Maryknoll Sisters – the Beginning of a Love Story
When the story of the first Maryknoll Sisters’ mission began in China in 1921, Maryknoll Sisters arrived in Hong Kong with minimal material resources. The Sisters were inexperienced and unprepared for life in China. They had however with them, in abundance, a fervent love of God which extended to a love for all people. Fortified by their deep faith, with this spirit of love and the saving grace of a sense of humour, Maryknoll Sisters adopted a local lifestyle, rolled up their sleeves and established schools, clinics and hospitals and pastoral centres in local parishes. Maryknoll Sisters went where they were needed to do what was needed, adjusting their missionary postings from different parts of China in response to the ‘signs of the times’. At one time approximately 100 sisters staffed four primary and two secondary schools in Hong Kong.
Throughout the past hundred years, Maryknoll Sisters have stood by the local people, through good times and bad times. Whichever type of ministry they were in, they showed a deep respect for each individual and the local culture. For people of different faiths, instead of imposing their own faith on them, they help them to find a loving God or innate goodness within them.
The Sisters’ foreign missionary work in fields afar was in no way easy; different cultures, different languages, and at a time when China was going through turbulent times. The early Maryknoll women were assuredly inspired when they identified adaptability and resilience as very important traits for their lives. This was said of our Foundress Mother Mary Joseph: “She was a woman who had a cool head, a warm heart, and a sense of humor.” A warm heart to go all out with total generosity and greatheartedness, a cool head for assessing how much can be done in difficult circumstances, and then a sense of humour. The ability to have a sense of humour and have fun with others, even in the face of adversities, is often a hallmark found in Maryknoll Sisters.
In time, Maryknoll Sisters became an icon of love, charity and joy. People who came in contact with them always remember them as magnets of love with a joyful and adaptable disposition, but at the same time were also resilient and resourceful.
Maryknoll Spirit in Action … In God We Love and Serve
In over 110 years of serving others through education, healthcare, advocacy, ecological mission, or other humanitarian efforts, there is an invisible thread that links together and provides an invincible source of strength, courage and fortitude – and that is the Maryknoll Sisters’ love of God which encompasses and transforms into love for all people that transcends geographical, cultural and national boundaries. With their courageous response to calling as the first Catholic foreign women missionaries from the United States, Maryknoll Sisters have certain unique characteristics – commitment to serve, freedom of spirit, resilience, adaptability, generosity, compassion and often with a touch of humour. This spirit has gradually been lovingly called by the Maryknoll Sisters as the Maryknoll Spirit.
Sr Barbara Rose Mersinger (Administrator for the Maryknoll Sisters in the China Region 1958-1964) in her message on Maryknoll Spirit and Maryknoll Sisters’ roots when it celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1986 mentioned that Mother Mary Joseph once said,
“I like to think of Maryknoll Spirit as being the reflection of the Love of God”.
Sr Barbara mentioned that Maryknoll Spirit is not something that can be touched or handled, but it is something that can be observed and perhaps felt. She mentioned that:
“… It is the light of God’s Love that inspires you and others to give your time, your talents, and yourselves through acts of kindness, thoughtfulness and love for others. These actions inspire and bring about new facets of Love of God. They do not diminish but grow and spread by being shared with others that our lives touch, both yours and mine”.
This explains Mother Mary Joseph’s fondness for American poet James Russel Lowell’s famed quote:
“As one lamp lights another nor grows less so nobleness enkindles nobleness”.
It was in this Maryknoll Spirit of love and service that Maryknoll Convent School (MCS) came into existence. Maryknoll Spirit is what defines MCS. It gives MCS her soul, character, foundation, identity, substance, and indeed her successes today.
During our centennial year, in honour of our Maryknoll Sisters, and to carry forward the Maryknoll Spirit that we have been taught and experienced, we will come together as one family to serve in God’s name, and to make His love visible. “In God we love and serve”. In doing this, we also reflect on and renew our devotion to Mother Mary’s immense generosity and humility when she responded “yes” to God’s wish to have her conceive and bear in her womb Jesus Christ her son. Mother Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”.
A Hundred Years On … What Next?
With a hundred years come and gone, many Maryknoll Sisters who have served at MCS have retired and returned to the United States, or returned to the Lord. While we miss their caring love, laughter and humour, they had the foresight and wisdom more than 20 years ago to form the MCS Foundation (the Foundation) in 2004 with MCS alumni as members, as the School Sponsoring Body of MCS to carry the torch of MCS education.
At MCS, we have always been encouraged to be critical thinkers, liberal and open minded, with freedom to explore different cultures, disciplines, and perspectives, discover and experience the unity and wholeness of ourselves and with our communities. Each of us is encouraged to cultivate the innate goodness of ourselves, and be agents and pioneers of positive change within our community, and to home, country and the world, thereby making God's love visible.
As the Foundation stepped up and took the baton, we asked ourselves how can the Foundation preserve and enhance the essence and unique characteristics of the Maryknoll Spirit in the MCS education. How do we ensure our students learn, experience and live out a values-driven education, grounded on Christian values and inspired by the Maryknoll Spirit?
The Journey Ahead…
As the Foundation embarked on this journey for deeper understanding of our spiritual heritage as a community, we have sought inspiration from “On the Threshold of the Future – The Life and Spirituality of Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, Founder of the Maryknoll Sisters” written by Sr. Claudette LaVerdiere MM in celebration of the centenary of the Maryknoll Sisters in 2011. This book is special in that it describes Maryknoll Spirit in seven themes in the context of Mother Mary Joseph’s life events. The seven themes are:
1. The Presence of God
2. Contemplation and Action
3. Unity of Spirit and Diversity of Gifts
4. Individuality and Common Good
5. Maryknoll Spirit of Obedience
6. Nobility of Soul
7. Ecce Ancilla Domini (Behold the Handmaid of the Lord)
These themes form an important bedrock to Maryknoll Spirit, along with the Vision, Mission and Values set out in the Foundation charter, and in our school crest “Sola Nobilitas Virtus” (Virtue Alone Ennobles). Since 2021, the Foundation has established a committee to study and consider how to assimilate and immerse these themes at school levels. We have held sessions amongst Council Members of the Foundation to educate ourselves on these themes, and sessions with principals and teachers of MCS as to how to bring these themes to our students. We have also made a video clip “Hearts to Love and Will to Serve” (https://youtu.be/I4Tk2pEz29E) to explain these themes and how they may inspire the MCS education.
This journey of continuous learning, appreciation and discernment of the Maryknoll Spirit has been an enriching one. For us and our students, as individuals, the Maryknoll Spirit is really expressed in Who We Are and How We Show Up. Who we are inside, the internal compass that guides our hearts, our core bearing. And how we show up every day – in interacting with people and serving others; in facing challenges, adversities and uncertainties; and in sharing joy, love, success and happiness.
While each of us is unique, we hope that when someone sees us and our students from afar, that person will say, “Oh, I think I see a Maryknoller”. In our distinctive and diverse ways, but in a Maryknoll way, we make God’s love visible. In God we love and serve.
This is the Maryknoll Spirit that we hope to pass on to our students, for generations to come.