Dec 12, 2019
At the end of October, the 2019 pastoral assembly took place over a period of three days in the missionary area of Melquibi, Mozambique.
Over 70 people from the surrounding regions joined in the assembly, celebrating the work that has been done and the progress that has been made over the past year, along with discussion and reflection on the year to come.
This year’s theme was “Being the Church, Being People of God”, a wonderful celebration of faith and unity in the Lord’s love, with a specific focus on how our MSC missionary work can continue to make positive change in the region in 2020.
As the MSC Mission in Mozambique began just a year and a half ago, in March 2018, it is especially rewarding to see the great sense of community that is already evident between local areas. The mission has been faced with some extremely challenging setbacks, namely the devastation caused by the two cyclones that hit in the space of six weeks earlier this year, but this has not deterred our Mozambique family of faith – indeed, their strength, resilience, and faith been truly inspirational in the face of destruction and despair.
We send our congratulations and blessings to the MSC Mozambique Mission on a successful 2019 assembly, and we wish them a positive, prayerful, and productive year ahead.
Images via the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
Dec 5, 2019
The evening of Saturday, November 30th, saw the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road in Cork filled with the light of hundreds of candles, each flame marking the memory of a treasured loved one who is no longer with us.
November is traditionally a time to remember, and every year, our MSC missionaries in the Sacred Heart parish mark the end of the month of the Holy Souls with the Light Up a Memory Mass, a beautiful memorial service which serves as a beacon of light and love in the winter darkness.
Now in its sixth year, the first Light Up a Memory Mass took place in 2014 and it has since become a much-beloved tradition for local parishioners in Cork, and for mission friends located far and wide, all over the world, thanks to our live streaming service. As always, we were glad to welcome familiar faces of old friends on the night, and we also had many visitors who come specially to celebrate the service with us. This year, we also welcomed over 400 viewers on our website, coming together to pray with us in Cork from across Ireland, the UK, Germany, the US, Canada, Spain, Australia, Malta, the Netherlands, and South Africa.
Bereavement touches us all and the Light Up a Memory service is a lovely way for families to remember together at this special time of year. From 6.30pm on Saturday evening, the Sacred Heart Church was aglow in the light of hundreds of candles, each one burning brightly in celebration of lives and the memories of those we will always hold dear.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all who took part in this year’s Light Up a Memory celebrations, both in the Sacred Heart Church and around the world. Once again, it was a very poignant and truly special evening of prayer, reflection, and fond remembrance for everyone involved.
Nov 28, 2019
MSC missionaries in Mozambique are continuing their ongoing work in providing relief to families who were affected by the ferocious cyclones that tore across the country earlier this year.
In mid-March, Cyclone Idai wreaked havoc in north-eastern Mozambique, killing over 600 people. Just six weeks later, at the end of April, the Pemba region was hit again by Cyclone Kenneth, and the death toll began to rise further.
Hundreds lost their lives, and over 21,000 people were left homeless by the disasters. Homes, crops, and livestock were destroyed by floods and mudslides, while wells were contaminated, leaving the local drinking water unsafe for consumption, with the threat of cholera and malaria a real danger.
“We have lost everything,” said one survivor. “Our house and most of our belongings were taken by the wind and the waves.”
The Mozambique mission began in March 2018, when MSC missionaries from Brazil began ministering in the Pemba diocese, an extremely poor part of the country with no church infrastructure or functioning pastoral ministry. Our MSC brothers immediately began working to bring positive change to local families and communities, and their reach has spread far and wide in the past year and a half.
The arrival of the cyclones was a huge setback to the work being done in the local area; however, our MSCs have continued to work hand-in-hand with local families in the area, helping them to rebuild their lives in the wake of the catastrophe, and continuing in their original mission to bring God’s gifts of faith, hope, and love to those in real need.
In October, our missionaries took part in a new aid endeavour, distributing essential supplies to families in the Meluco region who are still struggling to rebuild the pieces of their lives following the disaster. These supplies included shelter kits, with tarpaulin and tools, kitchen kits, containing pots, dishes, and utensils, personal hygiene kits, water treatment kits, and flashlights.
The MSC Mozambique Facebook page reports that this aid endeavour has been taking place throughout Meluco in conjunction with Caritas Mozambique, and will provide much-needed relief to 3,500 families in the region.
While the flood waters may have receded, the extreme damage done by the cyclones is still very much a real and pressing issue for families who lost everything in the disaster. Our MSC brothers continue in their tireless work to aid these families in their struggle for survival, and to help to rebuild the lives that were shattered by this dual catastrophe.
Images via the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE
Nov 21, 2019
It is a pleasure to share these wonderful pictures from a recent Children’s Liturgy at the Holy Family Care Centre in Ofcolaco, South Africa, which took place at the end of September.
Founded in 2002 and run by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) with the support of the MSC, the Holy Family Care Centre is an invaluable facility for young children who are very ill and who, in many cases, have been orphaned or abandoned. These children are primarily HIV positive and are in urgent need of care. The Holy Family Care Centre can accommodate 70 children, and its facilities are stretched to full capacity on a daily basis.
The priority of this centre is quality of life. The sisters and volunteers at Holy Family see these children as God’s gift, and the simple joy, excitement, and love of the children make the Holy Family Care Centre a place of laughter, fun, and activity.
“The children and staff have benefited enormously from the funding received from the MSC Missions Office in Ireland,” wrote Sr Sally Duigan FDNSC, who runs the care centre, in a letter to our MSC Missions. “We are so grateful.”
“Above all, we continue to give our children love, security, and care, in the hope they will thrive.”
The photos from the Children’s Liturgy celebrations demonstrate perfectly the sense of joy, unity, family, and faith that are at the core of the Holy Family ethos. We are delighted to continue to work closely with the Holy Family team in building a brighter future for the children of the Limpopo Province and beyond.
Find out more about our work with the Holy Family Centre: https://www.mscmissions.ie/about-us/what-we-do/our-projects/ofcolaco-south-africa/
Photos via MSC Mission Office on Facebook.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Nov 14, 2019
At the end of September, our MSC mission in Mozambique had their first youth meeting in the community of Our Lady of Fatima de Meluco, bringing together young people from the region in a celebration of faith and unity.
Together, the youths and their leaders prayed that they will be able to work successfully as a group to bring about a “revolution of tenderness” in the community, focusing on the importance of acceptance, understanding, and the sharing the message of the love of the Lord in the region.
The group met again in early October, and were joined on this occasion by the co-ordinator of pastoral work for the youth of the region of Pemba. Once again, the meeting was a great success and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
“With the grace of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we continue to walk with the youth of the community of Our Lady of Fatima de Meluco,” posted the MSC Mozambique Facebook page. “May this group be the builder of bridges and not walls.”
With continued blessings to all involved on our Mozambique mission, particularly the newly formed youth group in the community of Our Lady of Fatima de Meluco.
Images via the MSC Mozambique Facebook page.
Nov 9, 2019
Gospel Reflection
He is God, not of the dead, but of the living.
Reflection & Dialogue: The Resurrection of the Dead and Life Everlasting
The Gospel (Luke 20:27-38)
The Nicene Creed ends with the words: “We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”. As this liturgical year draws to a close, all of us could profitably reflect on these truths.
With regard to the first of these, the resurrection, it is well known from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the contemporary historian Josephus, that in Jesus’ day, a chief tenet of Sadducee conviction was denial of the resurrection of the body on the last day. While the Jews had a very keen sense of God’s presence with them in the Temple, in worship, in prayer and in time of trouble, and while they believed firmly that God rewarded the good and punished the wicked, they had no belief in life after death with reward or punishment. They had no concept of a personal existence after death. The spirit of man, and all living things, at death returned to the God who gave it. Not that death meant total extinction. A shade of the human remained, and all the shades of good and evil persons were herded together in an underworld. This left the question of divine retribution and of personal union with God unanswered, questions on which intimations and questions are visible in earlier biblical literature. Matters came to a head with the fierce persecution of the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes in 167-164 BC and his attempt to wipe out the Jewish religion. Many martyrs sacrificed their lives from the faith. It was then that belief in a bodily resurrection at the end of time became formulated. The belief gave courage to the martyrs (as is clear from today’s first reading). The belief in the resurrection was strongly advocated by the Pharisees, but denied by the Sadducees. As Jesus reminds them in today’s Gospel reading, the power of the living God stands behind resurrection and eternal life. Belief in both is as certain as belief in Jesus’ own resurrection. Both are intertwined.
With regard to eternal life, one is often asked as to what we really know about it, going on credible sources and leaving imagination aside. We have the words of St Paul (1 Corinthians 2:9): “As it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”. We can recall that it will not be as human life is here on earth, but as Jesus said to the Sadducees, comparable to that of the angels. We know, however, that in the Church we pray to the elect in heaven, that they hear our prayers, and intercede for the living on earth. They thus are aware of events on earth, a truth we profess in belief in the communion of saints.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC
