by, Sr. Jo Anne Kelly MMM Ireland 06.07.2022
I like to do crosswords. A few days ago a clue I had was “to set on fire” and the answer that fitted was “enkindle”. I love that word enkindle. I learnt it first from the prayer we say to the Holy Spirit. “Enkindle in us the Fire of your Love”. It is a beautiful prayer. What would this world be like if we all tried to enkindle within us the Fire of God’s Love?
Everybody knows that love is the only thing that can make a world where everyone can be happy. It is the one commandment we have been given – to love. And yet our world is torn by violence, greed, abuse, injustice and every kind of selfish behavior.
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 04.07.2022
Have you ever watched a toddler learning to walk? You know the way they lift up their arms to be raised up and, while the parent is holding both little arms, the child will venture one foot forward, and then hesitate. These first steps are rightly celebrated by the parents. They are the first steps towards independence and growing up.
By Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer MMM U.S.A. 02.07.2022
As a child, I was always afraid of these Dragon Flies. Would they bite me? And now, at our Poetry Class, we studied them in full detail. The teacher, rushed to her phone to show us one. Most of us had never seen one, or else we needed a refresher in memory. We were all old enough to remember Lauren Becall, but had forgotten her descriptive dress of turquoise dots.
Could the head of an insect be that grotesque? I could just imagine the beady eyes rotating everywhere. How could it miss me? But I never got bitten.
The most amazing line was that the dragon fly was God’s Justice. God took a long time in the making of it. How could this be when the whole earth, sky and sea took place in a few days? Various theories were put forth, but none seemed satisfactory.
by Sr. Beatrice Iyioko MMM Angola 30.06.2022
Usually knocks at the door alerts us to the presence of a guest. This visitor may be someone known or yet unmet by us. They come with a request, a tale, news, or some information. This could be welcoming, good, bad, or rejected.
by Nadia Ramoutar, MMM Communications Coordinator Ireland 28.06.2022
My partner did not like tomatoes at all. He would always put them on my plate if we were out somewhere eating and hope I didn’t notice. He didn’t like little ones, or big ones, red ones or heritage loom tomatoes of varying colour. But then something changed. He started to grow his own tomatoes and he started to eat them. He then started to grow little ones and big ones and tomatoes of every colour. He started to tell me how delicious the little golden ones were and how I should try them!
Nothing tastes better than food you grew yourself.
By Lisa Murphy MMM Archivist Ireland 26.06.2022
In order to draw attention to the health and environmental benefits of cycling, the United Nations has designated the 3rd of June as World Bicycle Day. They state that cycling ‘is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation, fostering environmental stewardship and health’. Here in the MMM Archive I have come across numerous references and images which are a testament to how valuable bicycles have been for MMM over the years.
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 24.06.2022
When Mother Mary Martin was in her early sixties, she wrote to one of the Sisters: “The great thing is to learn from our failings and not be discouraged. This discouragement is a subtle form of pride.” I was thinking about this recently when I was planning some work for later this year and feeling discouraged and downbeat at the prospect.
by Sr. Helen Aherne MMM Ireland 22.06.2022
Have you ever thought you were younger than you really are and feel?
Just lately I was browsing through the recent MMM internal newsletter and saw my name and the date – 3 OCT 2022. It was a list of all the Sisters who were celebrating their Diamond Jubilee this year. Diamond – that means sixty years since I made my First Profession of Vows.
No, that can’t be me, I thought. They have made a mistake. I must write to them. Then I looked at the other names. Oh, my God, I knew them all. They were all my contemporaries. I re-read all the names again and it slowly dawned on me that the editor of the newsletter was correct. Sixty years have passed.
by Sr. Bernadette Fadegnon Rep. Benin/Brazil 20.06.2022
Sr. Bernadette wrote this poem to celebrate Mothers Day which falls on different dates in the year, depending on the country. In her home country, Republic of Benin, it falls on May 29th. In Brazil, her local community offered a special Mother’s week of celebrations which included massage and refexology.
Dear Woman, dear Mother,
I celebrate you with a gentle touch
knowing very well that you are emotionally weighed down,
and you silently cope with it all.
by Sr. Prisca Ovat MMM Kenya 18.06.2022
As a postulant of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, I first grasped the concept of lifesaving from the moment I was needed for blood donation to a dying mother of a set of twins. I thought of myself as a heroine until I realized that it was nothing extraordinary as two others also donated at the same time.
But something incomprehensible happened then. A young American doctor volunteered at the time when someone needed a few pints of blood to live on. From the very charity and compassion of her being, the doctor donated blood this the purpose it was needed. What happened next shocked everyone. The recipient vehemently declined this transfusion, on the basis of, “A white’s blood cannot properly mix with a black’s blood”. “What is the difference?”, many of us asked. Although, medically stating, there are some unique protein structures of the red blood particular to certain races, but this has no effect on donors and recipients provided there is blood compatibility.
As a health worker in areas where religion cannot be compromised, blood donation often possess the greatest challenge when life has to be saved. This is the case of worshippers of the Jehovah Witness. As their faith teaches, no one must seek to sustain their life by another’s blood and accepting a blood transfusion is tantamount to drinking blood-according to research. How a dying patient is saved after declining a transfusion decline will not be discussed here within this topic.
In this month of June, which celebrates World Blood Donor Day, the World Health Organization raises a global awareness which highlights the critical contribution of voluntary unpaid blood and blood product donors. For them, several women suffering from bleeding associated with childbirth, severely anemic children, person with blood disorders, victims of trauma and others have been effectively managed. Thanks to everyone who has ever been privileged to donate blood. Many others would but for their health status.
We reiterate the 2022 slogan as thus: “donating blood is an act of solidarity, join the effort and save lives”.
