Margaret Rogers, SHCJ (M. M. Cosmas) Click here to e-mail Sr. Margaret
"The burden of love is light like a cloud.” The truth of this Bantu Proverb has been shown to me over and over throughout my life. I saw it in my mother who, as a young girl left her parents’ home in Tyrone, Ireland, to join her older sister Margaret who was married and settled in Philadelphia, Pa. My mother worked hard all her life; I never heard her complain. In fact, her frequent refrain was how good God had been to her. The night before I was to meet with the Provincial to ask to join the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, we learned that my father had terminal cancer. Her words to me, “That makes no difference to your plan”, continue to humble and inspire me.
My father and his eight siblings were brought to America from Tyrone by their widowed mother. A quiet, gentle man who always found good in others, he taught me to overcome my fear of the darkness by telling me that the dark was God holding me close to Him. My parents knew that God was present and active in their lives. We would judge those lives difficult, but the “burden of love” made them light.
The Journey begins
My “burden of love” began after my first profession when I went to St. Edward the Confessor School in Philadelphia, Pa. We, the other novices and I, were a community of 30 SHCJ teaching in the triple-streamed school of over eleven hundred children. I began with the first grade where I learned to teach in steps. Then I moved up to sixth grade boys and learned much about discipline. My formation as a teacher continued throughout these years under the guidance of M. M. Raymond (Filer) and M. M. Aidan (Cligett).
When St. Maria Goretti High School for girls was opened in 1955 in Philadelphia, Pa., I was one of the four SHCJ to join the staff along with Sisters from other orders. What began in fear and trepidation turned out to be a wonderful experience crowned this past year with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first graduating class. There I had the opportunity to meet many whom I had taught in an assignment that had lasted only one year.
New frontiers, New discovery
When I was a child, I had seen a short film about Fr. Damien the leper-priest. From that time on I wanted to be a missionary living and working among people different from me. This dream was fulfilled when in September, 1956, I sailed for Nigeria, West Africa with Jeanne Adams, SHCJ (M. John Bosco).
Then followed twenty-two years of growth in the realization that we go on mission not so much to teach and give, but to learn and receive. My years in Africa became a mutual journeying with others in discovering how much God loves us. What a privilege it was to be part of the birth of a nation and, more importantly, of the African Province of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus!
My romance with Africa did not end with my return home. I joined an ecumenical consortium that raised funds for grassroots development. As their African Coordinator for ten years, I traveled to Africa three times a year, visiting twenty-five countries and countless communities struggling to improve their lives. I have been blessed and prayed over by a small Anglican community in the hills of Swaziland because I brought them a letter from their former American pastor; by the chief and his people of a village in Ghana needing water; by contemplative nuns in Zambia. I experienced a hospitality that was welcoming – one that looked to the heart of one and finding it good, forgiving all else. I have been given wonderful memories to take with me into my elder years.
The Mission continues
I remain connected to Africa and to mission in a broader sense in my work with Dalton Center, our Province Mission Office. It is satisfying to do some of the things that help those in Chile, the Dominican Republic and the African province. It is even more satisfying to be able to help others understand that we are all called to be missionaries. Participation in the Mission Cooperative Plan means I can share a vision of mission in parishes across the country and experience the goodness and generosity of many.
My mother taught me to go forth; my father taught me to respect others. Those lessons have sustained me throughout my sixty years as a Sister of the Holy Child Jesus. Truly I have learned that “the burden of love is light like a cloud.”
Click here to contact Sr. Margaret Rogers (M. M. Cosmas)
