Christmas, 2006 Dear Friends of Sacred Hearts Missions,

Blessed Fr. Damien of Molokai, ss.cc.

  All people have a need to turn to others for friendship, love, support and happiness.  A sign of mature growth in a person is when they are able to open their lives to receive others into it.  Our Sacred Hearts Retreat House in Wareham, MA. is With, For, and In the Spirit of Christ and does just that—it embraces others and warmly welcomes them  without questioning their beliefs or needs.  The retreat center offers a peaceful haven for those who may want time to reflect on their lives, not just alone through prayer and solitude, but through spiritual direction, reflection and companionship with others.  

I remember, in the early days of my missionary work, one Monday while at what is now (DSDI)  the Damien Social Development Office in Bhubaneswar, India, Raju, a young college graduate came to see me.  He was extremely disturbed.  His life had been profoundly touched after he witnessed a beggar, one of our patients who had lost his hands to leprosy, pick up a tossed coin in his mouth.  Raju said he felt so helpless in his need to do something.  He turned to the SS.CC. Damien family to give him support and offer him a way to volunteer to assist other Hansen’s Disease patients who had to beg for a living.  Raju remained working with us for three years before going on to start his own organization to help the poor.  In a not so different way, he too was walking in the steps of Blessed Damien of Molokai, as he struggled to find his own answers to God’s call to “hear the cry of the poor”.

We are blessed in that today, almost all governments are able to find some ways to help the homeless and handicapped.  But people still need others to turn to in time of need.  In our present day, there are so many emotionally, psychologically and spiritually poor who are often handicapped by life’s problems—those fighting the demons of addiction or  battling the effects of devastating illnesses; youths struggling with unanswered questions and looking for guidance—those who may feel they are walking life’s journey alone.   While we are able to welcome two hundred people a month at our Sacred Hearts Retreat House, over three hundred cannot be accepted and have to be turned away because of space limitations.  We have to expand!

During this holy season we remember how, more than two thousand years ago, another shortage of rooms forced a poor family to be turned away—relegated to a stable—the only space available from which baby Jesus could enter the world.  Today, as we celebrate Christmas and the birth of our Lord, let us be mindful of those around us who need us to open our lives and hearts to let them in.