Jan 22, 2019
An important part of the Sacred Heart family, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) work all over the world under our shared motto: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be everywhere loved.”
OLSH Global Outreach Programmes
Survivors of domestic abuse in Kiribati
Kiribati is a country in the Pacific Ocean, composed of many separate islands. The Daughters have ministered there for many years.
One vital role they play is in the area of assistance to women escaping situations of domestic violence. In many cases, women often have to leave their homes in a hurry, without time to pack essentials such as clothes, toiletries, or food for their children.
€15 will provide a family with the essentials they need in an emergency situation of domestic abuse.
Catechism books in MaranhĂŁo, Brazil
In MaranhĂŁo, Brazil, the Sisters are in great need of books to help them with the teaching of the catechism. The people there are very poor and would greatly appreciate the gift of books.
€10 will buy one of the 30 books needed.
Street children in the Philippines
The Sisters in Manila provide an after-school tutoring programme for young children from a local slum area.
Many of the children work on the streets during the day, selling sweets or flowers and other small items, and so they miss out on a formal education.
This programme helps 80 children keep up with some formal study, while also providing a simple feeding scheme and a health and hygiene programme to teach these youths important life skills.
€10 will help to teach a disadvantaged child essential life skills.
Kurisanani Education Project, South Africa
The Kurisanani outreach project is run from Tzaneen, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. One element of this outreach programme is the provision of funds for vulnerable children to access education. 200 children are currently benefitting from the programme.
€15 will provide a child with a school resources pack, including pencils, pens, exercise books, and a backpack.
Educating women in South Sudan
In Mapuordit, a remote area of South Sudan, three Daughters minister to local communities. Many young women here are forced into marriage and are denied a basic education.
The Daughters here support young mothers in their return to education by providing them with bicycles and solar lamps.
The bicycles allow them freedom to travel to and from school, as well as helping with chores such as collecting water and gathering firewood. The time saved by cycling long distances, rather than walking, helps them them to keep up their studies, while the solar lamps allow the young women to study at night, despite the fact that there is no electricity in their village.
€90 will buy one bicycle and €30 will buy one solar lamp to help the education of vulnerable young women.
Convent repair in Venezuela
Three Sisters from Brazil currently minister to locals in a remote area of Venezuela. The convent here has fallen into disrepair, and the Sisters are raising funds to paint some of the damaged areas.
€100 will buy the paint required to repair the ruined areas.
OLSH saving young lives in Africa
The Holy Family Care Centre is situated at the foot of the Drakensburg Mountains, in the far north of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart founded the centre in 2001, in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Currently, 70 children are in care there.
“The children in our care come for many reasons, but always because it is a last resort – when all other avenues of care have been explored,” writes Sr Sally Duigan OLSH, Director of the Holy Family Care Centre. “They are admitted with a court order after their local social worker takes their case to the nearest magistrate.”
“The reasons for admission vary, but many children have been abandoned, sexually abused, physically abused, orphaned, or made vulnerable because of HIV/AIDS.”
“This is a place where we OLSH can really live our charism of compassionate love,” says Sr Sally. “Here, we learn to love these children unconditionally.”
PLEASE SUPPORT OLSH GLOBAL OUTREACH
Jan 22, 2019
In 2018, the people of Indonesia suffered the devastating effects of a series of disasters. On September 29th, an earthquake and tsunami killed almost 2,300 people in the regions of Palu, Sigi, and Donggala. With over 220,000 displaced, over 1,300 are still missing. On December 22nd, a deadly tsumani swept along Sunda Strait, injuring over 14,000. MSCs in Indonesia are working to rebuild lives in the wake of these catastrophies.
Drilling water wells
The lack of a clean water supply is an urgent issue. MSCs in affected regions are raising funds to drill water wells in three points, including water storage tanks and public toilet facilities for use by local communities.
Each water well will cost approximately €18,200, and will provide vital clean water and essential hygiene facilities for the affected areas.
Building houses
Thousands of houses have been destroyed beyond repair, and many survivors are currently living in temporary accommodation. The Indonesian Province of the MSC propose to build seven houses in affected regions.
Each house will cost approximately €3,050 to build and will offer renewed hope to a displaced family.
Scholarships for affected children
Education has been severely impacted by the disasters, as children have been orphaned or have been forced to leave school in order to work and help to support their families. Together with the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the Indonesian Province of the MSC will provide scholarships for vulnerable children to allow them to continue their education. The MSC will have the responsibility of funding 100 students for three years.
€15 will cover the cost of one month’s education for a scholarship student.
Essential household goods
Many families affected by these disasters have lost everything, even the most basic necessities. The Indonesian Province of the MSC will help 100 affected families by providing essential kitchen tools for cooking and eating.
€50 will provide kitchen essentials including cooking and eating utensils for one family.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN INDONESIA
Jan 22, 2019
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been working in India for over 30 years. MSCs currently minister in seven parishes in rural India and one parish in Bangalore.
Presbyteries in Mulakaluru and Janakipuram
In Mulakaluru and Janakipuram, two parishes made up of six villages, MSCs are ministering to marginalised Catholics who are challenged daily by prejudice and poverty. Since 2010, local MSCs have been renting houses to allow them to be close at hand to these Catholic communities. The presence of MSCs in these areas, ministering to the spiritual, social, and political needs of local Catholics, has been extremely rewarding and empowering.
Rent for each house is 6,000 Indian rupees, or approximately €75, per month, and MSCs often have to move when landlords take the properties back.
Facilities in these rented accommodations are extremely poor, and MSCs struggle to do their best with the little that they have.
MSCs in Mulakaluru and Janakipuram are in great need of dedicated presbyteries, where they can live, work, and pray. The money currently spent on rent will be put to far better use, while the MSC communities will be able to conduct more effective mission outreach from a secure space and proper living conditions.
Without MSC ministry in these areas, local Catholics have little chance of being able to practice their religion in freedom and security. Can you please help us to give them an opportunity to flourish?
Mysore House & MSC Formation Programme
In summer 2016, mission friends in the Irish Province helped us to raise funds for the construction of the formation house of Hridhayala, or the “Temple of the Heart”, in Mysore.
There are currently 24 candidates for the priesthood studying at Hridhayala, led by three formators.
Mysore student ministry includes parish ministry, education for underprivileged children, youth ministry, visits to the elderly, and prison visits.
While great work has been done thanks to the generosity of our mission friends, the formation house remains unfinished. We need your help to complete the construction work and create a safe, secure space for students and their teachers to learn and pray.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN INDIA
Jan 19, 2019
Gospel Reflection
Reflection & Dialogue with Questions of the Day:
Wedding vision with reality
The Gospel (John 2:1-11):
This was the first of the signs given by Jesus: it was at Cana in Galilee.
Combining vision with reality is no easy matter, be it in religious, political, or other areas. Vision sustains us. It gives direction and courage to work for personal ambitions and the social structures one believes in. Israel’s prophets, in particular after the disaster of the Babylonian exile, were rich in their vision and their hope for the nation’s future, for beloved Zion. We have a good example of this in today’s first reading. The biblical narrative also tells us that the course of Israel’s history did not conform to this vision. A prophetic vision gives God’s plan. How this works in reality will depend on the human response. From Israel and Zion, this prophetic vision was transferred to the Church.
The Gospel reading on the wedding feast at Cana also contains a vision of Christ’s work. This began with the first sign at Cana and was completed at the hour of his glorification at the crucifixion and ascension. It symbolised the transformation of Jewish ritual and festivals. But this transformation, this divine mystery, had to be lived out in each Christian community, with all the attendant weaknesses and pettiness. We have an example of it in the Church at Corinth. Paul had to alert the followers of Christ to the dangers arising from the loss of concentration on the central truths of Christianity.
“By all means let us keep our vision alive, but let us wed it with reality.”
The problem of wedding vision with reality in a constant one Church life. As a current example, we may take the Second Vatican Council. It gave a new formulation of the Christian message, intended to have the Gospel message address the men and women of our own day. Sometimes today there is strong criticism of the Church for not having implemented the teaching, the vision, of Vatican II. In general, by using the term “the Church” in such a context, what is meant is what is often referred to as the institutional Church. In this regard, two points may be made. First of all, the Church first and foremost is the entire people of God, and one must thus ask how much have they implemented the Council’s teaching. Secondly, when there is a call to return to the “spirit” of the Vatican Council, in this and in other matters one must not forget the changes that taken place in Church matters since the Council: the growing movement of secularism and atheism, and various clerical scandals. By all means let us keep our vision alive, but let us wed it with reality.
Fr Martin McNamara MSC
Jan 17, 2019
On the first leg of his trip to Venezuela, Fr Michael has been visiting the city of Caracas, where the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have two houses, the Casa Misionere and the parish house in Santa Cruz.
Fr Michael brought with him a suitcase full of donated toiletries and basic hygiene products, and distributed some of these items after Mass in Santa Cruz. The gifts were very warmly received, as inflation in Venezuela has sent the cost of necessities rocketing. A packet of baby wipes costs 3,900 Venezuelan bolĂvars, and toiletries such as soap and shampoo are similarly priced – an astronomical amount when you take into account that up until the middle of January, the average monthly wage was just under 5,000 bolĂvars.
The value of the bolĂvar has fluctuated wildly, even in the space of the first week of Fr Michael’s visit. “When I arrived on Friday, January 4th, the average wage of 5,000 bolĂvars was worth USD $7 on the black market,” says Fr Michael. “A week later, on Friday, January 11th, the same 5,000 bolĂvar wage was worth just USD $2. A big loaf of bread costs 1,200 bolĂvars, a kilo of cheese costs 3,000 bolĂvars, and 24 eggs cost 6,000 bolĂvars – so forget having an egg every day when the average wage is just under 5,000 bolĂvars a month.”
During Fr Michael’s stay in Caracas, the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, announced that the minimum wage would be increased to 18,000 bolĂvars per month in order to combat the struggles that the people of Venezuela are facing because of inflation. This change came into effect from January 15th, and it is hoped that it will help local people to regain some quality of life following recent struggles.
Here are some pictures of the Mass at which Fr Michael distributed the gifts. Fr John Jennings MSC, originally from Cork, Ireland, blesses the congregation, and locals give each other a very warm and enthusiastic sign of peace!
Following his stay in Caracas, Fr Michael will next visit MSC parishes in Maracaibo, where Irish MSCs first began their work in Venezuela over 50 years ago. Be sure to check back for more updates as he continues on his travels.
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS
Find out more about our missionary outreach in Venezuela
Read about Fr Joseph McGee’s trip to Venezuela in 2017
Jan 10, 2019
A journey that begins with a single purpose often ends with much more…
As January gets into its stride, we look ahead to a year full of promise and new opportunities – and the 2019 MSC pilgrimages are a wonderful way to embrace the spirit of faith, hope, and unity over the coming year. This year, we will be going on pilgrimage to Fatima in May/June, and to Lourdes in September.
Each year, pilgrims join us for different reasons. Some may be struggling with illness, grief, stress, or other personal challenges. Other wish to take part in a traditional pilgrimage journey with like-minded travellers, sharing stories, experiences, and reflections on life. Many wish to simply pray, reflect, and offer thanksgiving for their blessings. The experience of pilgrimage is different for every individual, but one thing remains the same on every journey – a sense of great joy in the awareness of being part of something bigger, of something more.
“A powerful, life-changing experience… The invitation is open to all.”
“Pilgrimage is about freedom,” says Fr Alan Neville MSC. “It’s about walking to the horizon – and when you get there, you keep on going. It’s about taking part in something that is at the same time enjoyable and profound. I’ve yet to meet one person who regretted making the trip. For every one of them it has been a powerful, even life-changing experience. The invitation is open to all, so what’s keeping you?”
With a true sense of friendship, companionship, and community, our pilgrimages offer a warm welcome to all.
“Each pilgrim brings a special wish in their hearts, a prayer.”
– Pope Francis
MSC Pilgrimages 2019
Pilgrimage to Fatima
May 30th – June 3rd (4 nights full board)
Pilgrimage to Lourdes
September 14th –Â 19th (5 nights full board)
For further information, please contact Joe Walsh Tours on +353 (0) 1 2410803.
Read about our 2018 pilgrimage to Lourdes.
