Sep 15, 2021
Sr Ruth S. Yburan FDNSC, Regional Leader of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the Philippines, writes from Manila in gratitude for funding provided by the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart to our OLSH Sisters in the Philippines, in support of their ongoing COVID-19 relief ministry. In regions where many families had already been living a hand-to-mouth existence, the pandemic has made simple survival a priority, and OLSH Sisters in the Philippines are working to provide even the most basic necessities to as many vulnerable communities as possible.
Some of the ways in which the OLSH Sisters have helped local communities thus far include:
- Running a community pantry in Surigao, where families are encouraged to take only what they need. In this way, more families can have access to the food they need and the OLSH Sisters can help as many people as possible.
- The distribution of rice to construction workers in Manila, where lockdowns have meant work has been stopped, and so has pay.
- A livelihood programme for families in Lapu Lapu. This programme caters especially to women whose husbands lost their jobs because of lockdowns, teaching them practical skills they need to earn money to contribute to their family living expenses.
- The provision of care packages to trisikad (Philippine pedicab) drivers in Cordova, who would have earned approximately 150 â 300 Philippine pesos (the equivalent of âŹ2 – âŹ5) per day prior to the pandemic.
- A six-day training course took place at the end of July for an indigenous Filipino group called the Badjao. Their training was free of charge, while MSC donations paid for their meals, which needed to be provided as they can no longer go fishing (which is also their main source of income). The skills taught included measuring, cutting, and machine work/sewing, providing those in attendance with useful practical skills that may bring in a much-needed wage. Those on the training course are leaders of their respective tribes, and were very grateful for the opportunity.
âThis pandemic has opened the minds and hearts of our people to work together as a community and help each other in whatever way we can.â
Dear Fr Michael and our generous donors,
In many different parts of our world and especially here in the Philippines, people are just in need of basic necessities as the end of this pandemic is nowhere near in sight. A lot of families we minister to have suffered much as their loved ones got so sick and even died.
Nevertheless, this pandemic has also opened the minds and hearts of our people to work together as a community and help each other in whatever way we can. Last April, May and even up to this time, community pantries are mushrooming and made a huge difference in the lives of our people suffering from COVID-19.
Your generous donation of âŹ5,000 through Sr Jenny Christie and our sisters at the generalate, made a big impact in the lives of our poor people whose lives are becoming even more helpless with on-going lockdowns brought about by the detection of new COVID variants. Thank you very much, dear Fr Michael, and the generous donors who enabled you to help us reach out to those most in need. You are helping us reach more people whose daily lives can be made a bit easier with your generosity.
On behalf of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart here in the Philippines, I would like to thank you for enabling us to distribute assistance to more or less 150 families from Visayas and Mindanao, and here in Manila, who came alternately due to COVID restrictions. Your donations also helped our indigenous people with their meals during a six-day skills training offered by the non-government organizations.
Rest assured of our prayers that God will continue to bless you and protect you from all harm so that you can continue to help others in need.
Much gratitude,
Sr Ruth FDNSC
Sep 14, 2021
Heartfelt thanks to all who participated in our 2021 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, which took place from Tuesday, August 31st to Wednesday, September 8th at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
While this year’s Novena once again took place behind closed doors due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was nonetheless a truly blessed celebration of a much-loved annual tradition. It is of course difficult to navigate a new way of living, and in this case, a new way of praying, but the fact that we could not come together in person did not take from the wonderful sense of community and connection that comes with being part of our great family of faith. Over 9,300 people joined us in prayer via our live stream over the course of the nine days, reminding us of the tremendous spirit of our extended Sacred Heart family, at home and across the world.
The theme of our 2021 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was “Hope of the Hopeless”, and Fr Paul Clayton-Lea was the lead celebrant this year.
Fr Paul is a priest of the Archdiocese of Armagh, who has enjoyed a wide and varied ministry to date and is currently the priest in residence in the parish of Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. Having studied Education and Family Ministry at Fordham University in New York in 1988, he also ministered in the Riverdale area of the Bronx at the time, and has since served as a teacher of politics and religion, a college chaplain at DKIT, a Diocesan Advisor for Religious Education, and a parish priest. Author of In The Light Of The Word: Family Life Through The Lens Of Scripture, which was published by Veritas in 2018, Fr Paul is also about to resume his position as editor of Intercom, the monthly magazine of the Irish Catholic Bishopsâ Conference. We were delighted to welcome Fr Paul to the Sacred Heart Church, and we are very grateful for his contribution to this yearâs celebrations.
âMay Mary and her merciful heart bless all of us.â
Fr Paul provided us with pause for thought in his daily sermons, summing up our great blessings in the closing Mass on the evening of September 8th. âWouldnât it be beautiful to be free of the lure of the world?â he asked. âFree from the things that draw us in and suck us in all the time, making us want this and want that and want more. Mary may not offer us all the wealth that we want, all the success that we want, but she will make sure that we do not want.â
âMay Mary and her merciful heart bless all of us,â he concluded.
At the closing Mass, Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC spoke on behalf of Fr Michael OâConnell, who had travelled to Dublin on the final day of the Novena to attend the Perpetual Profession of Br Giacomo Gelardi to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. âFr Michael asked me to speak to you to thank you for being with us and walking with us,â said Fr Tom. âWeâre a tremendous outreach in the world; I remember being at an international conference and one of the Indian brethren said, âIf it werenât for the Irish Province of the MSCs, we couldnât continueâ. So, weâre helping so many other people. Youâre helping so many other people. You walk with us and pray with us and celebrate with us.â
Once again, we send our sincere thanks to everyone who took part in what was a truly blessed occasion, and for your ongoing friendship and support. God bless you all.
If you would like to watch this yearâs Novena Masses,
please click here to view recordings of our 2021 MSC Novena to the Sacred Heart.
Sep 11, 2021
On September 8th, 2021, Br Giacomo Gelardi MSC made his Perpetual Profession to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart at the Sacred Heart Church, Killinarden â a truly great occasion for the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and for the Sacred Heart family all over the world.
Irish Provincial Leader, Fr Carl Tranter MSC, spoke of âgreat joy for the Irish Province, and indeed, for the entire congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heartâ on the occasion of Br Giacomo’s Final Profession.
“Heartfelt congratulations to Giacomo on the occasion of his Final Profession in Killinarden on the afternoon of September 8th.
We had a really lovely celebration, warmly hosted by the parish and local community with a reception afterwards in the parish primary school.
Giacomoâs mother, Francesca, his sister, Maria and his brother Luca, had been able to travel from Italy for the celebration. Twelve MSCs also joined Giacomo for the occasion.
Thank you for your ‘yes’, Giacomo; to the call of the Lord on your heart, and to this little Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and its mission. Â We are proud to count you as a brother among brothers and continue to hold you in our prayers for the next step of your journey.”
Fr Con OâConnell MSC, one of the Vocations Directors for the Irish Province, also writes of the âgreat celebrationâ that comes with Br Giacomoâs profession:
“It was with great joy that the Chevalier Family yesterday celebrated the final vows of Br Giacomo Gelardi MSC. He is now a full member of the Irish Province of the MSC.
Originally from Urbino in north-eastern Italy, Giacomo worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry. It was in his mid-thirties while living and working in England that he felt called to religious life and priesthood.
Br Giacomo has completed most of his training so far at our formation house in Dundrum, except for his novitiate year, which he did in Myross Wood in Leap, West Cork. It was there that he took his first vows.
Over the last few years, Giacomo has spent a lot of time in our parish of Killinarden, West Tallaght, Dublin, so it was appropriate that it was in Sacred Heart Church, Killinarden, that he made his final profession of vows. He did this in the presence of some of his fellow MSCs, family, friends and local parish members.
After the church celebration he and all his guests were treated to a fabulous reception laid on by the parish. While numbers had to be restricted due to COVID-19, guidelines it was a great celebration.
Br Giacomo’s journey continues as he moves on to our community in Western Road, Cork. Do keep Giacomo in your prayers as he prepares for Diaconate and then Priesthood. Thank God for his generosity in devoting himself to religious life within the MSCs.”
We join Fr Carl and Fr Con in sending our heartfelt congratulations to Br Giacomo, and we wish him every blessing as he continues on the path of his missionary journey.
Click here to watch Br Giacomo’s Perpetual Profession ceremony.
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Sep 9, 2021
Bro Gerald Warbrooke MSC is stationed in Wailoku, located in Suva, the capital of Fiji. In February 2020, he celebrated his Silver Jubilee, marking 25 years as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart. Here, via the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Australia, he reflects on the establishment of the new MSC Province of the Pacific Islands.
âOn the 17th October 1998, the new formation house up in Wailoku, Suva, was blessed and opened for the students and formators. Today, candidates come not only from the traditional source of Kiribati, but also from Samoa, Fiji, Chuuk, and Wallis and Futuna.
Since the General Conference of 2014 in Guatemala, the General Administration had journeyed with the Pacific Union offering support and guidance, and on the 10th of May, 2021 the Province of the Pacific Islands was canonically erected.
At present there are 49 local members of the province â one bishop, twenty-four priests, seven brothers, and seventeen students. Members from other provinces also help in the direction of the province and its ministries: from Indonesia, Korea, Australia, Philippines, and the U.S. The membership of the province is still generally young, and the ministries and works of the PPI are geographically scattered over the Pacific.
The province consists of two districts: the Northern District, consisting of the island nations of Chuuk, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and Nauru, and the Southern District, which consists of the Fiji Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, and the Kingdom of Tonga.â
âAs a province, we want to be a sign of hope and love to everyone.â
âWe take this opportunity to thank the past and present General Administrations for their support and guidance through the years that we were a Union. We also thank the Australian Province and the Papua New Guinea Province, who both played a major role in our growth towards becoming a Province. We also extend our sincere gratitude to all the entities of the Congregation who have generously provided us with finance and personnel over the years since the beginning.
As we begin this new chapter as a province, we are reminded that the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart was born in the midst of the uncertainties and calamity of the French Revolution. In a similar way, our province is erected in a time of great suffering and misery because of the pandemic affecting countries all over the world. As a province, we want to be a sign of hope and love to everyone as we stand in prayer and solidarity with all those suffering from this deadly disease.
As members of a new province, we will fix our eyes on Jesus and together contemplate his compassionate heart. It is in the compassionate heart of Christ, we can find true healing, peace, and comfort at this challenging time.
May God bless and protect us all from this pandemic. May our Mother Mary, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart continue to intercede for us and protect our humble province.â
Bro Gerald Warbrooke MSC
For the latest news and updates from the MSC Province of the Pacific Islands, please visit their Facebook page.
Sep 7, 2021
At the beginning of 2021, our mission friends and benefactors blessed us with wonderful support for our 2021 MSC World Projects Appeal, which featured global outreach projects run by our Sacred Heart Sisters of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
These projects included several OLSH outreach programmes in Brazil, from nutritional and educational provisions for a care centre for vulnerable children, to helping a childrenâs choir with new equipment, to providing essential liturgical items for the celebration of Mass in remote communities, to teaching local women practical skills such as sewing, empowering them and enabling them to earn money for themselves and provide desperately needed support for their families.
âWe can put our hands and our lives at the service of our charism and mission.â
Sr Marisa writes from SĂŁo Paulo, in gratitude for the support received from our mission friends here in the Irish Province. âWe express our joy in knowing that our charism and mission are alive in the world,â she says. âThe MSC Mission Office in Ireland, through your generosity to finance the missionary and pastoral projects of our Province, has provided us with excellent opportunities to make the Heart of Jesus known and loved in the different situations of vulnerability experienced by a portion of the Brazilian population.â
She continues, âThrough the unity of our congregations and with the financial assistance provided by the MSC Mission Office of Ireland, through your donors, we can put our hands and our lives at the service of the same charism and mission and to continue the dream of Fr. Chevalier, allowing God’s love and goodness to reach the farthest places in the world.â
âWe reaffirm our gratitude and prayers to you, your staff and your donors and pray that they will receive in blessings and graces for what you have given us by financing our missionary action in the Church of Brazil.â
âWith joy and gratitude I come to thank all of you for your generosity.â
Sr Janete also writes from Campinas, from the Madre AnastĂĄcia childcare centre. Part of the ministry the Sisters at the facility offer is to collect food donations and redistribute them to those in need. They had been receiving a small subsidy in order to be able to pay the cost of the driver who carried out these deliveries, but since that funding stopped, the Sisters had been extremely worried about how they would be able to continue.
âWith joy and gratitude I come to thank all of you for your generosity,â says Sr Janete. âThis funding means that it will be possible to keep our employee, Alexsandre, who plays the very important role of driver at our care centre, Madre AnastĂĄcia.â
âThe driver at our daycare transports donations of clothes, foods, and furniture that we receive to donate to needy families in our region. With your help, we will be able to continue our work. The Sisters here are always very grateful for all your help and generosity. God bless you all!â
Sep 2, 2021
When you are asked what is the deadliest animal that youâve come across in South Sudan, people are hoping for something dramatic. On my first weekend here, when I was mapping out a potential jogging route around the Loreto campus, I came across a snake thicker than my arm struggling with his evening meal. Now I walk and as I do so I keep my eyes firmly on the ground. My godson has been delighted to hear that I have found scorpions on four different occasions wandering around my bedroom. All were dispatched with a trusty badminton racket that was left behind by my roomâs previous tenant. Considering how difficult it is to play badminton by yourself, especially with no shuttlecock, I suspect they may have used it for a similar purpose.
When it comes to dangerous animals, Hollywood with its big budgets and daring adventures has got it badly wrong. Sharks, the subject of several blockbusters, languish in 15th place killing about ten people a year. Lions are responsible for up to a hundred deaths. Hippos, or âRouâ as they are known locally, are at 11th place, killing five hundred people annually. Snakes earn something of their fearsome reputation with fifty thousand deaths and clock in at 3rd place. Surprisingly our most fearsome enemy is also among the smallest. Each year an incredible two million deaths are caused by mosquitos. The toxic and highly evolved diseases that the female carries, make this tiny insect that weighs the same as a grape seed, our greatest predator.
As I have mentioned before, we have been waiting for months for rain. Since the arrival of the rainy season, the community around the school have been working feverishly preparing the soil, sowing the seeds, and keeping an eye on the weeds. The rains were late this year and so far have been sporadic. We are waiting to see how good the crop will be. However, as sure as night follows day, the rains also meant the return of mosquitos. In the dry months, they are not much in evidence and those who fancy themselves thrill-seekers sleep without a net. Not now. They are back, and once again, the number of malaria cases are soaring.
The Primary Health Care Clinic was originally set up to look after the two thousand primary and secondary students, the local workers, and the staff on the ground in Loreto every day. This number does not even include the people our nursing teams looks after in our community outreach programme. Last week alone we had 302 cases of malaria just from the primary school.
The problem is that in the evening families prepare and eat their meals around a fire in front of their homes. This is the time that the mosquito hunts. In addition, peopleâs houses or tukuls are often made with rough blocks and a grass roof, although some are fortunate to have corrugated metal. Anyone who has been on holidays in warmer climates know how good mosquitos are at exploiting even the smallest crack in a wall or hole in a net.
The situation this year has been complicated further by a lack of testing kits to determine if someone has malaria and if so, which type it is. Each requires different treatment. Insecurity on the roads mean that trucks from Nairobi stopped coming for a week, so deliveries are backlogged. We are fortunate to have a good working relationship with local NGOs and were able to make up a shortfall, before getting an emergency supply flown in from Juba.
While COVID continues to dominate the headlines, the challenges of malaria have been largely overlooked by the international community. It is a forgotten epidemic by an almost invisible predator that is wreaking havoc on already vulnerable populations. It has been pointed out by more than one commentator that if malaria was as big an issue in Western society as it is here, we would already have developed several effective vaccines. If these past two years have taught us anything, it is that we have the ability if we really want to. Until the situation changes, our nursing team is working flat out and will continue to do so until the rainy season ends in November. Itâs going to be a long three months. Please keep them in your prayers.
Bi Nhialic arrer kek yin,
Fr Alan
Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
