by Sr. Sheila Campbell, MMM Ireland 20.03.2022
We are in a different ball park from two years ago. Here in Ireland most of us are vaccinated and boostered against Covid-19. And yet – after two years of being very careful, finally it has come to our house here in Drogheda. It is not as devastating as the initial months of panic when, with no vaccine, people died. But no one wants Covid. To be honest, I am even sick of the name and I will scream if I hear any more statistics.
“I understand birthdays now!” The new Dad was celebrating his son’s first birthday with his wife, with me, and with the three other grandparents. The baby looked at the lit candle on the birthday cake and smiled too. He didn’t know what was happening. He just knew that he was surrounded by six adoring adults. We were thrilled to be celebrating his first year of life. “It’s amazing to think that two years ago he wasn’t with us, and now he is here, one year old.” We all pondered the truth of this statement. Where was the baby before?by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 17.03.2022
Today is the Feast of Saint Patrick, a great missionary of the 5th Century. In some sense, having always grown up with “Saint Patrick” in our lives, we tend to take him for granted. But recently I have been turning to Patrick and looking at him as a young man, called to transmit God’s love to a people who were not at all interested. How did he do it?
by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer MMM U.S.A. 15.03.2022
Recently I was asked “What is it like to be on a protest march?” Here is my answer. So often, the feeling of hopelessness comes over me when I hear the cries of suffering people. What can I do? I am so small and the need is so great. Did Jesus feel like that in the Garden of Gethsemane? Did Jeremiah and the prophets want to hide like Jonas and not deal with where God was leading them? What happens? Jeremiah says God put a fire in his belly and it would not go away.
Somehow God leads you to likeminded people who also want to do something. This happened to me after a retreat. A Sister came up to me and asked me to join the Boston Coalition of Sisters against Human Trafficking. I was overjoyed and at the same time wondered how I could contribute.
By Sr. Keresifon Clement Ekanem Republic of Benin 13.03.2022
She walked into the Clinic (one of the Clinics I worked after my training) emaciated with wrinkled skin, looked weak and breathless, accompanied by her mother who looked exhausted too. Other patients were excused and Patience (not her real name) was received as an emergency. Her name and other data were taken; she looked older than her age. Several laboratory analyses were run on her as well as physical examination. On the long run, it was discovered she had a terminal illness and an umbilical hernia. My goodness, is this not a case for a Teaching Hospital? I thought to myself but I knew that the Doctor was going to accept her, if he does accept her then God will have to perform a miracle in this Clinic. In fact he did admit her and God worked a miracle.
by Sr. Prisca Ovat MMM Kenya 11.03.2022
Here she is called Mama Kemba, Mercy, 85 years old. She was referred to us by one of the palliative caregivers (Esther). The latter had, alongside others, received a couple of training on identifying, reporting and assisting palliative care patients within their communities. Mercy lives with a son and a daughter who are rarely sober, leading to her neglect. She also suffers from a terrible breast sore of gory sight and unbearable stench.
by Vera Grant AMMM Ireland 09.03.2022
It wouldn’t have been hard to identify the grandparents waiting at the school gate. We stood apart, not knowing one another and wrapped up warmly with masks intact. The young mothers near us with babies in slings or in prams were bare footed in their ankle length leggings. The babies were jogged up and down or idly pushed in their prams as the mothers stood in small clusters, chatting and laughing.
by Lisa Murphy MMM Archivist 08.03.2022
The issuing of the Constans ac Sedula in 1936, enabled MMM Sisters to undertake pioneering medical work. Throughout the history of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, there have been many women who have devoted themselves to particular causes and one such MMM was Sister Mairead Chambers, known in her early years as Sr. M. Visitation. Sister Doctor Chambers would go on to dedicate much of her life’s work to alleviating the suffering of patients with Hansen’s disease (leprosy). Born in County Clare, Mairead entered the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1940 after finishing school. She was one of the first MMM’s to qualify as a Doctor at University College Dublin in 1947. Her first assignment upon qualifying was to assist Doctor Joseph Barnes at the leprosy settlement in Ogoja, Nigeria. The leprosy scheme had begun just two years previous in 1945 after Bishop Thomas McGettrick enlisted the help of Dr. Barnes and the Medical Missionaries of Mary to undertake this vital work. Sister Doctor Chambers writes in the MMM Magazine that ‘Prior to 1945 there were no facilities for the treatment of the thousands of sufferers in Ogoja division’.
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 07.03.2022
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. So today I want to tell you part of the story of Sr. Nina Underwood MMM. I say part of the story because recently I read her account of being kidnapped by guerrilla fighters during a bloody civil war. But we will let that part of the story sit for another day.
By Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer, MMM U.S.A. 06.03.2022
When I last wrote to you about the meaning of Advocacy which I learned from Sister Cora Wall MMM, I also remembered the very beginnings of the founding of our Mission in Ogoja to those suffering from Hansen’s Disease as Leprosy is now called. Three Sisters, Theresa Connolly, Sr. de Lourdes Gogan, and Sr. Philomena Doyle travelled by lorry from Lagos to Ogoja in 1945. The distance was over five hundred kilometers. What must it have been like for them travelling over bumpy dusty roads for that length of a journey?
