by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM                                          Ireland                         18.08.2024

I come from Belfast in Northern Ireland. But like so many of the people of my age, seventy-plus, the original family home is long gone. What makes home for us initially is where we were brought up, where we lived with our parents.

Now that my parents are dead and my brothers and sisters scattered around the globe, the question has often surfaced for me “where is home?”  MMM life is not conducive to “nest-building”.  We have a saying that Mary went in haste to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, in the Gospel, and when Mother Mary took the Visitation as an inspiration, we have been “going in haste” ever since!  Certainly, when we go to a new mission, we know that we will be there for a certain period of time but must always be ready to move on when the need is greater elsewhere.

And yet the question continues.  We all need a “home”.  Home is the place of security, the place where we can be ourselves without pretence or fear.  We are known and are accepted as “belonging”.  All this is important for our development and our functioning as adults in the wider society.  So, what happens when the old “physical” home disappears.  Either we resolve the issue by establishing a new home, as many young couples do when they marry, or as in my case, as a religious sister, we establish “home places”.

For me these are places/situations where I have felt free, able to be myself and feel that warm acceptance.  As I am writing, three places stand out for me.  The first is County Donegal where I had many early holidays and Irish language learning experiences.  I feel a freedom in the wildness of the landscape and yet the home feeling in chatting to the local people who are “The salt of the earth”.  The second “home place” was a convent in upstate New York where I spent a year in a rest and renewal experience in my early 40s.  I was totally “burnt out”, and the love and care I received from the Sparkhill Dominican Sisters there put me back on my feet, and that love has stretched out to me over the years.  The third “home place” is Brazil.  I began my Brazilian life when I was 27 years old and left it when I was 68.  I began in the southeast and ended in the northeast.  But just each time I landed back in the airport I knew I was coming home.

Isn’t it great to have “home places” that we can treasure in our hearts, no matter where we are in the world!  I encourage you to think about your own!