My sister and brothers in the Lord! Greetings from the Shrine of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina in San Antonio, Texas!
Since my last newsletter in March the site for our worship center and eight classrooms has a ‘real’ foundation made of concrete! Praise God! This reminds me of the Gospel where Jesus told Peter, “You are rock, and upon this rock I will build my church’. Our ‘rock’, our foundation, even though a smaller version, if you will, symbolizes a ‘small piece’ of the rock of the Universal Church where we will worship as the people of God. The circular road has been cut and the area for parking has its foundation in place. The steel for the roof is one the ground awaiting for the completion of the pouring of the tilt walls that will be hoisted into position making ready to support the steel frame roof.
Our committee will meet before the end of this month to choose the color scheme for the interior and exterior of the building. As mentioned in March one of the eight classrooms will be our day chapel for daily mass and Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. One of the other classrooms will have a kitchen with the capability for us to host events for the parish as a whole or for organizational gatherings. The worship center will have plenty of space for our choirs, about 750 chairs for Sunday worship, a large work area and storeroom to house some of our seasonal liturgical decorations. The altar area will be large enough to accommodate concelebration and other liturgical events. The sound system will be top quality assuring everyone can hear the proclamation of the Word, music and the presider. One of our parishioners is the engineer in this installation. The lighting is guaranteed to be superior as one of parishioners is designing this. The highlight of the sanctuary will be the tabernacle that the children of the parish are donating. It has been ordered from Spain and should be here in plenty of time prior to the dedication. I guarantee you there will not be another of its kind in San Antonio. The location of the tabernacle is important to me and will be placed behind the main altar so that it is the focal point of the worship center when you enter. We are seeking donors for our main altar, pulpit, processional cross and torches, candlesticks, presider chair and chairs for other ministers that assist at the altar. All these items are rather costly but the reason for selecting them is that they will be used in the shrine once it is constructed. I see little reason to spend money on liturgical items that cannot be used at a later date. We are presently working on posting these items (pictures) on the web site with the cost. There is a donation link you can go to if you wish to make a donation in the amount of a specific item, or if you wish you can make a cash donation that will be applied as a partial donation toward some specific item you wish to help sponsor.
I invite you to mark your calendar for the dedication of the new worship center and classrooms. It will be Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 10:30 AM. I realize Christmas is right around the corner and this is the busiest time of the year, but what greater gift could we, as a parish, receive prior to celebrating the Birth of our Savior? Just imagine your donation could help make this our ‘first’ and ‘best’ Christmas ever! Whatever you give will be your way of supporting our efforts to promote devotion to St. Padre Pio so that we can invite people far and near to come and visit this first phase of our overall building program.
I am excited to report to you that one of our Eagle Scouts of the parish, Kenny Fullmer, chose to build a Rosary Prayer Garden as his Eagle Scout project. It is in the back section of our property, close to the 15th Station of the Cross. It is in the shape of a heart with large stepping stones forming the beads of the rosary. It has a very peaceful and tranquil setting allowing time for reflective mediation on the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. We will eventually add a statue of Mary and plant a rose garden in the inner part of the circle. I want to thank Kenny for thinking of the parish and accepting this challenge to make this dream a reality for us. During the months of October we will use this garden of prayer to promote more devotion to our Lady of the Rosary. Certainly this is not the only time this will be used but it is a month the Church sets aside to really zero in on the role of Mary in the life and times of her Son, Jesus.
Before closing, I invite you to surf our web site and view some of the photographs that reflect the progress we have made over the past several months. If you wish to contact me, please email me concerning any questions you might have at stpadrepio@sbcglobal.net I will reply as quickly as possible. Until I update the events of the parish, I assure each of you that we hold you in daily prayer as we recite a special prayer to Padre Pio after our daily masses.
Rev. Msgr. Patrick J. Ragsdale, Pastor
eDonation link to Church Items
