Maryknoll Sisters

The last couple of weeks, our sacred scriptures spoke about the “end times” and described apocalyptic scenarios.  And if we look at what is happening in our world, such prophecy is taking shape and at times, they seem to overtake our lives.  Yet our inner call is not of despair and passive yielding to powers that are overwhelming. 
 
Here at Maryknoll, New York, nature obliges us insights about our inner longings with the display of changes in all that surrounds us.  Trees yielded their golden fineries and now stand bare in the winter sun. The birds even rarely perch languidly in their branches. They too are stirred to do their journey south.  The fields have been harvested and darkness envelopes us early.  We live in a household that is readying itself for the long and sacred silence….hibernating, resting, sleeping, waiting….still and quiet postures that bring forth dreams and visions of days to come, for new birthings to new life.

Advent is here!  It is our making time to be alert, to be watchful for and to be of hope to that which is innately present in us, Emmanuel, God-with-us. The one whom we constantly seek and yet, is always the sacred presence who came as a gentle wind and as a gentle babe in a manger. Our call is to stay awake for the sacred promise that is within us and coming to us, even in the most terrifying moments of our life experiences:  God’s bounty of life and love, of providence and compassion, of mercy and justice are always present in our midst.

What does Advent, the gift of Emmanuel, look like in our relationships…with those for whom we care: children, parents, spouse or significant other; in the service we give at work; in our faith community; in the healing of our earth?

Let’s enter into the adventure of finding God in the midst of our household….

• in our compassion for those who are deeply challenged to be well;
• in our holding each other in our hearts as we forgive and ask for mercy;
• in the solitude of communing with nature;
• in our being a plain and ordinary neighbor…..to  welcome a stranger in your community,  receive  someone deemed different,  assist an elder or anyone in need, laugh with someone who is lonely, dance the playful rhythms of sounds in our neighborhood.

It is in this household where God always dwell! Let’s be Advent. Let’s make God’s kin-dom come.

Maranatha! Lord, Jesus, Come!

Blessings of love and peace,

 – Sister Rebecca Macugay, MM

Fall is good time to pause and give thanks, says Sr. Virgeen Healey.

Fall is in the air but, today, the colors have not yet peaked.  In our cloistered court,  flowers are still beautiful, but while taking my walk down to our Maryknoll Sisters cemetery, I felt a nip in the air.

It is a good time to pause and give thanks to God for Life. Every growth-stage of each living thing reflects uniqueness. In the silence of my stroll, I felt a deep Peace. I am mindful that during these troubled times, in every nation, we are called to experience Peace through reflection on the life within us and around us. 

Saturday will be the Maryknoll Sisters International Bazaar. Each year people come to see and purchase products from the 25 countries in which we work. As they travel here,  along the many roads leading to the Maryknoll Sisters Bazaar, the trees will have peaked with full color and will “season” the joy of those journeying to Maryknoll, NY.

If you are close enough to come to Maryknoll, watch the road and drive carefully so that Peace and Joy can fill you, as you experience the love of God, expressed in  all Life around us at this fall season.

 – Sister Virgeen Healey, MM

Come… walk with me. Maryknoll is beautiful in every season and this spring is no exception. I’d like for you to join me as we walk around our yard here at Maryknoll, NY.

Let us think of ‘Resurrected Life,’ as New Life and our call to go out to every creature of the world, in the Name of our Risen Lord.

This is spring 2011 and it is easy for me to recall that my first spring at Maryknoll was in 1945. Having lived ten years in Guadalupe and the United States (in Stockton, CA), and 48 years in the Philippines, there were many springs here that I did not see. Today the birds are singing and there is a certain magic to the day…to Life.

Welcome to Maryknoll!

This tree (right) was planted after I came to Maryknoll. There has been a lot of living since then.

We have a Garden of Beatitudes at the right side of the entrance to our house. There are graves here that predate the time that Maryknoll moved to Ossining, NY, 99 years ago.

The Stations of the Cross were carved by Sister Marie Pierre Semler. It is a prayerful garden.

Our sideyard is seen from Ryder Road and Pinesbridge Road. This is the same road but the name changes between our first entrance and the Main Entrance.

It was during my novitiate that the Lourdes Shrine (left) was built by Mr. Kato. Mother Mary Joseph requested him to live here at Maryknoll during World War II rather than in the camp where the Japanese were required to stay. During his stay, much of the natural beauty of Maryknoll was developed. It is said that Father Thomas Frederick Price, co-founder of the Maryknoll Society, frequently prayed where the shrine is now located.

I believe that the whole of Maryknoll is holy ground, but especially our cemetery, which gives witness to an eternal Peace and Joy Spirit. Mother Mary Joseph Rogers is buried here, together with many of the other members of Maryknoll in Heaven. The ‘world-shaped’ structure near Mother’s grave and the statue of Our Lady of Peace holds the names of the Maryknoll Sisters who have died in their Mission country. (Maryknoll Sisters are buried where we die.)

All around the back portion of our buildings is forest. Ecology, respect for creation, is important in our lives and reflected in the present beauty we are experiencing. I’m sorry that you cannot hear the birds, as I did when I took these pictures, but please let your imagination complete the picture.

Also at 10:30 each morning, a chime echoes three times. This is our Peace gong, as our silence is prayer for peace in all hearts that have the power to bring Peace to the World.

May we walk or journey together with many throughout the world, always respecting the season to provide opportunities to be refreshed in the newness of life.

Walk on….

– Sister Virgeen Healey, MM

Today, the Maryknoll Sisters community honored Sisters marking their 75th, 70th, 65th and 60th jubilee year as women religious missionaries. Sister Rebecca G. Macugay gave the welcome reflection at the Eucharistic liturgy.

Good morning! Welcome to this special and joyous occasion in our Maryknoll community.

It is said that all of us are made of stardust. Each of us is a particle, a glimmer of that burst of mysterious Love that brought forth all of Life. The ongoing development of science, spirituality and other disciplines that are about the promotion of life confirm and affirm this truth and reality. Early on in Maryknoll, Mollie Rogers intuited this noble light that is within us and her reflection about it portrayed her sense of cosmic wonder!

“Each of us has seen her own Star and had the grace to follow it. That is the secret of the foundation and growth of our Congregation, for our Stars, a vocation to the mission apostolate, led us all to Maryknoll.”

Today, we celebrate you, our Sister Jubilarians, our stars. Your hearts and souls deeply resonated with Mother Mary Joseph’s articulation of the beckoning for each one to be a reflection of God’s Love.

This wise insight of Mother Mary Joseph, our founder, has socialized and nurtured us in our Maryknoll community. We have come to value that inner light within us as gift and blessing, as presence and spirit which we desire to share with others “to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Seventy-five, 70, 65 and 60 years ago, you responded to this holy and enlivening call to a new way of being in service and relationship through Maryknoll. With faith, perseverance, trust and a spirit of adventure you followed your Star to Africa, Asia, Latin America, the island countries, and places here in the United States, where with surprising and starlit clarity, the peoples with whom you lived and served gifted you, in return, with their own lights of hospitality, friendship and community.

The mission of Jesus is a journey of meaning which you faithfully embrace and your commitment has molded you into “contemplatives in action” with your:

– devotion to beauty and wholeness;
– widening circles of friendship;
– attendant listening to the mystery of suffering;
– awe in new learnings;
– compassionate solidarity with those in need;
– graceful living of advancing age; and
– child-like curiosity on what else has “God in store for us”

We give thanks and celebrate you, whose lives embody the awesome mystery that we are. Your faithfulness is a tribute to our spirit. Your lives continue the legacy of Mother Mary Joseph. As reflections of God’s love, “The love of Christ cannot be confined; like the flame—our love must expand or it will die,” – a nobleness we carry and pass on that enkindles nobleness in others.

Today is an occasion of praise and joy. Let us together give thanks to our God and enjoy the day.

Welcome Tom McDonell, MM, and thank you for presiding at this liturgy.

– Sister Rebecca G. Macugay, MM