17 December 2021 · 2021-12 newsletter
The Parish Priest of Sr. M. Olivia’s Home Parish in South Australia, Fr. Peter Zwaans, shares the joy of his parishioners on the occasion of Sr. M. Olivia’s Reception.
At about 10pm on Sunday the 21st of November, my phone started buzzing. Text messages were flying in from my parishioners: “German’s not my strong suit. What was the name? I didn’t catch it!” Throughout Brooklyn Park/Richmond, family, friends and parishioners were watching the livestream of the Einkleidungsmesse (Mass of Reception) of the Novices of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. We couldn’t wait to see our sister in her sisters’ dress, and we were all waiting with anticipation to find out what name we would call her from that moment on.
I don’t think anyone was placing bets, but then I suppose if there was a book running, they probably would not tell the parish priest. Still, with my schoolboy German, I was able to send out the message, our Olivia Lukaszewicz will be Sr M. Olivia! The following day I received more emails from the people of the parish saying how moving they had found the ceremony and how fortunate they felt to have been so involved in this great moment. I have no doubt that Sr M. Olivia’s vocation will be a wonderful blessing to the Schoenstatt community, but it has also already been a great gift to the Brooklyn Park/Richmond parish.
Around here, everyone knows Olivia; if not by name, then at the very least by description – she’s the girl with the blonde hair who reads at Mass and is always sitting at the front of the church and praying. Since she left for candidacy and postulancy in Schoenstatt, she’s been gone but certainly not forgotten. She wrote several times to the parish to keep us all up to date on her progress and there has been a subtle (but good!) pride that our parish brought forth a vocation to the consecrated life.
In the lead up to the Einkleidungsmesse, the parish decided that the best gift we could give would be a spiritual bouquet, and so over the course of a month, 222 parishioners contributed: 562 Masses, 1125 Rosaries, 1394 decades of the Rosary and 3397 Memorares. One boy came up to me after Mass one Sunday and proudly recited the Memorare off by heart, because he had been praying it nightly for Sr M. Olivia. In the nine days before the Mass of Reception, 153 parishioners joined in praying a Novena to the Mother Thrice Admirable and we all received a taste of the spirituality of Schoenstatt.
When the day had finally arrived, we gathered for an hour of Adoration in St John Bosco’s church in the presence of the Pilgrim Mother Icon (made by Sr. M. Olivia’s father), which travels among the families of the parish, and then at the conclusion of the hour we all scurried home to tune-in to the livestream from Germany. And that’s when the text messages started to fly – “she’s beaming!”, “she looks so happy”, “the religious dress really suits her”, “it looks like she’s made for it.” For so many of us, it was a joy-filled moment and the culmination of prayerful anticipation.
After all of this prayer and preparation it seemed incredibly fitting that the day was accompanied by such providential feast days: celebrating Christ the King, the young novices appeared as princess brides. Additionally, the 21st of November is also the feast of the Presentation of Mary, and just as the young Mary was set apart for God’s purposes, so too these young women were responding generously to the vocation which they had heard and were consecrating their whole selves to God. It is especially fitting that the spirituality of Schoenstatt sees the sisters as ‘another Mary’. And so, just like Mary, we see that Sr M. Olivia has consecrated her mind, heart and body so that she may be entirely for Christ – and this humble parish, our little Nazareth, could not be prouder!
Over the past four years that I have been parish priest, I have been asked countless times, “Is Olivia your sister?” And she has been asked just as often: “Is Fr Peter your brother?” Admittedly, we do look enough alike for it to be a common mistake. But now, finally, I can say a wholehearted: Yes! She is my sister. She is our Sr M. Olivia!
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