16 October 2023 · 2023-10 newsletter
“You have been entrusted with something Precious”
On Saturday 16th September, 50 women gathered at the Family Hall at Mt. Schoenstatt where Sr. Mary Louise led us in a day of prayer and reflection. The day included Reconciliation, Mass, personal prayer time, sharing with other women and shopping in the Holy Shop.
The day was introduced with a reflection based on 2 Timothy 1:1-14: Paul writing to Timothy: “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us”.
As Christians we have something worth protecting: our faith in Jesus Christ. As Catholics we have a tradition and the deposit of faith from the Apostles and the Church. In our Baptism we become a life-long disciple of Jesus. Our faith is a precious gift, too valuable to lose. We need days like this to nurture our faith and our relationship with Jesus.
We reflected on three parables: The “Lost coin”, “the lost sheep” and “the prodigal son”, highlighting how much God loves us, beyond our human understanding. Our relationship with God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is precious, and we need time to nurture our faith, as we do with all our relationships.
The Annunciation
With Mary as our mother, model, and educator, we reflected on a modern-day icon depicting the Annunciation. (Unfortunately, due to copyright we cannot include a photo.) The artist is a young Ukrainian woman, Ivanka Demchuk. (If you wish to view the icon or learn more about the artist, put Ivanka’s name in Google.)
The Annunciation is the most significant moment in human history. It is when the light of Christ entered the world. Mary is depicted in humility, open in prayer, with a listening heart. Mary’s Fiat resulted in her carrying the most precious gift: our Saviour. As Little Mary’s we share in the gift of carrying Christ into our modern world.
Quiet time
Having quiet time in the shrine and the surroundings of Mt. Schoenstatt gave us an opportunity to reflect on the gift of our baptism, and for those belonging to Schoenstatt, time to reflect on our Covenant of love, another precious gift we have received.
Sr. Mary Louise is very practical and always gives us practical ways of living our faith in a world that has many pressures. She shared with us …
Tips to strengthen our faith
- TRUST: lean on Jesus – intentionally place our trust in Jesus
- PRAYER: Talk to God as with another person, share our daily life, invite God into our daily life. Start each day in silence, as God deserves our undivided attention. In this way we develop a listening heart like our Lady.
- READ the Scriptures: “we know what we love, and we love what we know”. The Word of God gives us direction for our lives. It is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Reflect on the inspirational people in scripture.
- BE the LIGHT: We have the precious gift of knowing Jesus. We should be joyful people, leading others to Christ by our love, joy, gratitude, thankfulness, and the way we forgive others.
As a parting gift we were invited to select a scripture passage to take home, which we shared with the people around us. We were sorry the end of the day came so quickly. We were all so grateful to be given this opportunity to put aside some time for ourselves and our relationship with Jesus and Mary.
As always, the time and effort Sr. Mary Louise put into her reflections, the environment of the prayer space, the photos in the reflections and the music really elevated the spirit of the day.
For those women interested, our next reflection day will be on Saturday 25th November, to help us prepare ourselves for Advent.
Michelle (Women’s League)
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