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India

Joy in Service

By Vissia Hernandez

The Missionaries of Charity is a Catholic religious congregation founded in 1950 by an Albanian-born, Indian Catholic nun who dedicated her life ministering to ‘the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for’ from the slums of Kolkata, India, to missions across six continents. In 2003, she was beaitified by Pope John Paul II as Blessed Teresa of Kolkata.

In addition to the religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, Missionaries of Charity take a fourth vow, to give ‘wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor’.

I was a bit hesitant and concerned as I began my interview with Sister Ligaya MC in the Missionaries of Charity’s Formation House in Tayuman St, Tondo, Manila. But an hour later, I came away blessed from a most inspiring encounter.

In June 1990, a car accident in Pakistan left the newly professed missionary from Davao severely brain-damaged. That Sister Ligaya miraculously survived and continues to faithfully and (like her name, the Tagalog for ‘joy’ or ‘happiness’) joyfully serve the poor, the sick and the dying, are testaments to the Lord’s Divine Mercy and the industrial-strength faith and devotion of her MC Sisters and their beloved foundress.

‘Sisters, your god is great!’

By Sister Bernardisa Pacis SSpS


Sister Bernadisa (2nd from right) with fellow SSpS Sister and their helper in their apartment

Sister Bernardisa, from Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, went to India in 1961. Her community of the MissionCongregation of the Servants of the Holy Spirit live in Kolkota (formerly ‘Calcutta’), near the motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity where the remains of Blessed Teresa of Kolkota are kept.

Service In Love Through The Years

By Sister Mary Florence del Mundo SSpS

A tiny seed planted as a dispensary in a suburb of Mumbai (Bombay), India, in 1966, became Holy Spirit Hospital in 1967 with 65 beds. It was then popularly known as ‘The Jungle Hospital’ since it was surrounded by heavy jungle. Today that tiny seed has grown and spread its branches, standing proudly as a modern, well-organized and full-fledged 280-bed general hospital, catering to the comprehensive health care of around two million people.

Martyrs Of Love

By Father Seán Coyle SSC

This article is based mainly on a report sent to the members of the Missionaries of Charity by Sister M Raphael MC, regional superior in Amman, Jordan, in 1998.

Sister Mary Michael MC was born Victoria Espejon in the Philippines on 21 September 1961. Along with Sr M Zelia MC (Pancratia Minj) and Sr M Aletta MC (Albisia Dung Dung), both from India and just a little younger, she was shot dead in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, in the south of Yemen, on the morning of 27 July 1998.

Drama Along The Ganges River

By Sr. Ching Madduma icm

Something beautiful is happening in villages along the Ganges River. It takes a Filipino to come up with something as noble as Sr. Ching came up with to help mentally handicapped people – these people who are quite normal in all other ways but mentally slow. As a result they have been relegated to a world of shadows. Sr. Ching has reinvented street drama to be performed by the people themselves in order to educate the populace to a more human attitude. Here we publish some photos of her pioneering dramas done along the villages of the Ganges River.

The Lame Will Walk

By Gee-Gee O. Torres

The great struggle to end anti-personnel landmines continues. Up to now, in spite of the campaign of Princess Diana, Pax Christi and a great number of Christian and to there group throughout the world, some countries continue to make landmines: Pakistan, India, USA, China. Below is an account of our Assistant Editor’s visit to Cambodia where she visited our Filipino missionaries and was faced with the stark reality of the effects of the landmines. (Ed.)

Before I went to Cambodia last year to visit our Filipino missionaries I had to finish laying out our March-April 2000 issue. I also had to edit the articles which I enjoyed doing, except for one: the articles on landmines. I quivered as I read the lines describing how landmines tore off the limbs of the victims. So I went to Cambodia not only with my unpleasant memory of the movie, The Killing Fields, but also with the uncertainty of my safety. I could step on a landmine by chance and lose my leg or... my life. Was I ready to take this risk? I had to make a decision. I decided to go.

For The Sake Of India

By Sr. Maria Ellazar fmm

India is a vast country with over 800 million people. When Sr. Maria Ellazar, fmm went there 30 years ago, she was overwhelmed by the different exotic cultures and the sense of uprooting which she experienced as she was assigned in new places. Her big fear was not being accepted. Now she looks back and sees all this as a gift from God.

In The Steps Of Mother Teresa

By Sr. Mercina, mc

Two years ago the world mourned the death o Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa has become a symbol of the care we ought o have for the abandoned the world. Her many followers continue her work; among them are three young Filipino women who have joined the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa and now live in Calcutta India.

There are three of us Filipino MCs in India. Two are in motherhouse (Sr. Pia and Sr.Jonamile); they came just recently. They are engaged in helping the administrative work. I am working with Adoption her in Shishu Bhavan, Calcutta, the biggest center among all our centers.

Mother Teresa Her Spirit still Lives on

By Fr. Niall O’Brien

Vocation within a vocation

A year ago, Mother Teresa of Calcutta died, this extraordinary woman was born in Albania which subsequently became the first officially atheist country in the world. They young Albanian woman joined the Loreto Sisters. She was sent to Ireland to train.

Dying in the Streets

From there she was sent to India to teach in a Catholic School run by the Loreto Sisters. That was were she found her second ‘vocation within a vocation’. When the young Teresa went though Calcutta she saw people dying right here along the streets. She began to try to help. However she soon realized that this was a full time job. So she asked to be releases from the Sisters of Loreto and to start a small group of Sisters who would look after the dying in the streets.

The Bareilley Club

An Old Colonial Building Used for a New Purpose

By: By: Sr. Concepcion (Ching) Madduma, ICM

Bareilley the Himalayans
Bareilley is a very old place. It is an unusual place, in crowded north central India, because this “city” seems satisfied and at ease with holding in its vast area only a small population of 150, 000 people or so. It is unusual, too, because it has become known as “little Punjab.” Many people from the strife torn areas to the north have “followed the railway” and have settled down here in the hill sides and lowlands south of the towering Himalayans mountain range.

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