19 December 2022 · 2022-12 newsletter
The concept ‘creative resultant’ was first coined by Fr. Kentenich himself in 1914 after giving an ‘in-chapel’ talk, at a meeting of the Marian Sodality (the boys). Father kept silent about the talk and waited for months to see a result. He wanted to know if a source of grace had really broken through on the 18th October. His ‘yard stick’, to use a modern phrase, was to see if the spiritual life awakened in the boys, bore signs of ‘creative resultants’. He let normal life go on and, in reality, from these ‘small beginnings” and the “smallness of the instruments,” a “great world-wide Schoenstatt Movement….emerged”. (October Newsletter, 2021)
The Camino/Novena project and the ‘Camino Walk’ in Advent, December this year, have the same overtones of this waiting for ‘creative resultants’ and the ‘smallness of the instruments’. We are only six mothers in the ‘Martha and Mary’ group, who have been waiting for eight months to see any real sign of life in the ‘Camino Walk’ project. Our aim has been to gain interest from people not involved in the ‘Movement’. It was in the eighth month that we discerned ‘creative resultants’ as the sign of life that we were waiting for. When some families with children and others stayed after the 11 am Mass in November and participated in the Jesse Tree Project we offered, and also took the crowns, angel wings and the Jesse Tree Project sheets home, along with many other happenings, we knew we were actually seeing ‘Creative Resultants’.
‘Creative Resultants’ happened in Schoenstatt, Central America in October 2020. Like many countries, including Australia, it was in the thick of shut downs because of Covid. So they got creative, as did we here in Schoenstatt Australia, and found new ways to gather. Writing from Costa Rica, Monica Orlich tells how the Family Branch Retreat was transformed creatively because of Covid. They (like us) started using the medium of Zoom and attendance by those who could manage it. The creative resultants were that the retreat reached more couples and transcended borders – sound familiar? Many communities were able to be involved, not just the Family Branch, and by the medium of Zoom they made it a ‘Central America’ retreat: achieved because of participation of couples from El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. See (www.schoenstatt.org/en-covenant/2020/10/the-creative-resultant-of-the-pandemic-was-a-retreat-of-marriages-in-central-america)
The Mulgoa October Covenant Day 2022 presented as an ‘attendance at the Shrine’ and the ‘Zoom’ event, saw only three of us (representing the Men’s and Mother’s Branches and PMA), in attendance by Zoom. The ‘creative resultant’ was that the ‘Zoom’ members grew more in ‘Schoenstatt understanding,’ simply by the amount of time we could spend on the same topic. We were a small group from different places in NSW, but we benefitted greatly by the ‘smallness of the group’ and the ‘creative resultants’: ‘Zoom’ enabled.
My personal ‘creative resultant’ recently, was to come to an understanding of an unusual event that I had down in Sr. Bonitas’ Corner on the Mount Schoenstatt property back before Fr. Denis died. Like Fr. Kentenich, Fr. Denis, when I spoke to him about it, didn’t give a direct answer, rather he said, ‘You need to figure this out for yourself – it’s your sign”. ‘Waiting…’ for an understanding of why you came out of a meditative state in Sr. Bonitas’ Corner to an awareness that you are not alone, and then finding yourself looking into the eyes of a fox watching you from only about a metre away, was difficult, and that’s possibly an understatement!. Yet finally the answer came when ‘tying together’ all the ‘creative resultants’ that have come together as a result of the Camino/Novena Walk Project. It’s no co-incidence that the ‘Walk’’ started at Sr. Bonitas’ grave and ends at Sr. Bonitas’ Corner. Once the seed was planted to start at her grave and finish at her corner, she became the inspiration and spirit behind the Walk. Our ‘small group’ has grown so much stronger and deeper in Schoenstatt working out of both our ‘Martha’ and ‘Mary’ charisms, thanks to the time and effort we have put into the Camino Project. All done to imitate and highlight Sr. Bonitas’ love of Advent Walks around the Tardun WA property some 70 years ago, as a way to inspire people to know Schoenstatt.
The binding principle throughout this article is: there would be no ‘creative resultants’ without motivators and builders such as Fr. Kentenich, Sr. Bonitas, Michael who ran the Zoom meeting, Fr Denis as a spiritual director, and the willingness of the ‘Martha and Mary’ group to learn how to emulate these people who have had so much influence over our lives. We always knew ‘Mother would take perfect care’ and she has.
Angela
Filed underNewsletter · Reflections