Mercy Day Greetings from Mercy International Association
Around the world, people of Mercy will be gathering in a few days to celebrate our special Feast Day, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy. It is a particular gift for us that Mercy Day is now so embedded in the Season of Creation, so important for our times. All of us have experienced Mercy in our lives as a creative energy, an energy that enables new life, that sustains life, that makes it possible for us to be people of Mercy. Mercy Global Presence invited us to reflect on this again and again.
May this Mercy Day be a powerful reminder to us all of the blessings of Mercy in our own lives; an experience that energises us to reach out in Mercy to a world in need, to the many people in need, and to creatures that inhabit that world, as we continue the mission of spreading God's message of Mercy.
Vision in Action
)
Mercy International Centre
Breaking Boundaries: A Mercy Response to People on the Move
Mercy International Centre
Breaking Boundaries: A Mercy Response to People on the Move
On the occasion of Mercy Day on 24 September and the World Day for Migrants and Refugees on 25 September, the Mercy Global Action Migration Task Force is pleased to launch a new publication, Breaking Boundaries: A Mercy Response to People on the Move.
The MGA Migration Task Force is made up of Mercy Global Action staff, Sisters, and Partners in Ministry from Mercy Congregations and Institutes around the world. This document is the culmination of a year-long process that has offered the Mercy World an opportunity to reflect on, learn from, and celebrate Mercy's engagement with people on the move. Despite the many challenges people face on the migration journey, Mercy Sisters, Associates, and Partners embrace a culture of encounter that not only provides support and accompaniment but also enriches the lives of our communities.
)
Prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: Feast of Our Lady of Mercy
Prayer
MIA Prayer Intention: Feast of Our Lady of Mercy
Mercy International prays this week in celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy and the 195th anniversary of the opening of the first House of Mercy on Baggot Street. Together we pray…
Gracious God, by courageous, contagious concern for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the poor, the sick and the ignorant, Catherine McAuley broke the impossibilities of her time. She animated many to walk with her. She animated others at the centres of wealth, power, and influence to share in her heroic efforts. She connected the rich to the poor, the healthy to the sick, the educated and skilled to the uninstructed, the influential to those of no consequence, to do the work of God on earth. We pray in our time to do the same. Amen.
Prayer from Tender Courage by Joanne Regan & Isabeelle Keiss
Mercy Matters
)
Fact
On This Day
September 20, 1841: Catherine left Birmingham on her last journey - back to Baggot Street.
Contribute a fact from your Mercy congregation, institute, or federation, to our online archive.
)
Mercy International Centre
Reminder: MIA Seeks Images of Catherine
Calling all artists! To celebrate the Season of Mercy, MIA is seeking image submissions for creative depictions of Catherine McAuley. This year’s Mercy Day theme, Catherine McAuley Boundary Breaker, reminds us of the courage and compassion of the woman who founded the House of Mercy on Baggot Street. Images of Catherine have provided so many in the Mercy World comfort and companionship as they journey in Mercy. This year, we seek to know how each of you envisions Catherine.
Full submission details can be found here. Submissions are requested by 4 October. Please email info@mercyinternational.ie with inquiries.
)
Mercy International Centre
Mercy Day Mass and Prayer Service
The 2022 Mercy Day Prayer Service is now available here in A4 and here in US Letter. The prayer service focuses on this year’s theme, Catherine McAuley: Boundary Breaker.
Mercy Day Mass will be hosted in person and online. To register to attend mass in-person at 12pm noon, please call MIC or email Thomas, MIC receptionist, at info@mercyinternational.ie. To watch a live stream of the Mercy Day mass, please click here.
Further Resources
)
Worth Reading
Young Mercy Women from Adelaide Interviewed
Gaby Kinsman and Catherine Edwards of Adelaide, Australia were recently interviewed about their involvement with the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Mercy Global Action in New York. Gaby is a Mercy Emerging Leaders Fellow in Cohort Two and is recently back from her immersion trip in Cambodia. Catherine will begin her internship with the MGA office in New York this October. Both women are actively involved in Young Mercy Links.
Read the Article)
Worth Knowing
Catherine McAuley College Opens in Queensland
Catherine McAuley’s educational legacy has been recognised yet again with the opening of the Catherine McAuley College in Mackay, Central Queensland. Leesa Jeefcoat, Director of Catholic Education for the Diocese of Rockhampton has a deep understanding of how Catherine McAuley was “truly a pioneer and a trail blazer in the Ministry of Catholic Education. Catherine understood that nurturing in children a love of God, a love of others and a lifelong love of learning was the best gift they could be given.”
View their WebsiteWorth Reading
Sr. Mary Sullivan (Americas) Reflects on Mercy History
“What gift did God give the Mercy family on September 24, 1827, and what does God ask of us on that day? I often ponder these questions—especially when the ancient feast of Our Lady of Mercy approaches each year.
On that day 195 years ago, God spread over our Mercy Family the great warm Shawl of God’s Mercy, and asked us to extend it, as wide as we could, over the poor, sick, ignorant, lonely, hungry, and suffering of our own time and place. September 24 in 1827 was the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, an ancient feast day of Jesus’ Mother Mary (now no longer a feast day in the calendar of the Roman Church). On that day, God asked us to do what Mary had always done: to stretch out over all God’s beloved people the Shawl of God’s own merciful comfort and help, the sheltering Cloak of God’s own tenderness.”
Continue Reading Mary's Reflection)
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