Community Director Brother Brian welcomes Provincial-Designate Rev. Martin
Rev. Martin “Marty” Solma, provincial-designate of the Marianist Province of the U.S., arrived at Casa María on Thursday evening, Jan. 21. He is spending the weekend in our community while visiting with several Marianists in the San Antonio area over the next few days.
French-inspired appetizers (mini quiches) in honor of Blessed Chaminade
Students and staff of St. Mary’s University joined the brothers to celebrate Marianist heritage week—Casa Tuesday style—on the evening of Jan. 19.
Opening with an evening prayer that recounted the history of the Marianist laity, sisters, and brothers and priests, Casa Tuesday featured a few French-inspired foods in honor of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, a French priest who founded the Marianist family.
Appetizers included homemade mini quiches of bacon, cheese and egg. Highlighting the dessert menu were ‘petite and sweet’ macarons made from scratch (almond meringue cookies filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache) and HEB-bought mini eclairs (chocolate-covered pastry filled with custard cream).
More photos on our Flickr set.
Homemade macarons and the Eifel Tower complete the French-inspired menu.
Mass, Tuesday, January 19, 2010
First Reading: 1 Sm 16:1-13
Responsorial Psalm: 89
Gospel: Mk 2:23-28
As we begin the week when many of our schools celebrate Marianist heritage and the life of our founder, I find it quite providential that the readings of today’s Mass connect with issues of discernment and being chosen, and how our commitment to Marianist religious life binds us to abide by our most important set of “laws”: the evangelical vows.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains to the Pharisees, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.” In essence, he challenges all of us to look beyond the letter of our religious laws and rituals and consider the values promoted by the spirit of those laws.
Applying this to our own lives as Marianist religious, we see something quite similar when our founder writes about our most important laws—the evangelical vows—in his letter to the retreat masters of 1839.
Chaminade writes, “The letter kills but the spirit quickens.” He warns about the dangers of living only the letter of the vows—where we know the practical boundaries so that we can maximize personal gain within those limits—and not the spirit, where we can miss out on reaching the blessed state of holiness promised by living the spirit of the vows.
For example, living the vow of poverty not only means following the practical limits of our budgets, knowing what can and can’t be done within those limits, but always putting all of our gifts (time, patience, talent and disposition of openness) at the service of our brothers and our world—being good stewards of our treasures.
Living the vow of chastity not only means we can’t get married, have a active dating life or maintain preferential relationships, but always seeking to love unconditionally all people, particularly our brothers in community.
Living the vow of obedience not only means doing something because “I’m told to do this,” but also to seek the wisdom of God as spoken through the voices of out brothers in mutual discernment about our lives shared in common.
Living the vow of stability not only means, “I’ve got tenure now!” and “I don’t have to do all those initial formation pieces anymore!” but also living a Marianist life with the same happiness, joy, passion and enthusiasm of when we first entered the Society of Mary.
In other words, we must move beyond the letter of the vows and conform our attitudes to the spirit of the vows.
Just as David was chosen to follow his vocation in the first reading and responsorial psalm, we, too, are asked to follow our vocation—wherever that might lead. As we prepare ourselves to receive the Eucharist, let us pray that we grow in faith to conform our attitudes not just to the letter, but to the spirit of the vows that govern our lives as Marianist religious.
Brian, Mike and Tim, winners of Apples-to-Apples played at Casa María
Brothers Brian Halderman, Michael Sullivan and Tim Pieprzyca each emerged victorious in three rounds of the game Apples-to-Apples at Casa María on Monday nite, Jan. 18.
While Monday nights typically are reserved for weekly community meetings, the brothers decided to rotate ‘community fun nites’ into the schedule periodically as way to foster community building, coordinated by Casa María’s Office of Education.
Members of the Casa Maria Marianist community joined with students, faculty and staff of St. Mary’s University and Central Catholic High School to participate in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. march in San Antonio, Mon., Jan. 18, 2010.
More photos on our Flickr set.
Braving the thunder, lighting and heavy rain, nearly 20 gathered in Flores Residence Hall lounge to celebrate evening Mass with the brothers of Casa María on Thurs., Jan. 14. Rev. Tim Dwyer, S.M., presided at the Eucharist.
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. In the fall, this Mass was celebrated at Founders Hall; this semester, it is in Flores Hall.
More photos on Flickr.
Maple cream sandwich cookies, gingerbread cookies and maple-walnut chocolate fudge (inspired by the Québécois sucre à la crème) were the featured feast day treats in honor of St. Margaret Bourgeoys of Canada during the first Casa Tuesday of 2010.
Celebrating his one-month birthday, Diego Jakob Hoenigman gets into the spirit of celebrating the Canadian saint.
More photos on our Flickr set.
Casa Maria Marianists 