Casa María celebrated Norman’s birthday with Texas-sized burgers with bacon and avocado, homemade fries and caramel-banana foster ice cream cake on Monday, March 8. To wash that all down, the birthday boy enjoyed a bottle of Primo beer—found only in Hawai‘i.
Anna, Brian and Matt enjoy Texas-shaped cookies at Casa Tuesday
Several students joined the Marianists of Casa María to celebrate the second Tuesday of Lent and observe Texas declaration of independence (recognized on this day in 1836) for Casa Tuesday on March 2.
Following an evening prayer that focused on praying for the needs of the people of Ecuador—as part of the international effort of 40 days to change the world—Casa Tuesday featured appetizers of crackers shaped into the state of Texas, supper and homemade dessert cookies also shaped into the state of Texas.
Also on this day, several members of the community exercised their right to vote by casting their ballots for the state gubernatorial primary election.
Crackers shaped as the state of Texas served as appetizers
Homemade sugar cookies shaped as the state of Texas are ready for dessert
The coordinating committee of Marianist LIFE South hosted a Marianist Family gathering at Casa María on Saturday, Feb. 27. The committee met this weekend at St. Mary’s University to finalize plans for the summer retreat.
Guests included a diverse assortment of Marianist affiliation—laity, sisters, brothers and priests as well as students, alumni, faculty and staff from Marianist universities and high schools.
More photos on our Flickr set.
About 30 gathered in Flores Residence Hall lounge to celebrate Mass with the Marianists of Casa María on Feb. 25. Rev. Rudy Vela, vice president for Mission and Identity at St. Mary’s University, presided at the liturgy—which was the highest attended Thursday evening Mass of the semester.
Many students chose to conclude the student-organized “Prayer Walk” by attending the Mass as part of their observance of National College Day of Prayer.
As part of their efforts to connect with the student community on campus and support faith formation and spiritual growth, the brothers of Casa María made the commitment to celebrate their Thursday evening community Mass every week throughout this academic year at a residence hall on campus.
More photos on our Flickr set.
Students and staff of St. Mary’s gathered at Casa María to celebrate the first Tuesday of Lent with a Taizé-style evening prayer and supper which featured Capirotada, a Mexican-style bread pudding for Lent, on Feb. 23.
Each ingredient of capirotada has a symbolic reference to Christ’s suffering on the cross—cinnamon sticks for the wood of the cross, raisins for the nails, bread for the body and syrup as the blood of Christ.
Norman gets his face painted blue before the Rattler basketball game against arch-rival Incarnate Word Cardinals on Feb. 20. The Rattlers fell in OT 78-75.
As part of the community’s lenten observances, the Casa María chapel was rearranged by the community’s office of religious life to signal the end of one liturgical season and the start of the next. Special intentions for the 40 countries in most need (note: site not updated) as well as ‘lenten prayer partners’ are a few of the practices that the community is observing during the season.
Casa Maria Marianists 