)
)
)
MGP Posters Displayed in an Interactive Format
)
This week (8-9 September) we complete the series of Regional Gatherings around the reflective posters. Our conversations are on the final theme of Segment Two, ‘New Foundations in Mercy’. In addition, today we are publishing a set of the posters as an interactive, online publication, a flip book, that has the look and feel of a real, page-turning book.
It is our hope that both the poster and conversations have been a rich resource for reflection during this pandemic time, as well as the intended ‘bridge’ to the next segment which commences on 30 September with the theme, ‘Presence of/with/to God’.
Further details about Segment Three: Presence can be found on the Mercy Global Presence (MGP) microsite.
Vision in Action
)
Events & Programmes
Mercy Day Mass 2020: Arrangements for the Celebration
For a number of years, Mercy Day Mass has been live streamed from the Chapel at Baggot St. Current covid-19 restrictions on the size of gatherings has encouraged us to rethink our approach this year as it is not only Dublin that is experiencing restrictions.
Therefore we will be pre-recording the 2020 Mercy Day Mass and it will be available here on the Mercyworld.org website from 1pm on Wednesday 23rd September, Dublin time. This is the start of Mercy Day around the world with Aotearoa New Zealand leading the world and crossing the dateline first…
)
MGA
‘Hope in a Time of Pandemic’ Issue Spotlight: The Sacredness of Earth
Since the beginning of this pandemic, the Mercy World has expressed a renewed focus on Creation and the Sacredness of Earth. We have opened our minds and hearts to new relationships with nature that favour mutuality and sustainability over exploitation. Earth can regenerate itself. The Mercy World is recognising the value of stepping back from the many activities that so often distract us from the sacred…
)
Catherine's Room, George's HillPrayer
MIA Prayer Intention: Witnessing to Mercy
On 8 September 1830, 190 years ago, Catherine McAuley, Anna Maria Doyle, and Elizabeth Harley entered the convent of the Presentation Sisters on George's Hill, Dublin, to begin their training in religious life.
Let us pray that the God of Mercy will continue to bless the Mercy family with people prepared to witness to the mercy and tenderness of our God as Religious, Associates and partners-in-Ministry in a world so in need of God’s compassion and consolation.
Post your prayer in our online chapel
Resources for Mercy Day (1)
)
Resource
United in Spirit We Gather
Ritual by Mary Wickham rsm (ISMAPNG)
Download the ritual: A4 Paper size
Download the ritual: US Letter size
)
)
Resource
Max Richter - Mercy (Official Music Video by Yulia Mahr)
‘Yulia’s stunning film places the question of mercy and compassion firmly into our everyday world.’
)
Take a Virtual Tour of Mercy International Centre
Virtual Tours will be conducted on 11, 13, 15, 19 and 20 September in preparation for Mercy Day.
Members' News
)
Americas
Sister Elaine Pacheco Advocates for Women and Earth
Sister Elaine Pacheco feels a strong bond with Earth. She is certain that listening to its language is as essential as listening to our own bodies. What needs to be healed in us? What messages is Earth sending us through melting ice, Amazon fires and polluted seas?
)
Source: YouTube Janet Mead rsm (1970s)ISMAPNG
Bread and Roses
Celebrating the fruits of the Rock Mass 48 years on.
On the 26th July, 2020, we celebrated the 48th 'birthday' of the “Rock Mass”, now known as the Romero Community Mass, after El Salvador’s Saint Oscar Romero. It was a wonderful celebration, in spite of Covid regulations. Monsignor Robert Aitken, now 91, was the celebrant as he had been at that first celebration in 1972, and Sr. Janet Mead was still adding her voice to the songs, prepared and mostly written by members of the Romero Community…
)
ISMAPNG
Mercy Sister calls for release of Sri Lankan refugee
‘A South Australian Sister of Mercy has launched a petition urging the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to release into the community a Sri Lankan refugee who has spent the past 11 years in detention…’
Source: The Southern Cross
21,000 people have already signed the petition on Change.org
You can sign it here
)
Aotearoa New Zealand
Scripture with Kathleen Rushton rsm
Kathleen Rushton rsm writes of the parable of the labourers in the vineyard in Matthew 19:30 - 20:1-16 as the core of the Gospel. Says Sr Kathleen, ‘*we can reflect on how this parable is the kernel of the Gospel because we, too, are labourers of the eleventh hour. We, who emerged so recently in Earth’s evolving story, are blessed abundantly by God’s grace, loved and called to transformation.*’
Download the article here
)
Americas
Mercy Montessori's Farmessori
Throughout the past several months, volunteers of all ages helped to support Mercy Montessori's (Cincinnati, Ohio) working farm, the Farmessori. With proper COVID-19 measures in place, many Mercy families visited the farm to care for the hens, help with the monthly deep cleaning of the chicken coop, water the garden, weed the beds, harvest tomatoes and sow seeds. The Farmessori bee hive was also abuzz with activity. Volunteers checked on the hives and harvested five gallons of honey!
)
The Congregation
Mercy And Medical Epidemics
The history of Mercy in Ireland shows that the congregation, particularly in the 19th century, ministered and lived in the shadow of regular outbreaks of epidemics – smallpox, cholera, typhoid, scarlet fever, tuberculosis. Then, as now, these epidemics affected the disadvantaged and marginalised disproportionately.…
)
Send in Your Mercy Day Greeting by 22 September
Sisters, Associates, Communities, Ministries, Congregations and Institutes, as well as members of the wider Mercy network, are invited to send Mercy Day Greetings for posting on our mercyworld.org website. We look forward to posting yours!
Email your greeting to: mercyenews@mercyinternational.ie
Mercy Matters
)
Gospel
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Matthew 20:1-16a
‘From 1973 to 1975, East Jerusalem was my home. Early each morning, I crossed the road from the Chaldean Patriarchate to the Ecole Biblique Archéologique Française. I would greet the Palestinian day labourers lined up beside their vehicles, waiting for employment in the vacant lot that divided Israeli from occupied Palestinian territory. In the wake of the Yom Kippur War, these workers were living through hard times…’
)
Fact
On This Day
1877: Foundation to Mobile, Alabama from New Orleans
1887: Foundation to Kansas City from Louisville, Kentucky - M Agnes Dunne
1935: Opening of St Joseph's School, Swanage
Contribute a fact from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
)
Digital life
Algorithms Control Your Online Life. Here's How to Reduce Their Influence.
This article includes a look at the algorithms on four of the major content services -Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter.
Resources for the Season of Creation (3)
)
Resource
UISG Webinar on Jubilee for the Earth
Thursday, 17 September
9:30-11:00 am Rome time (Your time here)
Languages: English and Italian
3:00-4:30 pm Rome Time (Your time here)
Languages: English, Portuguese, French, Spanish
Download the flyer here
)
Resource
Laudato Si' 2020 5th Anniversary Prayer
Recently released video reflection of the Common Prayer for the 5th Anniversary of Laudato Si’ (3:28)
)
Resource
Daily Seasonal Reflections from Tui Motu
Once again, Tui Motu Interislands Magazine is providing daily emails during the Season of Creation. To sign up for them, go to Tui Motu Magazine website www.tuimotu.org and put your email address into the drop down box for Season of Creation OR send an email to editor@tuimotu.org to be signed up for them. Emails are sent out every morning 1 Sept — 4 Oct.
)
Resource
Online Courses on Laudato Si'
The Laudato Si’ Revolution campaign, an effort of the JPIC office of Franciscan Friars, is offering free online courses in four languages on the encyclical Laudato Si’ under the theme of ‘integral ecology.’
)
Resource
Denise Levertov's Poem: 'Beginners'
‘But we have only begun
to love the earth.
We have only begun
to imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
—so much is in bud.
How can desire fail?
—we have only begun
to imagine justice and mercy,
only begun to envision
how it might be
to live as siblings with beast and flower,
not as oppressors…
)
Resource
Called to Care for the Earth
Begins September 23.
Wednesdays from 10:00-Noon Pacific Time (Your time here) with Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, PhD
4 Weeks - Attend one or all sessions
Cost: Freewill Offering to Benefit Mercy Center Burlingame
Further Resources
)
Worth Reading
Make COVID recovery ‘a true turning point’ for people and planet, Guterres urges, calling for concerted action by G20
‘UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on governments to incorporate “meaningful” climate action in all aspects of recovery from the global pandemic.’
Read the article here)
Worth Watching
'We Sing'
Kutcha Edwards, Indigenous Australian singer and songwriter, has released an inspiring new track, ‘We Sing’. Kutcha is accompanied by a 100 voice choir.
Chorus:
‘We sing for love
We live for justice
We long for freedom
We dream of peace’
)
Worth Reading
Vatican confirms pope will publish new encyclical in a few days
In it, Pope Francis will address the matter of universal human fraternity. The pope will sign it at St. Francis' tomb, in Assisi, on Oct. 3.
Read the article hereSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2020 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.”’
)
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
)
)
)
)
)