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MIA New Vision Statement Launched Online Today as the Silver Jubilee Year gets Underway
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Editor: From its formation in 1992, Mercy International Association has ensured that it has a clear focussed vision. In this article, Mary Reynolds rsm traces the development of that vision, its re-focussing in the 2006 formulation and the review by the Members and Board in 2018, placing Mercy Global Presence at the heart of the Vision and emphasising the place of all members of the Mercy Family in creating this reality.
How appropriate that in this, the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the MIA Vision is presented in eight languages: English, Irish, Spanish, Maori, Samoan, Tok Pisin, Tagalog and Tongan, honouring Mercy’s presence in 6 continents of the world - Africa, Americas, Australia, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - CEO MIA
Vision in Action
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MIA
Reflective Process Offered: Make the MIA Vision Your Own
Sheila Carney rsm, member of the MIA Board, has prepared a reflective process for introducing the new Vision for those who might like to use it. The process, linked to this item, can be used individually or in groups.
You may also like to share your reflections.
Messages (Process) to: Sheila Carney rsm
Messages (Sharing) to Mary Reynolds rsm
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MIRP
Invitation: Contribute to World Water Day Issue of Mercy eNews
In five weeks time (22 March) we will celebrate World Water Day (WWD). For the WWD issue of MercyeNews, we would like to publish items from the Mercy Family - individuals. communities and ministries - on how you are addressing this critical concern of the global Mercy Family. All contributions are welcome.
Please send in items (short or long) with a photo (if available) by 10 March to the Editor.
Messages to: the Editor
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Stock imagePrayer
MIA Prayer intention: Flood Ravaged Queensland, Australia
‘From elation to devastation’. This is how the impact last week of the flooding rains that came after 7 years of drought in north-west Queensland has been described for farmers and their families.
With 2 million hectares (20,000 sq km) of land flooded, hundreds of thousands of cattle lost, or at risk of starving, it will take years for the primary producers to recover.
Let us pray for all members of the communities affected by Queensland’s flooding disaster, that they may have the strength and support they need to deal with what confronts them.
Post a prayer in our online chapel.
Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - CEO MIA
MIA Members
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Americas
Mother McAuley High Named Participant in Amazon Future Engineer Program
Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School Chicago has been named a participating school in the Amazon Future Engineer program. It is currently one of only five all-girls’ private schools nationwide to be named part of the program.
Launched in November 2018, this initiative has allocated $50 million for programs which encourage and enlist underserved or underrepresented students in computer science. The program will encourage McAuley students’ exploration of computer science to help advance the number of women pursuing careers in Science Technology Engineering and Math (S.T.E.M.) – countering gender disparity within these fields…
Messages to: Jennifer Busk - Director of Marketing and Communications
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Americas
Mount Aloysius Celebrates Miracle Grotto’s 100th Year
In 1918, a great influenza epidemic swept over the United States and hundreds of thousands of people died.
The Sisters of Mercy at Mount Aloysius helped care for the sick and healing prayers were offered daily at the Grotto of Our Lady. Miraculously, not one case of the disease developed at the school.
100 years later, the original Grotto statues have been refurbished and rededicated.
Details of the rededication ceremony held on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (11 February) can be found here
A short video of the Grotto’s history is linked to this item.
Messages to: Chris Koren, Executive Director for Mission Integration and Community Engagement
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Brisbane
Graced Encounters
‘There are those who walk with us
a little of the way, open our eyes
awaken our hearts and leave us better
for being with them.
They are a gift to us
The presence of Spirit
The flesh and blood of Love’
These verses from Noel Davis’s poem Graced Encounters expressed the sentiments of a group of Sisters of Mercy in Brisbane who celebrate their Golden Jubilee this year. Nine members of the original group, who began novitiate in 1966 and whose journey has taken them along other paths, hosted a beautiful High Tea celebration to honour their long-time friends celebrating 50 Years as Sisters of Mercy…
Messages to: Sandra Lupi rsm
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Brisbane
Advent Ritual, Celebration of Thanks and Gifting 2018
On Saturday 8 December 2018, the Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation gathered for their Advent Ritual and farewell to the Congregation Leadership Team 2013-2018. The ritual was crafted using resources from Jan Richardson’s book ‘Night Visions’. The Sisters present were able to choose for their prayer and reflection inspiration from Scripture quotes, poetry, paintings or Jan’s own reflections around themes such as: John the Baptiser, Gabriel and Mary, Christmas Eve and Wise Women Also Came…
A copy of the ritual is attached.
Messages to:
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Australia
Ritual for Blessing of the Rivers Ceremony Now Available
On Saturday, 16 February, the Blessing of the Rivers ceremony will take place beside the junction of the rivers in Wentworth. Water is being carried to the ceremony from many Mercy places in Australia, including the Institute Centre at Stanmore (New South Wales), Mercy College and Mercy Convent at Coburg (Victoria) and Mercy Creek Seville in Cairns (Queensland).
A copy of the ritual is now online here and you are invited to show your support in prayer for those affected by the ecological disaster of the Murray-Darling River systems at a place of water significant to you.
Messages to:
Adele Howard rsm (ISMAPNG)
Helen Nolen rsm (ISMAPNG)
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Stock imageThe Congregation
Reflections Of An Archivist Ten Years On
I can still remember the little tingle of excitement I felt ten years ago, as I sat in the lecture hall of Maynooth College as the first lecture on Historical Archives began. This was an entirely new subject for me. I knew absolutely nothing about archival science. I could not name a single book on the subject. I knew nothing of its history. A whole new field of learning was about to unfold before me!…
Messages to: Dora Lynch c/- Denise Brennan rsm - Communications Coordinator
Mercy Matters
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Reflection
Religious Life Call
‘The point… is to engage the contemporary issues and to do it from a global lens. The global is so key. Our vision can get small looking down the street, but if we look at the calls of the world — our sisters in [countries] — can inform, form and shape our responses today. We are called to an interior conversion, an internal transformation and an external vitalization in religious life today.’
-Maria Cimperman RSCJ, *Q&A with Sr. Maria Cimperman, director of Center for Consecrated Life, *29 January 2019
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Fact
On This Day
1963: Foundation to Yangoru, PNG from Rockhampton, Australia
Contribute a fact from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
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Gospel
17 February 2019. 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C
'We are unlikely to consider ourselves blessed or happy when we cannot pay our bills or put food on the table. We are likewise slow to count our blessings, much less dance for joy, when we find ourselves in tears or when we are excluded, rejected, and treated with contempt. We are more likely to consider ourselves blessed when we do not have to be constantly worried about money or food and when others treat us with respect...'
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Tech Tip
Password Checkup
On 2 February, Google introduced "Password Checkup," which runs in Chrome all the time as you go about your daily web browsing, and checks passwords you enter on all sites against a database of known compromised passwords.
Further information, including how to add Password Checkup, is linked to this item.
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Organisation
St Catharine's Mercy Centre, Edinburgh
St Catharine’s Convent Homeless Project offers friendship and practical support to homeless and disadvantaged people. We provide morning and evening meals, toilet and shower facilities, and perhaps, more importantly, a warm welcome, a listening ear and a place to call ‘Home’.
The project is used by up to 200 people a day.
Is your Mercy ministry listed on our website? Check here and if not, do submit your details to be included.
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International Days
13 February: World Radio Day
"On this World Radio Day, let us recognize the power of radio to promote dialogue, tolerance and peace."
— UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Further Resources
Worth Watching
'The Point of Arrival'
Carrie Newcomer is an American singer-songwriter, poet, author who describes herself as ‘at the intersection of folk, Americana and progressive spirituality’. From her new album available 22 March.
Listen hereWorth Reading
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai
‘The young island in the South Pacific, birthed in an underwater volcano eruption four years ago and part of Tonga, could hold clues about how water might have shaped similar features on Mars billions of years ago.’
Read the article hereWorth Reading
Climate Change will Change the Colour of Earth's Oceans by the End of the 21st Century
‘Climate change is causing significant changes to phytoplankton in the world’s oceans, and a new study finds this will cause a shift of colour in the Earth’s oceans…
This follows a report that found that warming oceans will result in sea levels rising by 30 cm by the end of the century.’
Read the article hereWorth Reading
Wellbeing Economics: The Capabilities Approach to Prosperity,
Written by Paul Dalziel, Caroline Saunders, and Joe Saunders, this Open Access eBook (free download) analyses how we can put wellbeing firmly in the forefront of economic and social policy, and how that will translate into better lives we have reason to value.
Watch a short video on the book's contentsWorth Reading
Why stop at plastic bags and straws? The case for a global treaty banning most single-use plastics
‘By one estimate 79 percent of all plastic ever produced is now in a dump, a landfill or the environment, and only 9 percent has been recycled.’
Read the article hereWorth Reading
Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
‘The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.’
Read the article hereSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2019 to The Editor
The Bottom Line
“As indigenous people, our languages are those of the earth and it is those languages that we use to speak with our mother…the health of our languages is connected to the health of the earth”, which is being abused.’
-Kanen'tó:kon Hemlock, a Mohawk community Bear Clan Chief from Kahnawà:ke at the high-level event to launch the International Year of Indigenous Languages, at UN Headquarters in New York, 1 February 2019
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Mercy eNews
The online newsletter of Mercy International Association is published fortnightly, 24 weeks each year and distributed to subscribers via email.
For more information on the directors click here
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