The birth of a religious institution or ministry often begins with a charismatic person or founder. In the case of Holy Cross Catholic Retreat Center, they were two: Bishop Sidney M. Metzger of the Diocese of El Paso and Father Owen de Silva of the Franciscan Friars, Santa Barbara Province, California.
Bishop Metzger had long dreamed of having a facility in his Diocese to which God's people might come to find respite "from the cares of the world..." He wanted a spot where souls could be at peace with the Lord. Through the generous response of the Santa Barbara Friars, the Bishop's dream became a reality in 1954.
That year, a decision was made to buy land in the Mesilla Valley of Southeastern New Mexico on which to build a retreat center. In August, 1958, construction was completed and, under the name, Holy Cross, the center was opened officially.
As Holy Cross Retreat Center observes its 45th Anniversary of service to God's people, we reflect upon the many people who have come to this "sacred" space. We desire to continue the rich tradition of the past 51 years and we invite you to join with us in making our dreams and desires a reality.
Maintaining and operating the Retreat Center is a challenging task. Our monthly budget usually is around $25,000.00. In addition to payroll, food, utilities and daily maintenance, we have major repairs annually. These include an estimated cost of $50,000.00 to replace the roof of the guest resident center.
We are confident that money invested in the growth and maintenance of Holy Cross Retreat will yield a rich harvest in time and in eternity. With your support during the past 51 years, Holy Cross Retreat was able to thrive and expand and extend a welcome to priests, women and men of religious orders, recovering alcoholics, married couples, engaged couples, lay women and men, youth, cancer patients and the various religious denominations who come here. All
come "seeking" a sacred space to spend time with God.
About 24 years ago (1981), a group of recovering alcoholics, anxious to make available to those who would follow after them the rich spiritual blessings they received during a retreat at Holy Cross, established a Foundation for the support of the Retreat Center.
Reflecting with deep gratitude, a member of that group said, "The retreat which I made at Holy Cross not only saved my business but, more importantly, it restored to me my wife and family." Because of the generosity of these three great men -- Riley Brown, Bill Burton and John Clifford -- dividends and a loan from that Foundation have made it possible for us to resurface the road leading to the Retreat Center ($41,250.00); replace the roof of the old house Atrium ($14,000.00) and, early in the new year, we will have the public restrooms renovated ($8,000.00). It is very obvious what good-hearted people can accomplish when they work together.
We are grateful, it needs to be noted, to all those Friars who have gone before us: Owen de Silva, John Altman, Eric O'Brien and Mario Vasquez, to mention but a few of the Santa Barbara Friars; and, from our own Province, Killian Spechner, John Curran, Francisco Gomez, Raymond Ramos, Dominic Manion, Michael Wright, Giles Carie, Bruno Nemcosky, Noel Kramer, Josh Duplissey, Marcos Reyna, John Weber and Sebastian Cunningham. Recognition and thanks are extended to each of these men for their dedicated work at Holy Cross Retreat.
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