Welcome.

As we gather to celebrate the Silver Jubilees of Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia, I welcome you to the Cathedral of St Patrick & St Felim here in Kilmore Diocese, the foundation place of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary by Bishop Joseph Shanahan in 1924.

I welcome, Sr Franca, Congregational Leader and all the members of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, their family members, friends and co-workers. 

In welcoming all the Sisters, and all of you who have gathered, I welcome, Bishop Emeritus, Leo and all the priests who are here to celebrate the Silver Jubilees of Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia – in all 100 years of service to the Lord. 

I welcome especially, Fr John, cousin of Sr Angela from Idah Diocese and Fr Patrick from Nnewi Diocese who has just arrived to take up his ministry here in the Cathedral Parish.

Homily

Today, we celebrate the Silver Jubilees of Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia whose vocations to religious life with the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary go right back to their families and their childhood.  That factor is given expression in the words of Jesus in our Gospel this morning, “you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and revealed them to infants:”.  Your vocations had their roots in your families who in previous generations were of course evangelised by missionaries from Germany, Britian and Ireland.  We are celebrating missionary endeavour through the generations that has crossed borders. 

In our Gospel we hear that all was handed over to Jesus by God the Father.  In the same spirit, Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia you have given over your lives to God in a holy exchange that is of the mystery of the relationship between Jesus and God, our Father.  Each of you has been privileged with a calling, a vocation to religious life, a grasp, a sense of what the disciples seen in Jesus.  Indeed, Jesus alerted the disciples to what was happening for them, they were to be his disciples, he being the Son of God.  We hear Jesus say, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see”.  Therefore, we rejoice in what we see, in what we celebrate in the vocations of Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia. 

We celebrate your commitment to religious life as you each mark 25 years as Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, as you Renew your Vows, today, 100 years of generosity.

We are familiar with that which was unique about the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, Bishop Joseph Shanahan.  He saw all things in terms of God.  He had an ‘inwardness’, ‘like a lamp that was burning within’ and he was described as ‘Christlike’.  Bishop Shanahan, did not keep that just to himself as he spoke of ‘the life of God in you’, of God’s life and God’s presence in the soul, very much in the spirit of our second reading from Ephesians.  Bishop Joseph Shanahan impressed people as a most holy man[1].  He had the soul of an apostle[2].  The charisma of his personality was rooted in his time spent in prayer as he sought guidance from God in accord with his motto, “Lord, that I may see you”.  We give thanks for all the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary who, inspired by Bishop Joseph Shanahan, have seen the Lord in their lives, in their families of origin and who have come to devote their lives to the Lord.

Today is a day when we can recall all that inspired Bishop Joseph Shanahan to found the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary.  It was his conviction that God is within each person, and in the African people.  Bishop Shanahan in seeking to found a female missionary congregation was especially concerned initially for the girls and women of Nigeria.  It is a need, that is global, which continues to be addressed by the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary in your work of capacity building, nurturing of the dignity of the human person and of raising the profile of women in society.  The primary focus of Bishop Shanahan on education, in particular on religious education, in setting up schools in villages, later developed into the foundation of teacher training colleges, as well as diversifying into primary health care, social development and pastoral care throughout Africa and beyond.  The outward missionary work by you sustained by the Good Lord continues, inspired by the mission of previous generations to you. 

Indeed, you, the African born members of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary, like the African priests among us, are on mission among us here in Ireland.  Yes, you face the challenges of a different culture, a real challenge, as the Irish missionaries of a previous generation did in your part of the world.  However, now you, with your joy in the Lord, can inspire and encourage us as Church in Ireland to be missionary here in Ireland.   Here, in Ireland, we are now of a minority who are actively participating in the life of the Church.   As that minority we are now called to be missionary, to engage with the culture of post modernity, its preoccupation with economic progress alone, i.e., building the Tower of Babel.  Together, we are on a journey, to find the words, the language with which we can engage with the world and be able to speak into the world of its origins as created by God.  We are here together for a purpose which is evolving before us.  May your joy in the Lord reawaken our joy and may our grasp of the real challenges before us guide our mission together. 

We are all missionaries, who as conveyed by Isaiah in our first reading, are called to rebuild Jerusalem by being ‘messengers who announce peace’ in our troubled world.  Pope Leo XIV in his recent Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas focuses on protecting human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence.  Pope Leo contrasts the illusion of the Tower of Babel being built by humanity with that of our calling to restore Jerusalem, the city of peace, to be built with God’s help.  It is a calling to all of us in this our global village where the ends of the earth are now so near and immediate.  The reality is that our mission is challenging, is difficult, yet we can be full of joy in being called today, to be witnesses to the salvation of our God.  Today, we celebrate the links between Ireland, Nigeria, and Cameroon beginning with Bishop Joseph Shanahan, the Sisters in Killeshandra, Cavan as well as the mission of the MSHR throughout the world.  “We shout together for joy” in accord with Isaiah, our first reading.

Our responsorial psalm captures that joy in anticipation of God among us, in our hearts and in our souls – How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord God of Hosts.  We rejoice that we find our strength in God to form communities of the new Jerusalem, places of peace which are of our Magnificent Humanity which is in fact frail humanity sustained by God’s grace.  We are not magnificent by our own efforts or achievements.  We are totally dependant on God, on that hidden strength which reveals God’s love as proclaimed by St Paul writing to the Ephesians.  Therefore, we are not full of ourselves, rather filled with the “fullness of God”.  And so, we grasp the glory of God, “the riches of God’s glory”.

We congratulate Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia.  We acknowledge your respective roles within the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary as Bursar, Secretary, Development Officer and Regional Leader on sabbatical.  We give thanks for your commitment, Sr. Lovina, Sr. Mary, Sr. Angela and Sr Eucharia.  We are grateful for the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary and for all the Sisters who celebrate Jubilees this year.  We give thanks for your missionary work, for your presence among us here in the Diocese of Kilmore.

I conclude with the words of Bishop Joseph Shanahan reminding you, and us to be forever missionary and conscious of the challenges before us and of our dependence on the Good Lord.  Bishop Shanahan speaking to the first seven Postulants in Killeshandra stated, “There are before you, as before all missionaries, suffering and trials.  But remember….you are beginning a new Sisterhood in Christ.”[3]  We depend always on God, as captured in the phrase from our Morning Prayer today, “Be with us as the cornerstone of all that we build: for we can do nothing well without your aid.  Lord, help us as we work.”[4]

[1] A Man for Everybody by Sr Edith Dynan MSHR, Veritas (2001) p.89 – the impression of Dr. J.K. Gregory, a Protestant doctor who attended to Bishop Shanahan on his death bed.

[2] Ibid, p 47 – the words of Fr Leon Lejeune, Holy Ghost Superior General 1905.

[3] Launch out into the deep (Lk 5:4), The challenges of the Foundation Decade 1924 1934, Catherine M Hally MSHR, Messenger Publications (2021), p.26

[4] Prayers and intercessions, Morning Prayer, Saturday, Week 26 in Ordinary Time.