December 16-17 : 3rd Sunday of Advent
SAINTLY AUSTRALIAN SR. MARY GLOWREY - MISSIONARY- MEDICAL DOCTOR (Part 4). By Anna Krohn
Mary’s parents also gave her a sense that what she did with her life – as with every single life – mattered to the world and to God. It is clear from her writing that her experience of her own serious childhood sickness (diphtheria and rheumatic fever), the loss of a baby brother and sister, and her keen vision of the grief caused by this, formed an indelible channel in her vocational reflections.
She realised that grief “was a real physical pain” and that losing a precious baby could leave “a void that could not be filled”. She also realised that her family’s tenderness with the dying was not just a social custom but a mission owed to all people.
She realised that grief “was a real physical pain” and that losing a precious baby could leave “a void that could not be filled”. She also realised that her family’s tenderness with the dying was not just a social custom but a mission owed to all people.
Dr Mary Glowrey, who would spend herself in the almost impossible task of curing and reverencing the bodies of the newborn, pregnant, plague-ridden and dying people of Guntur, experienced first hand the ‘gnawing disease’ of bone cancer as a final culmination of herself becoming like Christ – a path first shown to her through her family.
Her confidence in saying ‘yes’ to her religious life and heroic mission in India was a joining of smaller dots of light from her early life. This definitive calling, which came after Mary had listened to a Scriptural homily given on Hospital Sunday on 24 October 1915 at St Patrick’s Cathedral, marked the beginning of a health apostolate which would ultimately help countless millions. At the end of her extraordinary life, Mary said ‘yes’ once again and shouldered the Cross of excruciating physical pain and suffering. Mary’s only regret, in her own words:
‘I have not done enough. I could have done more.’
*****************************
“We do not want, as the newspapers say, a Church that will move with the world. We want a Church that will move the world.” - G.K. Chesterton
****************************************
“It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed, than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.” Peter Marshall, US Senate chaplain.
“It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed, than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.” Peter Marshall, US Senate chaplain.
****************************************
“The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is JOY. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see we have only to look.” –Fra Angelico, 16th C.
“The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is JOY. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see we have only to look.” –Fra Angelico, 16th C.
****************************************
“Live joyfully. Our Lord is looking on you lovingly. His mercy is infinitely greater than our misery.”
“Live joyfully. Our Lord is looking on you lovingly. His mercy is infinitely greater than our misery.”
– St Francis de Sales
****************************************