MMM Blog
Mother Mary to the Sisters, Passion Sunday 1963
by Lisa Murphy MMM Archivist 10.04.2022
As we celebrate Palm Sunday, we look back at a letter written by Mother Mary Martin on Passion Sunday in 1963 to the Sisters in Makiungu, Tanzania. The MMM Archive is extremely lucky to hold many of the letters that Mother Mary wrote during her lifetime. Her words remain a source of inspiration and can be applied to many of life’s circumstances today.
What Sr. Cora Wall taught me
by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer, MMM USA 08.04.2022A few years ago, I was asked to watch a webinar about the works of The United States Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking. They showed four branches, Education, Communication, Advocacy and Survivor Protection. The Sisters who spoke were very enthusiastic about what they were involved in. I asked if I could please join the Advocacy group and was accepted. Little did I know what was involved! I had to learn the terminology used when contacting legislators about passing a bill which would help the men, women, and children involved in human trafficking. I did not realize how many men were caught up in forced labor in the sea food industry and little children lured from another West African country with a promise of education or be forced to work for long hours in the sun and use a machete to harvest cocoa beans.
Hospitality
by Sr. Ruth Percival MMM England 06.04.2022
When I was a child in the 1950s my family used to attend the local parish in Derby. One Sunday, we and the rest of the people were astonished to see two Nigerian men come in. We had not seen black people in Derby before.
After Mass, my Dad asked my Mum would we invite them to our house. Mum said, “of course”, and so Edmund and Anthony became frequent visitors, and even the bus driver would remind them of their stop. They wore beautiful, traditional dress and got to be known in our neighbourhood, especially at ball games. They were really good!
Edmund said he would pray that I would become a Reverend Sister one day and go to Nigeria! My parents kept in touch with Edmund until he died and then with Monica, his widow, until my Dad died.
Foundation Day
Sr. Jo Anne Kelly MMM Ireland 04.04.2022
One morning recently I visited Mother Mary’s grave. In need of some inspiration, I said to her “I haven’t written anything for a while, is there anything you want me to write about?”
Well, that very evening as I was just finishing my supper, Sr. Sheila came to me and said “Would you write something for Foundation Day?” I should have known that when Mother Mary wanted something done she wasted no time in getting it done.
Never too old
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 02.04.2022
Today my older sister celebrates fifteen years of marriage. Yes, fifteen, and she, like me, is in her seventies. This is her second marriage and today I just stopped and thought – it is never too old to take up a commitment, to fight for a cause that aroused us, to say ‘yes’.
Steps for Hope
by Sr. Margaret Anne Meyer MMM U.S.A. 31.03.2022
“Step by Step they go together until they reach the God of SION”. These paraphrased words of Psalm 84 helped me as a young Sister to navigate the joys and sorrows of friendship. I felt a more looking outward towards Jesus than inward to each other and yet we were together in the looking for Jesus. “To see and seek God in all things” as St. Benedict says.
Compassion
By Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 31.03.2022
I never learnt Latin, but knowledge of Latin is very useful when you begin to look at the word compassion. In English, it is often mixed up with pity. When I pity someone, I put myself in a position of superiority over the poor unfortunate who is not as well off or as healthy as myself.
Com – passion is different. ‘Com’ means we are in this together. What affects you, affects me. ‘Passion’ is more related to suffering. When you suffer, I suffer too. I think that is why a compassionate response to the Covid-19 pandemic is to vaccinate the whole world, not just my little patch of a country
Mother's Day Musing
by Nadia Ramoutar MMM Communications Coordinator 27.03.2022
Recently, my 13 year old threw up all over the bed and himself. High temperatures from COVID 19 had made him very ill and I knew as I got him to the shower that most likely I would soon have the virus too. Less than a week later, I did have it. My son fortunately was feeling much better by then.
I think this experience shows what motherhood is like for many women. There is no one type of mother and certainly expectations of mothers have changed over the years and in different parts of the world. There is no agreement on motherhood to guide us. In fact, Mother’s Day is celebrated at different times of the year in various parts of the world. In Ireland this year Mother’s Day is 27th March. In most parts of the world it will be in May.
Breaking Through
by Sr. Sheila Campbell MMM Ireland 29.03.2022
Isn’t this a wonderful picture? I was really taken with it when Sr. Kathie sent me this from USA. It speaks to the tough times of our lives. The times when we see only barrenness and concrete in our lives. Difficulties, problems, worries seem to dominate. And yet, look, life springs out of the crack.
Quick Community Action on Cholera
Inter-connectedness
by Sr. Celine Jones and Sr. Cecily Bourdillion MMM Ireland 27.03.2022
Hippocrates, in 400 BC, described a diarrhoeal disease which could have been Cholera. Since antiquity cholera was known to exist in the Ganges Valley, India. Pandemics in the 19th century resulted in its spread to the rest of India and then in southeast and central Asia, the Middle East and in East Africa. Until 1970 it had not appeared in Nigeria.
In 1970, we were members of the MMM community that administered Eleta Hospital on the outskirts of Ibadan, western Nigeria. Ibadan was the largest and one of the most populous cities of Nigeria. One evening when the community gathered in the sitting room after supper, Sr. Leonie, the Medical Officer in Charge, said she was really concerned about the cases of severe diarrhoea and vomiting she was seeing, presenting with severe dehydration. Could it be cholera?
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