The story of the Chapel of St. Catherine's Stone Chapel on the Rock
surviving the recent flooding at the St. Malo Retreat Center, Colorado, seems
to bear a rather spooky connection to the previous blog post:
ESTES PARK - Built
atop a massive granite rock, it's in every way a part of the valley landscape.
Saint Catherine's Stone Chapel on the Rock sits in the shadow of Mount Meeker,
the 13,916-foot peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.
It was built in
1935 by Monsignor Joseph Bosetti with the intention of utilizing the symbolism
of the strength of the rock that the chapel sits on.
When heavy rains
unleashed a torrent of rock, mud, water and debris down the slopes of Mount
Meeker the chapel would need that strength to simply survive.
"Everyone is
agreeing that this was of biblical proportions," said Brenda Brown, a
parishioner at the chapel.
The slide cut a
path a quarter-mile wide through the valley, taking with it boulders and
snapping large trees. The area was heavily forested before the slide. After it
passed, the area was clear cut.
"The power of
the water was terrifying," Brown said.
When the slide
reached the bottom of the valley it had taken everything in its path,
everything save for the Chapel on the Rock. The water, mud and debris reached
the rock and then went around it.
"Some have
taken it as a sign of discouragement, but on the contrary, most of us are
looking at this as, hello, the rock is there. The chapel is there. God is here.
Faith is real and here is a symbol of it," Brown said.
While the valley is
a scene of destruction the chapel is undamaged. There is no mud or water damage
to the interior of the historic chapel.
The chapel also
holds historical significance because it was visited in 1993 by Pope John Paul
II. The pope spent the day there and hiked trails nearby. A sign was erected at
the trailhead that reads, "John Paul II Trailhead." A likeness of the
pope is painted on the wood post.
That sign and
painting escaped damage while just a few feet away trees were torn out of the
ground by the slide.
(See the full article here)
Even though the chapel is named after St. Catherine of Sienna, rather
than St. Catherine Labouré, the latter saint is named in honour
of the former, so the connection is still there. Could this be another link
with the flooding at Lourdes? Rather ominously, the flooding at Colorado began
on 15th September - the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, whose pierced Immaculate
Heart adorns the Miraculous Medal. The previous post discussed how Lourdes and
the Miraculous Medal of St. Catherine Labouré are connected
through the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception - which is in turn linked to the
crushing of the Serpent's head in the Protoevangelium and the narrative of the
Woman Adorned with the Sun in Rev 12. And now just after Lourdes was almost
swept away by flood waters (recalling Rev 12:15-16), we have a Chapel dedicated
to a St. Catherine built on a rock miraculously surviving a
huge flood. In particular, it rather uncannily echoes the end of the previous
post:
...[The vision of the Third Secret of Fatima which describes Our
Lady protecting the world from being consumed by the angel's flaming sword by
the rays of light which issue from her hands] is in turn directly lifted from
the imagery of the Miraculous Medal, which depicts not only the head of the Serpent
being crushed by the Woman of Revelation, conceived without sin, but also the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary - consecrations to
which frame the 100 years of Satan's greater power foreseen by Pope Leo XIII.
All of these considerations are then tied together in the fact the flooding at
Lourdes on the 18th June directly parallels a passage in the Book of
Revelation concerning the Woman Adorned with the Sun being threatened to be
carried away by the flood that pours from the mouth of the Serpent after he has
been cast to earth. But the Dragon fails in his attempt to sweep away the Woman
with a flood, because the house of God is founded upon the rock of St.
Peter, and the gates of Hell will never prevail against it:
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a
wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods
came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because
it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and
does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against
that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
(Matt 7:24-27)
"I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
(Matt 16:18-19)
