Apostolates of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Inspired by Christ’s love for humanity, especially for the poor and faithful to the spirit of our foundation, our IHM sisters take as their model the gentle and compassionate Christ who went about preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity (Mt. 9:35).
Love is the motivating factor in this apostolic witness, and what love is, we learn from Jesus, a man for others. The Immaculate Heart of Mary also teaches us how her most pure heart reaches out to the weak and the needy. Our sisters seek to activate in our lives an empathic personal love and concern for the people we serve.
In our world today, our sisters, in communion with and imitation of the two hearts of Jesus and Mary, strive to joyfully serve in humility and compassion, the people God has entrusted to us through education, health care, social service, pastoral ministry, farming and other works of charity in keeping with the spirit of our foundation.
We undertake these works believing that any legitimate participation in the transformation of the world is an essential aspect of the preaching of the gospel. Some of our sisters especially those in the nursing home in a unique way share in the apostolate of suffering and prayer. In all our apostolates, we dedicate ourselves to the service of Compassion – always seeking to do so after the example of our Blessed Mother Mary.
We seek to cultivate in our lives a compassionate personal love and concern for the people with whom we work, people who have a special claim to our love and service and who should be treated with kindness, understanding, and sympathy characteristic of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who opens her heart to all.
Our Founder’s apostolic aim for us is the special care of the sick including maternity care in hospitals, care of children in orphanages, and care of people in leprosy settlements.
We engage in medical work after the example of Christ who cured every kind of disease and infirmity. Our institute cares for the sick in hospitals, clinics, and maternities.
We provide pastoral ministry to the sick and their families, health education, nursing, and medical laboratory training programs.
We strive daily to bring God’s compassionate healing presence and hope to those we serve.
Faithful to the teaching ministry of the Church and in keeping with the mind of our Founder to raise the status of women and the less privileged, the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary engage in the education of children from preschool to tertiary institute.
Through our education apostolate, we give witness to Christ by our lives and teaching. We see our students as individuals with a special claim to our love and service.
We bring to our work a passionate desire to serve, commit, and empower people to transform their lives and dedication to the highest standards of learning and authentic Catholic formation.
Our Sisters engage in means of cultivation of land both for production and preservation. We have farms and animal husbandry at subsistence and cooperative levels. We plant palm trees in one of the States in Nigeria and teach the Youth about the danger of depleting the Earth’s resources.
We have a fish farm where we use only natural products to raise fish. Our bread industry does not produce for profit and we have a stipulated quantity we give out to the poor every day. We are embarking on a project to have a constant power supply at our boarding schools through solar energy.
“Even Farming is not to be beneath them,” said our Founder in his letter of July 16, 1943. Our sisters make a tremendous effort to live up to the exhortations of our founder. Our sisters engage in small and large scale farming.
Our sisters serve the elderly men and women, single expectant mothers and their babies at our compassionate homes, have boarding homes for working women and students, provide social assistance to the poor, refugees, and the marginalized.
The motivation and creativity of our services flow from our charism of compassion in the spirit of humility, love of God, and in imitation of Mary, our mother, and model.
Following our Lord’s command to “Go, teach all nations” (Matt. 28:19), our sisters participate in the evangelization activities of the church through faith formation, catechist formation, youth ministry, and vocation promotion.
We also participate in priestly formation in seminaries, provide spiritual direction, moderate retreats, engage in youth ministries, work in diocesan offices and commissions, sew ecclesiastical vestments and altar cloths, and baking of altar bread among others. Devoutly, we imitate our Blessed Mother Mary in her singular role to present Christ to our world.
Scholarship/Education
Our Education/Scholarship Advocacy comprises of all schools we manage and/or have sisters in. As of January 2020, we own a total of 22-grade schools, 16 high schools, and three health schools. We have a presence in other 52 grade schools and 22 high schools owned by Dioceses and others. These schools offer scholarships to indigent students.
Each year, there are more than 30 young women being trained as nurses in our Institute on scholarship. The number of kids on scholarship in grade schools runs in the hundreds. About 100 kids are on scholarship in our high schools. Normally, our scholarships cover tuition, room and board, and even needs for the family of the recipient.
Countries include the USA, Nigeria, Tchad, Cameroon, Kenya, Ghana, Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom, Italy, and Tanzania.
Offer a scholarship to a kid in Africa today.
1. Education
| S/No | Particulars | Where | Total | For Individual Sponsorship - Annual | For Individual Sponsorship - Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scholarship for 150 Grade School Kids | 22 Schools in Africa | $90,000.00 | $600 | $50 |
| 2 | Scholarship for 250 High School Girls | 19 Schools in Africa | $450,000.00 | $1800 | $150 |
| 3 | Scholarship for Nursing Students | Nigeria and Ghana | $95,000.00 | $1900 | $160 |
| 4 | Educational Materials: Books, Toys, Pens, Pencils | $10,000.00 | |||
| 5 | Others: Teacher’s Training College and Other Higher Institutions | $60,000.00 | $2000 | $170 |
Pastoral Care
We have programs on faith formation, music ministry, pastoral care of the sick at homes and hospitals, and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) training for sisters.
Faith Formation – All Countries
Community Care - Pastoral Care of the Sick in the communities, Freeport, Syracuse, Nigeria, Ghana.
Madonna Renewal Center, Nkpor, Nigeria
Madonna Renewal Center, Wetlands, Nairobi, Kenya.
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Training for Sisters in the USA
Block Rosary Crusades in Nigeria
Music Ministry, VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Nigeria.
Youth Ministry/Youth Center, Amawbia - Awka, Nigeria.
Family Light of the Nation, Amawbia - Awka, Nigeria
IHM Boarding Home - Sierra Leone, Hostel for Girls - Awka, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
What We Do/Advocacy
We are a community that shares the compassion of Christ. Our Primary Apostolate is prayer. We pray the Liturgy of Hours – Lauds, Vespers, and Compline in Common. Adoration of the Eucharist, Daily Family Rosary, and other common Prayers. We participate in the celebration of the Sacraments by the Church.
Nourished by prayer and daily Mass and braced by common life and filial devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we promote Gospel values through our apostolates/advocacies.
Wherever we serve and in whatever we do, IHM Sisters serve with cheerfulness and humility that comes from the heart.
Our elderly sisters are engaged in Apostolate of Prayer all day.
