Maintenance and operation cost for Betania II, Inc

Help support Betania II
 

 

Located in Medway, MA, Betania II,Inc., is a center of spiritual growth and renewal, focusing on conversion, healing and love, uniting the family of mankind through the four pillars of Betania; prayer, penance, meditation and the Eucharist.

 

 

Betania II was founded, developed and built as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) by the lifelong efforts of Sister Margaret Catherine Sims, SSJ of the Archdiocese of Boston, supported and funded by Rose and Patrick Patek. Sr Margaret was blessed with the guidance of the Servant of God Maria Esperanza Bianchini.

 

Sister Margaret, after receiving a message from God The Father, travelled to Caracas, Venezuela to meet visionary Maria Esperanza Bianchini to ask for her advice on how and where to start a lay community in Massachusetts.

 

Inspired by those messages from Our Blessed Mother, Maria bought a land - Finca Betania - where our Blessed Mother appeared in 1976 and announced at another time she would make a public apparition.

 

 

On March 25, 1984, as previously announced, the Virgin appeared to Maria Esperanza in Finca Betania as Our Lady Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations, an event witnessed by more than 150 people.

 

 

This apparition was later approved as being authentic, supernatural and of Divine origin in 1987 by means of a Pastoral Letter written and signed by Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo, following years of research and review of the evidence and testimonies presented before him.

 

Maria Esperanza advised Sr. Margaret to search for land in Massachusetts and told her she would recognize a greenhouse on the premises.

 

In 1993, Sister Margaret invited Maria Esperanza and her family to a conference in Lowell, Massachusetts, after which Sister took them to a land she found in Medway, MA, in which she had recognized the greenhouse as foreseen by María Esperanza back in Venezuela.

 

 

As Maria Esperanza got off the bus to view the land, she picked up a stick and immediately began digging in the ground. Right after she unearthed a rock, she pointed to it and said: ”Here are the eyes, nose and mouth. It is Jesus. Build here.” Coincidentally enough, we later learned that this land was called "the land of the Holy Face", by the Indians who populated the area before colonists arrived.

 

 

Sister Margaret was able to find donors to purchase the land in August of 1993. Yet, these contributions were not enough to buy the land and build the center, too.

 

 

 

A few years later, Sr. Margaret led a group of pilgrims to Betania, Venezuela, where the apparitions of the Virgin Mary took place in 1984 and is now an official Diocesan Sanctuary.

 

On their way to Betania, a 50 mile bus drive south of Caracas, Sr. Margaret was telling the story of her mission to the group, of how she had found the land and the donors to purchase it, as well as her struggles to build the center.

 

While she was commenting about her praying to raise the funds to build a retreat center there, in the back seats of the bus was Patrick Patek whispering to his wife Rose: " go up and tell Sister we will help her build the center.” With the help, generosity, commitment and vital contributions of Rose and Patrick Patek, construction of the center began in Medway, MA, in 2002, right in the same spot where María Esperanza dug the rock with the face of Our Lord imprinted on it.

 

 

On October 12, 2003, Archbishop Sean O'Malley (elevated to Cardinal in 2006) dedicated the Retreat Center, which began operations right away. Sister Margaret continued to seek counsel from Maria Esperanza on spiritual and operational matters pertaining to the running of the center, until Maria Esperanza's passing in Long Beach Island, NJ on August 7, 2004.

 

 

 

Maria Esperanza's cause for Canonization was opened in Metuchen, NJ on January 31, 2010, five years after her passing; she was declared Servant of God and her beatification cause began.

 

 

Patrick Patek passed from his earthly life in 2007, but his wife Rose continued her support and total commitment for what became Betania II, Inc. She also started supporting the whole mission of Betania, the mission of reconciliation and of spreading God’s love to one another.

 

Betania II and its members are committed to working to bring reconciliation and forgiveness to families separated from each other and the Catholic Church. We are reaching out to our youth about the importance of forgiveness, love, and family unity. Without forgiveness, we cannot love as God commands us to love each other. The youth are called to carry out this mission when we, too, will be gone.

 

With the help and generosity of Rose Patek, a beautiful Oratory with a 600 person capacity and Adoration Chapel were built together with a state-of-the-art  Conference Center with three conference rooms, a dining room seating 300 people, and a commercial kitchen. It also includes a 72-room Retreat House with two beds in each room, private bathroom and shower in each room, a large conference room and utility kitchen, so our pilgrims, visitors, worshipers and guests may enjoy a convenient stay while in Betania II.

 

Betania II had a prosperous year in 2019, filled with retreats and conferences nearly every week. When Covid hit in March of 2020, we were forced to shut down, although we continued to maintain the facilities with charitable contributions.

 

In February of 2021, we began to plan for a full opening by mid year, contacting past groups and beginning to take reservation dates for retreats and activities. We were stunned on March 2, 2021,by the death of our dear faithful friend and benefactor, Rose Patek after a long illness.

 

It is our call and responsibility to continue on. We are totally committed to step up to the challenge and responsibility to continue with this mission of love, reconciliations and family unity. 

 

But we can't do it alone; we need your help.

 

We are accepting many groups that are locking in dates to come to Betania II, but we need to assure we will have the funds to cover the maintenance and operational cost of the center, now that our main benefactors look after us in heaven.

 

We are asking for your help to move forward and to continue providing for the needs of so many people, who come to Betania looking to quench their spiritual thirst.

 

We are hoping to raise 170,000 dollars in order to keep the center open and fully operational, which will be distributed as follows: $ 68,500 for Gas, electricity and water; $ 42,600 for Payroll to 2 employees; $ 27,000 for Insurance premiums and $59,000 for phone, cleaning services, laundry, landscaping, supplies, maintainance and general expenses.

 

We are committed to making Betania II successful as it was pre-Covid and to become self-sustaining.

 

Our goal is to keep paid essential employees to a minimum, and utilize volunteers as it was envisioned by our founders. We are also committed to total transparency, so you will be able to follow us and all our activities by subscribing to our different channels in Instagram, Youtube and Facebook.

 

 

With our eternal gratitude and love,

 

The Betania II team

 betania2.org

 Betania 2  (Youtube)