Letter 50. Missionaries of Charity.
23rd November 2005
Dear friends,
A little difficult task is waiting for me: How to squeeze three weeks of experience with the Missionaries of Charity (MC) into a short letter? I will try. As any MC Sister or Mother Teresa herself would have said: I can only do it with the help of the grace of God. This attitude of God's grace as the basis for everything they do, stroke me. They show a humility you seldom see in any other people. Mother Teresa was by somebody called the most powerful woman in the world. At the same time she never wanted her name to be honoured, but any award to be given in the name of the poor, as she was only a pencil in the hand of God.
People ask the MC Sisters how they can manage to give free service to the poor and sick in such difficult circumstances, as others would not have done it for big amounts of money. The Sisters would not have done it for money either. But they do it for Christ. Had they not seen Christ in every suffering person, they could not have done the work they do. But they do everything for Him. When they see Him thirst, they do anything to fulfil His needs.
In addition to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the MC Sisters take a fourth vow of charity, expressed as free service to the poorest of the poor, to those most unloved and unwanted. They live simply, so that the poor can identify with them, and they do not treat rich and poor any differently, and so everybody can welcome them. They have a marvellous trust in God's providence, and God has showed that He takes care of them. Their strong faith has made an impression on me. I have thought that if I had just 50 % of their faith, I could have moved mountains. I wonder how to find that faith.
The nerve of the life of the MC Sisters is the Eucharist. In addition to celebrating the Eucharist every morning, they have Eucharistic adoration one hour every evening. The Missionaries of Charity are dedicated to the immaculate heart of Mary, and many of the prayers focus on Mary. I see that there is a distance from my Lutheran background to these Catholic practices. Still after three weeks, I am not quite familiar with the adoration and the rosary. The rosary was a favourite of Mother Teresa, and is prayed whenever possible. Travelling is normally accompanied by praying. I was quite fascinated how they squeezed together in a van on the way to a Eucharist service in a different part of town, praying the rosary until we reached our destination. Travelling in Norway could have given some silence and possibility for prayer, but I would not have dreamt of praying through the noise of Old Dhaka.
This noise is by the way not only heard when in the streets. The rickshaw bells and children's voices, laughter and crying become more or less a continuous background sound in the chapel. When the Muslim prayer time starts, and the call from the minaret is many times louder than the Sisters' voices, or the neighbours play their pop music on the top sound, I must admit I have some problem to concentrate. One of the Sisters also told she had the same problem in the beginning. Then she realised that this was also part of her vow of poverty. One of the aspects of the poverty here is that people never experience silence. She lived in the noise in solidarity with them. As she had lived in Arabic countries, she also used the chance to pray "Allahu akbar" - "God is great" when hearing this. I have thought that the prayer life was the centre from where the Sisters draw their energy, and it is. I thought they then lived out their solidarity when going out. But this example showed how much they bring the life into their prayers, not only spiritually through their intercession, but also physically through their ears.
I followed most of the prayers of the Sisters, starting at 5.00 AM in the morning. It was not so difficult to start the day that early when the light in the workers' dormitory, where I slept, was turned off at 9.00 PM. I got good contact with the workers. Most of them don't speak any English, so my Bengali was useful. My answer that I didn't understand was frequently used though. Anyway, with babies you don't need to speak many words. I worked with the small babies. I didn't really have experiences with such small babies, many of them smaller than I was when I was born. But it did not take long time before I felt comfortable with the work. Babies are in a way quite simple. If they cry, and their napkin is not wet, and being held does not comfort them, they probably need milk. The room with the smallest babies, up to about six months, had fifteen baskets, with two babies in most of them, so though we were many workers, it happened rarely that all were satisfied and nobody cried.
In addition to getting used to the work, I got used to being wet once or more during the day, as their napkins are not disposable, but thin, washable from cotton material. Holding a baby means that you get wet if he makes his napkin wet... I was happy with the small amount of waste though. I remember having seen an illustration showing the pile of napkins a European baby wastes, compared to the few cotton napkins a baby in a developing country uses, and I feel ashamed on behalf of my society's mentality to use and throw. I am grateful my parents were responsible enough to use the cotton ones.
I didn't work at the orphanage the whole three weeks. One day the superior asked if I wanted to see another MC house, in Mausaid, just outside Dhaka, and I went to this beautiful silent village for five days. They have a home for mentally disturbed women there, and I was warned that they might be very happy to see me, and greet me, but they would not do any harm to me. It was true. They were so sweet. My first task was to help them with cutting nails and decorating with nail polish. I don't have much experience with nail polish, but luckily these women were not very careful about the result, just very grateful for the new colour on their nails. Then they danced for me, and sang, and those who could speak, eagerly told me something. In the orphanage I could understand I was aunty, with these women who were mostly my seniors, it was a bit strange, but funny to have so many nieces. Those who were fit for work were eager to help. It is quite a lot of work with the laundry of 40 women, when it is done by hand by the tube well, and there is a large garden to water, vegetables and fruit to harvest, and meals to be prepared.
At last a few words about the health situation: I have no problems with my feet or stomach, and now I can hear again. I have had an infection in my left ear, and know something about what centre of pain the ear can be. It gave me another dimension of the life of the MC Sisters. I myself started to believe that it was a gift when a Sister commented what I learnt from this. She said that I had come to share with the sick and poor, and now I shared with them in a different way. Another Sister said that I offered my sufferings to Jesus, it sounded meaningful in the setting, yes, a very Catholic one. Of course I was also cared for very well, and I started to wonder who these poor, whom they serve, are. I believe I got more than I could give these weeks. As they said; the poor can teach you so much, they are beautiful people. I will miss them.
Greetings from Hanne.
Dear friends,
A little difficult task is waiting for me: How to squeeze three weeks of experience with the Missionaries of Charity (MC) into a short letter? I will try. As any MC Sister or Mother Teresa herself would have said: I can only do it with the help of the grace of God. This attitude of God's grace as the basis for everything they do, stroke me. They show a humility you seldom see in any other people. Mother Teresa was by somebody called the most powerful woman in the world. At the same time she never wanted her name to be honoured, but any award to be given in the name of the poor, as she was only a pencil in the hand of God.
People ask the MC Sisters how they can manage to give free service to the poor and sick in such difficult circumstances, as others would not have done it for big amounts of money. The Sisters would not have done it for money either. But they do it for Christ. Had they not seen Christ in every suffering person, they could not have done the work they do. But they do everything for Him. When they see Him thirst, they do anything to fulfil His needs.
In addition to the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, the MC Sisters take a fourth vow of charity, expressed as free service to the poorest of the poor, to those most unloved and unwanted. They live simply, so that the poor can identify with them, and they do not treat rich and poor any differently, and so everybody can welcome them. They have a marvellous trust in God's providence, and God has showed that He takes care of them. Their strong faith has made an impression on me. I have thought that if I had just 50 % of their faith, I could have moved mountains. I wonder how to find that faith.
The nerve of the life of the MC Sisters is the Eucharist. In addition to celebrating the Eucharist every morning, they have Eucharistic adoration one hour every evening. The Missionaries of Charity are dedicated to the immaculate heart of Mary, and many of the prayers focus on Mary. I see that there is a distance from my Lutheran background to these Catholic practices. Still after three weeks, I am not quite familiar with the adoration and the rosary. The rosary was a favourite of Mother Teresa, and is prayed whenever possible. Travelling is normally accompanied by praying. I was quite fascinated how they squeezed together in a van on the way to a Eucharist service in a different part of town, praying the rosary until we reached our destination. Travelling in Norway could have given some silence and possibility for prayer, but I would not have dreamt of praying through the noise of Old Dhaka.
This noise is by the way not only heard when in the streets. The rickshaw bells and children's voices, laughter and crying become more or less a continuous background sound in the chapel. When the Muslim prayer time starts, and the call from the minaret is many times louder than the Sisters' voices, or the neighbours play their pop music on the top sound, I must admit I have some problem to concentrate. One of the Sisters also told she had the same problem in the beginning. Then she realised that this was also part of her vow of poverty. One of the aspects of the poverty here is that people never experience silence. She lived in the noise in solidarity with them. As she had lived in Arabic countries, she also used the chance to pray "Allahu akbar" - "God is great" when hearing this. I have thought that the prayer life was the centre from where the Sisters draw their energy, and it is. I thought they then lived out their solidarity when going out. But this example showed how much they bring the life into their prayers, not only spiritually through their intercession, but also physically through their ears.
I followed most of the prayers of the Sisters, starting at 5.00 AM in the morning. It was not so difficult to start the day that early when the light in the workers' dormitory, where I slept, was turned off at 9.00 PM. I got good contact with the workers. Most of them don't speak any English, so my Bengali was useful. My answer that I didn't understand was frequently used though. Anyway, with babies you don't need to speak many words. I worked with the small babies. I didn't really have experiences with such small babies, many of them smaller than I was when I was born. But it did not take long time before I felt comfortable with the work. Babies are in a way quite simple. If they cry, and their napkin is not wet, and being held does not comfort them, they probably need milk. The room with the smallest babies, up to about six months, had fifteen baskets, with two babies in most of them, so though we were many workers, it happened rarely that all were satisfied and nobody cried.
In addition to getting used to the work, I got used to being wet once or more during the day, as their napkins are not disposable, but thin, washable from cotton material. Holding a baby means that you get wet if he makes his napkin wet... I was happy with the small amount of waste though. I remember having seen an illustration showing the pile of napkins a European baby wastes, compared to the few cotton napkins a baby in a developing country uses, and I feel ashamed on behalf of my society's mentality to use and throw. I am grateful my parents were responsible enough to use the cotton ones.
I didn't work at the orphanage the whole three weeks. One day the superior asked if I wanted to see another MC house, in Mausaid, just outside Dhaka, and I went to this beautiful silent village for five days. They have a home for mentally disturbed women there, and I was warned that they might be very happy to see me, and greet me, but they would not do any harm to me. It was true. They were so sweet. My first task was to help them with cutting nails and decorating with nail polish. I don't have much experience with nail polish, but luckily these women were not very careful about the result, just very grateful for the new colour on their nails. Then they danced for me, and sang, and those who could speak, eagerly told me something. In the orphanage I could understand I was aunty, with these women who were mostly my seniors, it was a bit strange, but funny to have so many nieces. Those who were fit for work were eager to help. It is quite a lot of work with the laundry of 40 women, when it is done by hand by the tube well, and there is a large garden to water, vegetables and fruit to harvest, and meals to be prepared.
At last a few words about the health situation: I have no problems with my feet or stomach, and now I can hear again. I have had an infection in my left ear, and know something about what centre of pain the ear can be. It gave me another dimension of the life of the MC Sisters. I myself started to believe that it was a gift when a Sister commented what I learnt from this. She said that I had come to share with the sick and poor, and now I shared with them in a different way. Another Sister said that I offered my sufferings to Jesus, it sounded meaningful in the setting, yes, a very Catholic one. Of course I was also cared for very well, and I started to wonder who these poor, whom they serve, are. I believe I got more than I could give these weeks. As they said; the poor can teach you so much, they are beautiful people. I will miss them.
Greetings from Hanne.
posted by Hanne at 4:28 AM
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