Drayton Valley parish youth minister, who is available at 780-542-5254.

The pilgrimage will include youth programs, speakers, prayer and a concert by the Celebrant Singers, an interfaith orchestra and singing group.

The event will be based at the Butte Civic Centre which will be turned into a temporary RV park.

Thorne says his parish's outreach ministry "has endeavoured to offer a condition to foster our relationship with God the Father through the heart of Mary."

The statue of Our Lady of the Rockies, he says, is "a sign of hope for those who share in a common vision and put their trust in the things of God."

The statue was erected by an interdenominational group on a site more than 1,000 metres above the city of Butte and 2,550 metres above sea level.

The base of the statue was poured on a base of 400 tonnes of concrete in 1985, after volunteers had blasted a road to the top of the Continental Divide.

The statue was then lifted into place by a Nevada Air National Guard sky crane.

Lee, sculptor of the statue, has told the story of Our Lady of the Rockies in his book Our Lady Builds a Statue.

Other speakers at the pilgrimage will be Thomas Rutkowski, founder of Gospa Missions and author of Apostles of the Last Days, Drayton Valley pastor Father Paul Moret and Wainwright pastor Father Vic Perron.

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