Community retreat culminates in shrine dedication

Hundreds of families from Sydney’s south-west gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Penrose Park for a retreat focused on community life. The Onus Meum Leve Family Spirituality retreat, organized by the Chipping Norton-based Somascan Movement Australia, concluded with the consecration and blessing of a new shrine and its statues.

The event took place on the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary and included formation sessions and the sacraments. Visiting Somascan General Councillor Father Chris de Sousa CRS led the retreat with help from Father David Romero CRS and Father Paul Antony CRS, assistant priests at St Joseph’s Moorebank and St Christopher’s Holsworthy. During his homily, Father de Sousa discussed building a community on Christ and used Mary’s faith as an example of how believers should make their faith visible through service and relationships.

Following a solemn Mass and a rosary procession, local statues of St Jerome Emiliani and Mary, under the title Mother of Orphans, were carried and placed within the new shrine. These statues were modeled after the originals in Somasca, Italy. Father de Sousa then blessed and dedicated the shrine.