USA, Mike Lorenzo. “What starts here changes the world.” The motto of the University of Texas; a phrase found on everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts, carved into buildings, and emblazoned on the hearts of a group of young men, a group of young men that would change my life, and this campus, forever.
Schoenstatt University Men branch retreat: Mary, forger of men
When I first came to UT as a sophomore, I had only recently truly come alive in my faith. I had spent my first year of college at Texas State University, a smaller school south of UT, where the Catholic campus community there had taught me much about Christ and his Church. Eager to grow deeper in my relationship with God I dove head first into the campus ministry at UT. It didn’t take long for the Blessed Mother as she quickly brought me into the Schoenstatt family. As a new Catholic, I must confess, I knew almost nothing about Mary, and my first moments in the Shrine we’re fraught with confusion, and yet, although I didn’t understand Mary’s place within the Church, there were other things I found in the Shrine that were so crystal clear. Quite simply, the men I encountered on this retreat were some of the most authentic men I’d ever met. In a world of illusions and quick fixes, I’d stumbled across a group of men dedicated to living for something more, a fraternity that didn’t settle for taking the easy way out, that looked at the world through the lens of Christ always, and not just when convenient. Although the Blessed Mother herself wasn’t made entirely clear to me at that moment, the fruits of her work certainly were, they were standing all around me, it was then that I knew that I’d truly found a home. Little did I know what that Shrine, what these men, what the Blessed Mother would do for my life.
This bold challenge to transform this broken world into a place of grace
“S.U.M.: Transforming Hearts with Mary”, our Branch motto, the motto I was confronted with three years ago still stands as our message today. This bold challenge to transform this broken world into a place of grace has made itself especially known on this particular weekend. Coming to the end of another busy and productive semester, our University Branch has retreated to San Antonio, to the Shrine that I’ve come to know so well over the past three years, for a retreat dedicated solely to the development of authentic masculinity, a retreat under the title: “Mary: Forger of Men”.
We found the Light in Christ
As men in today’s world we are constantly bombarded with false ideals, false definitions of what a true man are supposed to be. This overwhelming flood of flimsy illusions is, in this day and age, stronger than its ever been before. As young men at a large secular University, S.U.M. are confronted with choices almost every day; on one hand, the bold invitation to authentic masculinity, to chasing the true heart of Christ, while on the other is the way of the world, full of instant gratification and false joys. As I look around at my classmates I’m constantly reminded of the dangers in giving in to this false path, and the enveloping pressure to do so, creeping down upon our culture like a vile sludge. However, we’ve found the light and it lies in Christ, in following his example, and trusting in his might. In calling upon our Blessed Mother to educate us in this way, we can truly be formed into the authentic symbols this world needs.
The opportunity to change the culture
Through a weekend of adoration, personal prayer, talks, discussion, and community, we, as S.U.M., were given the tools necessary to stand firm in the face of adversity. As students at a gigantic, secular University, we’ve been given a great opportunity to truly change the culture. Sin is everywhere, and we’ve been given the great responsibility to bring it to the light. This retreat taught us all, old and young, to trust Mary in her power to educate, to present our worries and fears in the Shrine and allow them to be turned into symbols of strength, to humble ourselves before God and the Holy Family, and allow ourselves to be transformed.
Three years after I first stepped into the Shrine, I found myself there again on my last retreat as an S.U.M., how fitting then that the theme of this last retreat was “Mary: Forger of Men”, because, through the fires of adversity and struggle, she has profoundly forged me. The fraternity that initially drew me to S.U.M. is still alive and strong, and I am confident that it will continue long after I’m gone. Austin is on fire and in this forge the Blessed Mother is earnestly working, bringing forth the Men that will change this broken world.
She is the great missionary… she will work miracles.