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?
By Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 05/03/2022
Isn’t it cheating a little bit to say you are walking for Lent when actually you do go out walking most days? These thoughts were in my head when I set out to start the MMM Steps for Hope 2022 Lenten Campaign. Well, I thought to myself, if I make a pledge to do something I still have to do it, especially on days that are raining, and days when I just want to sleep a little bit later.
by Theresa McDonnell Friström, AMMM Ireland 03.03.2022
When I unexpectedly walked in the funeral procession of Fr. Mick Reynolds, CSSp, from Kimmage Manor to the Church of the Holy Spirit in Dublin one Monday morning, something strange happened. Firstly, I was the only woman. Secondly, I felt I was in holy space; and thirdly, I felt I was representing the very many people around the world and those predeceased who were helped and graced by that intelligent, wise, and unassuming man.
The list of Mick’s beneficiaries includes Medical Missionaries of Mary.
Creative Fidelity
by Sr. Brigid Corrigan MMM England/Tanzania 01.03.2022
The urgent call from the ‘high dependency ward’ came early in the morning. Along with others, I made my way to find a young boy, Sospeter, 15 yrs of age, in a deep coma. Swift examination, resuscitation and essential laboratory tests revealed that Sospeter was in a diabetic coma. Diabetes and other non-infectious diseases,were appearing in Tanzania at an alarming rate in the 1970s and 1980s. As Medical Missionaries of Mary, our medical work was constantly changing.
By Sr. Sheila Campbell, MMM Ireland 25.02.2022
One of the questions I am asked, often if not frequently, is “How did you know you wanted to be a Sister?” Well, the truthful answer – I always knew – is not very helpful so I went around all my colleagues to see if I could come up with a better answer.
by Sr. Cecily Bourdillon MMM Zimbabwe 23/02/2022
Not long after my arrival at Zungeru Rural Health Centre in Northern Nigeria, I was called to see a young woman who was bleeding to death having been bitten by a snake. We were unable to give our patient a blood transfusion nor had we anti snake venom serum to administer. All we could do was to refer our patient to the general hospital in the nearest town, Minna, and hope that there she would receive the treatment she needed.
This patient was the first of many patients I would see bleeding from a snake bite – the bite of a Carpet Viper.
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 21.02.2022
I am now in my seventies and in recent years I have found myself drawn again to doing jigsaw puzzles. I think it began when I had a period of forced inactivity from work due to medical reasons. But no matter how I started, I am now well and truly hooked! After our evening meal I usually go to the table with another two or three Sisters and spend an enjoyable hour piecing a puzzle together.
by an unknown MMM author – undated 19.02.2022
A Chinese riddle asks which is better ‘a teaching, a story or a greeting?’ The answer given is a greeting. Why we may ask: To greet is to bless, to bless is to greet, to greet is to expect a response. Every greeting has elements of anticipation: will I be welcomed, will I be included or will I be rejected and perhaps excluded?
by Vera Grant AMMM Ireland 17.02.2022
We waited, we prayed and we hoped the outcome would be the same. The same in that Rayan, the five-year-old Moroccan boy would survive as had the twelve Thai boys and their coach, trapped in an underground cave some eighteen months earlier.
I say ‘we’ to include my family, neighbours and friends who living here in Ireland felt so connected to those in a far away land keeping vigil for the safe return of a small boy who had fallen down a well.
