MIA joins with the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea (North Sydney Congregation, Parramatta Congregation, ISMAPNG and Brisbane Congregation) in prayers for the people of New South Wales where hundreds of homes have been destroyed and a life has been lost as a result of bushfires. 60 bushfires are burning, many out of control. Extreme fire danger warnings continue with properties and lives remaining at risk.

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Mercy International wishes to announce the appointment of Denise Boyle fmdm to the post of Assistant Director Global Action. She will take up the position at the beginning of March, 2014, when the present holder, Mary Purcell, retires.

Denise is currently employed by the Mercy Congregation (Ireland) as Campaign manager of MECPATH (Mercy – End Child Prostitution and Trafficking in the Hospitality Sector). Previous to that she held the position of Executive Director of Franciscan International and has experience of working at the UN in Geneva and New York. She has also served as International Justice Coordinator for St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, Kiltegan, Ireland; as Overseas Project Officer for the Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM) and as National Co-Ordinator of Women and Children’s Programme in Zimbabwe. Her previous experience also includes 15 years in Education Leadership roles in Australia and Regional Leadership roles in Zimbabwe.

Accepting the position Denise said, ‘It will be an honour and a privilege to work with MIA. Working collaboratively with the Global Action Team, my hope is that we will achieve our goals with and for the most vulnerable’.

Messages to: Denise Boyle fmdm
 

Prayers with the intercession of Venerable Catherine McAuley are asked for all whose names are in our hearts and on our prayer list; in particular those whose names have been newly added: Nicholas Marendy, Emma Grace, Bill Pendergast, Kelly Harper, Kathy Brown, Laya Porter, Phyllis.

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

Details of the programmes on offer at MIC in 2014 were advertised in Mercy E-news Issue 532 (18 September 2013). Now you can enrol online (linked to this item).

For those who may find it helpful, brief biographies of the Facilitators and Resource people can be found here A print ready version of the 2014 programmes for noticeboards etc can be found here.

At Mercy International Centre - a place of welcome, hospitality, pilgrimage and renewal - we provide a 'well-spring' of nourishment in Mercy heritage, spirituality, charism and ethos to those members of the global Mercy family who wish to explore the significance of the Mercy story in their lives during time spent here at Baggot Street.

Come spend time with us here in Catherine's House of Mercy during our twentieth year!

Messages to: 
Mary Kay Dobrovolny rsm - Assistant Director Heritage & Spirituality
Madeleine O'Hanlon - Receptionist

Editor: Mercy Health West Hospital Cincinnatti, a 638,000-square-foot facility, located on 60 acres along Interstate 74, opens on 10 November,2013.

Mercy Health West is bringing something to the west side of town they've never had - a full-service full care hospital. While that is very important, what is unique about Mercy West is the hospital has a green roof that will be the largest living roof in the state of Ohio. According to Mercy Health, the roof spans 2.5 acres and will have 64,000 plants.

The plants had to be selected carefully for their tolerance to extreme heat and cold. They include: native prairie grasses, additional native prairie plants, allium, butterfly weed and pinks and sedums

As much as 75 percent of the rainwater that hits the roof is expected to be absorbed, reducing the impact on nearby drainage systems.

'Too often, an ailing patient looks out of the room, seeking to connect with God, and sees mechanical equipment stacked upon a roof,' said Gary Meisner, of Cincinnati, whose company designed the roof. 'The idea was to provide a sense of the ancient Midwestern prairie. We approached the design and colors of the landscape as would an artist with a mural.'

Messages to: Nanette Bentley - Director, Communications and Public Relations Mercy Health

Editor: An Gáirdín is a ministry of The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Western Province. It came into existence in 1994, say its founders, when 'a small group of us Mercy Sisters in Clonfert Diocese came together to find new ways of expressing our commitment to the Earth. We were awakening to the vision of Earth as a living organism, a great web of interconnectedness and interdependent life. We shared the desire to rediscover together who we humans are as a strand of this magnificent web. You could say we shared the desire to ‘come home’ to Earth after a long absence...'

An Gáirdín is profiled in a lengthy article published this week in the Atlantic online, along with the ecological works of other orders such as: Genesis Farm (Dominican Sisters), the Immaculate Heart of Mary's renovation of their Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, An Tairseach (Dominicans, Co Wicklow) and Green Mountain Monastery, Vermont. The article includes references to the writings of Sarah McFarland, Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, as well as the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology whose website is well worth checking out for its resources and references.

Messages to: An Gáirdín

An Gáirdín is this week's featured Mercy website

Editor: Each fortnight Camille D'Arienzo rsm writes a column based on her conversation with a person of faith. The current column features her interview with Jay Sullivan whose two years volunteering at Alpha Boys School in Kingston, Jamaica, a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy, had a profound effect upon him, not least because of Sr Magdalen and particular young men he encountered there.

In this wonderful exchange, Sullivan recounts the impact of his time at Alpha and the impact Alpha has continued to have on him and his life experiences since his return to the US.

Messages to: Camille D'Arienzo rsm

About 150 people, including Sisters of Mercy, protested about fracking in the city of General Roca, Province of Rio Negro, Argentina on 11 October. At the end of the demonstration they joined an act performed by 20 Mapuche (indigenous people of the area) who were celebrating their day of freedom against the occupation by Columbus...

Messages to: Ana Maria Siufi rsm

In Riverside Rhode Island, USA, 20 people attended St Mary Academy, Bay View for a showing of Gasland and discussion. The group signed a petition asking for a moratorium on all fracking until an independent study of the environmental, water and health risks could be determined.

Messages to: Mary Pendergast rsm

On 22 September, in Parkes, New South Wales, prior to the ceremony wherein each member received her copy of the newly revised Constitutions for the Institute, a number of Sisters of Mercy took the 20 minute drive to Bogan Gate outside Parkes, to visit the grave of William Armstrong Montgomery Macauley aka "Wild Willie" - the nephew of our Foundress, Venerable Catherine McAuley...

Messages to: Anne McGuire rsm

1852: Chicago Mercy Hospital founded
1898: Sisters take charge of Coromandel Hospital, Auckland
 

'May God's will be ever adored and blessed' : M Cecilia Maher

Jay Sullivan is the Managing Partner of Exec|Comm, LLC, a communications consulting firm. In between graduating from Boston College and attending Fordham Law School, he taught English in Kingston, Jamaica at Alpha Boys School, a ministry of the Sisters of Mercy.

This is his story of those years.

All of the author's proceeds from this book go to support the work of the Mercy Sisters and the Jesuits in Jamaica.

Purchase it online from Amazon (paperback or kindle)

Organic Garden and Ecology Centre

'To make again a garden of this place' (Elisabeth Roberts) became our motto as we set out to learn to live in communion with one another and with the great diversity of life around us.

It costs nothing to click, respond and retweet. But what price do we pay in our relationships and our peace of mind?

Source: Aeon Magazine