Dec 29, 2019
A number of our MSC students at the Flame Festival in Wembley
If you really want to become a Missionary of the Sacred Heart you should know from start that during your religious life you have to proclaim that God is Love (1Jn 4:18). At the beginning they will teach you that “as Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, we must be convinced of the necessity of a deep interior life that is open to the Holy Spirit, so that we may grow in faith and knowledge of the mystery revealed in the Heart of Christ. This will give us the strength to remain faithful to the mission and spirit of the Society.” (Const. 14). They will then ask you to live in our communities with “a spirit of family and of brotherhood, formed by kindness and understanding, by compassion and mutual forgiveness, by gentleness, humility and simplicity, by hospitality and a sense of humour.” (Const. 32). If you want to continue as a Missionary, you have to bring God to people, since God is the sole objective of everyone’s life. When you will be a Missionary you cannot moralise or simply state what is right or wrong. You have to help people to find God who is love in each and every experience. (more…)
Dec 28, 2019
Br Giacomo (Centre) with Fr. Alan and Br Jaime at World Youth Day in Poland
A Hole in Your Heart
I thought to share with you the story of my vocation. My vocation began in my heart. A hole in my heart. Maybe you heard Pascal’s intuition of a God-shaped hole in the heart of each human being that only God can fill it. Or more likely Saint Augustine’s saying that “our heart is restless, until it rests in You” (Confessions I.1). But surely you heard Christ saying “those who drink of the water I will give them will never be thirsty” (Jn 4:14).
My vocation, as each vocation, begins with a longing for God, a thirst that only God can quench. My vocation began in my family, with my parents and my grandparents, as well as friends in San Bernardino’s parish in Urbino, the Franciscan friars, I could name them all! I grew up blessed in my blessed family.
But the bliss of the perfect family had to finish. God wanted to strengthen me; I suppose. When I was about sixteen and my parents decided to split. I remember it as extremely painful, the most painful moment in my life. And that hole in my heart went deeper and my thirst for love became bigger. I started looking for things and people to fill it. I was so needy of love that relationships became almost an obsession. And some people instead of helping me, took advantage of my vulnerability. That of course did not help much. And I nearly completely lost trust in people…and in God! However, no matter how hard I looked nobody and not a thing in the world was able to fill the void. Unfortunately, at that time, nobody told me that God is Love.
Br. Giacomo with his fellow novices at Flame 3 Catholic Youth Festival in Wembley
‘Doing a Jonah’
Meanwhile, I remember one day, I was twenty more or less, sitting on the steps outside San Francesco’s Church in Urbino with a person I loved most in life, and still do, I saw a group of young friars walking down the street, they looked so full of joy that I said “I think it would be cool to be a friar”. She looked at me bewildered “are you serious?” (more…)
Dec 19, 2019
MSC Christmas Raffle 2019
Prize Winners:
1st Prize: Shopping voucher to the value of €1,000
J. & J. Cassidy
Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
2nd Prize: Festive Feast Hamper
O. McGahon
Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan
3rd Prize: Supreme Christmas Hamper
J. Dunne
Dundalk, Co. Louth
4th Prize: Festive Celebration Christmas Hamper
S. Coakley
Frankfield, Cork
5th Prize: Christmas Pantry Hamper
N. Carmody
Tarbert, Co. Kerry
6th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper
C. Commane
Ennistymon, Co. Clare
7th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper
J. Noonan
Tralee, Co. Kerry
8th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper
S. Donnelly
Lucan, Co. Dublin
9th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper
E. Fogarty
Newtown, Co. Kildare
10th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper
P. Gilbert
Killmallock, Co. Limerick
Special Seller’s Prize: Christmas Pantry Hamper
K. McEvoy
Portlaoise, Co. Laois
This year’s Christmas Draw took place on Thursday, December 19th 2019.
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone for taking part.
Click here to read a special Christmas message from Fr Michael
Dec 19, 2019
Dear Friends,
As we prepare to bid farewell to another year, I wanted to take a moment to pause in reflection and gratitude for the blessings that 2019 brought, and of course, for your friendship to our missionaries.
2019 has been another year to remember. Beginning with my visit to Venezuela in January, we have continued to keep track of the progress of our missions all over the world, from Mozambique to the Philippines and beyond. As we are all too often faced with bleak news of death, disaster, and destruction, it truly is a breath of fresh air to see our mission family joining together to do something that is nothing short of astonishing in its power. Together, we are a force to be reckoned with, and thanks to our great community of faith, I look to 2020 with a hopeful and grateful heart. With your continued support, we will make it another year of positive change.
Each and every time you send one of our Mass cards, support an appeal, or join us in a special celebration, you are a vital part of a far bigger picture. What may seem like a small gesture, completed from the comfort of your own home, has a tremendously far-reaching effect, touching the hearts of MSCs and the communities they serve in towns and villages far across the world, surviving in conditions we can’t even begin to imagine. From orphaned children to elderly people who are faced with the abyss of poverty and loneliness, you are a friend to those who live with hopelessness, fear, and despair.
On behalf of our extended Sacred Heart family, you have my heartfelt thanks for your generosity in reaching out to those in need, though they may be a world away. You and your loved ones are not only in my prayers this Christmas season, but in the prayers of our MSCs everywhere. We remember all those in our great family of faith – those who are surrounded by the warmth of family this festive season, and those who may be struggling with personal challenges of different kinds. We remember those who may find Christmas difficult, and those who sacrifice the home comforts of Christmas to help others. As I have said before, love knows no bounds, and we are every one of us a loved and valued part of this great family of faith.
In the spirit of the season and on behalf of our MSC community around the world, I would like to extend my warmest wishes for a joyful Christmas, and I pray that the coming year will bring you and yours an abundance of peace, happiness, and blessings.
Wishing you and yours a happy and holy Christmas,
Fr Michael O’Connell MSC
Click here to view the winners of our 2019 Christmas Raffle
Dec 19, 2019
It is with great joy that we recently received an update from our MSC brothers at the Sacred Heart Bilingual College in Lada II, a small village situated 25km from Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
Back in the summer of 2018, we appealed to our mission friends in the Irish Province to help the Sacred Heart family in Lada II, an area racked by extreme poverty and hardship. The Sacred Heart Bilingual College opened in 2016 to both male and female students, but remained in an unfinished state of construction with minimal facilities and equipment.
Poverty is a huge challenge faced by local families, who cannot afford to send their children to school when they are struggling to find enough food for daily meals. The students of the Sacred Heart Bilingual College are grateful for amenities that we take for granted every day; “I appreciate the toilets,” student Wilfried said, “because they have taps around them where we can wash our hands.”
The MSC community in Yaoundé contacted us in recent weeks with “great joy and satisfaction” that the project has made excellent progress, thanks to the support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province. “The new MSC community is now established,” they wrote. “It was blessed on October 21st by the UAF MSC Superior, Fr Yvon-César Banackissa, who installed also the new Superior of the community on that day, Br Magloire Njankou Samen. This structure will be greatly helpful in strengthening our abilities, our aims, and our dreams, particularly in running our school.”
“We are sincerely grateful to everybody who supported our project for your great generosity and openness of heart, for your support, help, and care. By so acting, you show us the real proof of your commitment to help people to live and to enhance their fundamental right to dignity.”
The Yaoundé MSC community sent us some pictures of the progress as the building works have been completed, and of the blessing of the community at the end of October. The MSC Mission Office on Facebook have also made photos available from a recent visit to the school in October, when they captured photos of Br Magloire and his team undertaking extensive carpentry projects, making the desks and furniture from the school.
“Thank you, once again, for your unceasing kindness and generosity towards our African community and mission,” wrote the MSC community in Yaoundé. “Thank you for your great generosity of heart!”
Read more about the Sacred Heart Bilingual College in Lada II
Dec 14, 2019
Gospel Reflection
Jesus Christ, the cause of our joy.
Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?
The Gospel (Matthew 11:2-11)
In that Gospel passage, John, the precursor of the One who was to come, proclaimed that One to Come would have the winnowing-fan in his hand to separate good from evil and burn the wicked (chaff) in the fire. Jesus, proclaimed by him as the One who was to come, was doing the direct opposite, a friend of the marginalized and of those reckoned as sinners by the godly. On hearing in prison of what Jesus was doing, John had doubts about Jesus, and this explains sending the messengers with John’s query. In his reply, Jesus lists his actions one by one, all the fulfilment of prophecies, especially those listed in Isaiah chapter 35 (today’s first reading), and in other places in the book of Isaiah (26:19, the dead; 29:18, the deaf; 61:1, the good news to the poor). Jesus’ message for the new age was one of hope, of joy, which fits in nicely with the central theme of today’s liturgy.
Traditionally, this third Sunday of Advent was known as “Gaudete Sunday” from the opening word Gaudete, “Rejoice” in the Latin Entrance Antiphon: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice. Indeed the Lord is near”. In one sense, the basis for rejoicing is the nearness of the Lord. Some biblical scholars believe that the “nearness” in question refers to the second coming of Christ – a point by no means clear. In any event, Christian joy is not founded on belief and expectation of the second coming of Christ. Together with peace, it is a gift from Christ. This joy is a gift that no one can take from believers in Christ (John 16:22). Jesus’ desire is that believers may have his joy made complete in themselves (John 17:13). He told his disciples to rejoice and be glad when people revile them and persecute them and slander them for his sake, and Paul and his early Christians so rejoiced.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say Rejoice. The Lord is near.”
All this may appear to be too theoretical, with little or no bearing on any dialogue with the world in which we live. This is not quite the case. If joy is a gift from Christ it is active in the entire life of believers, not just in religious affairs. The Church currently is kept aware of the scandals and weaknesses within her, but believers know that with the grace of God she is being purified and these will become a thing of the past. Christian joy comes from belief in God who is ever present. When we look around us we can perceive joy – joy at sport events, at football matches where one’s favourite team is supported, but in case of defeat there is no recrimination for something that is but a game. This is evidence of joy and peace. There is joy in conversation, over a drink, with “craic” and music, and in many of the ordinary events of life. And in times of trouble there can also be joy, in the belief that God is near and will see us through. These are a few of the thoughts worth reflecting on on this “Rejoicing” Sunday – recalling St Paul’s words: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say Rejoice. The Lord is near”.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC
