Tucked away in a small building on Front Street is Tilma, Our Lady?s Store in Berea.
?The Blessed Mother is very active here,? said Jan Marie Shannon, who oversees the venture, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The name Tilma is derived from the cloak worn by St. Juan Diego, on which Our Lady of Guadalupe left her image after she appeared to him in 1531 in Mexico. Jan Marie said the store is consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
She recalls the time a woman who was visiting Ohio from New Mexico happened to stop by the store. ?The woman mentioned that she had been away from the Church for some time. Another Tilma volunteer and I stared talking about the Catholic faith with her. We suggested that she go to confession right away and I called a priest I know at a nearby parish. He said she could come right over and he would see her. We started praying for her; we prayed the rosary. Father called a little later to say they met and she made a good confession,? Jan Marie said, adding that she was not certain how the woman discovered the store. ?There have been a number of converts from other faiths through our humble apostolate,? she said.
Prayer us a powerful force for good, Jane Marie said, and it permeates the 1,200-aquare-foot store that is filled with statues, rosaries, books, holy cards, greeting cards, vestments and other religious items. There is no paid staff. ?Everyone involved with Tilma is a volunteer, including me,? Jan Marie said. ?It is amazing how things happen. Every month it is a miracle that we are able to pay every bill. The Lord gives us what we need,? she said, adding that she would rather close the store than be in debt.
Before opening Tilma, Jan Marie worked in the air freight industry for more than 20 years. After joining the Legion of Mary, she became more involved with her faith and her devotion to the Blessed Mother grew.
One day, she told her husband, Joe, who is a commander with the Knights of Columbus, that she was going to leave the air freight industry and ?go to work for the Blessed Mother. He responded, ?OK,? and has continued to support my dedication to Tilma,? she said.
The Shannons, married for 36 years, are the parents of four adult children
Jan Marie said the rosary is prayed daily at Tilma and a group that she calls ?serious prayer warriors? meets at 5 a.m. monthly in the store to recite 15 decades of the rosary. ?It?s all about the salvation of souls and the beauty of the Blessed Mother,? she added. They pray in a room that contains a large statue of the Blessed Mother holding Baby Jesus. The statue came from Germany and was 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. The parish operated 1860-2010. After the shrine closed, the statue spent about 20 years in storage.
?It was donated to Tilma and it was in bad shape,? Jan Marie said. ?One day, a man came in and offered to repair it for us. He did a wonderful job and he asked to remain anonymous.? That was in 1997. Each week, she receives a floral delivery and places it in front of the statue.
Jan Marie said first-time visitors to the store can choose a gift from a section in a room filled with donated religious items called ?holy barter.? Visitors bring religious items they no longer want, and exchange them for something in holy barter that they do want. Some of the donations are boxed and shipped monthly to a mission in the Philippines, a practice that started 19 years ago after Tilma received a postcard from a teenage boy requesting donations of religious items. Since then, 287 boxes have been shipped. A benefactor pays the shipping fee.
That teenager is now Father Al Benedick Taguinod, a member of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette in the Philippines. He was ordained in 2012 and served as director of vocations for the order. Recently, he was named rector of the seminary. He is planning to visit Cleveland this month and hopes to meet with Father Mark Latcovich, president-rector of Borromeo Seminary and St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology. The Shannons visited Father Taguinod in the Philippines recently to see the mission work that proceeds from the Tilma store helps support.
Jan Marie said one man described Tilma as ?the aircraft carrier for people in the area. We land here for spiritual fortification,? he said.
Tilma is a simple operation. ?We?re ordinary servants of Our Blessed Lady and we are only doing our duty as Catholics. We?re all in this together to promote our Catholic faith,? Jan Marie said.
This article was published in the April/May 2016 edition of Northeast Ohio Catholic.
