Our Lady of Lourdes "Grotto Globe"

I am SO excited to share this cute and EASY 

Mary craft!

Our Lady of Lourdes Miracle at the"Grotto Globe."

You can make this for any Marian feast day or even to celebrate Mary's month of May.

We got the idea for making snow globes from Kaboose and thought it would be perfect to convert a snow globe into a "grotto globe" for the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Most Catholics know the story of Our Lady first appearing to Bernadette Soubirous on February 11, 1858, in Lourdes, France.  You can read more about the story at this link for Catholic Culture.

At first, many people did not believe that Bernadette was seeing a beautiful Lady at the grotto.  On February 25, the Lady pointed to a spot nearby and told Bernadette to scratch at the ground.  A spring of water began to flow.  This spring still produces 27,000 gallons of water each day!

How fitting that this "Grotto Globe" represent the miracle of the spring water that Our Lady revealed to Bernadette.  
Each time we turn the snow globe upside down we will shake it three times and remember:
"Penance, Penance, Penance!"
One of the main messages of the Lourdes Apparition was Penance. Our Lady asked Bernadette to"Kiss the ground as a penance for sinners," there at the spring.


The glitter that sprinkles down is blue in honor of Our Lady's color.
You can really see it swirling in the background of this photo.

We are placing it on our Prayer Table/Home Altar for the next month, in memory of the 18 times  that Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette between February 11-July 16, 1858.  Her feast day is April 16th.  We are also renewing our commitment to praying the Rosary together as a family...we have gotten a bit "off-track" with this as a group lately!

The Grotto Globe Tutorial:

Recycled Jar (We used a pickle jar)
Floral Clay (I ordered from Amazon)
Mary plastic figurine
Glitter
Hot Glue
Embellishments for the exterior grotto:
(We used hot glue for a ring of gold ribbon and white roses at the feet of Mary;
 A bit of brown acrylic paint was used to paint a grotto border to frame Our Lady;
We also hot glued a plastic blue rosary to the top as the final touch!)


Print and follow instructions from Kaboose
P.S. Important note! We heard later that if you add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the water, the glitter won't stick to the fixture!

Don't panic if the glitter sticks to your figure at first!
It eventually settles over night:

Warning: Some of our glitter continued to stick to parts of Mary and her dress but we liked it that way!  Once the globe dries, you can shake the glitter around and much of it falls off the figurine (Not sure but maybe it was just the brand of glitter we used?) I didn't read about this happening in the Kaboose instructions.
Notes:
Trim excess floral clay around the inside edge of the lid so it won't interfere with the seal.
Be sure to add extra hot glue to the outside rim to seal it well.
We did not use brown paint for the whole jar.  We were afraid it would make it too dark.   
I hope you will give it a try....really, very easy!

A Novena for Our Lady of Lourdes can be found at the EWTN website and 
Biography Online here.
Quotes from St. Bernadette:
"I shall spend every moment loving.  One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them."
O my Mother, to you I sacrifice all other attachments so that my heart may belong entirely to you and to my Jesus."
O Jesus, I would rather die a thousand deaths than be unfaithful to you."


"Our Lady's love is like a limpid stream that has its source in the Eternal Fountains, quenches the thirst of all, can never be drained, and ever flows back to its Source."
~Blessed Margaret Bourgeoys~

 Catholic Icing also has some lovely ideas for celebrating Our Lady of Lourdes.