Our treasures
Our banner
The banner, created in Italy for the 2019 pilgrimage to the Holy Land on the initiative of Mariangela, then a shepherdess, accompanies us in the highlights of our Sentinel prayer life.
Pilgrimages, Chapters, Adorations...
Raising the standard: a visible sign for all, rallying to the name of God and celebrating His glory.
The relic of Saint Mariam
The relic was donated by the Carmelite monastery of Bethlehem for the Sentinels' pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2019. It has been entrusted to Brother Daniel Marie, who keeps it at the Franciscan convent in Brussels.
Each of the Presidia present at the pilgrimage was clothed in the scapular of Saint Mariam and blessed by Brother Daniel Marie, our spiritual referent.
St. Mariam, a native of Galilee, considered herself to be the "little nothing", for she said: "Humility is happy to be nothing, it attaches itself to nothing, it never tires of nothing. It is content, it is happy, everywhere happy, satisfied with everything...Blessed are the little ones".
This is the source of her abandonment, and leads her into the unfathomable depths of divine mercy where she finds her joy.
Riverkeepers also draw on this joy when they pray and act under God's watchful eye.
Brother Daniel Marie's letters to the Presidia
Extracts :
Nails and hammer. A time to hold them, a time to endure them. For all, for everyone. In the Holy Family, we had the same Passion: the Passion to fulfill God's plan, painfully, courageously, joyously; the Passion to nail the works of darkness to the cross, the Passion of a job well done through wood, sweat and blood, before the unheard-of joy. I experienced the Passion on earth when I had to leave my family, too early for a man, when I gave way to the Father because Jesus, made man by my care and by Grace, was able to turn his gaze solely to Him. My Passion, like that of Jesus and of Mary my beloved wife, is one of loving obedience.
I saw Jesus' Way of the Cross from Heaven; yes, and even though I was given a special place there, out of the Eternal One's pure goodness, I suffered as he did from his crushed body and open heart, like that of Mary, whom I was unable to console at the time. Who can tell the compassion of fathers? Mary's, yours, women, is visible, lacerating as much as it is strong and dignified, regal. Ours is hidden. In the silence of growth, I had prepared the wood of the cross for human hands, the human body; and our heavenly Father supported it with his invisible hands, on Golgotha, in the divine humanity of the Son. We were invisible even to Jesus, as he uttered his cry of abandonment-confidence, the cry of us all, before the Alleluia: "Eli!
(...)
Thank you, Saint Joseph. The SDLSF know that you are so present, during this time when you are diminishing, even more hidden. They are also getting to know your human heart, as a Holy Family, as holy families, so that together we can move towards the Passage where "All is accomplished".
(...)
He's always there, discreet: live with him; but you can also call on him to intercede for you and interact with you, as in the Holy Family, putting Jesus at the center of your life.
On the way of the cross and of joy, with Saint Joseph, go forth and sing!