Maryknoll Sisters

It’s my great pleasure and privilege to welcome you to this interfaith prayer service in this Annunciation Chapel on the feast of the Annunciation. It’s most fitting that this service is being celebrated as an integral part of the centennial events for Maryknoll missioners. It’s fitting, I say, because Maryknoll’s mission is to cross borders – spiritual and religious as well as geographic – and to build bridges of friendship, mutual respect and understanding with the people we encounter around the world.

In fact, we the missioners are transformed by these encounters as much as those to whom we are sent. Our faith is enlarged, deepened and enriched through a mutual sharing of beliefs and religious practices – as we will be doing today.

The Shona people of Zimbabwe, with whom I’ve worked for almost 30 years, have many names for God. My favorite is Chipindikure – the One Who Turns Things Upside Down – Chipindikure. I have been turned upside down countless times by encounters with traditional healers in Zimbabwe with whom I worked in a project to protect the environment; I was transformed by participating in an ecumenical prayer group in Nairobi, Kenya (my first mission experience), which met monthly to reflect on scripture and apply its message to our daily lives.

Last year in South Sudan I was transformed as I witnessed the genuine efforts of Muslims and Christians to live and work together after almost forty years of war. There I met Fatima, a Muslim woman from the North, working at a Catholic radio station in the South. She told me that her goal is to promote unity in this deeply divided nation and heal the wounds of war. There are many like her, risking their lives to build bridges across religious and ethnic divides.

Every Maryknoll missioner – priest, Brother, lay missioner, affiliate or Sister – has similar experiences of being turned upside down by this dialog of life with people of many faiths and of none.

We are aware, however, that it was not always this way. Maryknoll was founded during an age of competition for converts. It was only with the advent of the Second Vatican Council that this changed but we know that there are still many places where competition is the norm and where outright hostility and even violence characterizes the relations between people of different faiths.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council which opened the windows of the Catholic Church to the world and to other faiths. It is the fourth anniversary of the Charter for Compassion. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. This prophetic document transcends religious, ideological and national differences. Initiated by Karen Armstrong, religious historian and author, it was created by leaders of many religious traditions in 2008. 

I bring this to our attention today because the Charter offers concrete ideas for building bridges between people of different faiths. It calls on each of us to adopt compassion as a guiding principle in our lives and to refrain from inflicting pain on others. It is based on the conviction that one of the chief tasks of our time must be to build a global community in which people and nations can live together in harmony and mutual respect. This task is more critical than ever in the aftermath of 9/11.

The Charter calls on elders to pass on to the next generation an appreciation of cultural and religious diversity.  It concludes with a call to cultivate empathy with the suffering of all human beings – even those regarded as enemies.

May this interfaith prayer service inspire each of us to put this Charter into practice in our daily lives.  May it lead to deeper understanding among us and encourage us to work together to heal a broken and divided world. Let us continue to cross borders and build bridges of mutual respect and understanding. Let us join hands and hearts to make our dream of a peaceful, caring and compassionate world come true!

 – Sister Janice McLaughlin, MM

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

 

This year on Memorial Day, I was greatly honored to light the Lōkahi Light on the occasion of the 13th Annual Lantern Floating Hawai’i Ceremony, presented by Shinnyo-en and Her Holiness Keishu Shinso Ito and sponsored by Na lei Aloha Foundation. The lights of the lanterns symbolize HOPE. They extend our gratitude to those who lived before us, allow us to reflect on the lives that we are blessed with and to offer prayers of love for others.

Each year more than 40,000 persons converge at dusk on the shores of Magic Island – Ala Moana Beach – Honolulu, Hawai’i, to witness the launching of 3,000 lit lanterns inscribed with the names of individuals who have gone before us. This tribute, honoring loved ones who have passed away, as well as victims of disasters, accidents and wars, is also reenacted by millions each year worldwide.

The Lantern Floating Hawai’i Ceremony brings us together, in one place, to give thanks to those who made a difference in our lives and to remind us of the importance of standing together — united with strength and courage especially when we encounter difficulty.

This year we have seen heartrending events unfold and many people lose their lives. In remembrance there was a moment of prayer for the people of Japan who were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as for those in the Middle East, Africa, United States, New Zealand and other places around the globe who suffered from natural disasters.

Poverty and diseases are widespread, and at times suffering and sorrow seem to cover our world. But rather than succumb to hopelessness, let us be brave and believe that no matter in what circumstances we find ourselves we know we are not alone. Pupukahi I holumua (“united to move forward”), let us propel ourselves toward a world of harmony and diversity through acts that give hope to all.

The theme for this year’s event was Diversity, Harmony and Peace. As I reflected on it I thought of the word RELATIONSHIP. The relationship between body and spirit is one but sometimes we separate the body from the soul. The body becomes identified with sin and the soul with God; the body with earth and the soul with heaven. I think it is important to make a conscious connection between the two in order for us to be in harmony within ourselves first.

We all know that peace begins with oneself. When we do not have a good connection with body, mind and spirit we create obstacles that block the flow of life from soul to mind to body. This is true about you and me. If we get past the split that cuts our souls off from daily life, our lives will be in harmony. When we experience peace within ourselves everything around us also experiences the same peace and there is a harmony.

Let us always keep the light of hope in our hearts. May our humble wishes for universal peace and harmony come together in tangible acts of goodness so that we can now realize a world of peace and harmony.

— Sister Bitrina Kirway, MM

St. Joseph’s Church in Lynn, MA, has six Masses on a weekend. The 4 pm Mass on Saturday, May 28, was dedicated to the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Ordination to Permanent Deacon of two members of the Parish. They were present with their wives: Mr. Finlay Chisholm and Mr. Larry McManus. It was a proper celebration with a catered lunch in the parish hall, and a lot of cake and food. May and Larry McManus also have a priest-son, Fr. Paul McManus, who was present and celebrated the Mass.

Most of the Masses were in Spanish, reflecting the neighborhood of the parish. Each Mass attracted different social and pastoral groups, and each group seems to make the parish their own.

Four Religious Brothers live with Father James Gaudreau, the pastor, in the parish rectory. They are a group called the Servants of the Word; their main work is to be formed in the teaching of scripture and visit the houses of the community in order to engage people in a discussion of religion and the Bible.

A group of Mexican Sisters also are very active with the youth and were present at every Mass. It is an amazing parish, full of life and movement. Father James was very accommodating to our Maryknoll visit, and gave enthusiastic introductions to the mission talks during Mass.

I said in my discourse that we Maryknollers are very indebted to the Boston Archdiocese because our two founders were from there: Bishop James Anthony Walsh and Mother Mary Josephine Rogers, and that if one day Mother Mary Joseph were to be declared blessed or a saint, Boston would have a native Saint. Father James countered afterwards that that will never happen since he would be the first Martyr-Saint of the Diocese, and everyone laughed (inside joke).

The people commented at the door that we do very “beautiful” work, which referred to my talk about the Sisters martyred in El Salvador. I said that after we overcame our own grief at our loss, we reflected that so many in the world and Central America are undergoing the same pain because of conflicts in many places in the world. I then gave examples of works by the Sisters to seek peace by studying the causes of the struggles and massacres: Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, and the places where conflict-resolution workshops are held in Africa, and the Maryknoll Sisters who participate in the Witness for Peace group, which goes to areas of sustained conflict and experiences firsthand the people’s fears and dreams: Palestine, Iraq, and Africa.

The Maryknoll Sisters bookmark I show at the end of each talk points out our website where they would find more stories and information about us, along with any inquiries for those young women interested in a Missionary vocation. I found the response very enthusiastic, and I have come away from Lynn with a feeling that our Latino neighbors are making a home here in our suburbs and spreading their warmth and Faith wherever they are.

— Sister Shirley King, MM