by Sr. Sheila Campbell, MMM                                              Ireland                            22.04.2026

Cardinal Cushing (1985 – 1970) was a contemporary and great friend of Mother Mary Martin. The son of Irish immigrants he entered the priesthood in Boston MA and as a young priest expressed the desire to be a missionary. This was not the wish of the current Archbishop, so he accepted this. But his whole life was marked by his interest in mission and missionary societies. While he was Archbishop of Boston, he helped Mother Mary with the building of the International Missionary Training Hospital in Drogheda.
Below is a prayer he wrote, first published by MMM in 1965.

“Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.

Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.

Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory.
Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep.

Teach me the art of taking minute vacations – of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat to a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines from a good book.
Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise, that I may know that the race is not always to the swift, that there is more to life than increasing speed.
Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.”