The Home of the Mother is said to be the gift which our Lady wishes to give her Son. It is a beautiful community with a large and very active lay membership. Many retreats and pilgrimages include all members of the family, young and old. I am a lay member. We are blessed to be part of a community where we can attend retreats with the founders, Fr. Raphael Alonso and Mother Ana when they are here from Spain. There are 60 sisters in the community and they are all young and full of love for the Lord. They have a strong presence of holiness that makes the Home such a family - that is the best way to describe it, a family. There are also summer camps for the youth (Summer Encounters) and Holy Week Encounters for the whole family. We members are the family, God of course our father and Mary is our Mother. There are the Servant Priests, Servant Sisters, Servant Brothers, HMY, Home of the Mother youth and CAHM, Community of Adults of the Home of the Mother. There main home is in Spain about 30 minutes from Garabandal. At the request of the Bishop in Jacksonville they now have a commuinty in there where they serve a local parish and teach at their school. They have a community in Chone, Ecuador where they run a school and soup kitchen for the poor. They also have a community in Naples at Ave Maria University where they are in charge of the Discernment program for women and teach the homeschool co-op that the University professors children attend. Some priests and brothers live there also. We are blessed to know them and they come up here to the Tampa Bay area to visit and hold retreats and share the three missions of the Home which are the Defense of the Eucharist, Defense of our Lady especially in the privilege of her virginity and the conquest of the youth for Jesus Christ. The sisters have an awesome connection with the youth and are so fun to be around we love them very much! We are very blessed to have Brother Henry come to our parish next Saturday for a Lenten retreat!
If you ever get over to Spain, go visit them, they'd love to have you!
Peace, Jackie
“May the tender love that you feel for the Mother of God impel you to irradiate the Christian values in your environments.”
John Paul II to the Home of the Mother
In the Audience on August 28, 1985
“Learn like Peter what following Jesus truly means: Denying oneself, and losing one’s own life for His sake and for the sake of the Gospel.”
Benedict XVI to the Servant Brothers of the
Home of the Mother in the Wednesday
Audience of May 17th, 2006