One of the most important shrines in the Forest is Notre-Dame des Bonnes Odeurs, just by the Brussels side of the Ring, where the Drève de la Chapelle meets the Drève de Willerieken. Historically it is the same path, referring to the same chapel.
The shrine was moved, around 150 years ago, due to road widening of what became the Ring. Meticulously, stone by stone, and rebuilt exactly as it was.
I noticed the phrase Rosa Mystica on the shrine.
This name for Mary appears in the Litany of Loreto. Not mysterious in the modern sense, but pointing to something that isn’t easily put into words, something you sense rather than pin down.
The Forest itself seems to breathe this kind of quiet mysticism. Jan van Ruusbroec’s linden tree is not far away, and his chapel sits alongside a modern path called O.L.V. de Loretopad, the path of Our Lady of Loreto.
It is small wonder how deep the connection between spirituality and place runs here, through the trees, the paths, the streams.
Standing there, it feels less like something to explain, and more like something to be present with.