Graceful Sites
This collection includes brief stories about ten locations within Loyola Marymount University that have been identified as especially helpful for those who choose to step away from the busyness of work or study in order to consider, reflect, pray, or otherwise seek peace of mind and heart.
This collection includes brief stories about ten locations within the Loyola Marymount University main camps that have been identified as especially helpful for those who choose to step away from the busyness of work or study in order to consider, reflect, pray, or otherwise seek peace of mind and heart.
Our Lady of the Way Shrine is a quiet, shady location in a grove of oak trees, containing at its apex, a small shrine of "Our Lady of the Way," or as the early Jesuits knew the image in the late 1500's, "Madonna della Strada." The first Jesuits, under the guidance of their founder, Ignatius of Loyola, served the poor and disadvantaged people in the streets near the little church they had been given which contained the small image of the Mother of Jesus with her child. Wherever the Jesuits went throughout the world, they took copies of this image with them as a reminder of her care for the "street people" whom they too were striving to assist in all the various ministries they devised.
The space itself has a sense of remoteness and serenity, for even though it located adjacent to much-used buildings, the grove is its own space, with nothing to distract the eyes, an easily accessible "getaway" place, open at all times.
The Shrine was updated and prepared by the Jesuit Community during the summer of 2023 as a graceful site for all who might find it a place for quietly pausing in the midst of their activities.
The Shrine of Our Lady of the Way is located next to O'Malley Alley, between the north side of the Hilton College of Business and the south side of the Jesuit Community. It can be reached by a path that comes from Ignatian Circle adjacent to the entrance to the Jesuit Community, or directly from O'Malley Alley as it nears the back of the WH Hannon Library.