Author: raulmano

AMM Annual Retreat Day 2022

By Bianca Kallukaran, published in AMM Bulletin Spring 2022

Contemplatives in Action

On the beautiful sunny day of Sunday the 26th of June 2022, the AMM members of the Marsfield community gathered in the Elizabeth House Hall of the Marsfield campus of the Daughters of Charity) for their annual retreat. Fr Kevin Canty, CM, together with the assistance of the AMM Sydney core team and the Daughters of Charity (Marsfield community) delivered the retreat with the theme: “Prayer in my life“. This theme focused on three keys:

  1. What is prayer
  2. How to pray as Jesus taught us
  3. Putting faith into action (with some Vincentian hints)

A Day that started and ended with Prayer

The day began with a talk from Fr Kevin on the importance of prayer. Fr Kevin presented the retreatants with some beautiful quotes one particularly striking as “the devout Christian of the future will either be a ‘mystic’, ‘one who has experienced something’, or ‘they will cease to be anything at all‘ (Karl Rahner 1977). The need to centre Christ in one’s life was a clear theme from the start which was followed through by a reflective song “You are the Centre” by Margaret Rizza. “You are the centre, Lord, of my life” was the reflective point for retreatants before a short silence to listen to the Spirit drawing us to the love of God. A quick morning tea was a good refresher before Fr Kevin brought the retreatants into the how’s of prayer.

As Fr Kevin pointed out, there are many ways to pray: through the word of God, through song, through intercessory prayer, through acts of charity and list goes on. Particularly characteristic of the Vincentian way was through reflecting on the word of God and applying it to how one lives it out in their daily life – in striving to “follow his [God] great providence in everything” (St Vincent: Documents, vol 2, p.453). A mini booklet entitled “Prayer in my life today” (2003) was circulated to the retreatants where Fr Kevin through these own writings shared with the retreatants true stories of faith lived out and rising above “death, life, angels, principalities, things to come, powers, height, depth, anything else in creation” (Romans 8:28-39). Soon, there was another opportunity for silent reflection and to roam in the surroundings of the beautiful Elizabeth House. Lunch was then served before the afternoon session which was a chance for retreatants to meet and join in fellowship with one another.

Towards the end of the retreat, there was time for retreatants to share their thoughts from their silent reflections and many shared sentiments of desiring to “see” Christ more in others particularly in the family and friendship circles where conflicts lie in the way faith and religion are viewed. There was also discussion on how to bring others to Christ particularly for the younger generation and how to witness to the faith everyday: at home, at work, at school and other social groups and how to draw oneself closer to Christ at the same time amidst the realities of these aspects of life in living out one’s true vocation. This was then succeeded by a rosary prayer led by Sr Rosa DC. The retreat ended with a Holy Mass at 3 pm celebrated by Fr Kevin and this consummated the purpose of the retreat to grow closer to Christ and to bring others too on the journey with Our Blessed Mother.

The AMM members of the Marsfield community acknowledge that this retreat would not be possible without the loving help of the Daughters of Charity (Marsfield Community), Fr Kevin’s bold yes to deliver a whole retreat, the loving assistance of AMM members Lita, Maricel, Raul, Sr Rosa, Bianca and all those who helped in any small but extraordinary way. But most importantly our hearts are lifted up in gratitude to Jesus through Mary, for making it all possible after all the challenges offered by the pandemic and in our daily lives.

Association of the Miraculous Medal in Adelaide South Australia celebrates the Feast of the Miraculous Medal

By Alejandrino Ballado

The Association of the Miraculous Medal in Adelaide South Australia promotes the devotion to our Blessed Virgin Mary through various family and community-oriented services. These services include

  • Block rosary where the image of Our Lady moves from one household to another every fortnight
  • Monthly Eucharistic celebration in different Filipino Communities around Adelaide, South Australia
  • Visitation of the sick and the elderly members of AMM and Filipino Community by core group members
  • Annual celebration of the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
  • Donations to various charitable organisations from funds generated from sponsors, donors and members as way of thanking Our Lady for their blessings and answered prayers. of the charitable organisations that the Association continue to support
    • The Hutt Street Meal Centre- Adelaide,
    • Saint Vincent de Paul Society Adelaide
    • Marilak Foundation,
    • Daughters of Charity- Saint Vincent de Paul Society in the Philippines.

This year’s Feast Day Eucharistic celebration after two years of hiatus from COVID-19 restrictions was his excellency Archbishop Patrick O’Regan of Adelaide as the main celebrant with Rev. Fr. Tomas Ruiz, Parish Priest of Mater Christi Parish and Rev. Fr. Franco Lacanaria, Filipino Chaplain of Adelaide as co-celebrants. The celebration started with the Marian procession, followed by rosary recitation and novena led by different Marian group leaders. The culminating activity was the Eucharistic Celebration and refreshment was provided after. Packed light meals and drinks were given to all attendees after the mass.

See some of the photos taken during the celebration below


AMM Parramatta Chapter commemorates the Feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

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.