Black Madonnas...

While on my retreat this past weekend, that turned out to be a most blessed 48 hours instead of 24, (Thank you Jesus!) I saw this statue titled: Our Lady of the Hermits, (Einsiedeln Switzerland) in the Jane Best Collection of Madonnas. If you've never seen her collection and live anywhere near Schuyler NE you must go see it. A huge collection of statues and figures of our BVM from all over the world. It was a gift to the St. Benedict Center/priory and what a lovely collection it is! I saw this Madonna and though I've seen the collection so many times, I'd never seen this one, or it hadn't caught my eye until this past weekend, and my "hermit heart" saw her. I didn't know there were so many Madonnas! I knew there were a lot but Our Lady of the Oak, and this one and a few others I'd never hear of before. I found this information on Black Madonnas here. That was another thing I was curious to learn more about and once again, with the internet and a "google search" and voila! Questions answered in the blink of an eye. Our Lady of the hermits, pray for me. My soul longs for quiet, solitude and the stillness to surround me more often, to hear the heart beat of my Lord and to be still in my soul, to "know that HE IS GOD."