Sacred Heart plans meditation garden

   When Nelda Ibarra returned to Corpus Christi two years ago after 15 years in California one of the first things she looked for was a parish to call home.
   Ibarra found the perfect place in the house of worship where her parents and grandparents married and attended services - Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
   Now she's helping to plan the church's latest project, a meditation garden, and in so doing is living out a family tradition of church service that began generations ago.
   It is that sense of history and legacy that Elaine Teneyuca-Stevens hopes to draw from as she rallies support for the project she and her husband, William J. Stevens, came up with.
   Teneyuca-Stevens, 70, found Sacred Heart in 1999, shortly after marrying and moving from San Antonio to Corpus Christi. Sacred Heart is where her husband made his First Holy Communion more than 70 years ago.
   And like Ibarra, the Stevens felt the call of the Sacred Heart, a call to build upon what others had established and entrusted to their care.

How to help To donate to Sacred Heart's meditation garden project or to purchase a commemorative paver to be installed in the garden's walkways, call Elaine Teneyuca-Stevens at 853-5359 or the church rectory at 883-6082.

   It didn't take long for Teneyuca-Stevens to realize the best way she and her husband could help their parish was to transform an underused area of the grounds into a lush meditation garden that would invite parishioners and visitors to individual prayer.
   "We're working to transform it into a spot of beauty, a tranquil place for communication with God, a place that would offer peace and healing to those who come to offer their pain, sorrow and joys," Teneyuca-Stevens said.
   Features of the meditation garden, to be called The Living Garden when dedicated, will include a bronze cross, an angel-topped fountain, benches, the Stations of the Cross and brick walkways.
   A 10-member planning committee is recruiting present and former Sacred Heart parishioners to donate their expertise, labor and materials.
   To fund the estimated $15,000 project, the committee is selling stone-shell commemorative pavers for $70 apiece, which parishioners can have engraved with a family member's birthday, wedding anniversary, graduation or other significant milestone.
   The pavers will be installed in the garden's walkways, "making the garden a celebration of life honoring past and present parishioners as well as those of years to come," Teneyuca-Stevens said.
   Reflection, fellowship
   The Rev. Jose M. Gutierrez, pastor of the church, said the garden will not only provide an inviting place for reflection and fellowship after Sunday liturgy, but also play a critical role in helping preserve the rich history of one of the city's oldest churches.
   During the city's infancy, Gutierrez noted, the only Catholic churches in existence were Corpus Christi Cathedral, Sacred Heart and Holy Cross, all three located two or three blocks apart. And it was at Sacred Heart where Masses were celebrated in Spanish, he said.
   Members of Sacred Heart said they hoped to complete the meditation garden as early as Christmas.
   "What a wonderful Christmas present it would make for the entire church," Teneyuca-Stevens said.
   As for Ibarra, working on the project will more than be a tribute to her own late grandmother, who used to sing in the church choir, and her mother, both of whom attended Catholic school there.
   "Hopefully my own 10-year-old daughter will one day do her part at Sacred Heart to keep the family's memory alive and continue the work they started," she said.