17 November 2023 · 2023-11 newsletter
Daughters of Mary Spring Events 2023: A Program for Mothers and their Daughters in Perth
Mother Daughter event at St Aloysius Parish, Shenton Park — Saturday 16 September 2023
This day was a special occasion as it marked the moment that we offered our Daughters of Mary Schoenstatt program on the virtues regularly run at the Shrine in a more central location of Perth.
Linda and Charlotte, part of the Daughters of Mary program since the beginning of the year, welcomed the Mothers and Daughters group to their parish, St Aloysius in Shenton Park. For Linda and Charlotte, it was a wonderful opportunity to share their parish life with other members of the group. For the parish, hosting the group was a chance to open their doors and extend their welcome to others.
The group initially gathered outside the parish hall, where we learnt about St Aloysius Gonzaga, the history of the church building and the life of the parish. The parish is currently overseen by the Vincentian order who also support the local hospital responding to their special charism as hospital chaplains.
The Mothers enjoyed their activities in the parish’s outdoor seating area and daughters in the parish hall and came together in the church for prayer and hymns. The planned activities culminated with a mother-daughter blind folded obstacle course encouraging the pairs to listen carefully to each other and to continue to build on their relationship through mutual trust and encouragement.
The afternoon ended with a beautiful spread put on in the hall, allowing the friends to enjoy each other’s company over afternoon tea.
From Linda and Charlotte, a big thank you to everyone involved in preparing the activities and presenting on the day, especially to Sr Luka for her ongoing energy and enthusiasm for the group. And thank you to the parish of St Aloysius for making the group so welcome.
City Retreat — Sunday 29 October 2023
On Sunday 29 October, a City Retreat was held for mothers and their daughters, as well as young women, and we also had a couple of mums bring their own mums along, so that we had women and girls of three generations there.
We started the event at the Cathedral, then car-pooled to Kings Park, where we started our three walk sections:
Firstly, a loop walk on which mothers and daughters could talk about the theme ‘journeying together’ and choose an intention for today’s pilgrimage back to the Cathedral. While walking, we also prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet at 3pm.
The second part was a personal quiet reflective walk modelled on Dadirri – a practice of deep listening to nature and into oneself from the Northern Territory First Nations Peoples.
After a picnic and community activity we then embarked on the final stretch of the walk leading from St Georges Terrace back to the Cathedral. For each of the sections we had a reflection and we also prayed the rosary along the way. Those who wished could finish the retreat with the 5pm evening Mass at the Cathedral.
Some echoes from the event from the participants:
I attended Schoenstatt City retreat walking together- loving the church with my twin daughters. The synodality theme – explanation of what does it mean and experiencing God walking with us along our synodal path of “togetherness” and “walking together“ was the highlight of our city retreat. Great experience, peaceful time, quality mother-daughters time with God, nature, each other and other girls and women. The retreat was very well organised. I am sure that there was a lot of time, effort, and heart put into make this so special. Thank you Sr M Luka, Sharne, Janelle and all who assisted. (Daria)
I really liked the reflection part where you went with your family through the nature. I found it very relaxing. (Monique)
I am so grateful to the Daughters of Mary Team for their good work and providing the opportunity to participate in the mother and daughter city retreat. As my daughter is at the age of the beginning of becoming a young woman, dedicating this time away from the businesses of life to invite more deeply our Mother Mary into our relationship together, to pause, pray, listen, connect, celebrate and grow as mothers and daughters has been such a blessing to us and our whole family. (Laura)
The people there were so friendly, and I enjoyed spending time with my mum on the bush walk. (Emily)
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