Still a missionary

By Sr. Therese MacDonald, O.L.M.
May/June 2008

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I think it was St. Irenaeus who first coined the phrase, “The glory of God is a person fully alive.” How do I show I am alive, living as I am with cancer and diabetes, and reminded of them each day as I swallow numerous pills for their control.

Courage is needed to age in “the golden years” that are not really so golden. But is it courage to grow old that I need or courage to change? Each phase of life has different challenges. If my memory does not delude me, my teenage years were anything but golden. Some ways of life are now passé for me but some are still relevant. For sure, my mobility is not what it used to be; my energy is lessened but still not too bad. The way I am needed in community is different. I now have very few assigned commitments, I am no longer buying international plane tickets, many of my peers who were so meaningful in my life are now in Heaven, others have taken their places. With modern technology, old duties are passing me by and I have had to learn new skills. Be this as it may, I still feel called to be a missionary. By striving to be fully alive, one can still be as much a missionary at 80 years of age as at 40.

I find food for thought in the well-known Serenity Prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr: “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” Life is still meaningful for me and hopefully for those I meet each day, as I live out this advice.

Older women often pray for many intentions. I do pray each day but that is not my whole life. Being a helper by nature, I am unconsciously on the lookout for ways of being needed. I learn new hobbies, I welcome and chat with visitors at our central-house, I try to take care of myself as best I can so that more active OLMs have time for their apostolates.

At a nearby community centre I associate with seniors of many faiths and cultures and have found this a challenging form of mission life. Without advertising that I am a Catholic Sister, I try to maintain a friendly, listening, sympathetic, and interested approach. One day someone shared that I was a missionary nun and those present expressed surprise, saying that they would never have guessed. They asked me questions about my life as a missionary, which I willingly answered.

A missionary I still am. And I have even been told that this may be my most successful assignment. Truthfully I’m enjoying living it. Fifty-six years ago I committed my life to God. Choosing to be fully alive is my way of being a missionary in 2008.

Sr. Lucy Lee and 13-year-old Jessica Sequeira, a top student in Sr. Lucy’s jewellery-making class in Fortaleza, Brazil.

The Joy of beading

By Sherri Bulmer
May/June 2008

Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors in Toronto has a very successful jewellery club that meets every Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The club started one year ago when Our Lady’s Missionary Sr. Lucia Lee offered to instruct jewellery-making (beading) classes. I thought it was a fantastic idea. Sr. Lucy had received inspiration and encouragement from patients at a cancer hospital in Fortaleza, Brazil, to whom she had taught beading.

While in Canada, Sr. Lucy taught beading to Sivasothy Velauthatillai (left), Lorraine Steele (right), and other seniors at Harmony Hall in Toronto.

Our jewellery club started with six seniors being instructed by Sr. Lucy and now, even after her return to Brazil, has grown to more than 30 seniors. In fact, Harmony Hall has gained new members because of the jewellery club. This program has also been a major success in integrating our three language programs of Tamil, Chinese and English. Despite differences in culture and language, members have been able to share new beading patterns of their own creation. I am so thankful to Sr. Lucy for inspiring the creative energy, confidence, pride, and new friendships I see in the members every Thursday. Sr. Lucy is still sending us project ideas from Brazil. I hope the people there taking part in her jewellery-making classes know how much they are helping the seniors of Harmony Hall.

Sherri Bulmer is the English Program Coordinator at Harmony Hall Centre for Seniors.

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