Groundbreaking & Blessing Remarks from Lisa Schmitz, Executive Director – April 9, 2022
Thank you all for joining us on this beautiful day for this momentous occasion of breaking ground (at last) on a home that will serve as dignified housing for pregnant moms and their children in the Springs!
We want to thank especially:
- Bishop Golka for blessing the ground that will bless so many future generations;
- Mayor John Suthers for his support and presence
- Fr. Slattery and St. Gabriel’s for so generously providing the land and serving as our future chaplain and partnering with us in so many ways;
- Vince Colarelli, our builder/contractor, and IDG our architect;
- And all of YOU – our supporters – whether you donated to build the house or to operate our programs, or will serve as one of our volunteers to run this ministry, or are one of our prayer warriors.
ALL of you have helped to bring us to this point to embark on this project to Defend Life with Love. Thank you!
Mater Filius means Mother and Child. By that we remember always that we are focusing both on the moms and their children. We will always love and serve them both.
But we also remember that this whole project belongs to, and is a gift of, the Sweet Love of Mary, Who asks us to provide this house so that She can intervene in the lives of all those involved with it – not just the future moms and kids who will live here, but all of us, as well – and introduce them ever more closely to Her Beloved Child, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Many of us here have had a dream for many years to open such a house. It is She, the Sweet Love of Mary, Who is making it happen here in the Springs.
That is why it is so important for us to remember that today we are not just starting to build a BUILDING.
- We are building a FORTRESS – in defense of life with love;
- We are building a COMMUNITY – of all of us involved;
- We are building PARTNERSHIPS – with all of the supporters, the various contractors generously donating labor and materials, with the church, with the resources in the community, with so many others;
- We are building a SAFE HAVEN for those who need peace and safety and rest;
- We are building STRUCTURE for those who may have never known it;
- We are building a PATH FORWARD with brave moms who are ready for change;
- We are building NEW FUTURES that will affect generations – and hopefully eternal lives;
- We are building a HOME for those who, like our Lord, had no place to lay their heads;
- And perhaps most importantly for the moms and kids who will live here, we are building HOPE – for those who mistakenly thought there was none.
- Finally, we are building FAMILY – not just true holy families of the moms and kids who will live and thrive here, but a MATER FILIUS FAMILY of all of us involved in any way. As our beautiful founders in Mexico say, we are not a social service agency or really even a ministry. Each of us at this Colorado Springs site – and at all the other now 25 sites worldwide – are ONE FAMILY united as children of the Sweet Love of Mary and Her Son Jesus, working under Them to Defend Life with Love, one life at a time.
Thank you for responding to Their call to be a part of our Mater Filius Family, and for Defending Life with Love.
Now it’s my distinct pleasure to invite the Most Reverend James Golka, Bishop of Colorado Springs, to bless this ground of hope.
### (End of remarks as given April 9, 2022.)
For more information on the Groundbreaking and Blessing, see our short blog and videos here and news coverage here.
