For those who are considering the possibility of a vocation to priesthood or religious life this coming Sunday something special is happening. As part of Vocations Ireland’s exciting new exploreAway programme for 2013 we are holding a taster afternoon for those who want to find out more about exploreAway, with no strings attached. (more…)
What does it mean to be called by God? Many people who consider that they may have a vocation to the priesthood or religious life often feel that they are not good enough. They haven’t had the dramatic moment of conversion or call like Matthew, Peter or Paul had. They think that they must be wrong, because God couldn’t possibly be calling them! Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. (more…)
Last week I was at a talk in Dublin on the work of the VSO and the future of overseas volunteering after 2015. All in all an interesting morning with good contributions from representative of the UN, the European Parliment and academia. They also invited Fr. Fachtna O’Driscoll, the Provincial of the SMA Fathers, to address the group about the missionary legacy of the Church and its future. In the course of his talk he revealed a startling statistic. By adding up the number of years that missionary brothers, sisters and priests worked all around the world he estimated that their commitment added up to more than 200,000 years altogether.
Fr. Tom O’Brien MSC working in Venezuela
It was an astonishing figure. When he said it the reaction of the people in the room was interesting. There was admiration, a little indifference, but above all surprise. There is something to be proud of when we think of all those people who had the courage to follow their vocation; to go out to the whole world and to proclaim the good news. (more…)
Fr. John Glynn
What would possess you to risk your life in the service of others, for decades, in one of the world’s toughest and most dangerous environments? In prison terms, 30 years is a life sentence. It is also the average period spent by Irish missionaries in the field, working in the service of the poor and oppressed, often in the most challenging, dangerous and brutal environments on earth. RTE’s documentary Lifers tells the story of two missionary priests and a sister who have done just that.
Sr. Pat Murray
Fr. John Glynn is a priest who runs the We Care Foundation in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s most dangerous cities. John, originally from County Clare, has spent five decades working in Papua New Guinea. Sr. Pat Murray is a Loreto sister who worked in education in Ireland and is now the executive in charge of Solidarity with South Sudan, an organization that is pooling the resources of 200 missionary orders towards the basic development needs of South Sudan, which is the newest country in the world. Fr. Pat Brennan is a Divine Word Missionary who has lived in Brazil for more than three decades and who fights for the human rights of indigenous Indians living in the Amazonian rain forest. (more…)
In 1997, John Paul II called for consecrated life to be promoted throughout the universal Church. He declared February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, to be observed as World Day for Consecrated Life (WDCL). The celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life invites all the Church to reflect on the role of Consecrated Life within the Christian community. Those who choose to live a consecrated life do so for the sake of the Gospel.
Some Christian women and men respond to God’s call to become followers of Jesus through profession of vows and a life dedicated to prayer and service. They live out the consecrated life in different ways. Religious sisters, nuns, brothers, religious priests, and monks consecrate their lives through their profession of the evangelical vows and live as part of a community. Single lay people may choose to be consecrated virgins and make private vows to the local bishop as they live out their vocation in various walks of life. Secular institutes are another form of living the consecrated life as single people. Those who become followers of Jesus through the consecrated life bless the Church.
As Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, we are an apostolic missionary community of priests and brothers. We work together to bring the message of God’s love to the world in the life we lead and the ministry we undertake. We usually live together, in a life marked by communal prayer, ministries of service and the vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty. We work in Ireland, England, South Africa, Venezuela, Namibia, Russia and the USA. Missionary work abroad is voluntary, but we support each other in what we do in all sorts of ways.
Some other groups and orders were set up to do one particular job, but we work wherever and however we’re needed. You could be serving the people of a parish, teaching at university or school, sitting with the sick as hospital chaplain, running a youth club, at development work in a mission country, guiding people through a retreat, helping people through the high of their wedding day or the low of a bereavement, and many other things in between.
Above all it’s about responding to God’s call, sharing His love with our brothers and sisters and being missionaries of His heart.
A lot of the time we can use jargon that can be difficult to understand, such as ‘postulant’ and ‘novice.’ Have a look at the short video below to help understand some of the terms we commonly use.
[youtube GpkgE7ob9C4?t=9s nolink]
Prayer for Vocations
Holy God,
during this Year of Faith,
With gratitude in our hearts,
we praise you for your love and your fidelity.
You have shown us the way to holiness
through Mary and Jesus
and many faithful witnesses.
You continue to call men and women
to dedicate their lives through the vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Give them courage to respond generously
to your call with “Here I am, send me!”
Blessed by your Spirit,
may we always proclaim your love
with our lives. Amen.
It was perhaps the dirtiest game of football I’ve ever witnessed. It was the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart vs. the Franciscans in South Africa back in 2003. The idea of turning the other cheek was dropped in favour of getting the boot in, although in a Christian and caring fashion – you helped the guy back up afterwards. We knew there’d be trouble when the Frans turned up in regular football gear when they’re really supposed to play in habits and open toed sandals. Not my idea, but thems the rules. I think we won – four fouls to three, but the craic was good. (more…)