MSC World Projects Appeal 2023: India

For more than 35 years, young men have joined our mission in India,
answering the Lord’s call to be Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
Today, 71 priests and 14 professed brothers are fulfilling a shared vision
to bring the compassion of the Sacred Heart to those in need.

Journeying together in the love of the Sacred Heart

In India, training to be an MSC priest is a long process, involving spiritual, intellectual, pastoral, and personal formation. The formation programme takes 10-12 years, and is divided into several stages, each focusing on different aspects of personal and spiritual development: Pre-Novitiate Formation, Graduation in Philosophy, Novitiate and Post-Novitiate Pastoral Year, and Graduation in Theology.

Pre-Novitiate Formation takes place at our formation house, Hridayalaya (the Temple of the Heart), which is situated in Mysore, a city located around 160km south-west of Bangalore. Here, a great emphasis is placed on academic and intellectual formation during the two-year Pre-Novitiate programme, ranging from spoken English for new students, to sermon preaching as deacons. As many of our students with vocations come from rural backgrounds, they require intensive training in English.

A spirit of community life is a core focus at every stage of formation. Members of the community wake up to pray together, celebrate the Holy Eucharist together daily, and spend time in meditation in order to deepen spiritual awareness. Students are trained in music, singing, washing, cleaning, cooking, and driving. The students themselves take responsibility for organising the kitchen and the weekly grocery shop, while they also take care of the garden, and must ensure that the house is kept clean and tidy. A great sense of brotherhood is nurtured here, as members celebrate birthdays and special occasions together in the spirit of family.

At present, there are 17 students and three priests in the Hridayalaya community, studying scripture, spirituality, and the history and vision of the MSC mission. Mysore student ministry includes parish ministry, education for underprivileged children, youth ministry, visits to the elderly, and prison visits, along with a dedicated daily routine of prayer, study, household chores, gardening, and meditation. After completing their Pre-Novitiate programme, students will begin a three-year graduate and philosophy programme.

MSCs in India are appealing for help with funding
college and boarding fees for the formation programme,
including travel, food, and expenses, at a total of €17,550.

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN INDIA

Family of the heart

From humble beginnings, with just 20 students when it opened its doors in 2006, the Chevalier Academy Matriculation School in Dindigul now cares for and educates 800 students. “Mrs Mary” has dedicated over a decade to serving the needs of students and staff as care-taker at the school for the past 15 years.

In turn, MSCs have taken care of Mary, a widow, by providing an education for her three daughters. One is now working, another has dedicated her life to the Lord, having joined a religious sisters’ congregation, and the youngest is currently studying nursing.

Now, the MSC Indian Union are raising funds to build a house for Mary, who currently lives in a thatched shed with no electricity, no security, and no proper facilities. The Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are helping to fund the project, which will cost approximately €15,400 in total, removing the fear of an uncertain future for Mary and creating a safe, secure space in which Indian MSCs can provide accommodation for generations to come. In the spirit of our founder, Fr Jules Chevalier MSC, who believed that “our spirit is one of love for justice and concern for all, especially the very poor,” MSCs in India continue to extend the hand of friendship, support, and God’s love to our extended family of the heart, in response to the signs of the time and the needs of the people.

“Please keep us in your prayers as we continue in sharing our mission to love through our Formation Programme. With sincere gratitude for your support; we will keep you in our prayers during our daily mass, our every prayer, and at every meal.”

~ Fr Darwin Thatheus MSC
Indian Regional Superior

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE SUPPORT OUR MSC MISSIONS IN INDIA

From Co. Wicklow to South Sudan: Reaching out across the miles

Heartfelt thanks to the community of Blessington Parish in Co. Wicklow, who collected a generous donation for our own Fr Alan Neville MSC, to support his current ministry in Rumbek, South Sudan.

Each year, a crib exhibition takes place in Blessington Parish Centre, with cribs on display representing different places and cultures all over the world. Local parishioners and clergy each donate their own unique crib to the exhibition, with over 100 cribs on display this year during the three-day exhibit from December 17^th to 20^th 2022.

A real community affair, the exhibition involves locals of all ages, with a reach far beyond the parish spanning cultures from across the globe. “There is a multicultural aspect to the display, as the cribs come from every continent,” Blessing Parish reports. “Local schoolchildren are invited to the exhibition and part of the enjoyment is observing the variety of materials used in the designs.”

The 2022 exhibition raised a total of €200, which was generously donated to Fr Alan in support of his work in South Sudan. This came in addition to another donation of a further €200, raised at a special Harvest Mass in Lacken Church, also in Blessington Parish, last November.

Fr Alan is currently ministering in South Sudan, working with both the Loreto primary and secondary schools and the Catholic University in Rumbek to promote truly vital education and empowerment for young women in a region where forced marriages are all too unfortunate a reality, and a teenage girl is more likely to die in childbirth than graduate from secondary school. This wonderful contribution from Blessington Parish is a real gift to Fr Alan and the Rumbek community, in a gesture of friendship that reinforces the inestimable power of kindness and unity across the miles.

Images courtesy of Carmel O’Neill at Blessington Parish.
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Together in celebration: Blessing the new homes of typhoon survivors in Gilutongan Island, in the Philippines

At the end of 2022, the Philippines Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart marked the completion of the Gilutongan Island phase of the MSC Typhoon Odette Housing Project with the blessing of the newly constructed houses in the area, just short of a year after Typhoon Odette hit the region in December 2021.

The house blessing ceremony took place at the end of November, with Fr Joel Bonza MSC (Cebu District Superior) and Fr Samuel Patriarca MSC (Director of the Philippines Mission Office), leading the celebrations, alongside several MSC priests from the Cebu District, including Fr Reynante Joseph Ga, Fr Ramil Baluran and Fr Juls Amaneo.

Hundreds of thousands of families found themselves displaced from their homes in December 2021, when Typhoon Odette hit the Philippines with devastating consequences. The super-typhoon was the strongest storm of the year, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries, and damaging – often destroying – hundreds of thousands of homes. Recalling the impact of the typhoon shortly after it passed, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart – Social Initiative and Collaborative Action Project said, “When it made landfall, winds of up to 210 km per hour were uprooting coconut trees, ripping down electricity poles, and hurling slabs of corrugated tin and wood through the air.”

Work had commenced on the Gilutongan Island project, situated in Cordova, Cebu, back in July 2022, following the first stage of the Typhoon Odette Housing Project in Bayagnan Island, Surigao City, earlier in the year. As reported by the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines, a total of 254 households benefitted from the Gilutongan Island phase of the project, including 108 homes that had been completely destroyed by Typhoon Odette, and 146 houses that had partial damage.

“On behalf of the beneficiaries, we thank all our donors, mission partners and volunteers who helped us in many ways to make this project possible,” read a post on the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office in the Philippines. “We also extend our gratitude to the Task Force Typhoon Odette – Gilutongan and the community leaders who worked hard in the implementation and monitoring of the project. To all of you, DAGHANG SALAMAT KANINYONG TANAN! (Thank you all so much!)”

       

Now, a year after the storm, we send our heartfelt congratulations and blessings to our MSC brothers in the Philippines, and to the families and communities who have been working so hard to rebuild their homes and their lives since. We keep them in our prayers, that they may be safe and filled with hope as we begin a new year and mark a new chapter for the people of Gilutongan Island.

       

Images via the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc.

PLEASE HELP OUR SACRED HEART FAMILY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Christmas celebrations in Mozambique

As hearts all over the world rejoiced in unity at the celebration of the birth of Jesus, we were delighted to see these wonderful photographs of this year’s Christmas celebrations from our MSC mission in Mozambique.

On December 23^rd, Fr Jose Eduardo Paixao MSC celebrated a moving Christmas service with the nurses of the Metuge District Hospital, before joining the community of St Antonio de Metuge for a beautiful Nativity Mass on Christmas Day itself.

       

Established in March 2018, our Mozambique mission is now coming into its sixth year of ministry in the Diocese of Pemba. In a region that is besieged by war, violence, and political unrest, along with the threat posed by natural disasters such as cyclones, the mission is constantly adapting to meet the needs of local communities and parishioners as they arise.

The Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart has a long-standing friendship with our Mozambique mission, most recently joining forces with the community of Metuge to raise funds for war refugees who have settled there. Since 2017, war in the region has left over 850,000 displaced, with many having lost their lives or gone missing from their homes. Along with Fr Jose, we have been raising funds to establish two new projects, a chicken farming programme and a community radio project, to encourage self-sufficiency, dignity, and an improved quality of life for the local community, including those who have been displaced by war, in the district of Metuge.

With local struggles ongoing, and the mission facing constant challenges, it is a joy to see the spirit of Christmas, of unity, and of compassion, in these very special images. As we begin a new year, we ask you to keep out MSC Mozambique mission in your prayers, as we send every grace and blessing of the Sacred Heart to our MSCs and the communities they serve in Metuge.

Images via the Facebook page for MSC Mozambique, with credit to Abudo Manara.
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Fr Alan in South Sudan: Do they know it’s Christmas time?

“Growing up in Ireland, it was impossible to get through December without hearing Do They Know It’s Christmas? repeatedly. Like crackers with bad jokes, or recipes that try (in vain) to make brussels sprouts tasty, the song was an essential and important part of festive season. It electrified people and called them to act in solidarity with the people of East Africa who were suffering from famine in 1984. As I wandered around the Loreto convent in Rumbek almost forty years later, I could hear it again – repeatedly. One of the sisters in the community is a keen Christmas music aficionada – and when I say keen, I mean really keen!

The run up to Christmas in Rumbek has certainly been busy. We finished up work in the Catholic University on the 16th, concluding the first half of our bridging course with our new students. Due to conflicts that eventually led to South Sudanese Independence and the civil war of 2013, levels of education remain stubbornly low. Consequently, everyone beginning our degree programmes must undertake six weeks of intensive maths and English to prepare them for third level studies. We are hoping to welcome almost forty new students who are planning to study a degree in either business administration or English and English literature. We have a record number of women joining our courses, which is a real gift. They benefit from a scholarship programme supported by the Mission Support Centre that reduces their fees and supports their studies. In our small way, we are looking to redress the gender imbalance in education that excludes that vast majority of women.

This last year has been one of the most peaceful in Lakes State, but it does not happen by chance. Initiatives on many levels in both Church and state work to create a safer, more secure environment. Just before Christmas, Sr Orla planned a peace walk with the young women from the Loreto internship programme. Over twenty of us began before dawn and walked towards Cueibet, a parish some 50km away. We got most of the way there, before the temperatures went up to the high thirties. Part of the reason for the walk was to model how young women from different ethnic groups all around the country journeyed together in solidarity and encouraged people they met, especially young girls, to pursue a brighter future.

We all went to a local parish where I was celebrating Mass for Christmas Eve. It was to begin at 8:30pm, but, based on my experience from being there last year, I settled on a wall outside and welcomed people as they gradually arrived. In no time at all, the church was packed to the rafters, and we all welcomed the birth of Jesus with joy and song. Previously, it would not have been possible to have so many people out that late at night, but now the streets were busy with groups of people on their way to their churches. They absolutely know it’s Christmas time.

For Christmas Day, the girls who stayed with us for the holidays cooked the food, while I was off for another Mass. Each year a group remain in the school, either because they live far away from Rumbek or they cannot go home due to a forced marriage issue. Either way, we all sat down to a lunch of pork, sakumawiki (like cabbage, but not really), tamalaka (a peanut and greens like sauce), paper food (not sure how to describe that one), and Irish potatoes (which are just potatoes, but in the market that’s what they are called). We were joined by our Bishop and some guests, including boys from the La Salle school who also couldn’t make it home. The day ended with Sr Orla introducing the girls to Monopoly, which in retrospect, based on years of inevitable conflict in Irish homes, was not the best idea. Still, good fun was had by all, even if the Bishop’s team cheated.

So, we are looking forward to the New Year with a sense of anticipation. The new library renovation for the University supported by the MSC benefactors will be completed in January. I won’t have to worry about the bat droppings landing on my desk anymore through a ceiling that looks like Swiss cheese, and the students will have a place to study and do group work. The Pope is planning to come to South Sudan in February as part of an ecumenical peace initiative. The Loreto team and students will lead an eight-day walking pilgrimage to Juba for the event. It should be a wonderful occasion. Please do keep us in our prayers, as you are most assuredly in ours.”

Wishing you and your families every blessing for 2023,
Fr Alan

Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:

• Looking for a Sign on the Way to South Sudan
• Building a Better Future in South Sudan
• Christmas Greetings from Fr Alan in South Sudan
• A Cup of Sugar and Maybe a Goat
• Mock Exams and Real Life in South Sudan
• As Easy as Baking a Cake
• Holy Week on the Move
• Three Arrivals and a Party
• Celebrating the Missionary Life
• Seeds of Hope
• Young People Fighting COVID-19 in Rumbek
• Ticket to Ride
• Lions, Snakes, and the World’s Deadliest Predator
• Vaccine Status: Denied
• Christmas in South Sudan
• A Bigger Shovel
• A Week in the Life of Loreto – Bishops, graduations, an ambassador, and the Pope
• Sowing Seeds
• A visit from the MSC Superior General
• Advent

PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN

MSCs in the Philippines respond to Tropical Storm Paeng

Throughout the month of November, MSC Missions in the Philippines responded to the urgent needs of families and communities directly affected by Tropical Storm Paeng (or Tropical Storm Nalgae), which made landfall at the very end of October 2022. Over 100 deaths were confirmed in the Philippines in the aftermath of the storm, with more people reported missing, and severe damage done to homes, farms, and businesses.

The MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc., working together with the MSC Centre for the Poor, issued an immediate call for help, and undertook an emergency response programme across Mindanao, providing essential items to communities in Maguindanao and Cotabato who were left reeling by the effects of the storm. Relief packs included basic food provisions and essentials, and were distributed to more than 200 families in regions of significant storm destruction.

       

On November 9^th, 219 families received emergency aid packs through the relief operation in Barangay Tapian, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, as part of the ongoing mission response project in the Philippines, which aims to provide direct assistance to communities affected by natural disasters. In a country that is greatly impacted by typhoons, this mission response programme undertaken by the MSC Philippine Province is a true lifeline to families and communities who live under a constant threat of flooding and serious danger to both lives and livelihoods.

       

“We would like to thank all our Mission Partners and donors for your kindness and generosity,” wrote the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc. on their Facebook page. “We also thank the MSC – CFP [MSC Centre for the Poor] Butuan led by Fr. Richie Gomez & Bro. Franz Pelare, MSC for spearheading the project and to all our supporters & volunteers.”

As we approach the end of the year, we keep our MSC brothers and the communities they serve in the Philippines in our prayers, particularly those families in Mindanao who are rebuilding and restoring in the aftermath of the storm.

Images via the Facebook page for the MSC Mission Office Philippines, Inc.
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Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 MSC Christmas Raffle!

MSC CHRISTMAS RAFFLE 2022

 

This year’s Christmas Draw took place on Friday, December 16th 2022.

We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone for taking part. 

 

Click here to read a special Christmas message from Fr John

 

Please note that the MSC Missions Office will be closed over the Christmas period,
from 4.00pm on December 23rd to 9.00am on January 3rd.
With warm wishes to our mission friends everywhere for a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas season.

 

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

 

 

A Christmas message from Fr John

Please note that the MSC Missions Office will be closed over the Christmas period,
from 4.00pm on Friday, December 23rd to 9.00am on Tuesday, January 3rd.
With warm wishes to our mission friends everywhere for a happy, healthy, and safe Christmas season.

Nollaig Shona dhaoibh go léir – Christmas greetings to you and yours! What a great blessing it is to write to you this Christmas, as we reflect on the challenges and triumphs of the year gone by, and look with hope to the new year to come.

2022 has been a special year for me, my first as Director of the MSC Missions Office. It is a particular privilege to be in this position and to witness first-hand the kindness and generosity of spirit of our mission friends and benefactors at home and abroad. The sense of unity and community is immensely powerful, particularly when extending to people at the other side of the world, to friends you will never meet, but whose lives have been and will be changed immeasurably because of the compassion of strangers in name, but not in spirit.

It goes without saying that recent times have been turbulent, and we all continue to face our own challenges, in our homes and as a society. Our organisation is no different; with each year that passes, we’re trying to do more with less, at a time when finances are tight for everyone and the people that need us, need us more than ever. It is a difficult balance to strike at the best of times, and with the current issues troubling our world, we are often facing an uphill battle. Nonetheless, it is thanks to you, our great mission friends, that we can continue to climb that hill and continue to do our best to help those in need. Without the slightest exaggeration, your support transforms lives, and because of you, many, many communities and families have hope where before there was none. Together, we can continue to make a difference.

Of course, Christmas can be a difficult time for many people; this year, it may be you, or someone close to you, who is dealing with loss, illness, financial difficulties, or personal challenges. To all who find themselves struggling for any reason this Christmas – my prayers are with you, and you will be in the prayers of our MSCs everywhere throughout the Christmas season.

May the spirit of peace, goodwill, and the Lord’s love fill your heart and your home this Christmas, and may God bless and protect you and your loved ones as we approach a new year. On behalf of our MSC community at home and abroad, I thank you once again for your friendship, and I pray that you will have a safe and peaceful Christmas, with an abundance of blessings to come in the year ahead.

Wishing you a happy and holy Christmas,

 

 

 

 

Fr John Fitzgerald MSC

Christmas at Croi Nua

Advent is well underway at Croi Nua, our MSC spirituality centre in Co. Galway, with a three-day Christmas retreat taking place from Thursday, December 15^th to Saturday, December 17^th.

The Christmas retreat will be led by Fr Patsy Kelly MSC, in preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ. This special time of reflection will take place at 7.30pm to 9.30pm each evening from December 15^th to 17^th.

The retreat session will take place in person in Croi Nua Spirituality Centre, while a Zoom facility is also available for anybody who would like to take part remotely.

In addition, all are welcome to join what promises to be a beautiful Service of Reconciliation, which will take place on Wednesday, December 21^st, at 7.30pm.

For more information, please contact Croi Nua Spirituality Centre:
Phone: 085 782 9855
Email: croinuacentre@gmail.com
Website: www.croinua.com

If you would like to join the Christmas celebrations online via Zoom,
please email croinuacentre@gmail.com to get the video link.

 

Fr Alan in South Sudan: Advent

It’s Advent in South Sudan, which means that everybody is busy with endings and beginnings. It is a beautiful time here right now, as the rains ended in October and the land is still green. We have been enjoying a time of relative security for the last few months, which has allowed us to harvest the groundnut crop in peace.

This week in Loreto Secondary School is taken up with the end of term exams, so all of students are diligently going over their class notes, working in study groups, and preparing as best they can. I usually go for a walk around 6:00am, as the sun comes up and before the heat of the day sets in. Already, there are students sitting under trees or in classrooms getting ready. However, this is nothing unusual. It happens right throughout the year. The girls know that education is their best way of ensuring they and their family have a better future. School is serious business.

It’s not so serious though that they can’t take time to have fun or get involved in important extracurricular activities. Last Friday, a group participated in a local government project around the rights of women. On Saturday, our Peace Club staged a roadside play in the local village. Before a group of the chiefs, families, and school children, they debuted their new drama on the need for peace in South Sudan. There was also poetry, traditional dance, some speeches, and plenty of laughter. It was the first time that they, as a group of young women, addressed the chiefs about their hopes for the future. The Benydit, or head chief, was delighted with the work and encouraged them to continue.

     

In the Primary School the kids have been busy too. Last week, we had a fancy dress competition, where kids created wonderful papier mâché lions and cows, along with weather conditions, mathematical symbols and shapes, fruits and vegetables, and traditional costumes. On Thursday, the focus was on arts and crafts, again related to their studies. They drew pictures of insects for biology, model villages and farms for citizenship, and the water cycle for general science. Everything was made from scrap paper and reused cardboard. Their creativity was extraordinary.

     

While things are winding down for Christmas in the schools, we are only getting started in the Rumbek Campus of the Catholic University of South Sudan. We have had a new intake of students for our degree programmes in English and English literature and in business administration. Right now, they are taking part in an intensive six-week course in English and maths to improve their basic standard and prepare them to begin their classes at the end of January.

It is an exciting time, because it is hoped that from this group we will have a new generation of well-trained secondary school teachers and business leaders. We are carrying on with our partial scholarship for women to encourage greater participation. We already have quite a few enrolled and a number of these are mothers who are returning to education, something that rarely happens here.

In addition, we are refurbishing our library and student centre. Previously, the building we used was dilapidated and bats were in the process of eating through the ceiling. The entire power supply came from an old solar unit and a couple of second-hand car batteries. The floor was cracked and pockmarked, although potholed might be a better description. As I write, the builders are putting in a new ceiling. Once that is finished, they will plaster the walls properly and we have sourced a durable, but inexpensive, tile for the floor.

     

Some may argue whether this is the most urgent need. However, education is the essential foundation of a country that, if done properly, will ensure development that is sustainable for everyone. It is about giving someone a rod, instead of offering them fish year after year. Our students make real sacrifices to be here, whether they are in primary, secondary, or third level, but with their energy, vision, and commitment the future is bright indeed.

Ben Nhialic areer kek a yin,
Fr Alan

Read more from Fr Alan’s missionary journey in South Sudan:

• Looking for a Sign on the Way to South Sudan
• Building a Better Future in South Sudan
• Christmas Greetings from Fr Alan in South Sudan
• A Cup of Sugar and Maybe a Goat
• Mock Exams and Real Life in South Sudan
• As Easy as Baking a Cake
• Holy Week on the Move
• Three Arrivals and a Party
• Celebrating the Missionary Life
• Seeds of Hope
• Young People Fighting COVID-19 in Rumbek
• Ticket to Ride
• Lions, Snakes, and the World’s Deadliest Predator
• Vaccine Status: Denied
• Christmas in South Sudan
• A Bigger Shovel
• A Week in the Life of Loreto – Bishops, graduations, an ambassador, and the Pope
• Sowing Seeds
• A visit from the MSC Superior General

PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN

 

Candlelight prayer at our Light Up a Memory Mass 2022

Now in its ninth year, our annual Light Up a Memory Mass has become a much-loved and highly anticipated tradition each year, since the first ceremony took place in November of 2014. This year’s candlelight memorial Mass took place on the evening of Saturday, November 26^th at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork, and was another beautiful evening of reflection and prayer in honour of those we love who have gone to their eternal rest in the Lord’s embrace.

Fr John Fitzgerald, director of the MSC Missions Office, celebrated this year’s Mass with Fr Con Doherty, new parish priest at the Sacred Heart Church. Despite stormy skies and November weather, the church was filled with mission friends gathered together in prayer; “there are more than two or three,” said Fr John, “and where two or three are gathered, the Lord is.” Fr John also welcomed everybody who took part in the ceremony by watching our live stream, which saw almost 700 people joining us in prayer in everywhere from Ireland, the UK, and Europe, to South Africa, New Zealand, and the United States.

“We are living in hope tonight.”

“Tonight is all about memory,” reflected Fr John. “It is about lighting up something in our hearts… To pray and to pray well, to pay our respects, to honour our dead, to remember their lives, to mark their death, and to mark the saving power of the Lord.”

“We are living in hope tonight,” he continued. “This isn’t a remembrance around a tree or by the sea or anything, it is here, on this extended altar tonight, where we remember the soul or the spirit that sheds its earthly body as a tree sheds its leaves. But death is not the end of existence, it is the cessation in this place, and we believe in the life hereafter.”

   

As the weekend of our Light Up a Memory Mass coincided with the first weekend of Advent, Fr Con took the time to light the first candle on the Advent wreath during the ceremony, as Fr John prayed that the light of Christ would light up our hearts and our lives throughout the Winter months, and that bridge of time between this and Christmas.

Reflecting on the inevitable changes that death brings to each of our lives, Fr John said, “I think that, heavier than shouldering any coffin, is the weight that the death of a loved one presses on us, or impresses on us – we miss them… We’re lost without them for a while… At times, we suddenly realise they’re not sharing a bed with us, they’re not sharing a table, they’re not sharing a kitchen, and that they won’t walk in the door any more. And that is so natural, but it is so painful, and that is what our prayer here tonight is – we’re lighting up a memory light here for healing, not to rush the healing or anything like that, or to get it away so that we can go back into driving down the dual carriageway in life without thoughts of them, but just stepping through life with them.”

“Lord, as we walk from this place, let us walk gently, knowing that you are with us.”

This year’s Mass once again featured a wonderful musical accompaniment from Gerry and Deirdre Tuohy, while Fr John’s homily incorporated a selection of poems and prayers, from Patrick Kavanagh to Seamus Heaney, each one a fitting reminder of the power of grief, of faith, and of love everlasting as he prayed for those we have loved and lost, and for those who have nobody to remember them at all.

Bringing the ceremony to an end, Fr John prayed for protection, grace, and hope on this sacred night: “Look kindly upon us here tonight, Lord, as we remember our dead. We pray especially for all our benefactors who contacted us through the Missions Office, who gave in lists of their dead friends and relations; we pray for them tonight. For the people here, Lord, who are the living voice of your word, who are takers of the word tonight back through the arteries of the county here, and through the arteries of the street… Lord, as we walk from this place, let us walk gently, knowing that you are with us.”

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all who took part in this year’s Light Up a Memory celebrations, in the Sacred Heart Church and beyond. None of us have been untouched by the challenges of recent years, and the grief that has accompanied us through these times, in one form or another. Our 2022 Light Up a Memory Mass was a very moving way for us to commemorate treasured memories of those we hold dear, while praying for healing and hope in our hearts as we navigate life without them. Sincere thanks to all who took part in this truly special evening of prayer, reflection, and fond remembrance.

Click here to watch a recording of our 2022 Light Up a Memory Mass
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New beginnings at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork

As we come towards the end of the year, so too do we mark the beginning of a new chapter for the Sacred Heart Parish on the Western Road, Cork, as we bid a fond farewell to outgoing parish priest Fr Tom Mulcahy MSC, and welcome Fr Con Doherty MSC as he steps into the role, accompanied by new curate Fr Des Farren MSC.

Having served the Sacred Heart Parish with a warm and generous spirit in recent years, Fr Tom stepped down from his role at the end of October, when Bishop Fintan Gavin celebrated the official induction of Fr Con, along with new curate Fr Des, on Sunday, October 23^rd, at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road. Fr Tom will remain a welcome familiar face, as he plans to continue with catechetical work, while we are delighted to welcome Fr Con and Fr Des in their new ministry in the parish.

A native of Thurles, Co. Tipperary, Fr Con joined the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1983, and was ordained by Bishop John Buckley in the parish of the Sacred Heart, here in Cork, in 1990. Since then, Fr Con has had a fascinating missionary journey, serving in St Alban’s Parish in the UK until 1995, before travelling to Russia to join his MSC brothers Fr Michael Screene and Fr Kevin Blade on our mission there. Fr Con remained in Russia for a decade, returning to Ireland in 2015, when he took up the role of chaplain in Cuan Mhuire in Co. Limerick, and there he ministered until his new appointment as parish priest at the Sacred Heart Church.

Fr Con gladly returns to the place of his ordination, some 32 years later, and is looking forward to getting to know our parishioners and mission friends together with Fr Des. Many of our regular website viewers will already have seen the new faces celebrating Mass on our daily live stream, while Fr Con also celebrated this year’s Light Up a Memory Mass with Missions Office Director Fr John Fitzgerald MSC, who introduced Fr Con as “our brand new parish priest – and an old warrior at the same time!”

It is with grateful hearts that we thank Fr Tom for his dedicated ministry as parish priest, and welcome Fr Con and Fr Des into the heart of a wonderful local community – and indeed beyond, as so many friends become part of our parish family daily through Masses on our live stream. Please keep our MSCs in your prayers as we set out on this new chapter together.

Images: Michael English
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