Blessing of Memorial Prayer Garden offers comfort, unity

After a year in the making, the new Memorial Prayer Garden at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish opened with a special rite of blessing. The event was presided over by the Vicar General of the diocese, Father James Stembler, on Sept. 29. After the blessing, Father Stembler reminded those in attendance that our time with our loved ones is like “a sentence, followed by a comma, not a period. “We must never forget what comes next after our time here on earth —the promise of everlasting life.” 

The new Memorial Prayer Garden is next to Our Lady of Perpetual Church on 5830 Williams Drive. A beautiful bronze angel is at the center of the prayer garden, and the statue’s wings span a walkway constructed with special red bricks that reveal the chiseled names of loved ones who lost their lives to COVID-19.

A special inscription at the center of the garden offers comfort to visitors. It reads:
During the worse months of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing was recommended for everyone’s safety. Additionally, those who needed to quarantine had to stay away from loved ones to help limit the spread of the virus. While necessary at the time, that sense of separation and isolation only heightened feelings of fear and disconnection from others. 

Losing loved ones to COVID-19 amid this period of uncertainty made it much more difficult. That is why a handful of parishioners at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Corpus Christi chose to take on a project that would not only remember those lost to the virus but also rebuild a sense of unity within the community.

Parishioners purchased the bricks to pay tribute to their loved ones and provide a special garden to the community as a prayerful place to find solace, comfort and unity.

Also in attendance were Father Frank Martinez, the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Pete Elizardo, the rector of Corpus Christi Cathedral and the pastor of Sacred Heart.