EPHRATA — The sacred garden at St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in Ephrata is beginning to take shape.  

“It started as a prayer garden,” said Amy Krautsheid, principal of the school where the garden is to be located. “We wanted to have the Stations of the Cross, (and) we wanted to have some place where people could come from the parish and utilize the place. And it grew into me asking, “Father, can we have our youth get married there?’ We tend to lose youth getting married in the Catholic Church because they want to get married outside.” 

Bishop of Yakima Joseph Tyson came to Ephrata to preside over the groundbreaking March 27 in a field on the school grounds, with Fr. Cesar Izquierdo, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish, assisting. The garden will be planted with native plants, in a design created by the Columbia Basin Conservation District. 

“I saw (the CBCD) at the (Grant County) Fair and they contacted me because they knew I was in the very beginnings of this prayer garden,” Krautscheid said. “They do desert-ready plants, very long-root and not-a-lot-of-water plants. They come out and map the area and they plan it out for you.” 

The CBCD gave the parish the plants, and the WSU Master Gardeners have been keeping them in a greenhouse in Quincy until it’s time to plant them, Krautscheid said. 

Students from next year’s St. Rose Prep seventh-grade class helped with the groundbreaking and will assist with construction as well, Krautscheid said.  

“Father (Izquierdo) really wants them to have some sweat equity in it,” Krautscheid said. 

The students will be able to use it as a quiet prayer space, Krautscheid said, but more important is its usability as a wedding venue. 

“Our biggest goal is to create a space where our Catholic parishioner can get married outside,” said Amy Krautsheid, principal of St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, where the prayer garden is to be located. “There’s not a whole lot of places in the diocese where you can get married outside as a Catholic.” 

Under ordinary circumstances, Catholic marriage ceremonies must take place in a church or chapel, according to the Code of Canon Law, which governs Church practice. In order to have an outdoor wedding space, the prayer garden had to qualify as a chapel. That means having a permanent altar for celebrating Mass, the Stations of the Cross – a set of 14 stations recalling Jesus’ walk carrying the cross through Jerusalem, used for meditation and prayer – and a grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary.  

The statue would have been very expensive, Krautscheid said, except for a surprise donation. 

“We were learning about Pope John Paul II in the school, and the kids were learning about the miracles that he has in his name,” Krautscheid said. “And … then right as we finished, I had two parishioners pull up in front of the school, and they came in and they said, ‘Do you have room for a Mary statue?’” 

The statue, about seven feet tall, was in the back of the parishioners’ pickup, she said, and it turned out to have been blessed personally by Pope St. John Paul II while he was alive. 

The garden is expected to be ready by the end of summer, Krautscheid said. 

St. Rose of Lima Catholic School has students from three parishes: St. Rose in Ephrata, Our Lady of Fatima in Moses Lake and St. Pius XII in Quincy. The garden is an expression of appreciation for those parishes, Krautscheid said. 

“They give so much to us,” she said. “They’re amazing supporters, and we’re excited to do this not only for the kids but for the parishioners, to give back to them.”

    Students from St. Rose Prep School’s first seventh-grade class served as ambassadors and guides at the groundbreaking for the new prayer garden next to the school.
  

    The statue of the Virgin Mary, donated by a family from St. Rose of Lima Parish, was blessed by Pope St. John Paul II before his death in 2005. The statue is one of the things required to qualify the prayer garden as a space for Catholic weddings.