"With the resurrection of Jesus, God said once again: Let there be light!"

Dear Schoenstatt Family and friends:

As we celebrate with the entire Church the Resurrection of the Lord, I want to wish you a most blessed and joyous Easter. I will remember you as I celebrate the Easter Vigil at our Wayside Shrine in the hope that next year we will be able to celebrate in our own Shrine. May this Easter bring us closer to our goal of building our Schoenstatt Shrine and the first Marian Shrine for our Diocese of Austin.

With my Easter blessing,

Fr. Jesus Ferras, ISP

On Good Friday we invite you to join us at 3 PM as we make our 2nd. annual ten-mile pilgrimage from St. Mary Cathedral through West Lake to the land of our future Schoenstatt Shrine. As we make our way through Austin we will share Christ's journey to Calvary with His Mother. Passion Play en route by SUM & SUW (Way of the Cross). At 8 PM the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord with Adoration of the Holy Cross at Shrine site.

No Mass on Holy Saturday. The Church awaits at the Lord's tomb in prayer and fasting, meditating on his Passion and Death and on his Descent into Hell, and awaiting his Resurrection.

On Easter Sunday our traditional Easter Sunrise Mass starting at 6 AM. Festive brunch after Mass. Bring something to share.

May this Holy Week be a time of inner transformation and renewal. Blessed Holy Week for all!

Fr. Jesus Ferras, ISP

Dear Schoenstatt Family and friends:

This is the year of the Shrine! This statement means a lot to us, as we not only feel united with the entire Schoenstatt Family worldwide as we prepare to celebrate Schoenstatt’s 100^th Anniversary, but for us it is the year of the moment we’ve been waiting for a long time ago: namely the building of our own daughter Shrine.

Last summer we embarked ourselves in the Capital Campaign for the Shrine. We said at that time: We are now entering a very crucial time period for the project of the Shrine as we launch the Capital Campaign. The success of this effort will be the confirmation necessary for the leaders of the Movement to know that we are mature and ready to receive the Shrine.

The goal of the Capital Campaign was to raise $650,000. This would cover the costs for the construction of the Shrine, a small welcome house, the parking lot, and the landscaping around the property. It would also cover the cost of the furnishings inside the Shrine such as the altar, the statues, and the tabernacle… many of which are handmade in different parts of the world. Finally, the Capital Campaign would cover the costs of the operating expenses and any engineering or architectural services that might be required throughout the project.

As of today we have roughly $150,000 and to just build the Shrine alone without any of the other components of the project it would take $350,000. There is no way that we would be able to make this a reality by October 18^th 2012 without a committed effort of the whole Movement of Austin.

Just as we did a discernment day to decide on the voice of God that led us to finally decide for Addie Roy as the place for the Shrine in Austin and we received the gifts that allowed us to purchase the land, we now call upon you all to come to our next Discernment day on SUNDAY, MARCH 25^th from 10:00 to 5 PM (Sunday Mass included) in which we will discern if the Movement is mature enough as to commit ourselves to building the MTA a home this year.

Without the effort of the entire Family the Blessed Mother will not have a Shrine. It is up to us all to say yes and to come and discern our future steps in a responsible and realistic way.  Our Bishop has on his agenda October 21^st 2012 as the dedication of the Shrine. We need to confirm with him if this is actually happening this year and we need to know as a Movement if we are committed to build the MTA her shrine this year.

The Diocesan Committee and the Board are ready to give us the information we need to discern, we only need you to come and show our MTA that we want to do our part. At the same time, there is no Shrine without the contributions to the Capital of Grace. I have to say that I am impressed by the response on the Capital of Grace and the hours spent in the Shrine, daughter shrines, wayside shrines, home shrines or heart shrines. It is encouraging to see our COG representation to filling up in the house Chapel. Keep bringing your contributions in every time you visit the Wayside Shrine at Addie Roy.

Again, I invite you to take this invitation seriously for our next Discernment day on March 25^th. Honestly, without a united effort as a family and unless we all feel responsible for this project and see it not just as a project of the Board or the DC we will not have a Shrine this year. It is now the time to act! Nothing without you Blessed Mother, nothing without us!

Shrine on!

Fr. Jesus Ferras, ISP

Movement Coordinator

The Holy Father started yesterday his first official visit to his native Germany. As Schoenstatters we want to accompany this historic pilgrimage to the land of our Founder and of Schoenstatt's birth place. Germany and all of Europe needs a new Evangelization to re discover that "Where there is God, there is future". This is the motto that accompanies the Holy Father's visit.

Let us follow along though the news and media and pray for a fruitful visit. Let us give thanks at the same time for the gift of our Faith and the role it plays in our society. As a Movement on our way to celebration our centennial, we renew our efforts to promote a "covenant culture" in our midst.

Fr. Jesus Ferras, ISP

Summer was intense this year! With this letter I would like to share with you some of the life of our Movement. As many of you know the main event this summer was the kick off of the Capital Campaign for our Shrine. In our presentation letter we read:

We are now entering a very crucial time period for the project of the Shrine as we launch the Capital Campaign. The success of this effort will be the confirmation necessary for the leaders of the Movement to know that we are mature and ready to receive the Shrine.

The goal of the Capital Campaign is to raise $650,000. This will cover the costs for the construction of the Shrine, a small welcome house, the parking lot, and the landscaping around the property. It will also cover the cost of the furnishings inside the Shrine such as the altar, the statues, and the tabernacle… many of which are handmade in different parts of the world. Finally, the Capital Campaign will cover the costs of the operating expenses and any engineering or architectural services that might be required throughout the project.

You can help us in our Capital Campaign! If you know of people whom you think will be interested in being a part of this project, please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of the members of the Board. We would be happy to visit with them and present them the project. We are also featured in the September Catholic Spirit issue of our Diocesan Newspaper and many people from across the diocese have contacted us already to know more about the Shrine. It is our desire to dedicate the shrine on October 2012, as a gift for the year of the Shrine. I am impressed with the response some of our groups and branches of the Movement, with their generosity and initiative and I would like to thank them all. For instance, there is a group of young mothers from Ecuador who are donating the door of the Shrine. Another group is working on collecting money for the St. Joseph statue and the SUM branch is presenting the Unity Cross for the shrine this Covenant Sunday, after over a year of work and COG. As a Schoenstatt Family of Central Texas we have been longing for many years for the shrine and today it is closer than ever. It now depends on our ability to pull the project together as a family.

This summer I participated with 13 University men of Texas in World Youth Day in Madrid, including a pilgrimage to Schoenstatt in Germany. It was a joy and a blessing to be at the original Shrine and visit Father’s tomb. In Schoenstatt we prayed for our entire Movement of Austin and entrusted Father the project of the Shrine. Being with the Holy Father and more than one million youth from all over the world was a highlight of the trip. As part of the celebrations in Madrid, the International Schoenstatt Men Youth put together a conference, where over 800 youth from across the world participated. For all of our 13 Texas pilgrims it was a first time experience. I hope you can join us for a presentation this Sunday after Covenant Mass.

At the beginning of September we had the visit of Andrea Musalem, of the Institute of Our Lady of Schoenstatt and moderator of SUW for Austin to start off the year with the UT University Women. They elected Megan McQuaid as their new branch leader for this year. We are very grateful for the work of the Ladies of Schoenstatt in forming and accompanying our University Woman’s branch.

As a Movement we are on our way to Schoesntatt’s centennial in 2014. Our first year of our triennium of preparation has been centered in the person of our Father and Founder with our Texas motto: With Father, proclaim the Covenant of Love. To close the year of Father as a Family of Central Texas we want to officially install a picture of Father Kentenich in our Movement House. This will happen at the end of Covenant Mass on this month of October. On the 15th of this month we also remember Father’s death anniversary. To open the second year in the triennium of preparation, which will be dedicated to the Shrine, the SUM branch wants to invite the Movement to do a Pilgrimage from St. Mary Cathedral to the Wayside shrine at Addie Roy. More information and date will be announced soon. AS a Schoenstatt Family of the United States we want to share one of the gifts of Father’s time in our country, namely the reality of the Home Shrines. We are making a photo album with pictures of American Home shrines to be presented as our contribution for the 2014 celebrations. If you would like your home shrine to be included as part of this gift, please provide a picture of your Home Shrine with a brief explanation including the date of dedication and send it to Rachel Gardner on or before October 30th.

I would also like to announce that starting on Saturday, September 17 and all Saturdays, Marian Masses will be offered by a Schoenstatt Father at our Movement House Chapel at 12 noon. In the tradition of the Church, Saturday has always been a day to honor the Blessed Mother in a special way. By celebrating Saturday daily masses we hope to increase our attachment to our Shrine land anticipating the day when we will celebrate such masses in our future Shrine. This will also be an opportunity to bring friends and family to our beautiful Wayside Shrine!

With these lines I hope you can grasp a bit of the vibrant life of our Movement and we entrust to your prayers all of our branch initiatives, most specially the project of our Shrine.

Fr. Jesus Ferras, ISP
Movement Coordinator
Diocese of Austin