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AMU celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation at permanent campus
March 26, 2007
Hundreds of members of the Ave Maria University community celebrated the school's patronal feast, the Feast of the Annunciation, at the site of the university's permanent home in the town of Ave Maria, Fla. March 26.
The Annunciation Mass, which has become a yearly tradition at AMU, was held east of the undergraduate residence halls at the university's permanent campus, within sight of the almost fully covered steel arches of the Ave Maria Oratory. Fr. Robert Garrity, the university's chaplain and the Mass' principal celebrant, observed that this year's Mass was the last to be held outdoors under a tent; by the next Feast of the Annunciation, the university community expects to assemble within the completed oratory.
"We are almost in the promised land, and we want to move forward in the Lord," Garrity said during his homily. "At this time and place it is vitally important that we allow the words of the Angel Gabriel to touch our hearts: Be not afraid."
Since 2004, AMU students, faculty, staff and supporters have gathered at the site of the permanent campus to celebrate the feast of the Angel Gabriel's visit to the Virgin Mary ("Ave Maria" is Latin for the angel's greeting of "Hail Mary"). The first two years the Mass was held at the site, only tomato vines and sod farms were visible to attendees. At last year's Mass, the early signs of vertical construction could be seen, including the beginnings of roads and basic infrastructure, a nearly completed central plant facility, and the first floor the centrally located town center buildings. This year, following the celebration of Mass, students, faculty and staff were able to take bus tours of the rapidly developing permanent campus-which will be ready for occupancy in time for the Fall 2007 semester-and the Ave Maria town center, slated to open this summer.