December 2017
Dear MI Member,
Maria! Greetings to you as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception during this MI Jubilee Year.
In my letter to you last March, I pledged that the National Center would keep our begging to a minimum. We do not intend to saturate you with “junk mail.” Instead—just twice a year—it is better and more appropriately spiritual to beg than to harass.
Additionally, I would like to use these letters to bring you up to date on all the activities of the National Center and MI groups around the country. It has been almost a year since the MI had to leave Marytown. In March I said that I thought, by this move, “Our Lady wants us to soar with wings outspread.” Indeed, that has proven true. She has transformed trials and difficulties into graces and blessings!
A New Home!
We have in fact been mightily blessed: MI-USA is on the verge of acquiring a new, permanent and most extraordinary home! The targeted date is January 8, St. Maximilian’s birthday, an exquisitely suitable date. The Bishop of Peoria has given his blessing to an MI National Center in his diocese. The prayers of so many MI members have been beautifully answered!
It comes complete with meeting rooms, offices, a library, sixteen bedrooms for MI retreatants, and a lovely chapel situated at the heart of the building.
The new center will cost $15,000 per year over a period of 15 years, far less than the market value of the property. Basic overhead—utilities, maintenance and the like—will be about $40,000 per year.
As we celebrate the MI Centennial, this time of rebirth for MI-USA and now of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we look forward with great anticipation to continued renewal in a true national center!