by: vicque fassinger
From little chapels, outdoor Stations of the Cross, and holy grottos, to quiet candlelit corners of a church, there are a handful of sacred places throughout NE Ohio that bring us to our knees, bring us to tears, and bring us closer to the God. Tilma: Our Lady’s Store on Front Street in Berea is one such place.
Owned by Jan Marie Shannon and operated by Jan and a devoted team of other volunteers, Tilma is more than a beautiful little gift store overflowing with statues, rosaries, books, holy cards, greeting cards, vestments, and other unique religious items. It’s a sanctuary. A refuge. A safe haven amidst life’s storms. It’s a place to journey to when you need to disconnect from the distracting gizmos and gadgets vying for your time, attention, and serenity, and need to (re)connect with what matters most – your relationship with the Blessed Mary, with Jesus, and with God.
For over two decades now, the very prayerful essence of this 1200-square-foot store has been attracting and inspiring diverse visitors from all walks of life to return to the Catholic Church, to convert to Catholicism, or to acknowledge and embrace the powerful positive force of prayer. The rosary is prayed daily at this gift shop in a room that contains a large statue from Germany of the Blessed Mother holding Baby Jesus; the statue used to be at the former Our Lady of the Highway Shrine on Brookpark Road for many years, when the shrine was part of Assumption Parish in Brook Park, which operated from 1860-2010. After the shrine closed, the statue spent about 20 years in storage and was in bad shape. When it was donated to Tilma, a man stopped into the gift shop one day in 1997 and offered to repair it, but asked to remain anonymous. Each week since that time, Jan receives a floral delivery and places it in front of the statue. In addition to the daily prayers that are said at Tilma, a group of “serious prayer warriors” meets at 5 a.m. each month to recite 15 decades of the rosary.
First-time visitors who find their way to Tilma are invited to choose a gift from a section in a room filled with donated religious items as part of a Holy Barter initiative Jan started years ago. Visitors can bring religious items they’d like to have others enjoy, and exchange them for something new that they would now like to have on their home’s altar or place of prayer. Some of the donations are boxed and shipped monthly to a mission in the Philippines, a practice that started decades after Tilma received a postcard from a teenage boy requesting donations of religious items. Since then, hundreds of boxes of religious items have been able to be shipped to the Philippines thanks to a benefactor who pays the shipping fee. That young teenager who first reached out to Jan at Tilma is now Father Al Benedick Taguinod, a member of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette in the Philippines. Ordained 2012, Fr. Taguinod served as the Director of Vocations for the Order. Recently, he was named Rector of the seminary. Jan and her family embraced the opportunity to visit Father Taguinod in the Philippines and to see the mission work that the proceeds from the Tilma store helps support.
While meeting Jan and visiting the gift shop in person will undoubtedly touch your life in a positive way, simply talking with this “ordinary servant of Our Blessed Lady” on the phone will leave you with the profound feeling that you have just connected with someone very special.
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