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April 4, 2023JANET JONES
The Catholic Lighthouse
SEADRIFT – Wispy feathergrass, vistas of open ranchland and the San Antonio Bay greet those who come to Our Lady’s Healing Center. The physical setting of the center is just one of the salves offered to retreatants who come here.
This is not an ordinary retreat center. According to the staff, it is the only in-resident Catholic healing center in the nation with an aftercare program. This is where people come to seek solutions for deep pain, brokenness, despair, and redemption in the shadow of a sinful past.
The mission of Our Lady’s Healing Center is, “To bring the Good News of total healing through Jesus Christ to those suffering deep mental, emotional and spiritual pain. This mission is realized through a 12-month journey that begins with an intensive five-day personal sacramental and gospel-based method inspired by the truth of Jesus’ healing powers for the mind and spirit at a beautiful coastal-ranch resort with gourmet cuisine for nourishment of the body.”
The imagery inside the building includes the conversion of St. Paul, the prodigal son falling into the arms of his father, and the image of Mary as Stella Maris, the one called upon to protect and comfort her children who are in stormy waters. Her image is placed on the wall of every private room as a visual reminder of her desire to reconcile the world with her Son.
“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter what others have done to you,” Jesus is the one who can heal the spiritual and emotional damage, said Dr. Michael Fonseca, the center’s director of healing services. “Jesus has a totally different understanding of healing.”
Dr. Fonseca said those who seek this kind of healing are looking for balance in their lives. The center’s goal is to bring peace, light and joy to lives that seem bereft of meaning. They find that meaning, he said, by uniting themselves to Jesus and finding “intimate access to the Holy Spirit.”
When asked about how the program works with people who feel disconnected from God, Dr. Fonseca said, “The very fact that they are here tells us that, deep down, there is a stirring. We will work with them.”
Fonseca, also the founder and president of God’s Embrace ministries in Schulenburg, has worked as a counselor and a spiritual director for many years. He was once a Jesuit priest and, after requesting and being granted laicization, has worked in ministries in Michigan and in the Diocese of Victoria. He wrote the manual for the first healing center to be operated in the Catholic tradition. Although there are other healing centers, he said, they are Protestant programs.
Fonseca is also a popular speaker and retreat master and is scheduled to speak at the Diocese of Victoria’s Women’s Conference on April 22.
The Rev. Scott Francis Binet is the chaplain and spiritual adviser. He is a consecrated priest who founded the Order of Missionaries of Mercy, and a medical doctor who has served in many capacities all over the world.
Kari Ann Beckman is one of the co-founders of the center and serves at its general manager. “It’s been a joy,” she said.
The program
Those who seek healing begin with a five-day retreat. “After the retreat we will place them in an aftercare (program) for 12 months,” Dr. Fonseca said.
Each retreatant will be assigned a spiritual companion, someone to walk the journey with them. During the 12 months of aftercare, they will have regular contact with them and help the retreatants develop a long-term lifestyle of prayer and discipleship. When that year is complete, they will return for a two-day Renewed and Restored retreat.
The retreat center already is taking clients, but the staff is training more people to serve as spiritual companions as they prepare to take on more retreatants.
The center, a private institution that has the support of the Most Rev. Brendan Cahill, bishop of the Diocese of Victoria, came into existence because of Ralph and Linda Schmidt who have been involved in retreat and healing ministry with Dr. Fonseca for a long time. They purchased the building formerly known as Falcon Point Lodge and began renovations to make it fit healing center’s purposes and now lease it to Our Lady’s Healing Center.
The layout of the building, the small number of private rooms, the peaceful setting and other aspects of the building already made the lodge a place that seemed destined to be what it is today.
Renovations are ongoing with plans for a chapel in the building with special order stained glass windows and other details that make it unique for their purposes and mission.
Because the staff wants to take care of their retreatants’ minds, souls and bodies, they have their own garden to have fresh produce for healthy meals. There is exercise equipment, a swimming pool and much more. Each private room has the feel of a spa and also has the image of Stella Maris on the wall above the desk.
Sandy Reese, a Seadrift resident who works at the center has a special story to tell about it. God gave her a thought that a retreat center would be build somewhere along the bay. That happened 13 years ago as she was jogging along the bay front.
And she had all but forgotten that when it came about, until her husband came home one day and told her the lodge was sold and was to become a Catholic healing center.
Bishop Cahill said the beautiful thing about the healing center is the acknowledgement that its God’s healing power working through our humanity. “ ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.’ As human beings we have broken hearts,” he said. “One thing I’ve learned is I can’t heal myself.”
Our Lady’s Healing Center is on the web at www.ourladyshealingcenter.com.
