Around 500 Sydneysiders processed through the streets of Lidcombe last week to honour Our Lady of Good Success and in support of Bridget Sakr’s Heartfelt community.
On 7 February, Cardinal Mykola Bychok and Bishop Richard Umbers concelebrated a Divine Litrugy in the Ukrainian Byzantine rite at St Andrew’s Ukrainian Church, before leading the 500 faithful in an hour-long, candlelit twilight procession to St Joachim’s Catholic Church.
Volunteers carried a statue of Our Lady of Good Success at the front of the procession, as the crowd behind prayed the Rosary.
Many residents watched outside their homes as the procession wound its way through the narrow suburban streets. Some were filming the event on their phones.
The event is celebrated around the feast day of Our Lady of Good Success, a devotion which goes back to 17th century Ecuador. The Blessed Virgin appeared in Quito to a cloistered Ecuadorian nun, the Venerable Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, seven times between 1594 and 1634.
Mother Torres wrote that Our Lady had prophesied a time of “spiritual catastrophe” during the 20th century, followed by an era of restoration.
In his homily, Cardinal Bychok, the Ukrainian Eparch in Australia, called the event “a beautiful moment of unity” between the Heartfelt community and the two parishes. The story of Our Lady of Good Success helps explains contemporary turmoil and disruption on the international scene, he said.
“[Our Lady of Good Success] warned that a time would come when many would live as though truth were optional, as though morality were a personal invention, as though faith were a private hobby,” he declared.
“But she also promised that God would raise up souls – humble, courageous, faithful – who would rebuild the church through their witness. Our choices matter. Our example matters. Our fidelity matters.”
Before the Mass, Sakr told The Catholic Weekly she was excited to witness a growth in attendance at the procession.
“I feel every year we have more and more people coming, and I believe Our Lady chooses who she wants to come for different reasons,” she said.
“This event is all about coming together, praying together and Heartfelt Community is a charity that is about accompanying people in grief, bringing people together and that’s exactly what we’re seeing already.”
Sakr later told the crowd at St Joachim’s she couldn’t think of a better role model for those struggling with grief than Our Lady of Good Success. She had discovered this through her own mourning for her daughter, Veronique, and her nieces and nephew Sienna, Angelina and Anthony Abdallah, who were killed by a drunk and drugged driver in a car crash on 1 February 2020.
“I didn’t know Our Lady [of Good Success] until Veronique left this Earth, but she touched my heart in grief during COVID, and I actually got to know her through social media,” she said.
“I knew that she was saying to me to have courage, strength, humility and perseverance, and that’s exactly what you all have shown this evening by walking with us.”
Heartfelt Community director Michael Tata told The Catholic Weekly said the event not only allowed people from across Sydney to bond and unite over their grief but also helped them honour Our Lady of Good Success.
“Heartfelt Community puts this on every year to help people who are grieving,” he said.
“We always want to honour mothers, and we need to honour the mother of the Lord every day of our lives because she has an amazing presence, especially in the world today.”
Vivian Mourani, a volunteer with heartfelt, was at the front of the long procession.
“When I turned back and saw all the candlelight, it was just so beautiful to see and such a meaningful symbol of the light that Christ brought to us and the intercession of Our Lady of Good Success,” she said.
“I never heard of that title for Mary before I visited the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Quito as part of a pilgrimage for the International Eucharistic Congress there in 2024, but my devotion has just continued to grow since that day.
“I was able to see the incorrupt body of Mother Mariana in the convent there, go to the choir loft where she stood to watch the statue being made, and then see Our Lady’s statue. Seeing her beautiful statue, knowing the story of how it was created, and why, was an indescribable moment of wonder and awe.”
