Aug 9, 2017
The Commission was a project that came from a group of people with a passion for university mission in the UK. Originally piloted in Richmond 2016 (then Student Leadership Training), The Commission was a huge success among the seventy students who attended. They went away after three days with a new found enthusiasm and skill set for modern day discipleship on campus!
In 2017, it went to the next level. From the 9th until the 12th of July, the Commission was held in St Mary’s University in Twickenham, featuring speakers from the FOCUS college evangelisation team from the US.
FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) are a group inspired and conceived from Saint John Paul II’s call to “New Evangelisation”. Their mission is to simply live the great commission which Jesus instructed through student outreach on university campuses. Using tools they have developed specifically for the evangelisation of young people, FOCUS now have over 500 missionaries on 100 campuses in 36 of the United States of America. (more…)
Aug 1, 2017
It’s a festival like no other – and it comes with its own castle!
Now going for over 20 years, the Brightlights Festival is an opportunity for young Catholics to come together – to have fun, listen to inspiring and engaging speakers, take part in interesting workshops, and hear some great bands and musical talent. All of this, with awesome times for prayer and encounters with the Sacraments!
The Brightlights Festival is a place where you can discover something more about yourself, others, and God in a safe and relaxed environment; a place where you can experience something of the depth and diversity of the Catholic Church, and share your own faith and experiences with others of the same age-group and outlook.
It’s about music, theatre, and dance… but above all, it’s about joy and faith.
Once again, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart were there with our friends from Birmingham’s Kenelm Youth Trust in Alton Castle. It was a wonderful weekend meeting up with old friends and making new ones. The One Hope Project led the music and RISE Theatre performed their amazing production celebrating the life of Blessed Oscar Romero. (more…)
Jul 28, 2017
Joy begins her day in the clinic, helping some of the children get ready for the day.
Joy O’Donnell, a nurse from Mayo, shares some of her experiences with the MSC Volunteering Project in the Holy Family Centre, South Africa.
“So, our adventure began just over three weeks ago, from Dublin to Limpopo, where we met the wonderful Holy Family – and that is what I can truly say it is, a family. We arrived tired but excited after our long journey. We were also nervous about meeting the kids, but all I can say is that the welcome we were given overwhelmed us all. We were greeted with open arms, smiling faces, and loads of hugs and cuddles from the kids. They made us feel instantly welcome, and all our nerves left us, as we could see these kids were full of love, fun, life, and liveliness! And that was just the first day!” (more…)
Jun 8, 2017
There’s something special about getting up before dawn each morning, finding your boots (or runners – we’ll get to that later), and heading off with fellow pilgrims in a gentle procession across the Spanish countryside. This is the daily rhythm of those who walk the Camino de Santiago, as we walk from horizon to horizon to the resting place of St James the Apostle.
This is the fifth year that the MSC Vocations team have organised the pilgrimage on the Way. It is the sort of experience that attracts people from a variety of backgrounds. Each day, we’re out walking with the sun rising behind us. We stop for breakfast after a couple of hours, and then take a café con leche mid-morning. There’s no great rush. In fact, when you’re walking about 25km each day, you have to go gently.
“On the Way, you take time – for yourself and for others.”
This is perhaps the greatest challenge of the Camino, that of slowing down. Our world today is fast-paced and constantly moving. Being under pressure is seen as a virtue for some strange reason. On the Way, you take time – for yourself and for others. You speak with absolute strangers. People come from all over the world, drawn by something they find difficult to put into words. One of our group this year hit it on the head when he said that we were walking in the 
footsteps of millions of people, along pilgrim pathways that stretch back over a thousand years and that will continue into the future.
While it’s a reflective, meditative experience, it’s also good fun. When we arrived into these old towns, we would take a siesta and spend most of the day exploring, before gathering for a shared meal in the evening. We met a navy chaplain who keeps bees, a part-time Mr and Mrs Santa Claus who spend their summers caring for pilgrims, and plenty of people from South Korea, who couldn’t speak English but who were ace at sign language.
A small aside for future pilgrims – while runners look great, they’re not really ideal footwear for a walk like this. One statement from someone in this year’s group summed it up beautifully. Following a torrential rain shower, she told me, in what has to be the most positive interpretation of an uncomfortable situation ever, “Fr. Alan, my soaked trainers make it much easier to walk on my blistered feet!”
Buen Camino,
Fr. Alan
If you’d like to know more about our Camino trips, you can contact Fr. Alan at camino@mscmissions.ie, or call +353 (0) 86 785 7955 (Ireland) or +44 (0) 75 2676 4236 (UK).
On the Camino, we began each day with a moment of reflection. This was one of a number of pieces from the poet Mary Oliver, titled “Invitation”, which we used to inspire us for the day ahead:
Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air
as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine
and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.
May 4, 2017
As we celebrate Vocations Sunday, Fr Con O’Connell reflects on his calling as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart:
“For me, my vocations call follows the double path of Religious Life and Ordained Priesthood within the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC). Somehow, I felt drawn to the MSC emphasis on the compassion of Jesus and His commitment to justice for the underprivileged.
Indeed, this emphasis is to be seen in Jesus the Good Shepherd. He cares for the sheep – especially the hungry, thirsty, and wounded sheep.
It is 28 years since I took my vows as a religious brother, and 24 years since I was ordained a priest. I remember lonely days, sad days, and confused days. There were times when I asked myself what on earth I was doing. However, the happy days, the exciting days, and the days when I felt that I was exactly where God wanted me to be outweigh the darker days.
Fr Con O’Connell MSC
Serving my fellow humanity as an MSC priest and brother has been a joy and a privilege. It is a cliché, but I have received more than I have given. Each year, I ask God and myself, ‘Is this still my path?’ So far, the answer each year is yes. ‘Trust in the Good Shepherd and take another step.’
Trusting means risking. Jesus teaches us that true happiness on lies the other side of our fears. I believe that when I die, I won’t regret the risks taken that ended in failure. My biggest regrets will be the risks that I did not take.”
If you want to know more about a vocation as a brother or a priest, you’re welcome to click here.
You can also call Fr Alan Neville MSC, our Vocations Director,
on (086) 785 7955.
May 2, 2017
Meet Mark Quinn, one of two pre-novitiate students who began his studies in our MSC formation house in Dublin in autumn 2016.
By spending time in personal reflection, and living and working as members of a larger group, MSC pre-novitiate students gain a rich and varied experience of the community, its works, and its mission within our world.
Mark is from Castlebar, Co. Mayo and is a chef by profession. A number of volunteering experiences in Africa led him to consider missionary life, and he has now come to explore his vocation with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Here, he shares his reason for choosing to study with the MSC.
“In the midst of a deep discernment process, I found myself on a volunteer trip in the coastal city of Dar es Salam, Tanzania. One evening, while travelling home from our daily trip to the orphanages, my gaze was drawn to a small girl standing outside a makeshift hut as we sped along the dusty road. While her impoverished surroundings were heart-breaking, it was the expression on her motionless face that captured my attention. Her eyes transfixed on mine, I felt as if Christ himself was looking at me, calling me, or asking something of me that I was yet to fully understand.
A couple of days later, home in Ireland and with East Africa still fresh in my mind, I began to look deeper into religious missionary orders in Ireland. If I am to be honest (and maybe a bit superficial), I was initially attracted by the MSC’s online presence. It showed that the congregation was very much contemporary, and alive and kicking. I contacted Fr Alan, who came to my home to meet with me for a relaxed chat. He was genuinely interested in my story and was honest and informative about the MSC.
A few weeks later, I was invited to stay with the MSCs at their formation house in Dublin. It was great to see and talk to more young men in formation, and I was able to meet a number of priests who are working in a wide variety of roles for a question and answer session. It was a revelation for me to learn about the diversity and internationality of the congregation, and how I could bring my skills to them as well as being formed by their unique charism.
Then, in July, I was also able to take part in their fantastic annual volunteer programme. I travelled to the Holy Family Care Centre for children orphaned by HIV/AIDs or TB in South Africa, where I could see first-hand the heart of Jesus being brought to life. It confirmed for me that God was indeed calling me to be a missionary. But not just any missionary, a missionary of his Sacred Heart!”
