Dec 20, 2017
MSC Christmas Raffle 2017
Prize Winners:
1st Prize: Shopping voucher to the Value of €1,000
J. Higgins
Harlesden, London, England
2nd Prize: Twelve Days of Christmas Hamper to the value of €500
M. Daly
Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare
3rd Prize: Supreme Christmas Hamper to the value of €400
J. Foley
Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick
4th Prize: Festive Feast Christmas to the value of €350
A. Browne
Ballybofey, Co. Donegal
5th Prize: Christmas Carol Hamper to the value of €250
M. McElroy
Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone
6th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper to the value of €150
K. Murphy
Kilcock, Co. Kildare
7th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper to the value of €150
J. Keating
Westwood Heath Road, Coventry, England
8th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper to the value of €150
J. Warnock
Omagh, Co. Tyrone
9th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper to the value of €150
M. Sweetman-Maguire
Chord Road, Drogheda, Co. Louth
10th Prize: Deck the Halls Hamper to the value of €150
I. O’Doherty
Drimnagh, Dublin 12
Special Members Sellers Prize: Christmas Carol Hamper to the value of €250
G. O’Hare
Clonliffe Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 3
The Christmas Draw took place on Wednesday 20th December 2017.
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone for taking part.
Dec 14, 2017
We were overjoyed to receive contact from our dear friend Sr Sally Duigan at the Holy Family Care Centre in South Africa who kindly provided us with some updates as to how our most recent fundraising donations have been put to use.
“Holy Family Care Centre; the children and staff have benefited enormously from the funding received from MSC Mission Office Ireland. We are so grateful.
Holy Family was struggling to care for our children particularly as we were admitting many young children and babies. We did not have a dedicated nursery and used our sick bay temporarily to accommodate the babies. Thanks to MSC Mission Office Ireland we now have a purpose built building where we can care for our babies and most vulnerable children aged up to two years. We continue to admit young children living with HIV / Aids from the surrounding villages who have been neglected and/or orphaned and require specialized care and monitoring.
Limpopo Province where we are situated is the second poorest province in South Africa. We are still seeing children malnourished, undernourished and stunted in their growth. This is often irreversible as good nutrition is necessary to nurture growth in their first five years. Our new food preparation area is ideal for our nurses to prepare special formulas for the babies and fortified foods for our malnourished young ones.
Infection control is so important and our new building functions with separate appropriate areas for sleeping, bathing, changing nappies and food preparation area. We are truly blessed to be able to provide a high quality of care.
Currently we have 17 children in our crèche – our youngest is 6 months old. Many of the children are living with HIV/Aids. The new extension accommodates for graduated learning and playing groups. Our Crèche teachers have different rooms to utilize for children age groups – toddlers up to 2 years, 3 to 4 year old group and pre-school to prepare for school each year.
The older boys now have a proper showering area with private shower recesses. The area is much easier to clean and the boys have inside access from the dormitories. This project was long overdue and has only been achieved through your financial assistance.
Our old staff accommodation of four rooms has been refurbished much to the delight of the staff. The showering and bathroom area has been rebuilt and is of a much higher hygienic standard, again an area that was in great need of attention.
It is with much gratitude and love that we at Holy Family Care Centre thank you for your generous donations which has allowed us to overhaul some old and much needed work. In addition the new areas in the crèche and the new nursery have been a huge success functionally and has improved the quality of care the children receive.
Above all we continue to give our children love, security and care in the hope they will thrive. We want them to have the energy to enjoy playtime, be able to learn and live a happy life.”
With love and Gods blessing,
Sr Sally Duigan, all the children and Staff.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some of the main upgrades made at the Holy Family Care Centre include:
- New Boys Ablution Block – New washbasins, mirrors, four new individual shower recesses with shelves and hooks for towels and clothes.
- New Nursery – This new nursery is able to accommodate up to eight babies (including any special care toddlers under two years living with HIV /Aids).
- New food preparation area.
- Children’s sick bay.
- Installation of a linking corridor from the nursery and clinic through to the crèche.
- Crèche extension and installation of an Education Room.
- Indoor play area.
- Refurbished outdoor crèche play area.
- Staff ablution area – Three new showers and one toilet. Existing bedrooms refurbished – painting, new wash basins and cupboards, lighting, overhead fan, curtains and power points.
Click on any image to view full screen.
Dec 12, 2017
Reflection & Dialogue: Joy of Christian believing, and loathing on its rejection
Gospel (John 1:6-8, 19-28). There stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming after me.
This third Sunday in Advent has been traditionally known in the Latin liturgy as Gaudete Sunday, from the opening word of the entrance antiphon Gaudete¸”Rejoice”, from the letter to the Philippians 4:4-7, a text given in full in the earlier Latin liturgy and still used in part in the present entrance antiphon, and still as reading two in year 3 of the present lectionary. The text of Philippians 4:4-7 is as follows: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul expresses the same sentiments in his very first letter, written to the Thessalonians, given as today’s second reading: “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing”.
The Gospel reading from the Gospel of John is about John the Baptist’s witness to Christ, as the One who was yet to come. John was not the Messiah, the Christ, but the forerunner to be witness to him. Later in the same Gospel (John 3:28-30) the Baptist will bear similar witness to Jesus, with mention of his joy that t he Saviour has come: “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said: ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of t he bridegroom stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled’”.
Today’s readings invite us to reflect on the importance of rejoicing, of joy, in Christian life, in human life, and of the close connection between joy and the coming of Christ into our world, and on Christ’s own emphasis on the joy of believing in him and his mission. At his birth, recalled at Christmas, the Angel declared to the shepherds that with this was bring good news of great joy for all the people. Jesus himself rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and thanked his Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that he had hidden the mysteries of salvation from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants, that is to his own followers. Christian joy is connected with the new age revealed in Christ and his Church.
The theme of joy is prominent in Jesus’ prayers and teachings as presented in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus prays that his own joy may be in his disciples and that their joy may be full. He forewarns them that in this world they will have trials, but after trials their sorrow will turn into joy. Their hearts will rejoice and they will have a joy that no one can take from them. The disciples are asked by Jesus to pray (to the Father) that their joy may be full, and their prayer will be heard. The Beatitudes end by linking persecution with joy. Blessed, happy, are the followers of Christ when ill-treated and persecuted on account of the Son of Man. They should rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely their reward is great in heaven. It is clear from these texts that Christian joy is rooted in belief in Jesus Christ and in the new age that has come with him and continues in the Church which he has founded. This joy goes with love and respect from the Church.
This love for the faith, and the joy that accompanies it, has been a central part of the Christian heritage down through the centuries. It has also been very much part of the Irish tradition right from the beginning. Matters have been changing very much in the older western world over recent centuries, and in Ireland over the past decades. Christianity has been abandoned by a number of the learned class, and more recently by the general public. In some writers there is a quest for redemption, but not that of Christian tradition, a form of redemption and hope in mankind’s ability to show compassion, love and find an individual spirituality.
On this Gaudete, Rejoice Sunday, it is well to recall the hatred can be produced in some who reject the salvation, the redemption, brought by Christ and still proclaimed by the Church. Dialogue might help bridge the gap between the two visions of life here and beyond.
Martin McNamara MSC
Nov 29, 2017
We were delighted to receive some images this morning from our friends in the Loreto Schools Rumbek.
Progress on the building of the graduate housing is coming along very nicely and this is all thanks to your kind and generous support of the South Sudan Summer Appeal 2017.
We’re looking forward to watching the project progress over the coming months.
Keep up the great work everyone ?
Click on an image to view larger.
Nov 28, 2017
On Saturday night, 25th November, we gathered at the Sacred Heart Church to celebrate our annual Light up a Memory Mass. ?️
We were joined on the night by friends and family both locally and around the world who joined us via our Live Stream service.
The Light Up a Memory Mass was a beautiful celebration of the lives of our dearly departed, as we joined together to pray by candlelight in an evening of reflection and remembrance.
Click on image to view larger.
Nov 21, 2017
This summer, the MSC reached out to support the Loretto Sisters in Rumbek, South Sudan, where they have made huge strides in creating a better life for residents with life saving medical care and essential educational facilities.
During her recent visit to Ireland, Sr Orla Treacy IBVM visited the MSC Missions Office, to personally thank Fr Michael O’Connell MSC and all of the MSC mission friends for their financial support from their recent fundraising Summer Appeal.
Sr Orla, far left, with some of the Loreto School students
“It is unique for one congregation to financially support another one, so this contribution to our work in Rumbek is extremely generous” she said. In 2008, the Loretto Sisters began working in the rural community of Maker Kuei, Rumbek, where daily life is a constant struggle for 1,000 families. During this period they have built a Primary School that caters for almost 900 students, both male and female, where students are guaranteed to have clean water, nutritious meals, access to health care and a quality education.
“A sincere thank you for your generosity and for your willingness to collaborate in helping us with this challenging yet worthwhile mission”.
The Loretto Secondary School is an all girls’ boarding school, where students are educated in social and life skills as well as receiving a full academic tuition. Currently, 240 girls attend this school, and the demand for places is increasing as principal Sr Orla works with families to protect these young women from enforced marriage. As a result of the very successful MSC Summer Appeal the funds collected have been sent to the Loretto Sisters and work has begun on the foundations for a new dormitory which will accommodate 16 girls each year as they embark on an additional internship year and vocational opportunities.
The foundations for the dormitories which will house 16 of the Internship Programme students
In recognition for her work in South Sudan, Sr Orla was the recipient of the 2017 Hugh O’Flaherty International Humanitarian Award, at an event in Killarney on the 4th November 2017. “It is very humbling to accept this award and I do so on behalf of our sisters, staff and students at loretto School in Rumbek, South Sudan” she told a large and appreciative audience who came to honour her inspiring work.
Sr Orla with the statue of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty and her Humanitarian Award
We are calling on all our mission friends to join with our MSC community in supporting this crucial work in a country that’s crying out for urgent aid.
PLEASE HELP US TO SAVE LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Read more about the Loreto Sisters and their incredible work in the war-torn South Sudan.
