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MGP 'Presence to Earth' Resources are Now Online
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Image used under licence
Visit the MGP microsite to access the resources for the second ‘Presence’ theme: ‘Presence to Earth’.
Presenters for October are: Elizabeth Davis rsm (Newfoundland, Introduction), Mary Tinney rsm (ISMAPNG, Theological Imaginings), Carmel Bracken rsm (The Congregation, Artistic Inspiration), Michael Gross (Americas, Grassroots Minister), Colleen Swain (Americas, Mercy Global Action), Dominique Marendy (Parramatta, Distinct Voice), Paula Anamani rsm, Judith Moroney rsm, Cheryl Connelly rsm (Aotearoa New Zealand, Reflective Prayer)
Image used under licence
Vision in Action
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Prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: Crises Requiring Global Attention
Last week, UN OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) singled out ten crises the world should not turn a blind eye to amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
We invite you this week to sit with one or more of these stories and to hold the needs of these communities -an estimated 259 million people - in your prayers.
Post your prayer in our online chapel.
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Events & Programmes
Reminder: Remembrance Day Liturgy Online
On the 11th November, we remember the death of Catherine McAuley. Gathering in large numbers in the Chapel at Baggot St is still not possible, so this year a prerecorded liturgy will be made available through Mercy eNews on that date. We hope that you are able to link in and join in prayer for this anniversary.
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MGA
'Hope in a Time of Pandemic'- Issue Spotlight #8 – Livelihood
The global pandemic has had huge implications for people all over the world. It is described as a global health crisis, but the pandemic has also had enormous socio-economic impacts. Earlier spotlight reports have focused on the themes of inequality as discussed in MGA’s recent publication, ‘Hope in a Time of Pandemic: Responding to COVID-19 through a Mercy Lens’… This report looks at what has been revealed in terms of the impact on peoples’ livelihoods..
Members' News
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The Congregation
Mercy Global Presence: a Reflection from the Western Province of the Congregation
Mercy Global Presence is a widely visionary and positively powerful resource. The gratuitous manner, in which it is freely available on the World Wide Web, tells a story of Mercy generosity, in sharing good news and comprehensive analysis. When we, Kathleen and Suzanne, were invited by our provincial leadership team to bring MGP to the notice of our Western Province, so that we all might engage more deeply with this fine resource, the invitation came as a precious gift. This gift keeps on giving…
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Americas
Reducing Pesticides and Preserving Pollinators
Bees and other pollinators are essential to the world’s food production; in fact, 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the world’s food are pollinated by bees. Yet pollinator populations are in great decline, due, in large part, to the pesticides used in agriculture…
Through the Pesticide Investor Initiative, co-organized by Friends of the Earth and IEHN, Mercy Investment Services continues to coordinate investor efforts to engage these grocery retailers, on applying the principles of safer chemical management to pesticide reduction. Click here for an op-ed piece co-authored by Mercy Investment Services to raise awareness of the issue.
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Australia
How My Son Brought out My Inner Eco Warrior
A three-year old son with a penchant for picking rubbish off the street and shiny new pair of tongs were the inspiration for MercyCare Early Learning Services’ Eco Warrior Program.
MercyCare Early Learning Manager Rosina Smith tells her story on how MercyCare’s 14 Early Learning Centres are on a journey to become the shining stars of environmental sustainability.
Mercy Matters
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Gospel
1 November, Feast of All Saints
Matthew 5: 1-12
'We have become so familiar with the beatitudes that there is a danger of our listening only to the mellifluous flow of language and of failing to attend to the extraordinary present and future reversal that they offer to those who suffer injustice and to those who choose non-violent ways of addressing it. With pandemic sweeping the globe and affecting the dispossessed quite disproportionately, it is time to listen anew to these opening words of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount...'
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Resource
Four Green Fields: Ireland, Biodiversity and the Climate Crisis.
Galilee Spirituality Centre Annual Climate Conference
Keynote speaker: Dr Liam Lysaght, Biodiversity Data Centre Ireland.
’Tracking Change in Ireland’s Biodiversity: How Everyone can Play their Part.’
This free conference on Zoom will be held on 31 October from
10:30am - 12.30pm Irish time (your time here)
Download the flyer here
Booking and link: info@galilee.ie
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International Days
2 November, All Souls
In this month when the Church traditionally remembers her dead, today we pray with our families, relatives, community members and friends who have gone before us, who ‘preserve their bonds of love and communion with us’. (GE 3) and are never far from us.
In this COVID year, we are invited to remember all those who have lost their lives as a result of the pandemic.
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Fact
On This Day
1859: Foundation to Goulburn from Westport, Co Mayo - M Ignatius Murphy
Contribute a fact from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
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Resource
How to Reimagine the Future of Religious Life.
Vocations Ireland Autumn Conference
Speaker: Carol Zinn ssj (pictured above), Executive Director of LCWR
7 November 2020 via Zoom
2:00pm-5:00pm Irish time (Your time here)
Cost: 10 euro. (Your cost here)
Download the booking form here
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Resources for Remembrance Day (1)
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Resource
Reflection: Remembrance of Catherine McAuley's Death Day
‘Let us take a moment to step into Catherine’s bedroom. Enter gently, silently, reverently.
Reflect on the sacred space in which she died’.
Prepared by Sisters of Mercy Newfoundland (2018).
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Resource
Article: The Death & Burial of Catherine McAuley (1778-1841): Her Convent & Tomb as a Place of Pilgrimage
‘In the evening of Thursday, November 11, 1841, Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, died of tuberculosis at the Convent of Mercy on Baggot Street, Dublin—the first of twelve convents she had established in the preceding decade. She was surrounded by members of the Baggot Street, Booterstown, and Limerick communities, some of whom have left written eye-witness reports…’
Messages to: Mary C. Sullivan rsm
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Resource
A Remembrance Prayer
This remembrance prayer, composed by Mary Wickham rsm in 2019 for ISMAPNG and now adapted for general Mercy use, is in two parts: Remembering Our Companions (Part One) and The life and Death of Catherine McAuley (Part Two)
Messages to: Mary Wickham rsm
Further Resources
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Worth Watching
The Kanneh-Masons - Redemption Song
Watch the seven Kenneh-Mason siblings, all classical musicians, playing Redemption song from their forthcoming album
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Worth Reading
Staring down climate despair through kinship
‘Radical kinship as articulated by Boyle embraces community, inclusion, dignity, mutuality and interconnection, characteristics that land warmly, perhaps because they suggest relationship, even nesting.
Indeed, Boyle's characteristics of kinship are remarkably ecological. Could it be that radical kinship is not merely a balm for wounded neighborhoods, but a broad remedy for healing a damaged Earth?…’
Read the article here)
Worth Reading
One in six children living in extreme poverty, with figure set to rise during pandemic
‘An estimated one in six children – or 356 million globally – were living in extreme poverty before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and this is set to worsen significantly, according to a new World Bank Group and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) analysis released on Tuesday [20 October].’
Read the article here)
Worth Watching
Francesco
‘FRANCESCO is not a biographical film about Pope Francis in the traditional sense. Rather it is a film that shows us the world as it is today and a path to understanding what a better future can be for tomorrow as seen through the remarkable work of the Pope in the areas of climate change, migration, refugees, peace and religious tolerance, gender and identity justice, health and economic equality, and, by example, the meaning of inspired leadership.’
Watch the trailer here (2:14) Director says star of new 'Francesco' film is humanity)
Worth Knowing
Classroom crisis: Avert a ‘generational catastrophe’, urges UN chief
‘In a video message to the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Global Education Meeting (GEM), Secretary-General António Guterres reminded delegates that the pandemic had had a “disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable and marginalized children and youth”.
Read the article here)
Worth Reading
LCWR 'Update'
The November issue of ‘Update’, the monthly newsletter from LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) is now online.
Read 'Update' here)
Worth Knowing
I am Greta documentary
A documentary about environmentalist Greta Thunberg – I Am Greta – is now available to watch in some regions.
Watch the trailer)
Worth Knowing
#TheWorldWeWant
To mark 75 years since the creation of the United Nations, people around the world were invited to share their vision for what the world could be…
Click on the individual photos to read hopes & dreamsSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2020 to: The Editor
The Bottom line
‘To all believers, and to men and women of good will, we say: let us become creative artisans of peace, let us build social friendship, let us make our own the culture of dialogue. Honest, persistent and courageous dialogue is the antidote to distrust, division and violence…
No one can feel exempted from this. All of us have a shared responsibility. All of us need to forgive and to be forgiven. The injustices of the world and of history are not healed by hatred and revenge, but by dialogue and forgiveness.’ 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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