Sprinklings of Joy

by Nadia Ramoutar       MMM Communications Coordinator         25.10.2022

In answer to the question is the glass half full or half empty, people give answers based on the way they see the world. For many of us, the world can be a disappointing place as we see more instances of violence, famine, drought and despair. If we work in the Mission realm, we do so with faith that things can and will improve. Often though, we are not able to show up in the world consistently without being a realist. I have come to the place in my life where the glass is what it is.

Sometimes I am asked if I am optimist as I plan new campaigns for charity or events. I feel the term carries a certain judgement with it. I may be wrong but it feels that pessimism is not only a drag for the person but for everyone they encounter. You may have read Viktor Frankl’s incredible book “Man’s Search for Meaning” about his experience in the Holocaust. It is one of the most powerful books I have ever read – and I have read a LOT of books.

In it he points out that the people who fared the worst in the concentration camps were the optimists. As a result of his time there he later developed a theory that through a search for meaning in life, people can endure and overcome suffering, Frankl also says that people cannot pursue success or happiness, it is an unintended side effect of a personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

As we face challenges in the world that are unprecedented due to Covid 19, the War in the Ukraine, rises prices and costs in the world and the environmental impact of the climate crisis we could easily lose heart. But, we can be uplifted by Frankl and other people who faced conflict like Mahatma Gandhi that our role on the journey to peace brings value.

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”
Mahatma Gandhi famously once said. It is almost naïve to think that humans will not have conflict somewhere when they have for thousands of years without fail. So what remains is the cultivation of our ability to cope.

One of the great resources in coping is the collaboration with one another. What might seem overwhelming for one of us can be addressed by many. We are fortunate to have a great team in the MMM Communication Department and we tackle projects that could easily overwhelm us as a team. I think that the ability to cope comes from confidence we can have in those closest to us.

Perhaps we cannot solve all the worlds’ problems, but we can do what we can do. Along with other like-minded people we can do even more. I love the phrase “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Somewhere on the path as we seek answers we may be rewarded with sprinklings of joy to reward our realism.

By Sr. Cecily Bourdillion  MMM             Zimbabwe/ Ireland               23/10/2022

I had reached ” home” in Harare, Zimbabwe, coming from our mission in Chiulo, Angola, to enjoy a holiday with my brother.  Chiulo is near the Namibian border, so we used the airport of Windhoek, capital of Namibia, for our outward journeys.  I was called to the telephone.  It was the Travel Agent in Windhoek, apologising as they had to make a change to my return flight.  Words to this effect were used: ”We are very sorry but would you mind us changing your route on the return journey and stopping at the town of Victoria Falls?”  I drew a breath of excitement and replied: ”Not at all”.  My brother put a note in my hand and said: ”You must visit the Falls.”

My holiday came quickly to an end as all holidays do, and then I was on the plane returning to Namibia. The first stop was the town of Victoria Falls. In my youth I had visited the Victoria Falls – one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Here the Zambezi River, the fourth largest river in Africa, plunges 108 metres into a gorge and continues its 2,700 Km journey to the Indian Ocean. Dr. David Livingstone, missionary and explorer, was the first European to set eyes on this wonder in 1855 and he named them after the reigning English monarch, Queen Victoria. Out of respect for David Livingstone who did so much for the local people, the name was never changed. As we approached the Victoria Falls, I recalled my last visit there with my parents – now deceased. I had sat on a tree trunk not far from the precipitous edge, facing the Falls to absorb the beauty and grandeur and praise God.
I heard an American voice call: ”Hey Sister, don’t fall in there!” Perhaps I had fallen asleep and was nodding!

The aeroplane was flying low preparing for landing. Suddenly I saw ”the smoke” – the smoke that thunders – the name given by the natives – ”Mosi-Oa-Tunia.” The spray of the falls rises into the air like smoke and can be seen far and wide. My heart jumped with joy, excitement, and awe. We landed for a three-hour stop. My brother’s note in hand I disembarked and called a taxi to take me as near to the Falls as possible and arranged with the driver to call back after two hours.

My heart soared and my feet seemed hardly to touch the ground as I walked towards the ”smoke that thunders.” The path took me through the rainforest – one place in the world where it rains every day because of the continuous spray from the Falls. I had my umbrella! So overjoyed was I that I smiled and greeted everyone I met on the path. Then the thought came to me that I was perhaps being too familiar, so I decided to try to contain my joy a little! Then I felt a tap on my shoulder – the pharmacist whom we knew in Namibia was visiting with his family!

I found a seat in front of the Falls where I could view the 1,708 metres wide expanse of water gushing over the edge into the gorge, the turbulent waters white and frothing sending spray up into the air. The sun shining through the spray left a beautiful rainbow spanning the Falls – a reminder of God’s Covenant of peace. I then made my way to the end of the Falls where one is able to get very close and from the side watch the waters fall into the ‘Boiling Pot’, a gorge of writhing, seething, bubbling water.

I tried to take in, to absorb some of this awesome, beautiful, heavenly part of God’s wonderful creation – and then gazed in wonder and reverence. With all the love and praise that my poor human heart could muster I gave glory, praise and thanksgiving to God, the Creator.

The time flew by and soon I was making my way back to the taxi and the airport, revived in body and soul by this wonder of Creation!

by Sr. Chinenye Lumenze  MMM              Nigeria            21.10.2022

What inspires every decision and move I make in life is my belief that everyone has a right to experience a happy life. Hence, My vision: That all people live in welcoming communities that provide friendship, mutual support, equity and opportunities for everyone to realise their dreams and be the best version of themselves.

But how can this happen when a significant proportion of the world population and more in Africa continue to experience gross poverty, deprivation and hopelessness. How can people stimulated, inspired and motivated to take actions that can improve their living conditions?

Social media in the past decades, has played and crucial and significant role in the dissemination of health and wellbeing-promoting information that has brough hope and inspiration to so many people globally. Studies indicate that these platforms are widely accessed by many people. Today, different social media platforms continue to offer global information coverage with measurable data to evaluate the impact of the information from public comments, views, and questions. Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and so many others are working to transform lives through the opportunity they provide for people to access information that is empowering them with much awareness and knowledge of what is going on around them and what they can do to acquire skills and better their lives.

The impact of social media information impact is well evidenced in Zaffe, Eleta, Abuja and Itam in Nigeria, West Africa. People knew that services that met their health and family challenges were available, they knew they could be helped, and they made an effort to seek the help they heard about, saw and received. How wonderful!

However, studies have indicated that the largest population of the people in Africa still dwell in rural areas with little or no access to radio, telephones, internet and electricity. Question is how can these people be reached? Hence, in spite of the measurable impact of social media, the need for face-to-face dissemination of information in rural area, even in the urban areas where although considered to be developed still constitutes a large number of people with very low income who are unable to access food, proper shelter, education and other basic needs of life. This situation is also evinced in our different missions in the world.

There are also people across churches, mosques and schools who, particularly in Africa may not have internet access, phones that support social media platforms and electricity.

Also, cultural, ethnic and language diversity everywhere also calls for the need to translate information to meet these human diversities and offer everyone the opportunity to learn, know and improve self.

In conclusion, social media, despite its downside, continues to make a significant impact through the opportunity it offers for information sharing, knowledge acquisition and improved health and wellbeing in communities. When we give people factual and true information, we alleviate their ignorance, and give them the opportunity to make right choices and decisions.

 

Editor’s Note: Sr Chinenye has just researched and recorded a new way of reaching families. The online educational series we have embarked on is to create increased awareness on family significance in society and to invite people to watch it, share it, know and learn more about the Medical Missionaries of Mary and support our work. The series can be seen on our Youtube website: HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/CHANNEL/UCZLIUQXX-RIJQXRWB3AIHFA

by Sr. Sheila Campbell   MMM          Ireland      19.10.2022
The other day I was on the phone listening to a woman who was sharing about her present difficulties in an interpersonal relationship. I listened as best as I could, but inside me I knew this woman was strong and was well able to work out the direction to take. What she wanted from me was not advice, but a sense of companionship, of nearness, of having a friend in a time of trouble and doubt.

Inside of me I just wanted to hug her. I couldn’t, of course, because she was at the other end of the phone! But it made me value even more the sense of touch. I think that is why God gave us a physical human body. We need to use it, to reach out and touch people. I began to think about the times in my life when human touch was so important.

It began with my parents, of course. I still remember the sense of safety, security, and warmt h I felt being held by my father. He did a lot of my “mothering”! But it continued up through my awkward teenage years, first flirts, student life and then learning in my nursing training about the importance and reverence of touch in dealing with patients.

It is only recently that I have begun to value that touch, itself, has a healing quality. We can convey feelings and emotions through a hug, a stroke of the hand, even a handshake. The other side of the coin is that physical touch can also be negative as in domestic violence. Sometimes we are so aware of that, that we can forget the simplicity of touch. And, of course, touch needs to be consensual and between adults. We need to protect our children from negative experiences of touch.

But coming back to the positive side for a moment. Who does not remember being welcomed somewhere with a big hug? Or congratulated on passing an exam or reaching some other milestone? A hug can convey so much more than words or speeches. I was lucky enough in my life to be assigned to Brazil where human touch is valued and normal. Both men and women will greet with a kiss on both cheeks. Children will come and climb on top of you if you let them.

So today I am just so grateful to God for the sense of touch. The next person I meet on the corridor – look out – a hug is coming!

by Nadia Ramoutar     MMM Communications Coordinator             17.10.2022

Not a week goes by that I don’t feel honoured to read the stories of our MMM Sisters at work in the missions.  Today, I have reviewed a large amount of stories about girls and women who are sex trafficked and traded.  It is hard to keep reading sometimes.   But, I know I am fortunate that my work as the Communications Coordinator brings me in to direct contact with how our MMM Sisters are spending their time making the world a better place for so many people.  For busy Sisters at work in the Mission report writing is part of their life and has to be fitted in between caring for other people.  I know this can’t be easy as they are tired and their time is in demand for other important work. I realise my ability to know these stories is a blessing.

When we receive reports of what is happening in the Missions, I often find myself in a state of mixed emotions:
Gratitude to the Sisters for their efforts and for taking their time to share the stories.  Overwhelmed, for some of the harsh conditions the Sisters are working in and for challenges facing the people who they seek to empower.  Admiration for the courage the Sisters show in the face of adversity coming to them in many forms often all at once.  Concern for how there is so much to be done for so many by so few.

Stress comes over me as I try to find ways to tell the Sisters stories to the Western world, far removed from such a harsh conditions.
Guilt hits me as I think of my lifestyle and how much I have already.  Anger often rises in me as I think of the children growing in such hardship because of the geography of their birth.  Anxiety hits me as I realise how much work we need to do within a budget and schedule.  Relief then reaches me as I realise I do not have to do this alone – I am part of a team here in my office, here in this Congregation and here in the world.

The swirling of emotions that comes from working with Missions probably explains why more people don’t do it because it is not for the faint hearted. One of the important traits I see in the MMM Sisters, over and over again, is resilience.

I lean into this awe I have for what does actually get done by the MMM Sisters and I think of how important it is for us to keep telling stories about the work. It is all about the work of sharing how important it is for us to care about people in the world who are most vulnerable.

We honour people by telling their stories and giving them an audience in the world through print media and digital media. People have the right to be heard and for others to know them even if they will never meet in person. A writer and poet I greatly admire who overcame great adversity in her life, Maya Angelou, once said: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.”

We have the honour of sharing the stories of girls and women who would never be known.  Those who have been sex trafficked or traded, those who have painful childbirths that cause them to lose their baby and have massive wounds, those who are starving and have no clean water for their families, and those who are struggling with unknown illnesses in need of care and a kind word from a compassionate person.  Our MMM Sisters are hearing these stories day after day and do what they can to elevate the physical, mental and spiritual pain that other people carry.  We are committed to do whatever we can to support them.  Thank you, for supporting us on this journey.  I am reminded of the phrase, “there is no them, only us.”

by Sr. Eilis Weber MMM          Ireland           15.10.2022

Why do you stay in Religious Life? What gives you hope?

Those two questions perplexed me, as I remembered my teenage hopes and dreams and how the idea of becoming a religious frequently passed through my head. Initially, I ignored it, as I had more important “ambitions” in my mind.   I became a nurse, acquired my own car and a transistor radio — all luxury items in those days — then realized that I had reached the pinnacle of worldly possessions but suddenly felt empty.  The nagging reminders of religious life persisted, becoming more insistent, until I decided at age 26 to give it a try to get it out of my system (and then to get on with my real life!).

In my missionary order’s formative years, we learned we were following Christ in his healing mission by focusing on the health of needy people. We were called “to go in haste,” as Mary did at the Visitation (Luke 1:39-56), and to care for people in places where the needs were greatest. All of this was grounded in our ever-developing relationship with our God of endless love and mercy.

I have done this to the best of my ability for the greater part of 55 years, called and challenged to work in a war-torn country, tending to huge numbers of wounded soldiers and civilians in our hospital, training girls and boys to be nurses and laboratory technicians, all where it was our privilege to bring hope and courage to a people suffering war fatigue and despair.

In all of this, the Lord has been present to us, strengthening us and guiding us in all our interactions.
Now in the autumn of my life, my community and I are to be a healing presence, a powerhouse of prayer, far removed from a war situation. We reach out to the many suffering people with whom we come in contact: refugees, people experiencing homelessness, asylum-seekers, victims of violence.

For us, hospitality is a priority, touching those affected and welcoming them, both physically and by telephone. We are actually in the process of setting up an intercultural initiative to help in the inclusion of people of different backgrounds.

Recently, a couple who attended the funeral of one of our deceased sisters sent us a thank you for the warm welcome they had received and described our community as an “Isle of Tranquility.”

With the Lord’s help, I hope to continue to contribute at this level to our suffering neighbours.

First Published: Global Sisters Report, Sept 2022

by Sr. Cecily Bourdillon MMM              Ireland            13.10.2022

I was privileged to first meet Mother Mary Martin, Foundress of the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM), in my home country, Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. One day I received a phone call. The caller was an MMM who said that Mother Mary Martin was at the airport and would like to see me. Mother Mary was travelling to South Africa with Sr. Anne Moran and Sr. Maura O’Donogue and had a stop at Salisbury on the way. On the balcony of the small airport, my family and I sat and drank coffee with Mother Mary and chatted.

My father had met Mother Mary many years before, in 1939, two years after the founding of MMM. When on leave from his post as District Commissioner in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, -he had been asked to look for Sisters to come and do medical work. On a visit to Ireland, he had been introduced to Mother Mary. She had no Sisters to send at that time, but promised to in the future, if the Bishops requested. Many years later, when I shared with my father my desire to be a missionary, he wrote to Mother Mary.

On the return flight from South Africa back to Ireland, Mother Mary and Sr. Maura spent a few days in Salisbury and we welcomed them to our farm. As always, Mother Mary showed care and interest in all around her. Mother Mary invited me to Drogheda, to “come and see”.

I arrived in Drogheda on 1st May 1960 and was received as a postulant. We were blessed and privileged to live under the same roof as Mother Mary in the Motherhouse in Drogheda. Although often away, when she was at home Mother Mary prayed with us in the Oratory. Often, when I was cleaning the corridors, Mother Mary passed by on one of her many visits to the hospital and she would stop and ask how I was. She gave me words of encouragement.

When I studied at University in Dublin (UCD), I was one of about thirty MMM students living at Rosemount in Booterstown. We wore secular clothes and rode bicycles in keeping with the regulations of the Archdiocese. Mother Mary would often call in and speak with us.

Mother Mary loved driving and she was our driver when we returned to Drogheda after a holiday in Killybegs, Co. Donegal. It was a long journey and we chatted and prayed between the silences.

In 1962, Mother Mary received the First Vows of our group of seven. MMM was celebrating its Silver Jubilee. Mother Mary was in our midst at the celebrations which included the production of a play called The Pageant, words about Mission from Scripture and set to beautiful music by Mr. Patrick Murray and enacted by MMM sisters under the direction of the famous Irish, South African born, actor Cyril Cusack. Sisters Monica Clarke and Maura Ramsbottom also had important roles in this production.

It was a joy to welcome my parents to Drogheda when they came from Rhodesia for my Final Profession in 1968. By this time Mother Mary Martin’s health was deteriorating and she needed nursing care. We no longer had her in our midst but my father asked if he might speak with her which he did. He was obviously deeply moved by the encounter – his third – after many years.

I was assigned to Nigeria in 1969 and from then on relied on the postal services coming from Ireland to bring us news of Mother Mary. We shared in the pain of her last days from a distance. On 25th January 1975, God called Mother Mary Martin home after her long illness. We came to know of the deep mourning of the people of Drogheda who loved Mother Mary Martin. They had supported her and MMM so generously. They had honoured her with the Freedom of the Town of Drogheda and now revered her and paid tribute to her as they laid her to rest.

Thank you, Mother Mary Martin, for your fidelity to God’s call which brought about the founding of MMM – and for inviting me.

I give praise and thanks to God for my 60 years in the MMM family with my most wonderful, loving, caring MMM sisters.

by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer  MMM             U.S.A.                  11.10.2022

At last, I found you! These were the words of greeting as Sister Madeleine Le Blanc met me in South Station in Boston. I had not known my mother had phoned Winchester to tell them I had left on an earlier train, so I had gone to the counter to buy a sandwich. I was happy to be found and then whisked off to the beautiful novitiate grounds and large house which was the MMM novitiate in the USA. I loved all I saw and was grateful for the peace enveloping me. It is good to be here. At that time there were eight novices and four postulants who were to be received into the novitiate on March 17th. I do not remember much of the first day except two more postulants arrived in the evening. Both were originally from Ireland, and I thought it would be good to get to know them and hear their stories. Eileen Ashe had left Ireland at aged fifteen and had worked as a nannie for a Jewish family. She loved the children very much but felt called to religious life, two years later. Her older sister had known Sr. Damien Driscoll and when they both visited one day, Eileen told Sr. Damien that she wanted to join the Columban Sisters. Sr. Damien said “Why don’t you come here? So, she did and there she was. The second young woman, Margaret, was older and came at 19 years. She was excellent in all she did and was continually praised by the novice mistress, Sr. Margaret O’Conor. Little did we know that her boyfriend continued to call every day wanting to know when Margaret would leave. She gave it a good try and left seven months before Profession.

Thank God we had an easy introduction into the postulancy. Bishop Fulton Sheen was on television that evening and we three postulants joined the others to listen to him. I thought we would never watch television again I was beginning to feel at home

We were gradually introduced to take on some house duties. The novices were soon to go on retreat and to ease the strain another older novice, Sister Andre Brow, took us out to play in the snow. We had fun that week but following the retreat conferences, we joined in with all the other novices in arising early in the morning to shovel a path for the priest to come up our long driveway to celebrate Mass. I always loved these frosty mornings. The evergreen pine branches glistened with snow, and it was noticeably quiet and peaceful. Coming from high school, I was not used to demanding work or getting it done in a certain time. We tried. One of the novices told us to go to the Sister in charge for ‘elbow grease’ to get things done faster. This caused some laughs, but we plodded on.

Three weeks later I was asked to accompany a senior novice, Sr. Balanid Tardif, to Lawrence MA for a vocation exhibit. I was busy memorizing where our Missions were at that time, Angola, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania. ANUT, was the reminder. All I remember of the meeting was that I met Mother Kevina, of the Franciscan Missionaries of Africa. She was their Mother Foundress and I felt very honored to be in her presence. She looked at me very earnestly and said, ‘Many a night I went to bed crying What is the use of it all”? I thought these were strange words to be telling me, but I kept them in my heart and eventually did experience it years later on the Missions. It always brought me to the Heart of Jesus to do for His people what I could not or failed to do.

That summer we wanted to produce a play for our novice mistress feast day. It was to be about the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. All went well until one of us took a fit of laughing and the play ended unexpectedly. We did better the next time and that is how it was. Trying and failing to get things right and then starting all over again.  I loved the house cleaning because it was a mansion and had beautiful rooms sometimes carved in wood. The outdoors was just as beautiful, and the spacious lawns needed constant attention. I loved raking the leaves. We did not have much money despite the grand house we were living in, so we received a lot of food from the government like cornmeal, beans, and sometimes ice cream and day-old pastries, The Sisters made vestments for selling. We had a shop for these and religious articles. Other Sisters mended holes in sheets for a cleaning company.

Altogether it was a happy time. For recreation we would take long walks in the countryside or play softball up on the hill where it was level and used to be a tennis court.
We were learning to pray. We studied the catechism that we had in high school, and I wondered why I never saw the beautiful things written there, Why did God make you? This was the first question in every catechism since the first grade but never did the answer mean so much. God made me to love and serve Him in this life and to be happy with Him in the next. Yes, this is what I wanted to do with my life and bring as many people as I could with me by loving and serving them too as a Medical Missionary of Mary. Soon it was time to write to Mother Mary for permission to be received as novices. It was such a thrill to get her reply. Yes dear, you are getting ready to be a Spouse of Christ. I was incredibly grateful. I will continue with how the novitiate was in my next blog.

by Sr. Celestina Aganyi  MMM       Nigeria/Kenya            07.10.2022
I am a third-year nursing student. As a foreign student, studying at Daystar University, Nairobi, life has been rewarding although not without challenges.
Besides being a peaceful, calm and accommodating people of all tribes, nations and races, my three years’ study experience in the medical sector in Nairobi, Kenya, has been worthwhile with great insights. I love my midwifery experience!

Clinical experience is an essential component of education for the development of competent midwives. Mine was quite memorable as I developed a passion for welcoming and caring for both mothers and babies. I was in Pumwani Hospital between the 3rd of January and the 8th of April 2022 for midwifery and neonatal clinical experience. The Pumwani Maternity Hospital is a pioneer in the provision of maternity care in Sub-Saharan Africa. Working with a team of staff vast with student relationships created more opportunities for learning and growth while at the antenatal, postnatal, neonatal unit and labour ward.

At Pumwani Maternity Hospital, we conducted a minimum of seventy deliveries per twelve hours shift. The bed space was usually insufficient due to the increasing numbers of women coming to deliver. My responsibility as a student midwife was to provide care and wait patiently for the mothers in their different stages of labour, which often takes a natural course and one can only see the hand of God in the creation of new life. Irrespective of the pains and agony experienced by mothers in the first and second stages of labour, the smiles on the faces of the new mothers following the birth of their newborn were often quite consoling. The stress of a midwife following this procedure also vanishes at the delivery of a healthy baby and a healthy mother.

However, my heart sank at the conditions of birth and the aftermath of the women in Pumwani. The alarming poverty and struggle experienced by families to raise these children is often heartbreaking. Besides being a student, I often assume my responsibility as an MMM Religious and use the opportunity to educate these mothers on various ways to attain self-sustainability. I am grateful for the past experience I gained from working with women while on mission in Abaja community, Nigeria.

As I gradually come to the end of my clinical rotation, I feel grateful and equipped to provide loving care to mother and child. Knowing that this is a vital aspect of the MMM Healing Charism, is very exhilarating for me.