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27 March is Earth Hour
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#SwitchforNature is the theme of this year’s Earth Hour, being held on Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm local time.
Making the #SwitchforNature is about what we can each do in our daily lives to make a difference for the future of our planet. There are many actions that can be taken and reflected upon, apart from turning off lights for an hour this Saturday. Among examples of making changes in our daily routine given on the Earth hour sites are switching from disposable cups and straws, turning the tap off when you brush your teeth, or choosing planet friendly food once a week.
Further suggestions for reflection and action: In this week’s issue of Mercy eNews we invite prayer for the planet and the future of its life forms and in the Further Resources section include a link to the newly released Canadian film ‘Laudato si’+5’ (40:34). A reminder too of the richness and variety of the MGP materials on the themes of ‘Presence to Earth’ (Segment 3 - Presence), ‘Mercy and Degradation of Earth’ (Segment Two - Mercy) and ‘Earth and Integral Ecology’ (Segment One - Global).
Vision in Action
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Prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: Prayer for Our Earth
In this week when we celebrate Earth hour, we are invited to pray again the ‘Prayer for our Earth’ from Laudato Si’ which became our focal prayer in the Year of Mercy, during the Mercy International Reflection Process (MIRP) and during each Season of Creation since -
‘All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists. Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty….’
Post your prayer in our online chapel
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MGA
Mercy Global Action hosts a Parallel Event on ‘Domestic Violence: Gender-based Violence and Degradation of Earth’ at CSW65
On Monday 15th of March, Mercy Global Action (MGA) hosted a parallel event during the United Nations Sixty Fifth Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). As all events were online this year, it was a great opportunity to bring in experts from across the globe. Our event, “Domestic Violence: Gender-based Violence & Degradation of our Common Home,” was held virtually and examined the relationship between gender-based violence and violence against Earth. We were very fortunate to have panellists from Argentina, Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Peru…
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MIA
Reminder -Survey: Mercy eNews
The Board has asked to review the Mercy e-News, particularly with respect to frequency of publication. We would really appreciate your taking time to complete the survey linked to this article. If you don’t want to do this but want to give your feedback anyway, please feel welcome to email me at ceo@mercyinternational.ie . If you know of people who are some-time readers of e-News and who might miss the request, or people who have decided not to be subscribers, would you please invite them to join in by completing the survey? The Board of MIA and the Executive Team thank you very much in anticipation of learning your opinions. We will appreciate it if you could give us your responses by Wednesday 7 April.
—Berneice
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MGP Segment Four: 'Integrated'
Segment Four commences on Wednesday, 31 March with the theme 'Contemplative Seeing'. Materials will be released through Mercy eNews and be available in the MGP section of our website
Members' News
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Aotearoa New Zealand
God's Power in Death: Scripture with Kathleen Rushton
Kathleen Rushton rsm notes that the prophets spoke out against injustice and offered alternative visions of life for their communities. She describes this prophetic imagination in the crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 14:1-15:47. Sr Kathleen writes: ‘In and with Jesus, God suffers and mourns in solidarity with all those who suffer…The prophetic imagination is about…imagining a better, more just future.’
Download the article here
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Henry Ossawa Tanner - The Annunciation. Public domain
Americas
Annunciation Times
Although one might expect differently, attending a Catholic all-girls academy did nothing to encourage in me a devotion to Mary. She was presented as the perfect woman. She was endowed with preternatural gifts – born free from sin, possessing infused knowledge, free from the pain of childbirth, virgin both before and after giving birth. She was unquestioning and compliant. For a teenager struggling with acne, trigonometry and all kinds of insecurities, she was an unforgiving model. From up there on her pedestal she smiled serenely down on us – her purpose, according to the sisters, to keep us pure. It wasn’t a relationship I was interested in cultivating…
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Aotearoa New Zealand
God Will Finish in Us the Work God has Begun
Near the end of her life, Catherine McAuley was asked by a young sister what would happen to the Congregation she had founded. According to tradition she replied, “If the Order is my work, the sooner it falls to the ground, the better. If it is God’s work, it needs no one.” Yet her total faith in Providence never weakened Catherine’s insistence that we should act as though everything depended on us. Nothing less than our all will allow God’s mercy to reach to where it waits to go…
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Americas
Assumption Students Take Senior Immersion Trips Virtually
Assumption High School ARISE (Assumption Rocket Immersion Service Experience) Program is an opportunity for seniors to participate in mission trips across the country and world …These trips all focus on addressing the critical concerns of the Sisters of Mercy: Earth, Nonviolence, Women, Immigration, and Racism…
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Stock image
ISMAPNG
Shalom College Solar Farm Officially opened
On 4 March 2021, the Shalom College [Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia] Solar Farm was officially opened. - Australia’s largest private education facility solar farm, it features 810kW total installed solar panel capacity with 1160kW of Tesla battery power.
Since the Solar Farm has come on-line, Shalom College is securing 100% of energy needs from the Sun.
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ISMAPNG
Sisters of Mercy Join Fight to Save Sacred Site
The Sisters of Mercy in Bathurst, [New South Wales, Australia,] are supporting their Wiradyuri Aboriginal friends and other local concerned citizens in a campaign to protect a sacred women’s site at the top of Mount Panorama/Wahluu from being turned into a go-kart track…
Mercy Matters
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Resource
UISG Webinar: Sisters Empowering Women
A place at the Table in the Spirit of Fratelli Tutti
Speakers: Nathalie Becquart xmcj and Gloria Liliana Franco Echeverri odn
26 March, from 12pm - 2pm Rome time. Click here to check the time and date for your local area
On Zoom: http://bit.ly/3epaQNT
Meeting ID: 828 4575 8322
Download the flyer: in English; en español
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Resource
Enfolded with Affection: Imagining "Us" in Creation Theology
Watch the talk (39:23) that was given by Elizabeth Johnson csj for CTU (Catholic Theological Union Chicago) on 14 March 2021.
‘Placing the whole earth in the framework of creation, this talk explores how God “enfolds with affection” even the least of creatures (Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 77).’
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Resource
Threshold For Hope
An Online Gathering with gifted and creative singer, facilitator and spiritual director, Deirdre Ni Chinneide on 30 March at 8pm, coming from the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland, into your own home.
Click here to find the date and time in your local area.
This is a free event.
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Gospel
Passion/Palm Sunday, Year B
Mark 11:1-10; Mark 14:1-15:47
'Mark's account of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is more restrained and less victorious in tone than the other gospel accounts. In keeping with Mark's gospel as a whole, it forms part of the relentless journey of Jesus the suffering Messiah towards Jerusalem, the place of his death...'
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Fact
On This Day
1835: Convent opened at Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) for Sisters to convalesce
1853: Foundation to Ballinasloe from Loughrea - M Bernard Maguire/M Magdalen Bourke
1884: Death of Mother Juliana Hardman, first Superior of St Mary's Convent, Handsworth
Contribute a fact from the story of your Mercy congregation, institute or federation, to our online archive.
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Resource
Praying Holy Week
St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality Centre, Wales, has prepared ‘Praying Holy Week' 2021’. The theme is ‘From his Passion to this day, Jesus, the Compassionate One, suffers with us’. The booklet of prayers, poems and images is free to download and print (PDF) or, if preferred, there is also a single page version to read online or download
Further Resources
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Worth Watching
Eleanor Daley: Upon Your Heart
The Pembroke College Chapel Choir and Girls' Choir are conducted by Anna Lapwood in Eleanor Daley's 'Upon Your Heart', recorded at St George's Church, Chesterton
Watch/listen here)
Worth Knowing
2021 Earth Day Program
Catholic Climate Covenant’s new 2021 Earth Day interactive program, ‘Restore Our Common Home’ is now available.
Fill in details & download here)
Worth Watching
Film: Laudato Si’ +5
‘This film revisits the 2015 Papal Encyclical Laudato Si' with an update on the global climate crisis as well as an exploration of the impact of the loss of biodiversity and the emergence of Covid - 19. Following the three step: Seeing, Judging, Acting methodology from Catholic Social Teaching, the film explores the issues of Water, Global Warming and Loss of Biodiversity with Fr. Joshtrom Kureethadam, a cosmologist in Rome, Leonardo Boff, well known Liberation Theologian in Brazil and Canadian activists like Maude Barlow and Catherine Abreu.’ (40:34)
Watch it here)
Worth Knowing
Pope Francis Calls for Clean drinking water and sanitation for all
Speaking last Sunday ahead of World Water Day (22 March), Pope Francis said: ‘World Water Day, which invites us to reflect on the value of this wonderful and irreplaceable gift of God. For us believers ‘sister’ water is not a commodity it is a universal symbol and a source of life and health‘.
Water was one of the five concerns under the theme ‘Degradation of Earth’ raised during the MIRP process and is a particular focus for Mercy Global Action in 2021
Read the article hereSend suggestions and contributions for the ‘Worth’ Section 2021 to: The Editor
The Bottom Line
‘The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God… The universe as a whole, in all its manifold relationships, shows forth the inexhaustible riches of 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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