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The Nexus Between Covid-19 and Human Trafficking: Jeanne Christensen rsm
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MGA The U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking’s Advocacy Committee has been exploring, writing about the nexus of human trafficking, and other social justice issues. Having just completed a paper on the nexus between gender and human trafficking, I thought, “What is the nexus between human trafficking and Covid-19?”
We all know the challenges and tragedy of Covid-19, but we cannot know the tragedy of human trafficking because we do not experience it. If we did, we would experience either force, fraud or coercion – or possibly more than one of these three determinants of whether a person is a victim of human trafficking…
Vision in Action
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Prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: For 2020 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
God of today and tomorrow, may there be blessings of true justice for us and for all people who have been trafficked. Amen
God of each one’s story, may there be blessings of tender love for us and for all who have been trafficked into abuse and sufferings. Amen
God we are so small, give us your Light and help us humbly remember that you love and cherish each person and that we are all your children. Amen
Source: ACRATH
Post your prayer in our online chapel.
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MGA
Mercy Global Action Observes World Day Against Trafficking in Persons - 30 July 2020
The United Nations and people around the world commemorate World Day against Trafficking in Persons annually on 30 July to raise awareness of the situation of human trafficking around the world, and to call on governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, and all societies to redouble their efforts to prevent people from being exploited, protect those who have been trafficked, and seek justice and prosecution of perpetrators.
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Events & Programmes
Join a Virtual Tour in August
Anna Nicholls rsm will be offering live online presentations during August where some of the stories told during a physical tour of Mercy International Centre will be shared.
Dates for August virtual tours are: 4, 11, 17, 20 and 26.
Contact Sr Anna if you are interested in organising a special tour for your school, university, staff or community group at another time in August..
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Second MGP Segment Poster & Regional Gathering
The second of the Segment Two posters —'Mercy & Degradation of Earth'— and accompanying guide will be released through Mercy eNews next week (5 August).
Bookings for the second set of Regional Gatherings open online on Monday, 3 August.
Members' News
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The Congregation
A Chat with the Inspirational Sr Helen Culhane, Founder of the Children’s Grief Centre
‘The Children’s Grief Centre, located in Limerick city, is a free support service for children and young people who have experienced a loss through bereavement, separation, or divorce. Founded in 2009, the centre has since grown greatly, having helped over 1400 children to deal with the emotional and mental effects of dealing with a loss…’
Source: iLoveLimerick.ie
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GB Institute
Mercy Responses to COVID 19
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to change lives of ordinary people worldwide. Historically, Sisters of Mercy have always been involved with humanitarian causes and contributed by helping during cholera epidemics, wars, and other notable tragedies such as the AIDS crisis in Africa. In the spirit of Catherine McAuley and driven by the Mercy charism, the Sisters have taken great efforts to help those in most need during this challenging and unprecedented worldwide emergency…
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Americas
Meeting the Challenge in our Time
Those among us who heard President John F. Kennedy give his inaugural address probably remember several lines that held a particular meaning or had a poetic flair. “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” “The torch has been passed to a new generation.” “We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”
I was in my twenties when I listened to that address, part of that new generation, still in my first fervor in religious life and ready and willing to do whatever it took to meet the challenges ahead…
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L-r: Margie Abbott rsm, Sally NeavesISMAPNG
Mercy Global Presence Online Retreats: Global Contemplation Bringing the Mercy International Vision to Life.
In her original writing about the purpose of Mercy Global Presence, Elizabeth Davis said “Mercy Global Presence is rooted in the conviction that there is a rich diversity among us and in the special exploration we do there will be the power and promise of intercultural wisdom and energy”. The recent series of eight unique 1 or 2 day Mercy Global Presence retreats, facilitated by Margie Abbott rsm and Sally Neaves, adopted this conviction…
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Erika at the common potThe Congregation
COVID-19 And Our Sisters In Peru
Our Sisters in Peru are helping their local communities during COVID-19. [Linked below] are some pictures and a little insight into their daily life.
Erika takes homework once a week to a student who has no mobile or internet, she supports one of the “Common Pots” where families who have very little come together to cook and she teaches a class for parents online while encouraging them to pray as a family.
Dora organises the distribution of 120 chickens donated for needy families and helps a little boy with schoolwork…
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Stock imageAustralia
Harvest proves Wembley’s Century Old Olive Trees Still Have Life
Heritage-listed olive trees at MercyCare’s Wembley Intergenerational Campus [Perth] have been returned to their original century-old roots with olives harvested during June.
MercyCare staff and volunteers harvested 87 kilograms of olives thanks to the generous knowledge and assistance of volunteers.
The olive trees were planted in the 1850s by Benedictine Monks who occupied the site through to the 1860s.
The monks had harvested olives, which they pressed in The Stables nearby onsite to make olive oil.
Mercy Matters
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Resource
GCCM Laudato Si' Animator Program
MIA is a founding member of GCCM (Global Catholic Climate Movement)
GCCM Animators receive online training in their language about the core Laudato Si’ concepts and the causes and consequences of climate change. They finish the six-week program with a final project that encourages them to take action for creation.
The next class begins on 29 July. Details and how to register can be found here
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Gospel
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
Matthew 14:13-21
According to the most recent International Food Policy Research Institute (IFRI) Report, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen below ten percent of the global population for the first time in history, down from nineteen per cent in 1990. The same figures hold for the undernourished in our world. Encouraging as the improved statistics may be, it is still a fact that almost three quarters of a billion people have less than $US1.90 per day to meet all their basic needs for food, shelter and security and this situation has been seriously exacerbated by the outbreak of Covid-19…
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Resource
The MAST Journal & Archives
The Mercy Association in Scripture and Theology (MAST) Board generously makes available on its website past copies of the MAST journal for non-subscribers to access. Issues are posted online two years after publication.
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Digital Life
Mental Health Awareness Exercises
Seven audio exercises. Topics covered: Addiction, Ageing, Anxiety, Depression, Grief, Insomnia, Loneliness
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Technical Tip
5 Ways to Get Google Calendar on Your Desktop
Five handy ways to access Google Calendar on your desk top.
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Fact
On This Day
2020: First Global Regional Gatherings on Zoom for Mercy Global Presence
Contribute a fact of significance from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
Further Resources
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Worth Watching
'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven'
Poem by W.B. Yeats. Music by Julie Abbé
One of four Yeats poems put to music by Julie on her new album Numberless Dreams
Watch/listen here)
Worth Reading
Laudato Si': Caring for Creation and Future Generations
The latest issue of Ad Vitam, the magazine of consecrated life in Canada, is focussed on Laudato Si’.
Read the webzine Download the PDF version)
Worth Watching
Reflections - Br. David Steindl-Rast
‘Gratefulness is the key to joy…Of course, there are many things that are terrible in our world today, but it gives me joy to be around – to be able to interact with – people who try to make the world better, to see what’s going on, even the difficult things.’
~ Br. David Steindl-Rast
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Worth Reading
'Humana Communitas in the Age of Pandemic: Untimely Meditations on Life's Rebirth.'
The Pontifical Academy for Life has published “Humana Communitas in the Age of Pandemic: Untimely Meditations on Life's Rebirth.” The document presents reflections on the COVID-19 crisis and on what the future could hold for a world already changed by the pandemic
Read the document here)
Worth Reading
The Great Climate Migration Has Begun
‘This article, the first in a series on global climate migration, is a partnership between ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, with support from the Pulitzer Center.’
Read the article here)
Worth Reading
Holy See advocates for protecting rights of human trafficking victims
Monsignor Joseph Grech reaffirms the Vatican’s commitment to protecting the rights of victims of human trafficking, at the 20th Conference of the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons.
Read the article hereSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2020 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘The lessons of fragility, finitude, and vulnerability bring us to the threshold of a new vision: they foster an ethos of life that calls for the engagement of intelligence and the courage of moral conversion. To learn a lesson is to become humble; it means to change, searching for resources of meaning hitherto untapped, perhaps disavowed. To learn a lesson is to become mindful, once more, of the goodness of life that offers itself to us, releasing an energy that runs even deeper than the unavoidable experience of loss, that need to be elaborated and integrated in the meaning of our existence. Can this occasion be the promise of a new beginning for the humana communitas, the promise of life’s rebirth? If so, under what conditions?’
Read More
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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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