Mar 23, 2023
As our 2023 World Projects Appeal continues, our Sisters in the Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart have been in contact to express their gratitude for the support of our mission friends here in the Irish Province.
Sr Marie-Laure writes from Burkina Faso, where the OLSH community are raising funds for construction work to improve the educational facilities in the school of Jules Chevalier de Ouagadougou. “It is a great joy for us Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Burkina Faso to express to you our gratitude for all that you do for us,” she says. “We are very grateful to you. May the Lord through Mary Our Lady of the Sacred Heart accompany you in your mission.”
Provincial Leader Sr Marie Solange also writes from Africa, with thanks for the support given to OLSH communities across the province. “I come with gratitude to you this day to express our joy and thanks in the name of the Province of Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Africa,” she writes. “Through your support, we have been able to improve certain activities in education, health care, or simply the means to ensure our mission. We really appreciate with all our heart this contribution for our province in construction.”
“On behalf of the African Province, I would like to express our gratitude,” adds Sr Clotilde. “Thank you for supporting our projects, and for your interest and attention to our mission in Africa. May the Lord repay you a hundredfold and shower you with his blessings.”
Finally, Sr Renisa has been in touch from Brazil, where current projects included care for the elderly, a kindergarten for vulnerable children, providing liturgical items and catechism books for communities in remote locations, and the support of a second-hand shop whose proceeds go towards feeding 65 local families each month. “I am writing to say a huge thank you for your support of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Brazil, for our ministry to those in need. I wish that you could see face to face the joy and relief your help spreads among the people which we work with. God bless you!”
MSCs and OLSH Sisters all over the world continue on our shared mission to make a difference to the people and places that need it most. There’s still time to take part in this year’s World Projects Appeal, where we’re highlighting some of the projects that need our immediate attention in the coming months. We add our voices to those of our OLSH Sisters as we thank you sincerely for your support – together, we can make a world of difference.
PLEASE CLICK HERE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT
OUR 2023 WORLD PROJECTS APPEAL
Oct 11, 2022
This year’s annual Masses for deceased MSCs and Daughters of the Lady of the Sacred Heart will take place around the country in November, as we remember those who have gone before us in the light of the Lord.
Annual Masses will take place at 3pm on Sunday 6th November in the following venues:
- Sacred Heart Church, Western Road, Cork (this Mass will be live-streamed here)
- Woodview House, Blackrock, Co. Dublin
- Croi Nua, Taylors Hill, Galway
and
On Sunday 13th November at 2pm in St Patrick’s Church, Ballybay
We keep all our deceased members in our prayers.
We would like to invite you to pray with us during the month of the Holy Souls as we remember the MSCs and Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart who worked so hard to ensure that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is known and loved everywhere, and by everyone.
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Oct 6, 2022
Welcome to the Winter 2022 edition of the MSC Message!
• Read a special greeting from Fr John Fitzgerald MSC, Director of the MSC Missions Office.
• Find out more about the latest updates from the MSC Centre for the Poor in the Philippines, where the MSC Centre for the Poor Agricultural Cooperative are working to bring brighter prospects to local communities, while nurturing and restoring harmony with the natural world.
• Catch up on the latest news from the mission fields, including updates from our MSC brothers in the Guatemala and Fiji, and our OLSH Sisters in Papua New Guinea and Burkina Faso, West Africa.
• Discover more about the work being done by MSCs in southern Haiti, where homes and communities must be rebuilt following a devastating earthquake in August 2021.
• Fr Alan Neville MSC writes from South Sudan, where he is currently ministering with the Loreto team in Rumbek.
• “Ordinary men answering an extraordinary call from God”: Read a message from Fr Con and Fr Tony, our Vocations Team.
• Find out more about recent celebrations in the Irish Province, where three of our MSC community recently celebrated 50 years of ordination at their Golden Jubilee.
Read the Winter 2022 edition of the MSC Message
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Aug 11, 2022
Early in 2021, the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart joined forces with the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Papua New Guinea to raise funds for a laundry in their aged-care centre in Port Moresby, as part of our annual MSC World Projects Appeal.
The Hartzer Centre is an aged-care facility attached to the main convent in Port Moresby, the country’s capital, where the Sisters care for elderly OLSH Sisters and MSC missionary priests who have devoted their lives to serving the people of Papua New Guinea. Eight rooms are dedicated to the care of elderly residents at the centre, and it was an ongoing worry that the facility did not have a dedicated laundry area of its own, with nurses carrying all dirty laundry through the convent dining room to reach the communal washing area. This has been a pressing hygiene concern, especially in the face of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
In December of last year, Sr Rosaleen O’Brien contacted us with an update on progress on the new laundry facilities being installed in the Hartzer Centre – progress that had been slowed considerably due to the effects of the COVID pandemic. We have been delighted to receive further updates in recent weeks, with thanks to our benefactors for their help in getting the project completed.
“Please convey our gratitude to all of the donors for their great contribution to the laundry project for our aged-care facility,” writes Sr Rosaleen. “We have at long last completed the work which has taken time because of COVID, and also a lack of materials when needed.”
“I do not know what to say, as it is such a help to us here – especially with our infirm patients, who, in this climate, need a lot of care each day,” Sr Rosaleen continues. “Sr Gabriella and her helpers are truly happy with this project.”
“We continue to pray for each person who has donated money for this important project, especially during the COVID pandemic, which is still affecting so many people around the world.”
We add our thanks to those of our OLSH Sisters; the ongoing support of our mission friends and benefactors here in the Irish Province provides immeasurable encouragement to our Sacred Heart family around the world, especially in these particularly challenging times. Sincere thanks to all who helped to provide these essential facilities for the elderly residents of the Hartzer Centre, and to all who continue to offer their friendship and their prayers as we continue on our shared missionary journey to make God’s love known everywhere.
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Aug 4, 2022
As the people of the Philippines continue to rebuild their homes, lives, and livelihoods following the devastation caused by Typhoon Odette in December 2021, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are ongoing in efforts to help with repair and restoration.
In the middle of July, the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines reported that the MSC Task Force Odette had held a ground-breaking ceremony in Gilutongan Island, located in Cordova, Cebu, to mark the beginning of the housing project here.
The MSC Typhoon Odette Housing Project has been in force throughout the first half of this year, with construction beginning in Bayagnan Island in Surigao City in March, and now, with the next phase of the project underway, more than 160 families in Gilutongan Island will be able to live safely and comfortably once again in secure homes.
Our Sacred Heart Sisters, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, are also facilitating the rebuilding of homes, and the restoration of livelihoods in the Philippines – most recently, for fishermen in Barangay. The OLSH community in the Philippines donated motorised fishing boats to the fishing community of Barangay Caw-oy, and these boats were named in honour of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
Together, we pray for the continued success of these relief programmes, for all of our MSC brothers and OLSH Sisters in the Philippines, and for the families and communities they serve.
Gilutongan Island images via the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc.
PLEASE HELP OUR SACRED HEART FAMILY IN THE PHILIPPINES
