Vision
“Rooted in Christ with the dynamism of Mary our Mother, we respond to our prophetic call, to build a harmonious society of justice and love bearing lasting fruits.”
Rooted In God
For a plant to grow, remain fresh and bear flowers or fruits it needs to be in the soil (water) from where it draws the manure, water and the minerals needed for its growth. These things are brought to the plant through the roots which are spread out in the soil. The deeper the roots are gone into the soil, the stronger the plant remains and are unshaken by the wind that may blow. The purpose of the plant is either to bear flowers, or fruits, or to look beautiful with its beautiful appearance or to give good wood etc. The plant is given the capacity to achieve its purpose.
If the plant is separated from the soil it will dry up and die. It needs to be constantly in the soil to achieve the purpose for which it is created.
Human beings are created to know God, to love him and to give glory to him by bearing fruits in abundance and lasting fruits. “it is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples” John 15:8; “I chose you and commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last”. John 15:16.
The fruits the Lord wants us to bear are the fruits of the Spirit: Gal 5:22. It is impossible for us to bear all these fruits in our lives without the help of God. We need the power of God. God’s power will flow to us if we remain united to God just like the branch remains united to the plant and let the sap to flow to it from the plant. We have to remain rooted in God just as the plant is rooted in the soil. All that we need for bearing fruit we will receive from God/Jesus. We have to let our roots go deep into God so that the qualities of God can flow into us. Our root is our mind. The mind sets itself on God by sending its thoughts to remain on God and his qualities. The longer we remain pondering on the qualities of God manifested in Jesus during his public ministry and desire those qualities they will flow into us and take root in us. Thus all the qualities we wish to possess we transfer from God into us and finally we become laden with fruits thus letting our lives give glory to God.
To make the union with God easy, make use of the morning prayer/meditation. As you pray the hymn, psalms or the canticle or read the Word of God, pay attention to what you are saying and ponder over the word/phrase/sentence. In this you will have a message for the day. Share it aloud so that others can hear and receive inspiration. If nothing strikes you, read again and pick up something that makes sense to you and do the same. After everyone has shared once again from what you pondered over pick up just a word or phrase which you will keep repeating and pondering again throughout the day as often as you can. This will help you to be in touch with God and gradually help you bear fruit.
Prophetic Call
Our call to build God’s kingdom/harmonious society is a prophetic call. We are today’s prophets. A Prophet is one who stands in between God and people, bringing God’s message to people and people to God. The prophet has to listen attentively to God and communicate to people what God wants to communicate to them. She has to be very much attuned to God so that she communicates exactly what God says: therefore a great capacity to listen to God.
Prophets are also people who will not be easily accepted by people. Because often what they communicate is what people do not want to hear and so they will be criticized, persecuted, and so will have to face suffering, loneliness and will have more enemies and less friends. But God’s power will help the prophet to accept any situation and to face any challenge in life if she turns to God trustfully.
Mary, Our Example
To know what we become when we are rooted in God, it is enough to look at Mary. We can look at some examples in her life. From the childhood Mary was offered in the temple and so she spent her time in the temple reading the sacred scripture and praying while pondering over God’s Word. By the time she was engaged to Joseph she was so rooted that when the angel announced to her at the annunciation that her cousin Elizabeth was with child since six months Mary understood immediately the situation in which Elizabeth was. So she went in haste to Elizabeth’s house. Her sensitivity was hundred percent sharp because of her rootedness in God. She was able to feel the feelings and needs of Elizabeth. As we keep looking at her life we see that she received all the qualities of God in full measure, all because she was rooted in God. If we become rooted in God what happened to Mary will happen to us.
Mission
Born to respond to the needs of mission ad gentes, the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians is primarily dedicated to the missionary apostolate. The Sisters pledge themselves to proclaim the Good News of God’s love through their total commitment to missionary evangelization, which “demands self-giving without limits of energy or time.” The Sisters share their experience of Christ whole-heartedly with others and build up human and Christian communities by the witnessing power of their lives, the active proclamation of the Word of God, catechetical instruction and their availability for service in answer to the signs of the times and the needs of people. Their mission inspires them to make present to the whole world the Mystery of Christ’s love.
To Build a Harmonious society/family of God/Kingdom of God. The congregation’s motto is: Go Proclaim the Good News to all Nations. We are called to proclaim to all that God loves them in their own situations and if they are open to receive God’s love everything will change for them and life will become delightful, meaningful and peaceful in all situations. By proclaiming God’s love we seek to build God’s kingdom in the hearts of people. When God’s kingdom comes into the lives of people they will begin to live by the values of God and there will be fruitfulness in their lives.
In our efforts to build God’s kingdom in people we try to bring harmony in them by helping them get rid of all the negatives, hurts etc and experience God’s presence and action in their lives. We do it also by sharing our own experiences of God’s love and power in our lives and showing them how things have changed for us because of our awareness of God’s presence in our lives and our trust in him. We can build a harmonious society only if we build harmony in individuals. Many harmonious individuals make a harmonious society. In the first place we have to bring harmony into our own lives. A person who is not in harmony with her cannot help others to have harmony in themselves. We are wounded healers. While we take care of our wounds we help others.
To be able to bring harmony into our own lives and help others to have it in theirs we need the power of God. For this we need to be rooted in God.
The Missionary Sisters work for the integral development of people and the transformation of society. They have a preferential option for women and children in rural areas, in order to lead them to the experience of Christ.
The religious consecration of the Missionary Sisters is for mission, the mission of Christ, who came to proclaim the Good News to the poor, so that all may have life in its fullness.They embody the Church’s vision and give themselves completely to the radical demands of the Gospel and become totally available to God, to the Church and to the entire human family.
The Sisters work in 50 dioceses of India, Italy, Africa, Sudan and Hawaii. The Congregation has 981 Professed Sisters belonging to about 50 ethnic groups of India.
Besides proclaiming the Gospel through schools, boarding, dispensaries, oratories and home for the aged, the Sisters are engaged in various activities such vocational training centers, schools for the differently abled children, street children and rehabilitation centers for HIV/AIDS patients, etc.