18 November 2022 · 2022-11 newsletter
On Saturday 10th September 2022, exactly six years after the Schoenstatt Rydalmere family crowned the MTA, Mother of Mercy and Queen of the Family, they gathered once more to celebrate the anniversary of this Crowning.
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day. The celebration began with an hour of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament followed by a Holy Mass of The Queenship of our Blessed Virgin Mary’. The celebrant was Fr Pio, Assistant Priest of Rydalmere with Patrick the acolyte. Father’s homily was enlightening and inspiring reflecting the Queenship of our Blessed Mother and our gratitude for her love, protection and her favour. In the Prayer of the Faithful, we remembered our beloved-deceased Rydalmere Schoenstatt family members.
After the Holy Mass we proceeded to the MTA Shrine in the Meeting Room which had been decorated with flowers and the original ribbons attached to the Shrine showing her title. We recited the Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, followed by our Crowning Prayer and Devotion Prayer. It was interesting to note that our Devotion Prayer reflected on Fr Pio’s homily. The introductory prayer greeted our Blessed Mother with joy and gratitude and expressed our desire to be drawn to her as we came home to her today. In each prayer, we responded with ‘Mary, in the Shrine we offer you, our thanks’. We reflected that each Shrine is a place of grace and creates an atmosphere of faith. It is a ‘wonderland’, a place of love, purity, freedom, joy and truthfulness. We asked our Blessed Mother to help us strive for this wonderland in our families, our workplaces, neighbourhoods and parishes. We offered ourselves to our Blessed Mother to use us in whatever way she wishes to fulfil the great mission from her Shrine and become useful instruments in her hands.
We placed our contributions to the capital of grace in the jar that Sr Myrna had brought along from the Shrine in Mulgoa.
We continued the day with a talk titled ‘Childlikeness’ presented by Agnes Aldana. The members all seemed so attentive and looked inspired and challenged. This led Agnes to wonder whether they were mystified or was the theme of ‘childlikeness’ a new kind of insight in their spiritual journey. Agnes spoke of childlikeness which takes us to our father and founder and to our heavenly Father. For us it is through our strivings ‘to the perfection’ to be little Marys. Agnes continued by giving examples of how to live childlikeness in our daily lives. To live in the ways of childlikeness means to have unshakable trust and confidence in the heavenly Father, in His goodness, in his faithfulness, in his omnipotence. To be childlike means to strive in our everyday sanctity, to be humbled with the sense of self-surrender, not for our own gratification. We want to strive to be completely childlike in our relationship with God and through our childlike relationship with the Mother of God. Our Covenant of love is an example of the ideal of Childlikeness.
Sr Myrna also gave us words of inspiration and distributed booklets of the Shrine which were very much appreciated. Finally, we concluded with our refreshments. There was an abundance of food and long-time fellowship. I truly believed that our Blessed Mother and her son Jesus dwell in this place.
Edna Aldana
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