18 August 2025 · 2025-08 newsletter
Maria came into contact with Schoenstatt at the Women’s Retreat in February this year. In the following article she shares with us her experience of how our MTA can work in souls and allow them to share in the fruitfulness of the Shrine. She writes:
It was a day like any other, marked by the rhythm of work and routine—until grace subtly intervened. As I boarded my usual train to work, I decided, in a simple shift of habit, to forgo scrolling through my phone.
Instead, I opened a booklet I had received from the shrine—a quiet moment of spiritual reflection that would come to shape my day.
Later, after a day’s work, I returned to the station to head home. However, moments after boarding the train a small wave of panic set in: Had I remembered to tap my Opal card at the platform post? Unlike ticket barriers, those discrete readers on the platform can easily go unnoticed.
I decided to get off at the next station, knowing that that was the right thing to do, to tap on properly, and rejoin the train.
As I stepped back on, I saw something astounding—an entire team of ticket inspectors checking passengers’ cards. It was the first time I had ever seen them on my commute home, and this was the time I had forgotten to tap on, but eventually did.
My heart whispered what my eyes confirmed: I had narrowly avoided an embarrassing situation and a fine, yes—but more profoundly, I had witnessed Divine Providence.
In that moment, I could not help but recall one of the most beautiful truths of Schoenstatt spirituality: “Nothing Without You, Nothing Without Us.”
The Blessed Mother does 99%, but she invites us into the mystery of co-responsibility. She urges us to do our 1%—to choose rightly, act faithfully, and listen gently for God’s nudges.
That small decision to act, —my morning’s spiritual reading and getting off the train to tap my card—was my 1%. What followed was Her loving 99%.
This encounter left me not only grateful but renewed in the conviction that when we invite God into our ordinary days, the extraordinary becomes possible.
May we all continue to walk with open hearts, trusting that Providence is never far behind—especially in those quiet, faithful decisions that no one sees.
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