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Hope is Rising
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Global Contemplation on the Integrating Poster: New Foundations in Mercy
An elegant Catherine McAuley rose, anchored by a strong green leaf, touched by a tiny raindrop/teardrop on its golden petal, and grounded by Catherine’s tomb centered the global conversations on the integrating poster for New Foundations in Mercy. In this fourth theme of segment two in Mercy Global Presence, 241 women and men of Mercy from thirteen countries gathered to reflect on where Mercy is calling us today. Despite these times of chaos, uncertainty, anxieties, growing poverty, climate emergency and increasing disparity, the conversations spoke to hope visibly rising among us and around us. In the words of one participant, “My way of trying to announce hope is to seek to bring the new dream, new images, new spiritualities to the foreground of life rather than background.” Hope is rising.
Vision in Action
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Stock imagePrayer
MIA Prayer Intention: A Prayer for Wildfire Victims
Holding in our prayers the communities, creatures and lands of California, Oregon and Washington State where wildfires are raging, and the refugees and asylum seekers at Moria camp on the island of Lesbos where a series of fires have left 13,000 people without shelter.
‘Almighty God, who alone created the beauty and the bounty of our land, who cares and loves everyone—from the workers in the field to the owners of the field—be with your people…now in the midst of the fires…’
Source: America magazine
Post your prayer in our online chapel
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Events
Mercy Day Mass 2020 - Leaflet
The leaflet with the songs and readings for the Mass celebrated at Mercy International Centre for Mercy Day is now available.
Download:
A4 Paper size
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MGA
‘Hope in a Time of Pandemic’ Issue Spotlight: Political Institutions
COVID-19 has accelerated unprecedented change. The need for just and merciful leadership has never been more urgent than in the midst of this unfolding crisis. The stories and experiences featured in the Mercy Global Action COVID-19 Response Task Force report ‘Hope in a Time of Pandemic – Responding to COVID-19 through a Mercy Lens’ have revealed the importance of leaders and political institutions that are grounded in the realities of people and Earth and are responsive to the range of health, economic and social distress caused by COVID-19…
Members' News
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Americas
Liturgy, Prayer and Pastoral Care in Time of Pandemic
Sr Professor Julia Upton rsm of St John’s University will present a free public lecture on this topic live online from New York, USA on Monday October 12 via Zoom.
Time: 10-11.30am (AEDT) (Your time here)
Registration by 7 October is essential for this free public lecture. Register here
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Americas
Stella Maris Announces Opening of The Sister Mary Karen McNally, RSM, Rehabilitation Center
‘Newswise — (Sept. 8th, 2020 - Timonium, MD) -- Stella Maris, a top-rated nursing and long-term care facility located in Timonium, MD, and part of Mercy Health Services, has officially opened the new $30 million Sister Mary Karen McNally, RSM, Rehabilitation Center…
The new 76,000 square foot facility is designed to help patients achieve successful post-surgical goals, utilizing advanced therapy modalities to ease their transition to returning home…
Source: Newswise.com
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ISMAPNG
Call on God's Mercy
Veronica Lawson rsm provides an ecological explanation of Isaiah 55: 6-9. Sr Veronica writes: ‘An ecological reading of these verses might inspire us to seek God’s womb compassion and forgiveness for our neglect of Earth and for our tendency to use and over-extract Earth’s resources for human convenience and comfort without proper attention to the integrity of the whole Earth community.’
Download the article here
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The Congregation
Glór Na Mara Community Garden And Allotments
Since we, Sisters of Mercy, began putting down our roots here back in 2006 on the wild Atlantic edge at Glór na Mara in Bundoran, our vision has been to re-connect with the Earth and to explore our lifestyle and spirituality within the context of the stunning new insights of the Sacred Story of the unfolding Universe. The call has been to widen our circle of compassion to include the natural world in all its splendor, discovering the riches of the oneness of the inner and outer spiritual soul journey…
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Image: YouTube: Modern HeroAmericas
'A Woman of Faith, Action and Energy': Sr. Mary Scullion of Project HOME
‘PHILADELPHIA — On a recent late summer afternoon, Mercy Sr. Mary Scullion found herself, as she has so often in the last six months, at home and working on Zoom.
Wearing a green Irish-themed Philadelphia Phillies T-shirt, the nationally recognized advocate for those who are homeless expressed frustration with pandemic-driven realities, rules and challenges that seem almost normal now but would have been unthinkable six months ago…’
Source: Global Sisters Report
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The Congregation
The Digital Divide as Children Head Back to School: UNICEF Project
In response to the unprecedented educational challenges created by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 90 per cent of countries have implemented some form of remote learning policy. This factsheet estimates the potential reach of digital and broadcast remote learning responses, finding that at least 463 million students around the globe remain cut off from education, mainly due to a lack of remote learning policies or lack of equipment needed for learning at home…
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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
Resources for Mercy Day (2)
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Resource
Take a Virtual Tour of St Mary's Convent, Handsworth
The virtual tour of the second English Mercy foundation is a video narrated by Sisters and the Archivist. Be guided around some of the cloisters as well as the chapel, gardens and Catherine’s bedroom.
Come and explore this Pugin-built gothic-revival convent and hear the story of the Sisters of Mercy in Birmingham, England.
Take the video tour at your convenience.
(46:54).
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Resource
Hold a Good Cup of Tea Event
Funds raised at the 2020 Good Cup of Tea events will contribute to the Heritage Room Upgrade. The intention is to redesign the room with the use of fixed panels to extend the display area available and enable more of the early story of Mercy to be told through the displays.
Resources for holding an event are online here
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Resource
Participate in 9 Days of Prayer (Novena) for Mercy Day
The aim of the Novena, prepared by Mary Wickham rsm in 2019, is to prepare ourselves for the great Feast. Start it today and finish it on Mercy Day
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Resource
Create Mercy Global Presence
Incorporate the Mercy Global Presence Presentations, Flip Books or Posters into a ritual or display to highlight the issues of concern to Sisters of Mercy and partners-in-Mercy today.
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Resources
Explore Mercy Multimedia Resources
Articles, videos, audio tracks, web links and video clips on Catherine McAuley, the founding of the Sisters of Mercy and the issues Mercy is addressing today, can be downloaded or viewed in the digital library collection on our website.
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Resource
Take a Virtual Tour of Mercy International Centre
Virtual tours will be conducted on 19 and 20 September in preparation for Mercy Day. Anna Nicholls rsm Head of Heritage & Spirituality, will be offering live online presentations where some of the stories told during a physical tour of Mercy International Centre will be shared.
Season of Creation resources (4)
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Resource
CAFOD: Nine Days of prayer (Novena) with St Francis
Nine brief video reflections asking St Francis of Assisi to pray with and for us and the world, based on his beautiful Canticle of the Sun. Each reflection has four phases: Canticle element; Amazon voice; penitential prayer; plea for intercession. The text of the reflections is also available and can be found here.
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Resource
The Earth sessions (Audio)
In celebration of the Season of Creation, Pray as you go is releasing a new prayer session each week of September.
Just released: Earth Meditation
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Resource
Forest Sunday Ritual: Carmel Bracken rsm
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis calls us to hear the cry of Mother Earth, *“this sister who now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted.” *This echoes the words of Thich Nhat Hanh who suggested that in order to save the world that “What we most need to do is to hear within us the sound of the earth crying”…
Mercy Matters
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Resource
UISG: Leaders for A Consecrated Life in A World in Gestation
Free online leadership course for religious.
Five modules over five dates: 6-13-20 October,
3-10 November
Held: 3pm-7pm Rome time (Your time here)
Download the flyer here
Register here
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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…’
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Fact
On This Day
Nothing is recorded in the ‘Mercy Through the Years’ calendar as having occurred on this day.
Contribute a fact from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
Further Resources
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Worth Playing
Sara Thomsen: 'Song like A Seed'
’Plant your song like a seed
Hold your heart like a prayer bead
Give your breath like a tree
Set your soul’s deep love free’
From the album ‘Song Like A Seed’
Listen here)
Worth Knowing
Witness & Grace: Sr. Nancy Sylvester demonstrates contemplation's value amid pandemic
‘In these tense and troubled times, the spiritual and emotional balm offered through a regular practice of contemplation is more important than ever, Sr. Nancy Sylvester, founder of the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue and member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan, said during Global Sisters Report's first Witness & Grace: Conversations with Sisters program Sept. 3.’
A recording of the session is available here.
Read the article)
Worth Knowing
See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love
‘Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world.’
Find out more)
Worth Reading
Sisters are preparing for, and preparing, the future
‘‘As a global body of sisters, our energies are interconnected in our efforts to meet the needs of God's people. Exploring how the global sisterhood is responding to the challenges posed by the current global health crisis of COVID-19 and how it can be more effective was the focus of a webinar July 25 that drew 296 participants from 25 countries. The webinar was cosponsored by The Leaders Guild of Tangaza University and the Association of Sisters of Kenya.’’
Read the article hereSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2020 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘I will sing a new song.
I must learn the new song for the new needs
I must fashion new words born of all the new growth in my life – of my mind – of my spirit.
I must prepare for new melodies that have never been mine before,
That all that is within me may lift my voice unto God.’
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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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