Homily of Bishop Paul Dempsey at Mass for Mercy Day 2025

We celebrated Mass for The Feast of Our Lady of Mercy and Mercy Day (24th September 2025) in the Chapel of Catherine's House in 64a Lower Baggot Street.

Our celebrant and homilist for the Mass was Bishop Paul Dempsey, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

We share his Opening Words of Welcome and his Homily below:

Opening Words at Mass for Mercy Day 2025

Thank you for the invitation

Great privilege to be here in this historic place – The House of Mercy, which opened in 1827.

Today we begin the countdown to the bicentenary celebrations in two years’ time.

Mercy Sisters have played a part in my story – in my Junior infant days up to second class I was in the Mercy school in Athy before moving on to the Christian Brothers – good foundations set by the Mercys! I have worked and journeyed with many Mercy Sisters over the years – inspired by their witness and example.

Welcome the Mercy Sisters here today, those from Mercy International Association and all those who are part of the wider Mercy family, here present and joining us online from around the world

To our various guests – thank you for coming – great you could be part of the celebration today.

I’m conscious that this is a sacred place for the Mercy family, the house Catherine built and the place she departed this life. Her story has left a rich wellspring of life and energy in the Church which continues right up to today.

In this moment of worship, we give thanks to God for her generous response to God’s call, a response that has flourished in the life of the Mercy family and the wider family that is the Church.

It challenges us to reflect upon our own call in response to the Gospel. A call we don’t always live up to because of our own brokenness and woundedness.

We turn to the God of mercy, so close to Catherine McAuley’s heart, and seek that gift of mercy as we gather as a community of disciples this day

HOMILY

“Change” is something we can all identify with these days. The world stage has changed dramatically in the last two to three years new world leaders have emerged, and we have all been saddened by the scenes of war and bloodshed that are all too common on our media feeds. The global Church too has been experiencing change; we’ve had the passing of Pope Francis and the beginning of the ministry of Pope Leo. I understand he visited here when he was Prior General of the Augustinians a number of years ago. Within the Church itself many differing views are being expressed as to the way forward. There is the emergence of a polarisation that seems hard to reconcile. In more local terms we continue to navigate the complex situation of the changing place of the Church in Irish society today.

We know the struggles and the statistics, we’ve heard them repeatedly, the falling numbers of priests and religious, fewer people engaging with the life of the Church, a disconnect with young people and so on. For those of us who care about the Church and minister in it, we might feel as if we have to work very hard in these circumstances to try and give the Lord a helping hand, a ‘dig out’ so to speak in the midst of all this change. Of course, that’s not the case. The Lord is still in charge that’s something that hasn’t changed! That’s why a Feast Day like today; Mercy Day is so important. The world of Catherine McAuley and her Sisters wasn’t an easy world either. There may be a temptation to look back with rose tinted glasses. Catherine and her Sisters had to respond to all sorts of challenges. They faced opposition and financial worries. The imaginative idea of lay women serving the needs of women and children, the poor and the sick wasn’t something that sat easily in the mindset of the time. But what inspires me about Catherine’s story is her absolute trust in God, something that comes across in our reading from Isaiah today.

Despite the challenges, she knew the Lord would respond and find a way, and he did. I think we have a great deal to learn from her witness in the Church today.

The context is somewhat different today. But in this Jubilee Year of Hope, we are challenged to seek those seeds of hope evident all around us. Fr. Daniel Bergen was a Jesuit who was quite radical in his time. Back in the 1960s he went to prison over the Vietnam War. In his poem, ‘Tulips in a Prison Yard’’ he describes the dark, grey, harsh world of prison life. Then one day while he was out in the prison yard, he happened to see a tulip in the corner of the yard. The splash of colour in the grey, drab prison yard, announced a little miracle in the bleak reality he found himself. Perhaps we too can find little miracles of hope in these challenging times.

We can see how this sense of hope or miracle of hope is reflected in the Mercy story. Over the past couple of centuries the Mercy family, in response to the Gospel we heard today of ‘going out’, has reached out to serve in the areas of education, health and pastoral care in all its forms. There is the great sense of discernment happening in the Mercy family in the midst of the change we are experiencing, reflecting upon where the call of the Gospel is inviting the Mercy family to serve today. I know so many areas of ministry are flourishing in many parts of the world through the commitment, dedication, faith and service of so many sisters and members of the wider Mercy family.

This is all happening at a very significant time in the life of the Church as Pope Francis and indeed Pope Leo has invited us to be a more ‘Synodal Church.’ To be a synodal Church we must return to the call we all received in Baptism. In Baptism each one of us has been called to discipleship.

St. John Paul II stated: “The call is a concern not only of Pastors, clergy, and men and women religious. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world.” Pope Benedict echoed this when he said that each one of us is “co-responsible for the Church’s being and action.” Pope Francis through his vision of a ‘Synodal Church,” has helped us to re-engage with the vision of the Church outlined in the Second Vatican Council.

A number of years ago a certain political party had a slogan: “A lot done, a lot more to do.” This is very much a journey, an ongoing one where we will never arrive. Our faith story is a continuing journey; the Mercy story is a continuing story. Like with any journey it has its twists and turns and the unexpected can occur. Abraham, our father in faith, who was called upon late in life to head out on a new journey. We hear how he “set out, not knowing where he was going.” Indeed, we could say it was something similar for Catherine McAuley, she found herself in mid-life setting out on a new venture not fully sure where she was going, she simply trusted in the Lord’s plan. So, if we find ourselves identifying with them, feeling a little lost during these times, then we are in good company!

Seamus Heaney tells us “Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.” Catherine set out knowing there was good worth working for. She respected the dignity of every person made in the image and likeness of God. For those of us today who believe in the power and vision of the Gospel, despite the challenges in ministry and the cynicism around our role in society, let us renew our conviction that there is “good worth working for.” The world needs Christ; the world needs to hear the truth of his Gospel more than ever.

This was the conviction found deep within the heart of a young priest called Fr. Vincent Donovan back many years ago. In his discernment he responded to the call to go to Tanzania to work with the Masai Tribe. His book “Christianity Rediscovered” describes his experience of missionary life. Even though it was written out of his experience with the Masia tribe, it actually describes our life of ministry today, which is essentially that of a missionary. One of Fr. Vincent’s young students reminded him as he prepared to go on mission with the Masai Tribe, he said: ‘In working with people, do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place might seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have been before.’

Catherine McAuley as she opened this house was called to a place she had never been before. As the Mercy family begins its preparation for the bicentenary in two years’ time, I believe the Lord is calling you, as a community of disciples ‘to a place you have never been before.’ It can be daunting, but that’s where trust comes in. Reach out and place your hand in the Lord’s and he will guide you on the way.

Catherine had many reflective sayings, I like the one that goes, "God does not look at the action but at the spirit motivating it." It brings home that no matter what stage of life or ministry we are we are at the spirit that motivates us is what really matters. There’s a great sense of encouragement in that! May Catherine’s life and legacy continue to motivate your spirit so that the Mercy mission of bringing love, hope, joy and mercy will continue to flourish throughout the world, and may you be open to going to that place the Lord wants you to go in this time, a place you have never been before…

ENDS

+Paul Dempsey

Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin

Mercy Day 2025