Handmaids School Emblem

Our Foundress

Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, RSC
Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, RSC

How It All Began… ( Life of Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, RSC)

Margaret Mary Angela Walker, the fifth of the six children of Colonel Edward Walker and Josephine Woodhead, was born on the March 16 1881 in Brighton, England. After her education, she joined the Religious Sisters of Charity at Milltown, Dublin, Ireland, in 1901. In 1902 she received the habit and took the name, Sister Mary Charles. She made her Religious Profession in 1904, after which she spent nineteen years teaching in various schools in Ireland. She exemplified herself as a great educationist and wrote two books: the Catechism Notes and Caritas Christi Urget Nos, which at the time were very much used in schools in England, Ireland and in the Novitiate of the Sisters of Charity respectively.

A Unique Missionary Call

In 1920 Sister Mary Charles had a missionary call to come to Nigeria to assist Bishop Joseph Shanahan C.S.Sp. of Southern Nigeria, who had earlier on (between 1919 and 1922) appealed to Religious Congregations in Europe for Sisters to help in the training of women and children in southern Nigeria. Since no Congregation would come out as a body, Sister Mary Charles Walker of the Sisters of Charity and a few others of her Order volunteered to go. Later on the rest dropped the idea but Sister Mary Charles persevered in her intention and sought official permission to achieve it. On September 14 1921, she wrote to Mother Agnes Gertrude, her Superior General:

I beg your sanction and blessing… If you refuse your sanction, Mother, there is the end of the matter for ever.

The Superior General then permitted her to write to the Holy Father through Cardinal Bourne of Westminster, London, and with his help, Sister Mary Charles obtained a special Rescript, dated 11th June 1923, from the Holy Father, permitting her to come out as a missionary to Southern Nigeria, under Bishop Joseph Shanahan while still remaining a Sister of charity, but living outside her community.

Arrival

Sister Mary Charles arrived at Calabar October 3 1923- the only woman Religious in the Vicariate of southern Nigeria which, founded in 1885, comprised Nigeria east, north and south of the Niger and the British Cameroon. Here she was known and called Mother Magdalen, a name she adopted in memory of her sister who died just before she set out for Nigeria. (Except where it occurs in quotations, the rest of this article will use the name, Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker or simply, Mother, given to her by her spiritual Daughters – the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus).

Fields of Missionary Apostolate

Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker believed that for a missionary to succeed, she should be prepared to turn her hand to many works besides the actual one which is her special strong point. This explains why, while in Nigeria, she was single handedly an educationist, an architect, a social worker, a nurse, a catechist and a Foundress.

Educationist

She gave an all-round, utilitarian education, seasoned with strong character formation. She quickly re-organised the St Joseph’s Girls’ School, Calabar, which was at the point of being closed down, when she took over in 1924. She introduced the Montessori Method for a more effective training as well as the Student-Teachers system to cope with Staff insufficiency. She enlarged the curriculum to include Domestic Science and Home Management. The School reached such a high standard that after Government inspection in 1926, it was classed A+. Bishop Joseph Shanahan was overwhelmed with joy and wrote in appreciation to Mother Mary Charles Magdalen:

I congratulate you and your girls of St. Joseph’s Convent School on the success you have achieved in being classed A+… It is the first time in the history of the mission that a Girls’ School has honourably carried off the much converted honour of being officially classified EXCELLENT…
(Shanahan to Walker, November 19 1927).

She opened a similar School in Anua in 1929 through the help of Rev. Fr. Biechy C.S.Sp., the Founder of the Anua Mission. Monsignor Hinsley, Papal delegate to Nigeria, in 1929 made an appraisal of these two schools as published in Times Philadelphia January 14 1930:

At Calabar, Nigeria, in the Efik country Sister Magdalen has worked wonders among the women and girls. Her schools at Calabar and Anua are considered the best Girls’ Schools in the country and her name is known to all who are interested in African Education…

She wrote many educational Articles and Papers which were published in magazines and journals. Her Article, Education for Girls in Southern Nigeria, published in the International Review of Missions in 1928, portrays her high ideals as regards Girls Education. The following quotations illustrate some of these salient points:

The first great need in a girls school is to train the girls in self-control, cleanliness, self respect, earnestness and reliability…Earnestness and reliability are the outcome of the gradual growth of concentration. For a sense of responsibility to develop there must be actual responsibility, small at first but increasing to matters of importance. The Native girl is capable of becoming reliable to an extraordinary degree. In fact, I find her capable of excelling in every virtue; only time, patience and opportunity are required…

She inculcated these qualities in her girls and Teachers as recalled by one of her contemporaries:

Combined with Sister Magdalen’s teaching her teachers and children as Christians was her gift for encouraging the full development of their Personalities…
(Memories of Miss Margaret Green, August 7 1973).

The result of this training was remarkable in the girls and Teachers; responsibility, maturity, efficiency and discipline prevailed.

A Designer and Architect

Her building programme included the training of unskilled workers with startling results. In her foresightedness, and wishing the best for her children, she acquired a ten-acre piece of land, to which she transferred the St. Joseph’s School in 1929. Mother Mary Amadeus, Superior General of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, whom Mother Mary Charles Magdalen had invited and persuaded to come to Nigeria in 1930, through Monsignor Hinsley, gives a vivid description of her plan of work.

…Eighteen years ago it (the plot of land) was given by an influential family here to the mission, on condition that building was begun upon it in three months. After eighteen years the family said they would take it back as nothing was being done. The authorities were willing to let it go, but at that moment Sister heard of it and asked if she might have it and build a Convent and a school on it. Permission was given and she at once set to work… The work was begun two years ago last February… She is her own architect and her plans have been passed by three Government Departments… She is her own builder, overseer, clerk of the work and every other official that may be required. The cottages (four one-storey buildings) for the children are already built, the ground plan of the school staked out also by Sister and most of the cement blocks are already made. She has the whole place, building and land planned out with a view to future developments
(Letter of Mother Mary Amadeus from Calabar to the Sisters SHCJ in Rome, 27th September, 1930).

Three days later, Mother Mary Genevieve, the Vicar General-Society of the Holy Child Jesus who had accompanied Mother Mary Amadeus on her visit to Calabar, Nigeria, wrote to their communities in Europe,

…Mother Magdalen is a broad minded woman with long views… She believes in the elevating power of beauty…she is putting up buildings which will be at once durable, convenient, agreeable and harmonious… Generations to come will certainly call her blessed
(Mother Mary Genevieve, SHCJ to the Sisters SHCJ in Europe, 23rd September, 1930).

This premises is the present MOTHER HOUSE of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, Calabar Road, Calabar, Nigeria. Here too lie the Remains of Mother Mary Charles Magadalen Walker.

Social Worker

Mother Charles was a special friend of the poor and the needy, many of whom she helped to be self- reliant. She saved many twins and their mothers from the extermination which was practiced among the pagans at the time. She built an Orphanage and Twinnery in Anua in 1929. Another one was later built in Ifuho, Ikot Ekpene. Many poor girls had free education through her generosity and magnanimous spirit. She visited the poor and the aged in their homes and cared for them. Those of them who could walk came weekly for subsidy. She strove to promote the status of women in the area.

The Nurse

She gave weekly instructions to the women and children on health and hygiene. She opened a Dispensary in Anua-Uyo in 1929 which she managed herself, assisted by one of her Teachers, Miss Lucy Williams, destined to became the first member of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus. Later, with the help of Dr. Luber and two Nurses, a Hospital was built alongside the Dispensary, which developed into the present St. Luke’s Hospital, Anua, Uyo.

A Catechist

Catechetical and Pastoral work received great attention in Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker’s missionary endeavours. For her, the role played by a Christian home in the building up of Christ’s Mystical Body–the Church– for effective evangelisation, was paramount. This is shown in her paper published in the Holy Ghost Missionary Annals of 1926:

…The Church grows through making adult converts, and in some cases these prove satisfactory, but it is only on those who have been trained to Christian habits of virtue from childhood that a really vigorous and lasting Native Church can be built; and this solid Christian teaching can be given only in a Christian home and by a Christian mother…

Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker took pains to instruct the women in every virtue and to place before them the example of Mary, the Model of Christian motherhood. She helped them to value the dignity of womanhood, and urged them to lead good Christian lives and thereby gain the honour due to them as women. She exhorted them to care for their children, and to train them in Christian ideals. Pre-marriage centres were opened in Calabar and Anua where formal lessons were taught in Christian Doctrine, Domestic Science, Home Management and Crafts.

There were chains of instruction centres for the Calabar and the Anua areas. From 1931, many of these centres became residential centres manned by the Foundation members of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, the Lay Teachers trained by Mother Mary Charles Magadalen Walker and the Holy Child Sisters who had come out in 1930 to assist her. Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker with the help of her girls used to visit the sick and aged in their homes, prepare them for the Sacraments, and give them material assistance. She also washed the altar linens and took care of the church generally.

Prayer Life and Spirituality

Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker was a woman of deep faith, apostolic zeal, contemplation and total surrender to God’s will in the events of life. Often she would say:

I am perfectly satisfied that things are arranged as God wills.

She was a woman of prayer and of intimate union with God. She believed that prayer could do all things and regarded Christ as the solution of all (her) difficulties. She could move from contemplation to work with ease. She had a self-effacing charity, and would not cling to anything. She was very forbearing and ready to forgive injuries and misunderstanding with the conviction that God could smooth things out and repair injuries done in ways which we cannot think of. She had an unflinching trust in Divine Providence and great devotion to the Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Sacrament.

Foundress

Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker had the singular privilege of being able to inspire, attract and nurture the Foundation Members of Native Congregations especially those of the first four members of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus. Barely a year after she arrived Calabar she wrote:

There is great promise in the native girls and I believe that in the years to come a Native Congregation could be formed…
(Letter on Easter Monday 1924 to her Superior General)

She also communicated her discovery to His Lordship, Bishop Joseph Shanahan, who encouraged her to tend these vocations:

For many years I have had the view of forming a Native Sisterhood in this Vicariate. If its establishment has been delayed, it is because in the first place, among the Christian girls there seemed to be no vocations to the Religious Life; and secondly, even if there were, in the Vicariate, there were no Religious competent to train them… You have recently assured me that the first difficulty, viz: the absence of vocations has disappeared, since among the girls under your charge there are a few who have developed a decided religious vocation…

…I would ask you to foster the vocation among your girls, training them little by little to practice the rules and acquire the virtues proper to the Religious state. Keep the Religious ideals before their eyes and also the possibility of its realisation with the assistance of the Holy Ghost…

The advent of the Native Sisterhood will open a new era for the Christian women in Nigeria. In addition to the practice of the Christian Virtues, the heroic practice of the three vows by Nigerian girls will be the most excellent sermon ever preached to the women of Nigeria, besides being a perennial source of exceptional grace of conversion…
(Shanahan to Walker 30th April 1926).

By June 1926, a group of Aspirants was formed by Mother Mary Charles Magdalen. The Holy Father, Pius XI, blessed it and Bishop Joseph Shanahan commissioned her to take charge of the ‘new foundation’ of the Native Sisterhood.

…Work towards the realisation of the Native Sisterhood. It has the blessing of the Holy Father and therefore the blessing of God. Since God wills it there can be no doubt of its success. God bless you and may His Blessings extend to your spiritual daughters…
(Letter of Bishop Joseph Shanahan to Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, June 1926).

On March 4th 1929, writing to her Superior General, Mother Mary Charles Magdalen declared:

I follow our Rule in every detail without difficulty. Five girls make all the spiritual duties with me. At 5.20 each morning we are in the little Oratory. They are only waiting for the opportunity to enter a real Novitiate and several other young girls have the same desire.

On 15th January 1931, four of those Aspirants received the Postulant Hood and a simple Rule of life as Foundation Members of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, in the Convent Chapel, Anua, after a five-day retreat given by Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker. These were: Lucy Williams, Kathleen Bassey, Agnes Ugoaru and Christiana Waturuocha.

She instilled in them a Spirituality rooted in Divine Providence in imitation of the abandonment to God’s will shown by Mary at the Annunciation. She gave them an all-embracing apostolate.

The Native Nuns will work in elementary schools, they will visit the poor and the sick, work in institutions and hospitals and in fact do just the work of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity
(Mother Mary Charles Walker to Mother Mary De Ricci, Superior General – 22nd October, 1932)

Training in the apostolate went hand in hand with the spiritual formation and since the opportunity for real Novitiate continued to be deferred by Bishop Charles Heerey who had succeeded Bishop Joseph Shanahan in 1931, the Postulants, who were already mature and with educational qualifications, were engaged in teaching, catechising, care of the women and girls, the poor, twins and orphans and medical works while still receiving their religious formation from Mother Mary Charles Magdalen. In a letter dated 2nd July, 1933, to Mother de Ricci, Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker gives an idea of the magnitude of the work:

The work has grown most wonderfully, thank God… We have six boarding and day Schools, a hospital and dispensary.

In 1934, forced by circumstances beyond her control but with perfect resignation to the will of God, and so that the work of God for souls might not suffer any harm, she left Nigeria for England after entrusting her spiritual Daughters and work to the care of the Holy Child Sisters who had come out in 1930 to assist her.

Back in England Sister Mary Charles Magdalen Walker lived an obscure life of humble service until 1956, when she was sent back on a mission to Africa, by her new Superior General, Mother Teresa Anthony. She went this time, to Chikuni, Zambia, to train members of a Native Congregation- Handmaids of the Blessed Virgin Mary- founded a few years earlier. There she also undertook the production of Altar bread, which she cherished greatly because of its link with the Eucharist.

On 27th February, 1966, Sister Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, a woman of an indomitable spirit, prayer, faith, vision, obedience, forbearance, patient endurance of suffering, a friend of the poor and the underprivileged, a unique missionary and Founder, died (at the age of 86 years) and was buried in the Chikuni Mission Cemetery, Zambia. Most Rev. Dr James Corboy S.J., Bishop of Monze, Zambia performed the last rites.

On 2nd October, 1981, after Church and Civil protocols, her Spiritual Daughters – the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, exhumed her remains and reburied them on the 16th of October, 1981, in their Mother House in Calabar, Nigeria, after a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by His Lordship, Most Rev. Dr. B. D Usanga, Bishop of Calabar, Nigeria.

Selected Sayings of Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker

  1. It is wonderful to look back and trace the workings of Providence.
  2. After all that God has done in the past, I can have no fear of the future.
  3. I have received far, far more than the hundredfold of consolation, and can never thank God enough.
  4. Do you ever wonder why God specially loves you?
  5. May Our Lord help you and not allow what awaits you to be too difficult.
  6. Christ is the Solution of all my difficulties.
  7. God can smooth things out and repair injuries done in ways which we cannot think of.
  8. I feel that light and help come just at each step when they are actually needed, and not a bit sooner.
  9. There is no use giving your orange tree, if you are not prepared to give also the fruits.
  10. I must put all personal feelings aside now and consider the work for souls.
  11. The work of God must be done at all cost no matter the inconveniences.
  12. By doing what I believe God asks of me, I shall lose most of my friends.
  13. God is certainly helping our efforts even though we often seem to be stumbling blindly in the dark.
  14. The work which God has given us to do is of a supernatural kind and needs a supernatural help.
  15. I will go ahead as long as I can, trusting in Divine Providence.
  16. God is sending us so many blessings.
  17. It is only prayers that is keeping the work going.
  18. Prayer can do all things, and there is a very possible way for all difficulties to be done away with.
  19. The answer to our prayers will come in God’s time, but come it will, I am sure.
  20. Only prayers can win the favours I want.
  21. My desire to work and die on the Foreign Mission is as great today as when I sent my petition to the Holy Father in 1922.
  22. If we wish to learn to live with Jesus and at the same time to work for Jesus, His Mother must be our model and our guide.
  23. Close union and constant recourse to our Lord will help you.
  24. I am more than ever convinced that we must lead altogether supernatural lives if we really want to make true Christians of the women and girls.
  25. To desire only to please God, to fear only to disappoint Him, means perfect peace.
  26. Only the best is good enough for God, no matter the inconveniences.
  27. God knows all the needs of His children in Africa and He loves them infinitely more than I do.
  28. God is sending us, so many blessings.
  29. Be docile to thine Unseen Guide,
    Love him as He loves thee:
    Time and obedience are enough
    And thou a saint shall be.
  30. It is God’s will, I have done all I can, I am satisfied and in peace.
  31. No man ever guarded and cherished and cared for the woman he loves as He will cherish and watch over you if you live only for Him and abandon yourself with perfect trust to His care.
  32. I have received, far, far more than a hundred-fold of consolations and can never thank God enough.
  33. God works in a special way through those consecrated and united to Him.
  34. After all that God has done in the past, I can have no fear of the future.
  35. They are children to be taught and trained in the love of God, for the purpose for which life was given-to love God and neighbour – to live as children of God.
  36. It is wonderful to look back and trace the workings of Providence.
  37. There are souls to be saved, pagans to bring to the knowledge of God-the few who had a little knowledge of God, need to be helped to deepen it.
  38. O Prince of Peace! O Word of God! Let there be quiet in my soul when in prayer.
  39. If the Caritas Christi has really gripped the soul, its urging to apostolic labours will at once be felt.
  40. We want each child to keep true to God all through life’s allurements, dangers and sorrows.
  41. I love the people old and young. Human nature is the same everywhere and kindness opens the heart of all.
  42. I must leave all to God and wait and pray.
  43. We have an enormous opportunity of guiding and forming the character of the young generation and so determining the form of civilization that is coming so quickly to them.
  44. There is good in the girls, but we need to go slowly and to lay deep foundation.
  45. I cannot take back the consecration I have made of my life to the Missions.
  46. Pray for one another, help one another. And intensify your spirit of service and sacrifice wherever you are and in whatever you do.
  47. We certainly do not understand what God is doing but He knows. “Be still and know that I am God." This is my greatest source of help.
  48. Our share in His shame and humiliation will generally be in looking foolish and feeling foolish in the little things of daily life.
  49. No one can do enough for God.
  50. All our works of Charity and Zeal have for their ultimate object, the drawing of souls to God.
  51. I am confident that God will give me the necessary help and grace to carry on.
  52. Every time I hear the clock strike, I pray for all the members of the Congregation both living and dead.
  53. One of the most striking things about my girls is that they are so business-like and capable all-round.
  54. Lay Thy Hand upon my troubled soul, say to its passions, its cares, its restless desires, "Peace be still", that in the stillness, I may hear what and how my God wouldst speak to me.
  55. We must be the mainsprings and guides of the work until such a time as the Natives can do without us.
  56. Nothing else matters, only souls!
  57. Every one of us is poor in the sense that we all depend on others for help in sickness, guidance of one kind or another and education, to mention but a few of our common needs.
  58. It is the casual and accidental difficulties of life that test character.
  59. Every religious, in fact, every Christian, has something to give up.
  60. I had to pray earnestly to God, that if this work is for Him and is to continue after my death, He has to inspire Nigerian Girls to the religious life.
  61. Suffering and death level all ranks, and bring all within the scope of Charity.
  62. True politeness and true charity both consist in trying to put people at their ease, and in sparing inconvenience, discomfort or pain.
  63. But God is above all, and over all, as I well know if I die today with my work only begun, it will be worthwhile.
  64. When our dear ones go, it certainly lifts our hearts from earth, but then, what a happy welcome from our Lord.
  65. All who share in Apostolic work must in their degree fill up in themselves those things which are wanting to the sufferings of Christ.
  66. What is this for eternity? The darker the night, the nearer the dawn.
  67. A certain amount of suffering there must be, it is the price of the true success of the work, “the filling up of those things that are wanting to the passion of Christ."
  68. But all these misunderstandings and sorrows are part of the price for souls. Nothing matters but souls.
  69. I consecrated my life to the Missions and if I may no longer work actively, I will try to fulfil my Intention by praying for them.
  70. The darkest hour is before the dawn.
  71. My hope has always been to have many Convents of Native Sisters scattered throughout the Country.
  72. Penance and mortification are not only for religious but also for all Christians. Penance and Mortification, strengthen one’s character.
  73. God has given me the grace to fit into culture and people and so I am sent by Him.
  74. Children keep happy, work hard, be your brother’s keeper in the loving Fatherly care of God and His Blessed Mother.
  75. I must put all personal feelings aside now, and only consider the work for souls.
  76. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY, the work of God must be done at all cost.
  77. Our great want is prayers. Prayer alone can do the work that has to be done here.
  78. Your success will depend on your ready acceptance of the will of God in every event.
  79. We go to prayer to please God, not to please ourselves.
  80. To be able to hear the voice of our Lord, listening to Him attentively in prayer, you need silence and recollection.
  81. You should accept every order and appointment with the same expression of our Lady: Behold the Handmaid of the Lord.
  82. Our Lady should be your first Patron Saint because Jesus cannot be found without His Mother.
  83. Make the saying of the Rosary your special devotion.
  84. I love every inch of the ground and everyone in it; I love and respect them.
  85. Every step of my life God has led and I have followed.
  86. I have received far, far more than a hundred-fold of consolations, and can never thank God enough.
  87. MAKE EVERY ACTION A PRAYER so that all you do and say will be blessed by Him.
  88. God has blessed the work beyond all hopes. Thanks be to Him.
  89. Your life and action all through the day should reflect His Presence in you.
  90. Solid Christian teaching can be given only in a truly Christian home, by a Christian mother.
  91. Lord, thy will be done not mine.
  92. He began everything with prayer and ended with a prayer of thanksgiving for having fulfilled that particular will of His Father.
  93. In spite of the devil’s opposition, the work is keenly absorbing; in fact that opposition only arouses new zeal.
  94. It was always His Father’s Will, not His own.
  95. And because He had His Father’s will always in His mind that made it easier for Him to meet every situation.
  96. Our Lord’s own Penance and mortification was detachment.
  97. Have special devotion to the passion of our Lord which will be strength and courage in your service of God.
  98. Every teacher is a Catechist and an Apostle.
  99. Work together in mutual help.
  100. God is certainly helping our efforts even though we often seem to be stumbling blindly in the dark.
  101. Love one another, where there is love, there God abides.
  102. I am perfectly satisfied that things are arranged as God wills.
  103. In heaven we shall all understand each other’s motives and actions.
  104. And love is the answer.
  105. Love one another, pray together, help one another work together. We do not go to heaven alone.
  106. God can do all things.
  107. Teach them (the children) to speak the truth, to be honest in speech and behaviour, even if they have to suffer for it.
  108. Be constant in training children in what is right, what will help them to be good citizens of their nation, to be good Christians, God fearing, God loving, at all times.
  109. God can smooth things out and repair injuries done in ways we cannot think of.
  110. God works in a special way through those consecrated and united to Him.
  111. Be your brother’s keeper…
  112. In form, the education must be about 50% literary and 50% practical training.
  113. Montessori is different from kindergarten, it develops different qualities in children.
  114. No work is of greater importance for God’s glory than the education of the young.
  115. …I want to take hold of great multitude of our girls, and ground them in the elements of Christianity and civilized womanhood.
  116. Those who form the character of the children form the character of the nation.
  117. It is in the school that we must get a hold on the children and bring them within the influence of grace.
  118. You cannot give to people what you haven’t got.
  119. Even our mistakes He does not allow to do injury.
  120. Only prayers can win the favours I want….PRAY, PRAY, PRAY,
  121. It is only prayers that is keeping the work going and I pray daily for you and the Congregation.
  122. Amidst the songs of Angels Mary is listening for the whispered prayer of the least of her children.
  123. Anybody under whom you are working, you have to obey.
  124. Pray, Pray, Pray, the work of God must be done at all cost, no matter the inconveniences.
  125. Obedience is the most essential of the religious vows. Through it every action of ours is brought in conformity with the will of God.
  126. You cannot give away an orange tree and continue to pick it fruits.
  127. Poverty will prevent you ever again being independent owner of anything, and you must use according to the direction of superiors what is entrusted to you for yourself or for your work.
  128. By the vow of chastity, you will live, even in this place of exile, as angels live in heaven. You will enjoy the beatitude promised to pure hearts, that of seeing God and enjoying His sweetness in communion and prayer.
  129. Take notice of your sister and tell her if you notice anything that is not right about her.
  130. Our Lady is to be your inseparable companion.
  131. If you are a child of Mary, you must imitate your Mother in every way. She was humble, obedient faithful to her work, trustworthy.
  132. To really know that we love God is shown in the love and care we have for one another.
  133. You must live as children of the same parents being kind and generous to each other.
  134. Show special love to children who are the future of the Church in Africa.
  135. You have all my prayers.
  136. Intensify your spirit of service and sacrifice in whatever you do.
  137. Mary went into the home of Elizabeth, she offered the usual loving greetings, and her days passed in ordinary and simple actions, yet at her mere presence a mighty tide of grace broke upon the inmates of that home.
  138. Having given yourself (to God) you need to intensify your prayers and your offering.
  139. With the giving of yourself, your heart, your mind and will, you give up also any other material things.
  140. If you stood before our Holy Father you would not give much thought to the presence of his Noble Guard.
  141. You will need to visit Him often in the Blessed Sacrament.
  142. God calls some to religion early in life, others later.
  143. Pray to Him, especially, the PRAYER FOR GENEROSITY that’s what you will need most in the life of love and service of your people.
  144. It is lonely without the Blessed Sacrament.
  145. The Holy Eucharist is the food of our souls. It helps the soul to live just as material food helps the body to live.
  146. Visit and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a must for a Religious and an opportunity to advance in her relationship with our Lord.
  147. At Holy Communion ask for courage and faith to meet any event, especially that He accepts the offering of your poor self and to help you overcome all those things that could be a hindrance and to acquire those virtues that you need for perseverance.
  148. I have great devotion to Divine Providence and I say the Litany several times in the day when difficulties come.
  149. All my trust is in Sacred Heart.
  150. Praise be to Divine Providence ever conformable to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
  151. The letters – I.H.S on the small hosts stand for "Jesus Christ Conquers," in Greek.
  152. I trust in the Sacred Heart, and I will trust.
  153. The children are beginning a Novena of Novenas, eighty-one days prayer, to the Sacred Heart, for the gift…to build the Church- the Church of the Sacred Heart.
  154. The Blood of Christ surges within you.
  155. Personal private cultivated, will be your guide.
  156. Give yourself a penance of resisting some inclinations, some desires, which though, may be good in themselves but not helpful for growth in the spiritual life.
  157. Neither affection nor familiarity can do away with the necessity for certain reverent reserve in conversation and in manner while at prayer.
  158. Every Missionary must be prepared to turn her hands to many works besides the actual one which is her special strong point.
  159. The Kingdom of God lies in your hands this day: it is through your behaviour that He will extend His Kingdom.
  160. It is at the Holy Mass that you have real personal contact with Him, when you receive Him in Holy Communion and renew your love, and ask Him for what you need for yourself and for all those you serve, for His sake.
  161. The Holy Mass is the greatest meeting point with our Lord.
  162. It is very important that you study His Life and Work in the New Testament.
  163. I feel confident that Divine Providence will always let me have enough to go on.
  164. Go to the chapel and tell Our Lord.
  165. I will go ahead as long as I can trusting in Divine Providence.
  166. It is in prayer that you will always find God and his Will.
  167. Divine Providence ever conformable to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
  168. God will provide when the time comes.
  169. God is perfect and to see Him and live with Him after death, one must be as perfect as He is.
  170. His “COME FOLLOW ME” means, do as I did, without counting the cost.
  171. Our Divine Lord’s call takes many different forms. What He looks for from us is that Will which leads us to go because He calls.

Prayer to Obtain Special Favours through Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, Foundress of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus

O God, in Your Inscrutable Providence, You chose Your Handmaid, Mother Mary Charles Magdalen Walker, as an instrument for the evangelisation and sanctification of your people.

You filled her with an extraordinary missionary zeal and ardent charity, which impelled her to found the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, to continue this work of Christ’s saving mission in the Church especially among the women, the children and the suffering poor of Christ, in the spirit of Mary, Your first Handmaid.

We humbly pray you, in Your merciful love, through the compassionate Heart of Your Son, Jesus to make her presence with you in heaven known and by her intercession grant the petition we now make to you in faith. (Mention your petitions)

Be pleased to grant also that the members of this Congregation may remain always united and be ever imbued with and inspired by her apostolic zeal and charity. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, the Lord, Amen.

(One Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc)

"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word," (Lk 1:38).
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word," (Lk 1:38).