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Preparing for the Season of Creation
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Editor: On 6 August 2015, Pope Francis announced the ‘World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation’ to be celebrated on 1 September annually. In response to this call ‘to contribute to resolving the ecological crisis which humanity is presently experiencing’, for five years now MIA has commemorated this date as beginning the Season of Creation (1 September - 4 October), marking it with prayer and resources distributed through Mercy eNews.
This week we wish to share with you a new calendar and posters, based on a water theme, for your use during this Season. We invite you to let us know of new resources for the Season of Creation which you have produced or discovered so that news of these might also be shared through Mercy eNews during this time.
Our resources are linked to this item.
Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - CEO MIA
Resource Links to: Anne Walsh - Editor
Vision in Action
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MIA Board
RIP Srs Margherita Rock (The Congregation) and Josephine Grey (The Congregation))
We extend our deepest sympathies to the families, communities and ministries of Margherita Rock rsm and Josephine Grey rsm, both of whom died recently. Sr Margherita was a great supporter of MIA and MIC, serving on the Board of management of MIC from 2003, bringing Mater Dublin hospital staff annually to MIC for ethos development and celebration, and organising the Good Cup of Tea event, which was generously supported each year by the staff of the Mater. Sr Josephine was a member of the First Team at MIC, contributing significantly to the development of the House into Mercy International Centre and had responsibility for the establishment of the gift shop.
May they rest in peace
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Prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: Feast of the Assumption
'Bless us as once you blessed Mary, O God,
with faith and trust in you. Amen
'Bless us as once you blessed Mary, O God,
with compassion for others. Amen
'Bless us as once you blessed Mary, O God,
with fidelity to Christ's message of love.
Source; 'Intercessions of Mercy', Joy Clough rsm
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MIA-MGA
Mercy Global Action Joins the Climate Action Campaign
Mercy Global Action team has officially joined the United Nations’ ActNow Climate Campaign, which is a global call to citizen action on climate change. The campaign highlights "the impact that collective action can have at this critical moment in our planet’s history. The more people act, the bigger the impact." Join us in taking the following action to reduce our carbon footprint and show your support for urgent climate action! For more information on this campaign, click here.
Members' News
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While on street rounds, Dr. Withers listens to the story of a woman who is experiencing homelessness.
Americas
Dr. James S. Withers, MD, FACP, on 26 years of treating the homeless and living by the motto, "Go to the people."
With a childhood filled with tagging along on house calls with his father, a family practice physician in rural Pennsylvania, and helping his mother, a nurse, deliver Meals on Wheels (and learning how to parallel park), Dr. Jim Withers would seem to have been destined to become a physician.
“I had the best examples,” Dr. Withers says of his parents. “They were great. Even greater, in our teen years in the early 1970s, they took the whole family to work medically in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Saint Lucia. It just seemed like a normal childhood, but looking back on it, it was really special.
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Aotearoa New zealand
Karanga Atawhai July 2019
A glimpse of how Mercy may look in the future came when Congregation Leader Katrina Fabish rsm spoke at last month’s Hui Taumata Mercy Leaders Summit in Auckland. Her ministerial PJP Update came towards the end of the day-long event, attended by more than 100 Sisters of Mercy and partners in ministry.
Sr Katrina began by endorsing an earlier comment from Hui keynote presenter Mary Sullivan rsm that Catherine McAuley is present whenever Mercy people gather together with faith in God to face the future. “Catherine is indeed with us, because we are doing a new thing.”…
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Americas
Sisters of Mercy Demand Action on Gun Violence
‘…let us not fail ourselves, or the next generation of Americans. Instead, even as our pens write messages demanding change and scripting words of hope and transformation, let us raise our collective voice. Let us speak in unison for change. Let us demand that, at a minimum, our legislators enact gun safety laws…
We, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, believe that we must all be actively working towards a culture that promotes peace and non-violence rather than one that glorifies violence and hate. And so we join our voices with those who say enough to gun violence, enough to acts of hate, enough to demonizing the other! We demand, we require, we deserve better—as a nation, and as children of God.
Mercy Matters
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Digital Life
Six free email apps to help you reach Inbox Zero—and stay there
‘Blast through the messages larding your inbox—or, better yet, prevent junk from ever reaching you in the first place.’
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Resource
Reminder: LCWR Assembly
Details of the sessions being livestreamed (13-16 August) and access to the archived versions of these presentations are linked to this item.
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Fact
On This Day
1869: Foundation to Blackbrook, St Helen's from Liverpool
Contribute a fact from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
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Gospel
Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ Preaches for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary
Preaching for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, Carolyn Osiek, RSCJ offers a reflection on the promise of the day as revealed in the readings: "Mary too is caught up in this great process of realizing the effects of the resurrection. It’s not a promise of peace during the course of the process; rather, it’s a promise of tension and struggle. We live in time and we touch eternity. "
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MIC Gift Shop
Slates
Own a piece of Catherine’s House!
Purchase a piece of slate from the roof of the first House of Mercy overlain with a quote from Catherine.
Framed 8 Euro, packaged 5 Euro, loose from 3-5 Euro depending on size.
Purchase in person or online.
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Gospel
18 August 2019. 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Luke 12:49-53
'There is a sense of urgency in today’s gospel. Jesus feels constrained or under stress until the “fire” he has come to cast on the earth is kindled and the baptism of fire that John the Baptist foreshadowed in 3:16 takes effect. Elsewhere in Luke’s writing, fire is associated with judgement (3:9, 17; 9:17; 17:29), and with the presence of the Holy Spirit (3:16), especially in the Lukan story of Pentecost (Acts 2:3) …’
Further Resources
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Worth Watching
'As Christ is for Us'
Janet Sullivan Whittaker from the album ‘Our Common Home: Songs for Liturgy and Prayer, inspired by Laudato Si’
Information about the album can be found here
Listen here)
Worth Reading
Climate change: Hungry nations add the least to global CO2
‘Researchers at development charity Christian Aid have put together a study showing how that climate change is now having a disproportionate impact on the food systems of the countries that have done least to produce the carbon emissions that are driving up temperatures.’
Read the article here)
Worth Reading
UN: Land Use, Meat Diets Fuel Global Warming
‘A landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that humans must alter their current practices in agriculture and forestry, among other forms of land use. Currently, they generate one-third of the world’s human-generated greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to what one scientist called “a perfect storm” threatening humanity. A plant-based diet could be one key to fighting climate change, though the report advocates merely reducing meat intake.’
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Worth Reading
What Worries Iceland? A World Without Ice. It Is Preparing.
‘As rising temperatures drastically reshape Iceland’s landscape, businesses and the government are spending millions for survival and profit…’
Read the article here)
Worth Reading
Pacific Islands Forum: Tuvalu children welcome leaders with a climate plea
‘Climate crisis is more than a meeting agenda item in a host country that could be left uninhabitable by rising sea levels…’
Read the article & follow the ForumSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2019 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘The present is not a potential past; it is the moment of choice and action.’
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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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