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Join Our Circle of Prayer
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Image: @arte_carde
The Sisters of Mercy Parramatta ‘aiming to encircle our world with our prayer, light, spirit of Mercy and care at this time’, invite all members of the Mercy network to light a lamp and join with us at 6:30 pm your local time each evening using the Praise Song for the Pandemic (text version), (video version) and concluding with the Suscipe.
Image: @arte_carde
Vision in Action
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MGA Office BuildingMGA
An Update on the Work of Mercy Global Action
It is often stated that critical junctures or interruptions create opportunities for organisations, communities and other configurations to look at things with new eyes. The COVID-19 has certainly provided an impetus for Mercy Global Action (MGA) to look at its work in new ways…
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MIA
Resources for Holy Week at Home
Resources include a Meditation for Holy Thursday by Veronica Lawson rsm, details for joining in an economic & ecological Way of the Cross co-sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas (Your time here), the moving The Way of Asylum, 3-minute ‘Retreats’ during the Triduum and audio ‘conversations’ with eight of the characters in the story of Holy Week.
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Events & Programmes
Still More Virtual House Tours
Individuals, Schools and Mercy Retirement Homes have made bookings for a Virtual Tour. Why don’t you?
More dates have been released: 16, 17 and 20 April.
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'Venerable' by Mary Wickham rsm
We invited Mary Wickham rsm (ISMAPNG) to write a poem to mark Catherine's 30th anniversary (9 April 1990) of being pronounced Venerable. Here it is.
Members' News
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The Congregation
Yoga With Mary Conway rsm
Mary is a qualified yoga teacher. Join Mary Monday to Friday for 45 mins of yoga. The class begins and ends with some breath work and meditation time. The middle part of the class offers postures to maintain mobility in joints, strengthening of the body and encouraging balance. All the postures are done from either a sitting position or standing, the only equipment needed is an ordinary straight backed chair.
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Image: NZ Catholic. Used with permissionAotearoa New Zealand
Six Centuries of Professed Religious Life Celebrated
‘In welcoming the jubilarians and guests to a Mass of celebration at Mercy Parklands in Auckland, Sr Sheryl James, rsm, said “we give thanks for a total of 675 years of religious life”…
Sr Sheryl noted that, when the question of the celebration of the jubilees came up, the jubilarians decided that they live together and therefore they wanted to celebrate as community — not separately as Mercies and Josephites.
Source: NZ Catholic
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Americas
Mercy Spirituality Online Program Sponsored by Georgian Court University New Jersey
Join us from anywhere in the world in a global conversation about Mercy Spirituality in this fully online program. Nourish your spiritual journey through study, reflection, and dialogue with others on the journey. This program is open to all who are interested in exploring more deeply Mercy Spirituality. It is especially relevant to Sisters of Mercy, Associates, and anyone associated with a Mercy-sponsored work or ministry…
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The Congregation
“Night” Never Has the Last Word – The Light Will COME!
At the invitation of the headmaster of Saint Mary’s National School in Stranolar, Co. Donegal, Ireland, I visited at the end of February as I have done for over eight years now and met with the Confirmation classes and their teachers. That was only six weeks ago – but it seems a life-time!…
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ISMAPNG
Covid-19: How to Manage Better Stress and Anxiety in These Uncertain Times?
Conversation with Maryanne Loughry rsm presented by UISG
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Aotearoa New Zealand
Strengthening the ‘Mercy thing’ in all Ministries
‘Today, as our Mercy ministries face a new life as part of a ministerial Public Juridic Person (PJP), many are wondering how “the thing” will survive and flourish, within an entity with which Sisters of Mercy may in time have no direct involvement. How can we ensure that the Mercy charism, which identifies and distinguishes the ministries in which we work, will be sustained in this unfolding venture?…’
Mercy Matters
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Digital Life
Roam While at Home
National Geographic series of 360 videos let you explore under water, plunge into a swarm of monarch butterflies, crash through frozen ocean in Antarctica… 360cities.net invites you to explore a world of stunning panoramas…Google Street view will take you anywhere and (almost) everywhere.
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Gospel
Easter Sunday, Year A
Matthew 28:1-10
‘Easter invites us to celebrate life in its fullest sense. It is anything but easy to celebrate life, however, when tens of thousands in the Earth community are facing death, when hundreds of thousands are ill and countless others are struggling to put food on their tables. Resurrection faith calls us to be fearless in our support of those most deeply affected…’
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Resource
Pray as You Stay: Weeks 1 and 2
‘This guide is aimed to support you during this time of self-isolation, uncertainty and fear, which we are all going through.’
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Fact
On This Day
1850: Mother Cecilia Maher and eight Sisters of Mercy, (another woman had joined them in Sydney) together with Bishop Jean Baptiste Francois Pompallier and other clergy, arrived in New Zealand on the sailing vessel, Océanie. Read more
1885: Death of M Camillus Byrn, Catherine's god child, Baltimore
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M. Cecilia MaherFact
A Voyage Made ‘Only for God’
‘The group landed in Auckland on 9 April 1850, the first Catholic sisters to reach these shores.
Within a day of their arrival, Mother Cecilia and her band began teaching 60 children in a small school next to St Patrick’s Church in Wyndham Street…’
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Catherine
Visit the Canonisation section of our website
To mark the 30th anniversary of Catherine being pronounced Venerable, you might like to visit the Canonisation Cause section of our website.
Find out about the process, meet the members of the international committee, post a prayer or explore the resources.
Further Resources
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Worth Reading
For Reflection: 'Our Nesting Season?'
Richard Hendrick ofm Cap, author of the widely circulated ‘Lockdown’, has now published ‘Our Nesting Season?’:
‘There is always
a choice.
Perhaps in these
strange moments
it is a simple one;
to dwell on
what has been taken away
or to dwell
in what we have been given…
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Worth Reading
What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change
‘Lockdowns and distancing won’t save the world from warming. But amid this crisis, we have a chance to build a better future…’
Read the article here COP 26 Postponed)
Worth Watching
Headspace | Mini Meditation | Let Go of Stress
‘Find your sense of calm with this mini meditation.’
Try it here)
Worth Reading
‘At the end of the month in which World Water Day 2020 was celebrated, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has announced the publication of 'Aqua fons vitae. Orientations on Water, symbol of the cry of the poor and the cry of the Earth' as a contribution to the reflection on the topic.
Read the Press release
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Worth Watching
'Miserere mei, Deus' (Allegri)
Nordstrand Church Choir, Oslo, Norway, with Aksel Rykkvin, 12 year old boy soprano, perform Allegri’s ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ (‘Have Mercy on me, O God’) a setting of Psalm 51.
Watch/listen here)
Worth Reading
Stop Trafficking
The April 2020 issue (Vol 18 No 4) is now available. The focus in this issue is on children in the foster care system.
Read the newsletter here)
Worth Reading
Pope Francis: An icon of hope and solidarity in a time of crisis
‘When this pandemic is over…I know one image will linger with me for a long, long time: a rain-slicked St Peter’s Square as dark is falling, where an old man in white, made slow by a painful hip, walks out into an eerie emptiness to give a blessing to the world…’
Image: YouTube
Read the article hereSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2020 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path - the path of compassion, courage, understanding and love.’
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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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