Need some time to reflect and meditate? Here are ten peaceful places around the bluff, where you can slow down and reflect on your journey.
1. “Ad Astra per Aspera” Student Memorial
A memorial created to remember those who passed away while students at LMU. The names of those who are held in memory are on plaques attached to the bottom of the sculpture, which can be found directly behind the Sacred Heart Chapel tower. Learn more about the memorial and the meaning behind its Latin title, “Ad Astra per Aspera.”
2. Sacred Heart Chapel
Since its construction in the 1950s, Sacred Heart Chapel has served as an iconic structure on LMU’s campus. Though Sacred Heart Chapel is quite large, those who enter discover a quiet space for peaceful reflection. View the interior of the chapel and its stained glass windows here.
3. Fountains on Shea Terrace
Located outside of University Hall, the sounds created by the fountains provide a quiet environment for students to work and relax. The grassy spaces of the upper floors (which can be accessed by stairways on the left side) provide a variety of visual perspectives that are perfect for quiet reflection.
4. Interfaith Peace Garden
For those who find the somewhat hidden location of the Interfaith Peace Garden (located next to the Drollinger parking structure), even a brief pause there will make the visit worthwhile. The ambience—shade and grass, stone benches, and pillars engraved with quotations promoting peace—is serene. Walking about or sitting and looking out over the campus from this quiet, corner garden, is a soul-satisfying experience.
5. Fatima Shrine
The Fatima Shrine is a beautifully landscaped representation of the appearance of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children outside the town of Fatima, Portugal, in May of 1917.
6. Labyrinth (Garden of Slow Time)
The Labyrinth, which overlooks Playa Vista and the Pacific Ocean, is the main feature of the Garden of Slow Time and Invites those seeking peace along the bluff a place to slow down and reflect. Read more about the Labyrinth’s design.
7. Tongva Memorial
A thousand years ago, the Gabrielino/Tongva tribe inhabited the area now occupied by LMU student residences. The Tongva Memorial, the first memorial anywhere honoring the “People of the Earth,” was dedicated in 2000 as a fitting complement to the present-day dwellings. Visitors can gaze out over the Pacific and towards the Santa Monica Mountains as did Native Americans before them. Low stone benches surround a dolphin-motif pavement circle that is, in turn, bordered by explanatory plaques and shrubs and other plants that have long been native to this area, thereby encouraging thoughts of past, present and future to come readily to mind and heart.
8. Leavey Chapel
Leavey Chapel, located on upper campus, above and across Ignatian Circle Drive from the Burns Art building, provides an atmosphere of dignity and openness with its simple arrangement of furnishings. The stained glass windows are the main source of illumination during daylight hours, and they invite consideration of their symbolism and the meaning portrayed in them.
9. Marymount Center for Prayer and Peace
Established as an interdenominational chapel, the Marymount Center for Prayer and Peace located in University Hall contains Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim scriptures to welcome a diversity of faiths.
10. Chapel of the Advocate- Loyola Law School
Designed by Frank Gehry, the wood as the predominant architectural material in order to suggest to visitors the stable at Bethlehem. The Chapel of the Advocate offers comfortable seating, natural light from large windows and stained glass in the ceiling, provides a sense of intimacy and warmth for those who enter the chapel.
