All members and friends of the Mercy family are invited to send in your greetings for posting on our mercyworld.org website for Mercy Day. Greetings are being posted online as they are received.

Greetings should be sent in by Wednesday, 21 September to make sure they are published for Mercy Day.

We also welcome reports of celebrations held. These will be shared in the Issues published on 28 September and 5 October so need to be received by Monday, 3 October to be included.

Messages to: Anne Walsh - Mercy eNews Editor

Image: © 2016 MIA. This image is available to any Mercy group who would like to use it. Please contact Anne

It is 35 years today since the promulgation of Pope John Paul II‘s encyclical Laborem Exercens (‘On Human Work’) which affirmed the value of work, the dignity of the worker and the vital importance of work to the life of the community.

Let us give thanks for the efforts of all those— employees and volunteers— whose labour contributes to our living and our lifestyles. And let us resolve not to benefit from the labour of those who have been trafficked or exploited in the production of the goods and services we enjoy. Instead, let us educate ourselves on the fundamental principles and rights at work (conventions and recommendations) of workers to help ensure a fair chance at prosperity for all who labour.

MIA opposes human trafficking. Read more about local and international efforts to address this issue.

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Post your own Prayer or Reflection in our online Chapel

Applications are invited for the following two positions which will become available early in 2017:

Assistant Director Heritage & Spirituality (Commencing 1 March, 2017).
Hospitality and Facilities Manager (Commencing 1 February 2017).

The positions will be based in Dublin, with initially a 3 year contract.

Please apply, attaching a Curriculum Vitae and names of 2 Referees, to: Mary Reynolds rsm, Executive Director MIA

Closing Date:  23 September 2016

Indications of interest are also invited for the post of MGA Coordinator at the UN, New York. The recruitment process to fill the post will commence in November 2016.

Contact: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Sisters, Associates and Friends of Mercy are invited to celebrate the Eucharist at midday on the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, Tuesday 24 September at Mercy International Centre,  64A Lower Baggot Street, Dublin.

All are welcome to lunch following the Eucharist.

RSVP by/on Friday 16 September to Madeline using the subject line ‘Mercy Day’, or ring +353 1 661 8061.
 
Download the invitation here (PDF)

Messages to: Madeline O'Hanlon - Receptionist

Details of the Livestream of the Mercy Day Mass can be found here

There's less than a week to the Summit for Refugees and Migrants at the UN (19 September). The UNHCR Petition (at time of writing) has 940,443 pledges of support! A little under 60,000 signatures short of the one million target.

If you haven't signed and intend to do so, time is running out.

The petition can be signed here

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Additional resources:

'Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children'. UNICEF report finds nearly 50 million children have migrated across borders or been forcibly displaced; more than half of these have fled violence and insecurity. Download the Report here

Caritas Internationalis and the Jesuit Refugee Service response to the outcome document of the UN Summit on addressing large movements of migrants and refugees

While many of us will incorporate 'A Litany of Mercy' into our prayer on 24 September, it has been suggested that the Mercy family might like to pray this prayer in solidarity with each other in the days leading up the Feast of our Lady of Mercy, commencing tomorrow, Thursday, 16 September and finishing on Mercy Day.

Messages to: Mary Wickham rsm

We have had a very positive response to the graphic for the 8th Work of Mercy and so have updated it to use the title of the actual message of Pope Francis ‘Show Mercy to our Common Home’/ 'Usemos misericordia con nuestra casa común'

While the jpeg is still available for those who might wish to use it, we are also making available in this issue of eNews a full colour poster version of the image.

English: A4 Paper Size poster version (PDF);  US Letter Size poster version (PDF)
Spanish: A4 Paper Size poster version (PDF); US Letter Size poster version (PDF)

Messages to: Anne Walsh - Communications Director MIRP

Statements welcoming the 8th Work of Mercy have been issued by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and Nga Whaea Atawhai o Aotearoa Sisters of Mercy New Zealand.

Image: © 2016 MIA. This image is available in print & web quality in English and Spanish. For a copy, please contact Anne

Each Thursday during the Season of Creation (8, 15,22,29 September) the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) is organizing a weekly series of online contemplative prayer sessions inspired by the spirituality of Laudato Si'. These will be led by Laurence Freeman, OSB, Margaret Galiardi, OP, Janet O’Sullivan and Dr. Catherine Mooney.

Session 1 (8 September) by Margaret Galiardi, OP can be viewed here. The transcript can be downloaded here

Session 2 (15 September) will be led by Janet O'Sullivan. Details here.

Messages to: GCCM

The reflection group in Belize City, Belize, decided through their conversations that awareness is very much needed of the issues surrounding the need to hear “the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.” That led the group to present the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium – which calls for a more environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Earth—to all of the high school faculty at St. Catherine’s Academy. In the photo, small groups are talking about their concerns and hopes for the world at this time.

Messages to: Marianne Comfort - MIRP Coordinator Americas

On Saturday, 6 August, members of Community South A in Adelaide, South Australia, gathered for Stage Three of the Mercy International Reflection Process.

Texts/Wisdom Traditions engaged by the group, their key insights and emerging Vision is contained in the attached report which can be downloaded here (PDF).

Messages to: Adele Howard rsm - MIRP Coordinator ISMAPNG

Image: Some of the many participants

The world’s 1.1 billion girls1 are part of a large and vibrant global generation poised to take on the future. Yet the ambition for gender equality in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlights the preponderance of disadvantage and discrimination borne by girls everywhere on a daily basis. Only through explicit focus on collecting and analyzing girl-focused, girl-relevant and sex-disaggregated data, and using these data to inform key policy and program decisions, can we adequately measure and understand the opportunities and challenges girls face, and identify and track progress towards solutions to their most pressing problems.
With this in mind, the theme for this year's International Day of the Girl (11 October) is Girls' Progress = Goals' Progress: A Global Girl Data Movement...

Read the Concept Note (PDF)

Messages to: Deirdre Mullan rsm - Consultant Director to UNICEF

'I am part of a three-person justice team for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, which encompasses the United States, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Guam and the Philippines. We are charged with engaging Mercy sisters, lay associates and companions, co-workers, volunteers, students and friends with what we call our critical concerns. Those are: Earth, immigration, nonviolence, anti-racism and women.

We provide opportunities for members of this Mercy network to pray over injustices in our world, advocate on public policies, and commit to changing personal behaviors and ministry/institutional policies as ways of living out these concerns in our everyday lives...'

Messages to: Marianne Comfort - Institute Justice Team/MIRP Coordinator Americas

Kathleen Rushton rsm examines three parables of the lost in Luke 15:1–32 showing what they reveal about relationships with God and one another.

Sr Kathleen writes: 'Luke 15:1–2 is the framework for understanding three parables of action and words of mercy— the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Sons.'

Download the article here (PDF)

Read it online here.

Messages to: Kathleen Rushton rsm

Nearly 300 Sisters, Mercy Associates and friends travelled from England, Scotland and Wales for the Jubilee Year of Mercy Pilgrimage on 2 July 2016 to St George's Cathedral Southwark. The speakers shared reflections on Catherine’s Vision of Mercy and on the way that vision became Global Mercy. We were reminded that the early Sisters had their own difficulties, different to ours but just as real.

Messages to: Annette McCartan rsm

'For anyone who has ever had to stand in line (or if you are a New Yorker, you stand on line) at a supermarket, retailer, bank or anywhere else, here are some tips from experts for picking the line that will move the fastest...'

Source: NY Times

A reminder about the Mercy Moments printable resources produced each fortnight by Mercy Partners (Australia) for assistance in prayer and reflection. 20 reflections are currently available for download, the latest being 'Saint of Mercy' , a reflection on Mother Teresa.

'In her insightful and engaging 2005 work, Dancing with Strangers, Melbourne-based historian Inga Clenninden offered a new perspective on the famous incident of the spearing of Governor Arthur Phillip at Manly Cove on September 7, 1790...'

- Veronica Lawson rsm

1878: First Native American mission in Maine, Indian Island, Old Town - M Frances Warde
1957: Foundation to British Columbia, Canada

Contribute a fact about the Story of the Sisters of Mercy in your congregation or institute to our online archive

'We should be shining lamps, giving light to all around us.'

- Catherine McAuley

Called and missioned by God, the Mercy Volunteer Corps staff, board members, and volunteers commit to the values of compassionate service, a simple lifestyle in community, and spiritual growth.