Today on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the 24,000 lb dome (a little lighter than we were expecting) was raised up high – on the new chapel of Our Lady of Solitude.  The steel beams for the roof were also perfectly placed.  The JOY was tangible!  
A HUGE THANK YOU to the wonderful construction men who made this a flawless lift.  To Joe and Steve from Haydon, to Carlos and Fatima our architects, to Mrs. Vitale whose generosity has made this progress possible, to all of our benefactors, family and friends: THANK YOU.  To quote from the age old classic movie, Lilies of the Field: “We’re gonna build us a chapel.”  No, Jesus is buildin’ us a Chapel.  A new Eucharistic Throne!  THANK YOU JESUS!!!!
To see a video of the event click on the dreams to reality link.  

Here are the captions for the photos: 

#1 (above) Smiling, happy Poor Clares!  Standing beneath the newly placed dome.  You really can’t get a good grasp of how high the Chapel is from these photos.  It’s awesome! 
#2 At about 10:20 am, the crane began lifting the dome high in the air.  All of us who watched were pretty quiet – such anticipation!  We sang the Salve Regina as it sailed through the air.  After that you would hear little prayers uttered here and there by some, others offered the silent prayer of awe and wonder!
#3 It didn’t really seem to take too long from to lift the massive dome.  It landed perfectly on its perch – flawless.  There was much rejoicing by those construction men on the scaffolding, guiding the dome to its perch – high fives all around.  It was the largest lift of this particular company.  WOW.  
#4 At such moments of elation, it’s hard to believe that the whole world isn’t feeling the effects of our joy!  This theory became more believable when several fighter jets (we think they were F-15s) flew right over our chapel.  We were posing for a photo with our dear friends when they flew over and the bottom photo shows everyone’s delight…especially since we had 2 daughters of a navy pilot in our midst!