Franciscan Missionaries of Mary mark 135th anniversary in Lanka

The Franciscan Missionary of Mary this year marks their 135 anniversary of services in Sri Lanka. To mark the occasion, Sister Ranjani Gurusinghe of the St. Joseph’s Convent, Piliyandala issued the following release to the media:

“As we celebrate the 135 years of our mission Sri Lanka let us reflect on and see the services we have rendered to our country in different ways in the past. On May 21 we celebrated with joy the 182nd birth anniversary of our foundress, Mother Mary of the Passion. She founded the Institute of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary on Jan 06, 1877.

“At the age of 17 she decided to commit herself to serve God in the church. To achieve her desire she had to go through a lot of difficulties and opposition. After giving herself fully to serve God, she also had to face a lot of difficulties and challenges during her ministry in South India. Yet she persevered with great courage against all odds placing her trust and hope in the Lord who finally led her to found the institute of the Franciscan Missionary of Mary in Ootacamund in India. When she opened houses in France, many young European girls attracted to missionary vocation joined her committing themselves to mission.

“Through new congregation sisters served people in many different ways. Seeing their dedicated service, Bishops from Asian countries and African countries invited those missionary sisters to work in their dioceses. Our mother foundress accepting their invitation sent her sisters to other countries, including Sri Lanka, on missionary engagement.

“Franciscan Missionary sisters arrived in Sri Lanka on March 6, 1886. Our first foundation was in Moratuwa. They opened the convent Our Lady of Victories and school European sisters came here and developed this school now run by local sisters.

“The next Foundation was St Peter’s Convent which was opened on June 22, 1886 to assist the staff of the General Hospital in Colombo. Since then we have spread ourselves all over Sri Lanka. At present we have 17 communities, 120 sisters and eight novices. We are an international Congregationin 73 countries and we belong to 79 nationalities. All over the world we have 5,306 sisters.

“We are engaged in different missions in different parts of Sri Lanka. Our life is centered on the Eucharist and daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is an essential part of our life. Hence we are contemplatives engaged in active mission and have intimate union with Jesus. Because of this intimacy with Christ we receive strength  and grace necessary to render a committed joyful service to our people in Sri Lanka.

“Prayer life is important to us because without prayer life we cannot have deep union with Christ. We give ourselves to different ministries such as Education of the young, taking care of the sick, helping the poor, looking after the orphans, teaching in nurseries, serving the tea estate people, care of lepers, guiding the youth sewing rooms, teaching Catechism, parish work, social service and visiting the people. Also a number of our sisters serve as missionaries in other countries in  the world. In God’s vineyard the harvest is plenty but labourers are few.

“Young Catholic girls who wish to give themselves in selfless service to the people can reflect and respond to this invitation. Our formation house is in Rajagiriya. To become a religious sister you need to have a good formation. So from time to time we renew our commitment through prayer and reflection. Our union with Christ makes us strong. This will enable us to continue the journey we started with Christ  till the end when we hope to meet with Christ.”