A Christmas Reflection from Mercy International Association

Our Head of Heritage and Spirituality Caroline Thompson shares a reflection with us for Christmas:

When Catherine McAuley hosted Christmas lunch at the House of Mercy in Baggot Street she was doing what women around the world will be doing this Christmas – inviting loved ones to celebrate with food and shared conversation.

What made Catherine’s Christmas lunch special was the people she gathered around her table. One can only imagine the excitement of those who were Dublin’s poorest to the invitation to a special meal at Christmas. It was deeper than food, deeper than warmth, deeper than the company – it was the fact that they were noticed, honoured, invited and seen.

It is a timely reminder to us of the importance of ‘seeing’ those who society makes invisible – those living in poverty, those who are lonely, those without family and friends, those who struggle to afford a Christmas celebration.

As Catherine McAuley wrote in a letter to Francis Warde:

"May God preserve and bless you and grant you all the graces and precious gifts reserved for this holy season…"

This Christmas we are all challenged to approach Christmas with Catherine’s generosity, her joy and her ability to reach out to those most in need.

To ask ourselves: who is in need of our precious gifts this Christmas?

Jan Richardson’s beautiful poem sums up the inspiration of wise women like Catherine McAuley and their commitment to hospitality and compassion for the Christmas experience:

Wise women also came

The fire burned in their wombs long before
they saw the flaming star in the sky.

They walked in shadows, trusting the path
would open under the light of the moon.

Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission from any king.

They came by their own authority,
their own desire,
their own longing.

They came in quiet, spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears to lead to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s inconsolable lamentations.

Wise women also came,
and they brought useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.

Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings into her ear.

Wise women also came,
and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.

-Jan Richardson