Sep 18, 2020
Dear Father Michael,
Greetings from Kaolack in Senegal where we have a school that starts from nursery school to the whole primary school. The total number of pupils is 536 and there are 24 employees. Normally the school is full of pupils who study their lessons and play during break times. We are proud of our school that we have built over many years with the help of donor agencies and local contributions.
The arrival of the Coronavirus in Senegal has caused suffering for many people. About 12,000 people were diagnosed positive and about 260 people died. Unfortunately, with this situation many people have lost their income and are struggling to provide food for their families.
Our school has been closed since March, which means there is no money from school fees. This is why we have not been able to fulfil our responsibility to the staff, each of whom has a family to support, to clothe and to care for.
I was very worried about this without being sure what I could do because we had no money to help the staff. It is now that I learned that your generous donors could help me with 2,500 euros.
For me, and for these families, you have given us a lot of relief and support. We are very grateful for this act of generosity to us that we will never forget.
We express our gratitude to you and your donors and assure you of our fervent prayers.
We are all united in our mission of making the Sacred Heart of Jesus known and loved everywhere!
Sr Clotilde NGOM, fndsc
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Sep 18, 2020
“We would like to offer our sincere thanks to the donors who made it possible for us to send 3000 euro to the Centre.”
Sister Adjouma Marie, fndsc
We recently received some news of extreme gratitude from the OLSH Sisters at the Notre Dame of the Sacred Heart Centre of Untandeni, Burkina Faso which aids the education and needs of impoverished young girls who have been marginalised. The sisters do amazing work with these girls and are very appreciative of the funds they have received with the help of you our generous donors. The Girls’ Center in Untandeni, Fada, in Burkina Faso whose building was funded by the FDNSC Australian Province, the MSC Mission Office and the Australian Overseas Aid Fund and the OLSH Sisters who are on mission at the Girls’ Center live in a convent situated in the same property.
 At present, the Centre has 16 girls. The 16th is little Colette who was abandoned under a tree next to our community. Among the 15, not including little Colette, there are five who are studying normally, and 10 who are not enrolled at school. Of these 10, there are 5 who are doing literacy studies, 2 who live in Fada and 3 who live in the Jules Chevalier community in Ouagadougou. The girls live in our care for various reasons. If we receive a financial donation, it allows us to feed the girls, to pay for their schooling and literacy, to pay for materials for knitting, weaving and sewing…
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Sep 16, 2020
This Year, a year like no other we have had to cope and adjust to many new ways of doing things.
For over fifty years we have organized an Annual Pilgrimage to Lourdes but as you are all aware such travel is not permitted this year. That is why with the use of technology we are inviting you to join us on a virtual pilgrimage online at here
It will include Daily Mass at 10 am from Sacred Heart Church in Cork.
Angelus and Rosary with reflective images at Noon repeated at 3pm.
A reflection at 7.30 followed by a live stream from Lourdes. See our online schedule here.
It may not be the same as being there, but we hope through images and reflections during the week it will in spirit bring us to that place of peace and calm.
From Nevers, Bernadette made a spiritual pilgrimage to Lourdes every day: “Every day I go in spirit to the Grotto. I make a pilgrimage there.”
If you would like us to send out your petitions to Lourdes, please feel free to forward them to Fr. Michael O’Connell MSC at our Mission Support Centre.
You can also send in your prayer intentions online here
We pray through the intercession of Our Lady Lourdes that this time of prayer and reflection may bring us peace and healing during these troubled times.
Fr. Michael O’Connell MSC
MSC Pilgrimage team.
Prayer to the Immaculate Conception for a Spiritual Pilgrimage
Our Lady of Lourdes,
You who revealed your presence to Bernadette
By simply saying “I am the Immaculate Conception”,
Grant us the grace to be present with you
at the Grotto of Massabielle.
We cannot be there today,
but we are present in spirit
with Bernadette and all the pilgrims from Lourdes
who have gone before us.
You gave birth to the Saviour of the world,
Look tenderly on our world in her distress.
Open in us a path of hope,
Guide us to Him who is the Living Source,
Jesus, your Son, who teaches us to say ……………..Our Father…
We might be unable to come and gather together physically in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, but we are all invited to come on a spiritual pilgrimage.
From Nevers, Bernadette made a spiritual pilgrimage every day:“Every day I go in spirit to the Grotto. I make a pilgrimage there.”
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us:
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them”.
(Matt. 18:20)
Lourdes Pilgrimage 2019
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Aug 13, 2020
Our annual Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart is a beautiful time of reflection and thanksgiving, when we bring our prayers and petitions before Our Lady.
Our Novena of Masses runs for nine days and will take place from Monday, August 31st to Tuesday, September 8th online only due to Covid-19 crowd limits in the church.
All are welcome to join in the Novena by watching our daily Masses live from the Sacred Heart Church in Cork. These Novena Masses will take place online daily @ 8.00pm. You can also submit your personal prayers and intentions online, and our MSC priests will remember your petitions specially throughout the course of the Novena.
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Novena Prayer
Remember, Our lady of the Sacred Heart , the great things the Lord has done for you.
He choose you for His Mother
He wanted you close to His Cross.
He gives you a share in His Glory
He listens to Your Prayer.
Offer Him our prayers of praise and thanksgiving.
Present our petitions to Him.
(Share your petitions silently with Our Lady)
Let us live like you in the love of your Son so that His Kingdom may come.
Lead all people to the source of living water that flows from His Heart,
spreading over the world hope and salvation, justice and peace.
See our trust in you;
Answer our Prayer.
Show yourself always our Mother.
Amen.
Be part of this year’s Novena to the Sacred Heart
At this special time of year, you can help us to help others by supporting our ongoing mission projects, and in gratitude for your contribution, we will be glad to remember your intentions at our daily Novena Masses.
OLSH Novena 2020 Schedule:
31st August : Woman of Faith Homilist Fr John Finn MSC.
1st September : Woman of Hope Homilist Fr John Fitzgerald MSC.
2nd September : Woman of Love Homilist Fr Des Farren MSC.
3rd September : Woman of Service Homilist Fr. Alan Neville MSC.
4th September : Woman of Commitment Homilist Fr. Seamus Kelly MSC.
5th September : Healing and the Family Homilist Fr. Tom Mulcahy MSC.
6th September : Woman of the Poor Homilist Fr Michael O’Connell MSC.
7th September : Woman of Prayer Homilist Fr. Tom Mulcahy MSC.
8th September: Woman of Joy Homilist Fr John Fitzgerald MSC.
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Aug 7, 2020
“We are simple farmers not terrorists”
Our dear friends in the Philippines have been busy during this pandemic. As the United Nation’s
secretary general recently noted, the threat from coronavirus is temporary whereas the threat from heat waves, floods and extreme storms resulting in the loss of human life will remain with us for years.
Though Bravely trying not to succumb to the dreaded implications of the corona-virus they are trying to come together to build a stronger community and developed their approach to sustainable living.
Earlier on in the year they had begun their relentless “Beat the Plastic” campaign in which they were making brick products from the plastic trash and now they are admirably trying to create a sustainable living by launching their UMAHANTA programme on MAY 15, 2020 the Feast Day of San Isidro Labrador (Patron Saint of the Farmers). They have already obtained a DSWD certificate (registered as a Social Welfare and Development Agency) and are now waiting on a licence to operate.
“We have a total of 4.2 land hectares with an encroachment of cemetery more or less 5 mts. by 300 mts. With more or less 40 tombs inside our property.”
Their main aims are :
1. Establish a farm structure with a nursery house, seeding shelter house & composting area.
2. Build a Water system which will include a deep well, solar power , a big water tank and water impounding area.
3. Build an inventory of Bodega Farm Tools for the community . (Enough for 10 workers)
4. Construct an Animal Raising house (i.e. huts for goats, chickens, pig, turkey etc.)
5. Increase their crop production i.e.
-Vegetables bahay kubo (nipa hut) 10 kg harvest
-Fruit trees (minimum 20 pcs each)
Indigenous Trees/Fruit Trees will be sourced out from San Luis, La Paz, & Talacogon, etc.
“We want to adopt the style of Fr. Mac in Surigao generously dispersing seedlings all the time. Our Target for dispersal: at least 100 seedling trees every month.”
They also intend to produce quality organic Bio-feeds from Market Waste -fruits/vegetables and farm roughages with their machines like the Shredder, the Pelletizer, the Presser and the Mixer with a proper Fermentation Technique.
A Livestock Dispersal Programme – Must be planned out and intensified in this time of pandemic with the farmers who are willing to avail of this livelihood.
The MSC Centre for the Poor Phillippines wants to pursue this project by organising the local community, schools, parishes, organizations and gather their collective efforts to carry the following advocacy:
-Education on the integrity of creation,
-Zero Waste and Segregation,
-Ecological Balance,
-Garbage Management.
“We have to open our resources for the people our “UMAHANTA” Community Farming Program serves as a model to develop more farms… .COVID 19 has brought us back to the BASIC…
We must establish and produce farm products which is sustainable for people to live.”
There is a strong need now more than ever to create income generating projects and other efforts to raise the quality of life for the rural poor, promote and work with technology that is appropriate , ecologically balanced and safe. They must be able to save and use the traditional rice, corn and vegetable seed varieties that are not dependent on heavy chemical input.
Through this they need to create training programmes on Environmental Management Systems that will strengthen their centres and collective farms.
We must look forward and work for a just, equitable, judicious use of our natural and human resources.7. We believe that we are all connected and that by helping another, we help ourselves. Each individual can make a commitment to work towards the common good. As individuals, our personal contributions may be small, but when united in common cause, we can change the world. Let us reshape our planet revolutionizing sustainable life style of today to a much better future starting with ourselves.
development.
Update from MSC August Conference 2020 , Fr Richie Gomez MSC and Fr Tans MSC
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Jul 17, 2020
Here we want to share with you our story since we moved to Ireland to our wedding: it is the story of two young lovers who, thanks the tireless guidance and help of God, are building up the foundations of their family.
We were both at the final year of our degree when we first met. We were going to spend a weekend with some friends in Bagolino, a place in the mountain in the province of Brescia, Italy. It was immediately clear to both of us that we were done one for the other. After that weekend, we decided to know each other a bit better after that weekend, and we ended up spending the last six months of our degrees more or less always together. It has been such a beautiful and intense period!
Since that time, God has started building up the pieces of our relationships.
Immediately after the graduation none of us had a job. As a nurse, Paola was highly requested all over the world, whereas for Luca, a philosopher, things were a bit more complicated. The most obvious choice for his was to look for a PhD and this is what he ended up doing. Luca was offered a position at University College Dublin: he accepted and Paola decided to follow him. It was not an easy choice for Paola: it would have been definitely easier to find a job in Italy, to stay close to her family and friends instead of following a guy after only six months of relationship. She decided to do so anyway, and so we moved to Dublin in January 2017.
The first months were really hard for both of us: Luca had no scholarship and Paola had no job. She eventually found one in June and Luca took up a part-time job in UCD, while doing his research, to finance his studies. After some time, our professional lives became easier: after one year and a half Luca got a generous scholarship, and Paola secured a permanent job at St Michael’s Hospital in Dun Laoghaire. We took this as a sign: God was giving us some economic stability, even if just for a limited amount of time, to plan to bring our relationship at a further level and to start thinking about us as a family. Or at least, this is how we read this sign. We started thinking about getting married, and we seemed both ready and willing to take this choice. But we were still unsure that the sign we got was really indicating God’s way.
So, here is what happened. In August 2018, Pope Francis came do Dublin for the World Congress of Family. We were willing to go to the Holy Mass in Phoenix Park, but we couldn’t get a ticket. We were keep thinking that God was asking us to build up a family, and what a better opportunity that to hear what Pope Francis, in person, has to say about Family. We made every effort, but it seemed impossible to get two tickets. The night before the event, a colleague of Paola texted her that she had two spare tickets for the Mass. What a miracle!
Receiving the sacrament together: The best day of our lives.
The day of the Holy Mass in Phoenix Park was rainy, windy and cold: but how such warmness in our hearts! That was the definite sign that God was speaking to us as a family and, therefore, that He was telling us to marry. And so, Luca decided to make the proposal. It was the 6th of October 2018 when in the wild, colourful and amazing Dingle peninsula, Luca asked Paola to marry her! From this moment onwards, all our energies were directed towards the wedding. However, there was a “little” obstacle: Paola did not have any Sacrament. And here is another immense help from God: at that time, the Catholic Italian Community had Fr Fintan Gavin, now Bishop of Cork, as a chaplain and he was organizing a wedding preparation course for the community. Together with the wedding preparation, Fr Fintan set up a personal course for Paola to get all the Sacraments. Fr Fintan guided us into the mystery of the Sacraments, he prepared us to enjoy their spiritual benefits and he literally brought us to the altar.
On the 21st September 2019, Fr Fintan married us: from that day, our family has begun to exist, thanks be to God!
Luca & Paola
