Fare Thee Well, Tecaboca
After some 90 years, the Marianist religious order is closing the Tecaboca property near Mountain Home, one of the touchstones of my life.
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But first, your moment of Zen … The Tecaboca property near Mountain Home, Texas, photographed April, 2025.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
The Marianist religious order of which I’d been a member has been working in Central Texas since 1852, establishing what became St. Mary’s University and Central Catholic High School in San Antonio. In the 1930s. they purchased some land near the sleepy town of Comfort and established a summer boys camp there, mainly to recruit grade school boys in San Antonio to their high school. In 1952, they bought a larger, 100-acre property near the even sleepier town of Mountain Home. It eventually became known as the TExas CAtholic BOys CAmp, or Tecaboca.
The properties’ mission evolved over time, but for 90 years they served the Catholic community in Central Texas. There were summer camps (limited to boys until the early 2000s when a girls camp program was created). There was the L.I.F.E. Workshop, created by the Marianists to develop faith leaders in high schools and parishes, and for which Tecaboca was home base for many years. There were weekend retreats for parishes in San Antonio and the Hill Country. There were silent retreats now and then, where participants gathered only for prayer.
But Tecaboca, and the Marianists generally, are retrenching in an era of declining vocations and increasing costs. They have fewer people to attend to more ministries. Something had to give.
On Sunday, over 100 people gathered in a chapel at Tecaboca to celebrate a special Mass. Masses had been celebrated in that building since it had been built, probably in the 1960s. It had been remodeled and upgraded a few times over the years. Sunlight streamed through stained glass windows along one wall. Father Oscar Vasquez, a graduate of Central Catholic in San Antonio who had himself been a camp counselor and part of the L.I.F.E. Workshop team at Tecaboca, presided over the liturgy.
The Mass honored the closing of the property after 90 years during which the Marianist religious order had used it as a base to spread community and the Gospel among the Catholic population of Central Texas.
At the same time, in a pavilion a couple hundred yards away, a small group of people sat in camp chairs and reminisced about their half-century of friendship. All had met through the Marianists; some had been members of the order. Close by, the riverfront and the wind moving over the waters. A quiet breeze through the trees sheltering the pavilion, keeping everyone cool. The conversation was of people and events from 50 years ago, and friends and loved ones from those days, some of whom are no longer alive. When a particularly noble character was discussed, we all raised our glasses in tribute. In what would be a surprise to those who’d known us back then, the glasses were filled with orange juice or sparkling water.
Although we were not at the Mass, we were still celebrating Tecaboca and its impact on our lives. To understand that impact, you have to understand the Marianists.
A CHARISM OF COMMUNITY
The Marianists who owned and operated Tecaboca are an interesting lot. Every religious order – the Jesuits, the Benedictines, the Dominicans – has a charism, an origin story and corporate culture that are central to its identity. The Marianists have three key components to their charism:
They are named after and inspired by Mary, in whose home little 6-pound, 8-ounce Baby Jesus became a man, formed by his Mother in the values of compassion, charity and justice like any good Jewish kid.
The Marianists were founded during the French Revolution, when priests were literally hunted in the streets. So, from the start, priests were not placed on any clerical pedestal; there was equality among the priests, sisters and brothers in the order.
And, because of that anticlericalism of that age, laypeople were integral to the mission from the get-go.
What better vibe for the anti-establishment 1970s?
Thus, creating community, a spirit of equality, and a desire to share Gospel values have been touchpoints for the Marianists. This was true at Tecaboca as well. The summer camp was not just a camp – it fostered interdependence among campers from all over Texas and the world. The L.I.F.E. Workshop did leadership training for high schoolers who would create and lead faith groups in their schools and parishes. Weekend retreats were oriented to sending participants forth with a calling to build community back home.
And, as a few of us visited in the pavilion on Sunday, we realized that creating community had been a feature of our lives long after we were no longer in regular contact with the Marianists. It was part of our personal approach to fostering collaboration in our life and work.
After the Mass was over, our little group wandered down to the dining hall to meet up with everyone else. I was delighted to catch up with people I’d not seen for years. I strolled about the property a bit and then made my way back to the pavilion. Our group had grown a bit as more people found us. The event was supposed to end around 4:00; we finally broke up and left around 6:30.
(Left to right, Tom and Linda Engelbrecht, Paul Combest, Rick and Cecilia Zoucha-Zamarripa, Jim and Beth Barrette, Annette Occhialini, Eileen Kleffner, Deece Eckstein, Mike Occhialini. No names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
Once opun a time, I believed my life’s mission was to save the world, and that my life as a Marianist would be the pathway. With these and other friends, I’d shared the excitement and purpose of walking that path together.
I no longer harbor such illusions. Not only do I not believe I am saving the world now, I realize I was not saving the world then. Still, I am grateful to have lived such a transformative part of my life among the people I did.
Over time, life has pulled us in different directions. Three couples in our group have celebrated 40 years of marriage. Happy updates about kids from a few years ago have morphed into giddy updates about grandkids. The sorrows of life caught up with us as well. On Sunday we marveled at how many of us had attended the funerals of each other’s parents, or of other friends who’d started the journey with us and traveled life’s road no longer. We are planning another reunion in San Antonio around Dia de Los Muertos in November.
I wrote a wise friend from those 1970s Tecaboca days about the closing of the property and the weekend’s celebration. “All things must pass,” he wrote back. “We scattered the seed others will harvest.”
Fare thee well, Tecaboca.
Deece, your very presence makes this world a better place!
Very nice, my friend. Just the right touch, as usual.