By Alicia Bergonia
The humble commemoration of the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal was held on the 26th of November 2022 at Good Shepherd Parish in Plumpton. About 30 parishioners prayed the holy rosary, followed by the Holy Mass at 8:00 a.m. There was no usual month-long preparation for the celebration. Members were informed through the Facebook group. For the AMM Parramatta Chapter, it became a huge challenge to mobilise the members and organise the traditional Living Rosary.
Despite of that, the feast day is a great opportunity for a reflection on our journey with the Blessed Virgin Mary. The reading for the day on “the wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine” (John 2:3). In our lives, our ‘wine’ also run out. When we are out of work, sickness in the family, loss of loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic, these are the times when our ‘wine’ run out. These are the occasions when our Mother Mary ask her Son, Jesus, ‘they have no wine’. As the reading continue and Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me?” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you”. Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water” (John 2:7).
As Jesus’ brothers and sisters, he constantly asks us to “Fill the jars with water”. As one body of Christ, we “fill the jars with water” whenever we pray the rosary. We may not be able to ask specifically our intentions, but Mother Mary make use of our prayers to “fill the jars” of our brothers and sisters whose jars are getting empty because of desperation, of loss of hope. We may have missed the traditional Living Rosary this year, but we certainly continue our journey with our Mother Mary and indeed continue filling each other’s jar with God’s love.