Today marks the midpoint of our entry into the first week of Advent. Christ is coming.

MIA joins in joyful expectation with all those who await his coming .

May we move close as he draws close.

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director

Editor: Advent reflections can be found on both The Congregation and Mercy Aotearoa New Zealand websites. In 'Mercy Links' (below) is described a set of beautiful videos for those interested in visual reflections for Advent.

Students who participated in the Pilgrimage of Young Mercy Leaders continue to embody Mercy Leadership in their school and civic communities. This past week, two participants in the 2011 Pilgrimage of Young Mercy Leaders were named "Ambassadors of the Month" by Mercy Beyond Borders. Sofia Viegas and Johanna Mousley, along with their classmate Luci Headley, fundraised $1,100 in support of women and children in South Sudan...

Keynote presenters for the 2013 Pilgrimage include: Áine Barrins rsm who will break open some of Catherine McAuley's story; Karen Schneider rsm, a paediatric physician with Johns Hopkins University and Health System, who will talk about global Mercy ministry and share stories of her ministry with people living in extreme poverty in various countries around the world; and Mary Reynolds rsm, Executive Director of Mercy International Association, who will engage the theme of Mercy leadership today. These keynote presentations will be combined with workshops, discussions, rituals, socials, and the sharing of gifts and talents in an evening talent show.

To pre-register for the 2013 Pilgrimage of Young Mercy Leaders, e-mail Mary Kay Dobrovolny rsm.
Registration materials will be distributed in January, and need to be returned to MIA by Friday, 29th March 2013.

Messages to: Mary Kay Dobrovolny rsm - Assistant Director Heritage & Spirituality

An invitation is extended to all members of the Mercy network - Sisters, Associates, Colleagues, Partners in Ministry, Family and Friends - to post Christmas Greetings on the mercyworld.org website, a practice now in its eleventh year.

Each year the greetings not only impart good wishes and hopes for us all, but they also hold out to us something of the stories of mercy lived, loved and experienced in ministries across the Mercy world.

As we bring this year of sharing our global Mercy story to its conclusion, we invite you to tell us all how it has been for you in your ministry - through an anecdote, a greeting, a prayer, a wish, a dream you have or a plan for 2013...

Messages that reach the Editor by Christmas Eve will appear on the website for reflection on Christmas Day.

Messages to: 
Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA
The Editor

Sisters, Associates and Friends of Mercy are invited to celebrate Foundation Day, December 12, at Mercy International Centre.

Mass will be celebrated at midday in the Baggot Street chapel followed by lunch in the dining room.
RSVP today, Wednesday December 5 please – 01 661 8061 or receptionist@mercyinternational.ie

Messages to: Madeleine O'Hanlon - Receptionist

The Church has great need of saints. The real innovators in the Church are the saints, holy people whose lives are dramatic with a humble and homely heroism. Read more Brenda Dolphin rsm, Postulator.

Prayers with the intercession of Venerable Catherine McAuley are asked for:  Walter Sullivan, Anne Valino, Michael, William J. McAuliffe, Gerard McNally, Macdara Glynn, Anita M. Caswell and all those whose names are on the MIA prayer list.

Messages to:
Anne Hannon rsm - Vice postulator Europe and Africa
Sheila Carney rsm - Vice postulator Americas
Caroline Ryan rsm - Vice postulator Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Philippines

On 26th November, over forty people gathered at Amigo Hall next to St Georges Cathedral in Southwark for the annual day of reflection for Religious, organised by CAFOD. The key input was from Gemma Simmonds CJ, who gave an inspiring and challenging reflection on the witness of Religious life in today’s world. "Religious do not lose their mission just because they are unable to be as “active” as they once were; Religious ARE themselves a mission and it matters that we are in the Church..."

The main points of Sr Gemma's talk are linked to this item.

Messages to: Cathy Edge rsm - IT Support and Website Administrator

MAGnet (Sydney) is a group of young Mercy ex-students who are committed to maintaining the Mercy spirit in their lives following their secondary education. MAGnet supports and collaborates with the Mercy Mission of the Sisters of Mercy in local, national and international communities through the planning of initiatives with other young Mercy women. In the spirit of Catherine McAuley, members set out to use their abilities and personal gifts for the creation of a more just and compassionate society. Over the last three years the MAGnet members have becoming increasingly aware of the importance of providing educational opportunities for young disadvantaged women through the provision of scholarships for 6 young Peruvian and, in 2012, for three young Papua New Guinean women. It also continues to support some local and national ventures within and beyond Mercy bases...

Read complete article.

Messages to: Margaret Sheppard rsm

The Institute Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas is saddened and disturbed by the recent action of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to dismiss Father Roy Bourgeois from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers...

Father Roy remains our brother and we thank him for his integrity and lifelong fidelity to the gospel of love, justice and peace.

Messages to: Institute Leadership Team c/- Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office

Editor: NCR's report on the Institute Leadership's Statement can be read here

After being the face of Mercy High School since the late 1970s, Religious Sister of Mercy Carol E. Wheeler will conclude her tenure at the all-girls’ school in Baltimore at the end of the 2012-13 school year.

“Thirty-six years is a good stretch of time,” Sister Carol said. “We have concluded the first 50 years of the school.”

Sister Carol, 76, joined the Mercy faculty in 1961, one year after it opened. She taught English, Latin and religion.

“It was an exciting time,” Sister Carol said. “It was a brand new school and the decade of the ’60s was an exciting decade.”...

“Education is bigger than classrooms,” Sister Carol said. “You teach what is going on in the world. Mercy High School has, from the beginning, been aware of the larger society … and has taught with that in mind.”...

A new president is expected to be selected by the 2013-14 school year.

Source: Catholic Review

 Please pray for all affected by serious flooding in Colon, Panama, which has claimed five lives and left more than 5,000 homeless. Sisters of Mercy are assessing damages to their facilities there.

Read more about the flooding in Panama here.

Financial donations can be sent to:
Sisters of Mercy-CCASA Community,
8380 Colesville Rd. #300,
Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Please indicate “Panama Flood” in the memo field.

Messages to: Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office

1937: M Bertrand O'Keefe died Carysfort (Superior Baggot St 1918 - 24)

“You Did it Unto Me” is a rich and powerful fountain of knowledge for all students of Jamaican history. Sister Bernadette writes with realness and integrity...her own spiritual odyssey is interwoven in the epic century-old journey in community of the Sisters of Mercy...their struggle to spread the Gospel of love... compassion...service and social justice in Jamaica.

Mackran Singh, Current Principal of the Convent of Mercy Academy

Purchase online and read the background to this remarkable Mercy institution of learning

A  history of the women who left Ireland in the mid- nineteenth century to offer education, healthcare and related services to immigrant populations in the Americas and other countries. Narrated by historians, it places the arrival of women religious in a historical context.

View the documentary (41' 02") online at this link, courtesy of Carlow University Library

Details of how to purchase this resource can be obtained here

Immersing yourself in a book or in the literary culture is a great way to get more out of the books you read. There are thousands of sites online created specifically for people who like to read. Many of these sites can be used to find, read, discuss, and share books online. Here is a list of 15 free online resources that any book lover will enjoy.

Source: Mission to Learn