MCA Mission News Fall/Advent 2013 Open the Door of Faith (Acts 14:27) grades 6-8 Inside Mary, Our Mother in Faith Around the World One Sunday for the Whole World! Fun Facts About Egypt Issue Alert: Child Trafficking Brain Teaser A Saint for the Missions Mission Crossword Puzzle Advent Prayer and Celebration Once Home to the Holy Family Fleeing the wrath of Herod after that first Christmas, Mary, Joseph and the Infant Jesus made a journey into the African nation of Egypt in search of safety the first missionaries to Africa. Seeking hope and peace, children here find both an abundance of God s love, through the service of missionaries today, priests, religious and laity. Their work and witness to Jesus is supported by your prayers and sacrifices through the Missionary Childhood Association. In the past two decades, thousands have left their war-torn homeland of Sudan, in search of a safe and better life for their families in Egypt; in fact, some estimates put the number of Sudanese who have fled to Egypt between 750,000 and four million. (continued on page two)
Mary, Our Mother in Faith Around the World Whether we live in New York or Nigeria, Indianapolis or India, we share a Mother our Blessed Mother, Mary, who loves us and watches over us. In Vailankanni, India, our Blessed Mother is honored as Our Lady of Good Health. Her appearances, in the 16th and 17th centuries, have been connected to several events in the area, including the healing of a handicapped child, and the rescue of Portuguese sailors from a violent storm. FIVE FUN FACTS ABOUT EGYPT 1. Ancient Egyptians used to play a game very similar to today s bowling. 2. The first pyramid in Egypt was built around 2650 BC. 3. Egyptians invented the 365-day calendar we use today. 4. Doctors in ancient Egypt healed many injuries even performed brain surgery! 5. Some ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone. One Sunday for the Whole World! Every year, something special happens on the next-to-last Sunday of October the Church celebrates that each one of us is a missionary! On this day, called World Mission Sunday, we especially remember the call to pray and to do good on earth like you do for the Missionary Childhood Association with your prayers, sacrifices, and money to help children in the Missions. Tell your friends and family about this one Sunday for the whole world October 20, this year! Once Home to the Holy Family (continued from front cover) Many have found help and hope at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Alexandria thanks to support from the Missionary Childhood Association. Here, families receive assistance with providing food and an education for their children. Just this past May, because of your prayers and help, MCA sent $7,000 to Sacred Heart Catholic Church to help provide for schooling for almost 100 refugee children from Sudan. On Christmas Eve last year, National Director Father Andrew Small, OMI had the opportunity to visit with some of those children. We are bound together in prayer for the poor, the oppressed, the refugee and the outsider, Father Andrew said after that journey. Their story is the story of the Christ-child and the Holy Family it is our story as we celebrate once again the difference God makes. 2
ISSUE ALERT: Child Trafficking Human trafficking, or taking someone against their will and transporting them to others for the purposes of exploitation or abuse, remains a threat worldwide, especially to the poor. According to one report, some 80 percent of those trafficked worldwide are women and girls. We take in every girl who comes to us, every girl we find in need, says Sister Anurak Chiayaphuek. She and others in her Religious Community, the Good Shepherd Sisters, operate a center for girls in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, their fourth such location. These Thai Sisters opened their first center in Bangkok in 1996, helping more than 450 girls in the past dozen years. We try to raise their dignity, their self-image, Sister Anurak explains. We look for the lost ones. We hold out for them the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd Who always searched for the lost ones. Your prayers and help through MCA support these Sisters and reach the lost ones they rescue; last year, MCA provided $7,000 to this Youth Center in Chiang Rai, for everything from food and clothing, to medical care and school fees. Discussion Questions: Read Matthew 18:12-14. How does it relate to Sister Anurak s comment: We look for the lost ones? Who are the lost ones in our world today? How can we look for them? Brain Teaser Caryn, Dexter, Susie and Vinny filled 24 grocery bags with a total of 177 cans of food to bring to the homeless shelter. Each person had the same number of cans in every one of his or her bags, but the number of bags differed, from person to person. Caryn and Vinny filled the same number of bags. Together, Dexter and Susie filled a dozen bags, but Dexter filled 2 more bags than Susie. Dexter and Vinny brought in the same number of cans. Caryn and Susie added their cans together and discovered they had collected 9 more cans than Dexter and Vinny combined. Each person collected between 40 and 50 cans. How many bags did each person fill? How many cans were in each of their bags? 3
A Saint for the Missions St. Thérèse of Lisieux Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. She had nine brothers and sisters, and was the youngest one in her family. She loved God very much. When she was 15, she decided to become a Religious Sister, and entered the Carmelite Order in Lisieux, where she lived later. Thérèse wanted very much to leave her convent in France and be sent on mission, specifically to Vietnam. Her poor health prevented her from making that journey, but not from being a missionary. Determined not only to love God herself, but also to lead others to know and love Him, Thérèse offered her prayers and her own sufferings for missionaries around the world. And she did go to the Missions at least through the mail. She wrote to missionary priests serving in Asia and Africa during her lifetime. In those letters, she told of her great love for Jesus, and of feeling a part of the missionary work of those priests, especially through her prayers. She was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church in 1925; her Feast Day is October 1. In 1927, she was declared co-patron with St. Francis Xavier of all missionaries and the Missions, thus emphasizing the important role we all share as missionaries through prayer and sacrifice. Act like St. Thérèse: Draft a letter to a missionary serving in one of the countries you read about in this issue of It s Our World. Do some research on the challenges to children in that country, and to the faith. Include how you are linked with them in that mission by your prayers and support! Share the letters with your classmates and family. 4
Complete the crossword puzzle. 2 3 5 4 1 6 20 Pious, deeply religious. 21 Another name for a Religious Sister. Down 1 I n this country, Joyeux Noel means Merry Christmas. 7 8 9 10 3 (Roman Catholic) a title given 11 13 12 14 to a nun (and used as a form of address). 16 15 17 4 A man ordained to serve God and administer Sacraments. 6 Concerned with sacred matters or religion or the church. 20 18 19 7 Officially declared to be a saint. 8 Talking and listening to God. 9 Spanish Jesuit missionary who establish missions in Japan and Ceylon and the East Indies (1506-1552). 10 The act of giving up something valuable for the sake of serving 21 another purpose, interest or cause. Do You Know the Date of Your Baptism? Well, on that day, you became a missionary, called by Jesus to share your faith with those half a block and half a world away! While you may not travel to faraway countries like St. Francis Xavier did, you can model your missionary life after the other saint for the Church s missionary work: St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She never left the convent in France but her love reached around the world by her prayers and sacrifices! Across 2 This continent is the largest of the seven continents on earth. 5 Feelings of mental or physical pain. 11 This continent has the world s largest desert - the Sahara Desert. 13 A person who is Canonized is called a. 16 A member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience. 17 Having or showing reverence to God; devout. 19 A home for Religious Sisters. 12 The organized work of a religious missionary. 14 A gift from God that helps us to trust God and believe in Him. 15 A country to the southeast of China. 18 Any trade, profession, or occupation; a sense of fitness or special calling for one s work. 5
Prayer for the Blessing of the Advent Wreath Pray with your family at home or in the classroom. Loving God, the time of Advent has arrived. Prepare our hearts for the promise of the Christ child. Help us to come to You in this Advent Season, and may our prayers and sacrifices support others who reveal Your light and love to the poor. As we bless this wreath, we ask You to bless us that we may seek to do Your will as Your missionaries during the Advent Season. ADVENT Prepare the way of the Lord! (Isaiah 40:3, Matthew 3:3) Advent is a time of preparation before the birth of Jesus at Christmas time to get our hearts ready for His coming as our King and Savior. How can we prepare? Here are some ideas: Set aside more time each day to pray; Spend some time with someone who needs a friend; Write to, call, or e-mail a lonely relative weekly; Make peace with someone in your life; Keep a daily journal, noting what you ve done to come to God to grow closer to Him and to help others do so as well ( Advent comes from a Latin word that means, to come to ). What else can you do? What are you doing about preparing the way to help your family in the Missions to come to God, to grow closer to Him? 6 It s Our World is published by the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. Publisher Very Reverend Andrew Small, OMI, STD National Director Editor-In-Chief Monica Ann Yehle Editor Marilyn Santos 1-800-431-2222 MCAOrders@propfaith.org