On Saturday, June 22nd many families gathered at the beautiful St. Vincent De Paul church for the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei. Bishop Italo Dell Oro was the main celebrant for the Mass. The church was full, with an estimated 1000 people in attendance.
At the Westcott Study Center on Saturday, April 6th Teresa Lanza di Scalea, M.D., Ph.D., a board-certified Psychiatrist who lives in Austin, spoke to roughly 60 fathers on the importance of early childhood upbringing.
On February 3rd fathers joined Dr. Gerard Wegemer at Westcott Study Center to listen to the upbringing philosophy of St. Thomas More. Wegemer’s scholarly approach to conveying More’s method of educating his children was appreciated by all. According to Dr. Wegemer, More was indeed a ‘father in the full’ since his span of education took into account the ‘full scope of life.’
The Fatherhood is a series of three talks on the first Saturdays of Feb, March and April from 8 to 10:30 AM. They are intended to help fathers educate their children
Joey Villareal was at a workshop at Saxum, a conference center 8 miles from Jerusalem, along with another 40 men from English-speaking countries, when the war in Israel broke out. After a few days of uncertainty, they managed to leave Israel, and Joey arrived in San Antonio safely. The San Antonio local news reported the adventure.
More than 50 fathers and sons from the San Antonio area enjoyed a canoeing trip in the San Marcos river the weekend of Oct 7-8. Activities included: paddling, camping, socializing, Holy Rosary, examination of conscience, boys and dads talks, and morning meditation. Fun was had by all!
Young singles and couples recently attended a talk at Patrick McCarthy’s house on the importance of marriage and family. The talk was outside in the hot Houston July heat, but luckily the McCarthy’s served delicious tacos and cold margaritas to happily distract us from the heat.
More than 200 people gathered on Sunday, Aug 27, in Montevista Study Center in San Antonio, to kick off the Boys' Clubs starting in the Fall, and enjoy a social time together.
On Sunday, Feb 19, the club Forge dads and sons had a blast dropping eggs from the second story of Westcott. Only they didn’t break (well, most of them did not break). They were challenged with devising a way the eggs could be packaged so that they would not break upon impact. They had limited materials and very limited time to find a way to keep the egg safe. Considering the current price of eggs, all were relieved that so many eggs landed intact!
Friends of the Westcott Study Center braved the sub-freezing temperatures to gather and celebrate Christmas. The parties were held on Thursday and Friday, December 22nd and 23 at Westcott. The evening began with a Christmas meditation by Father Paul. Both floors of the chapel were overflowing, but parents of young kids and babies were still able to hear the meditation from the adjoining hallways. Folks were able to partake of a delicious pot-luck dinner. Alex Hoff and Paul Fortunato bought his guitar and led loud, joyful renditions of traditional Christmas carols. An awesome time was had by all, which is only fitting for the seventy or so people who confronted the cold each night. The only thing
The third campout of the Father-Son Club in the Woodlands took place over the weekend of October 22-23, in Taysha (thanks to Guido and Pilar for their generosity). The weather was perfect and the 20 sons and 12 fathers had a great time. Fr. Javier came from Houston and celebrated Mass and heard confessions. On Saturday evening we also enjoyed a first-class real Argentinian "asado".
The Rocket Build Project father-son group in San Antonio has been working for months in assembling a 7-foot rocket for a launch scheduled in September. The picture shows the group in its last meeting on July 23, 2023 at Montevista Study Center.
Leadership Camp Texas 2022 final day was Friday, July 8, 2022. The camp involved 160 campers, 32 counselors, 5 directors, 10 rangers, 14 dads, teachers, doctors and 2 priests.
Virtech is a non-profit aiming at providing young adults with training in technology and virtue. On April 2, a seminar for young men was held at Rocky Point House in The Woodlands. The objective of the session was to help young men obtain the certification needed to pilot drones. The technical session was led by a Oswaldo Navarro a professional pilot and included theoretical and practical aspects. For more information or to volunteer, please contact William Colina (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Online Recollections are no longer offered in Texas. The rationale to stop offering them is the availability of the recollection kits provided monthly by www.opusdei.org. For example the February 2022 recollection kit can be found here. Nevertheless, everyone able to attend in person is encouraged to do so. For recollections in Texas you may want to check where-you-are.net/recollections.
Colin Gleason delivered the first talk of the 2022 Westcott Fatherhood Series on February 12 on the topic of Fostering Family Culture, Telling a Good Story, and was followed by QA session. The talk was very well received by the more than 80 attendees with standing room only. The audio recording can be found at https://where-you-are.net/resources/fatherhood-talks/fostering-family-culture-telling-a-good-story. Please check the plan for the rest of the talks here.