MMM Blog
Healing Charism with the Elderly
by Sr. Noeleen Mooney, MMM
Ireland
The Healing Charism is a gift I have been given. It comes with responsibility.
It involves
Coaxing – that those who feel they can’t, because of age or infirmity, may discover that they can, with just a little help. Can I give it?
Compassion – when ears don’t hear, and news and views become distorted and entangled.
Can I untangle, gently?
Patience – with slowing minds, hesitant steps and much repetition of phrases, stories, experiences.
Can I listen with the ear of the heart?
Accompanying – long hours in Emergency Departments or waiting for hospital appointments. Here reassurance is of paramount importance, especially in the face of the unknown or the painful.
Can I sit quietly, yet be fully alert?
Being watchful – for the glasses that go astray; for the book that keeps moving; for the puzzled look that might indicate a wrong floor or room. For a forgetting of where I was heading or even who you are. Can I smile, redirect, reassure and just be there?
Will all this help me in my declining years?
Thankfully that is shrouded in mystery, and the unfolding is a day-by-day gift of life at its most vulnerable yet most precious.
“You want to be Christ’s disciples: then do not count the cost…. Nothing, even death, can separate you from Him in whom you are rooted and founded.” MMM Constitutions.
Fog
by Sr. Sheila Campbell, MMM
Ireland
This morning I went out walking at my usual early time. It was still dark, but that wasn’t the problem. What hit me like a wet blanket as I opened the door was a dense, misty fog. I immediately remembered the fogs of my childhood in Belfast.
Memories of the MMM
Guest Blog by Paul Brian Campbell, S.J. U.S.A.
19/10/2021
I was 11 years-old when my sister Sheila entered the novitiate. We visited her in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary as a postulant and I remember my little brother and I causing something of a stir as we strolled into her dormitory to see her at bedtime!
Mother Mary Room
by Sr. Joanne Kelly, MMM Ireland
15/10/2021
There are times when I seek a place of real solitude, a quiet place to reflect and pray. In fine weather this is easy to find in our lovely garden amidst the God-given beauty of nature. In the cold dark days I go to the Mother Mary room in our house. This is a beautiful room which portrays in script and pictures the story of Mother Mary Martin, the founding of the Medical Missionaries and the beginning of the hospital known as Our Lady of Lourdes.
A Time Apart
by Sr. Noeleen Mooney, MMM Ireland 07/10/2021
To have a value on our lives, silence and solitude must at some time be experienced and found to be worthwhile, or even vital as a way of gathering our inner forces to respond to what life’s journey and our God asks of us.
Maasai warriors in Tanzania have a remarkable way of going apart, and I was once privileged to observe how they go about it.
Journeying in Africa
by Sr. Cecily Bourdillon, MMM, Ireland 07/10/2021
When I hear Sister Justina Odunukwe's name I think of an unforgettable journey in 1973. Sister Justina is now the Area Leader of West Africa.
At the time, I was stationed in Ikot Ene in southeastern Nigeria; the MMMs had established the rural hospital there in 1959. Though only 12 miles from Calabar, Ikot Ene was remote, for to reach it there was a river to cross in a canoe or a pontoon for vehicles. The alternative route to Ikot Ene was by road, detouring 40 miles through dense rain forest; a long and tortuous journey. Our nearest MMM neighbours were our community in Anua. To reach Anua we would cross the estuary formed by the Calabar and Cross rivers - an hour's journey in a motor boat but a three-hour extended journey on the large ferry boat that had to navigate through deep waters.
Key Lesson learnt from my ministry or life as a Sister
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM, Ireland 07/10/2021
One of the key lessons I have learnt from my ministry as a Sister is to be flexible. Life is constantly changing and I have learnt to weave my way through it, trying to respond as best I can, to the needs of the local people of God and to my community. At times I have struggled with some assignments I have been given. For example, I trained as a nurse, but I do not like hospital nursing! Yet I spent three years as one of only two trained nurses in a rural hospital in Brazil because I knew it was the need at that time. I knew I was in the right place.
Read more: Key Lesson learnt from my ministry or life as a Sister
Mother Mary and The Laundry
by Sr. Jo Anne Kelly, MMM 07/10/2021
I like to take an early morning walk and in the bright mornings of spring and summer usually go to the nearby graveyard which is directly opposite Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and where all MMM sisters who have died in Ireland are buried. The gravediggers had deposited the excess soil down along the side and made a bank of soil. Weeds grew quickly.
Protecting Children
by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer, MMM U.S.A. 07/10/2021
Children have always been very precious to me. When I returned from Africa where I had cared for sick children for over
thirty years and saw how lovely they are, it surprised me that anyone could even think of molesting them? God seemed to be shining out of their enchanting eyes.
This love of children, perhaps came from the care I gave my younger brother, Albert. I was ten years old when Albert was born, and I cared for him as if he were my own child. We were inseparable and I took him everywhere with me and when I entered the convent at seventeen, he felt abandoned. I did not realize this until later. I loved the family visits and after Profession of First Vows, I went home for ten days before traveling by boat from New York to Ireland. This was in 1958, before jet engines were discovered and it was much cheaper to travel by ship than to fly.
This Journey was Unplanned
by Sr. Prisca Ovat, MMM 07/10/2021
Returning to my first mission, I found myself taking up the responsibility for the palliative clinic. This was a new adventure, and with so much energy, I plunged into work head-on. I never saw what awaited. At first, the activities went on smoothly. Then, the apostolate began to manifest itself through a series of deaths. I witnessed the departure of three patients within one week. As I struggled to come to terms with this painful reality, a young lady in her early forties, who dropped out of school due to her illness, was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. At this point, I lost it. My first reaction was to quit the job.