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Caroline Thompson is Head of Heritage and Spirituality with Mercy International Association. She shares a Spiritual Reflection on Catherine McAuley and Mercy:
One of the biblical passages which resonates mercy to me is this passage from the prophet Hosea:
I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them (Hosea 11:4).
The words ‘cords of human kindness’ not only describe a God of tenderness and compassion but also remind me of the basic challenge of mercy leadership – not hierarchical or directive but leading with kindness. Catherine McAuley wrote: Sisters of Mercy should be particularly kind, the kindest people of earth, with the tenderest pity and compassion for the poor (Familiar Instructions 13). For Catherine, leadership is not about shining moments. She had a great dislike for noise and display in the performance of duties (Mary Sullivan RSM, 2003. Catherine McAuley’s Priorities as Leader). She advised her sisters to adopt a simple style of speaking and writing, to be a loving presence, a listening ear and a patient hearer of sorrows.
When reflecting on this passage from Hosea, I can almost visualise the way in which Catherine McAuley reached out to those made poor, with a tenderness encapsulated in the words ‘Lifts a little child to the cheek’. There is something so gentle and loving in this image. To me this is how mercy is lived and this is the template for mercy shown in Catherine’s life and work: gentle, responsive and attentive to small acts of human kindness.
The message of the prophet Hosea, in describing God as active and nurturing love, underpins the essence of mercy. Mercy and compassion begin with God and are incarnated in all of creation. Receiving love and mercy from God we are challenged to share this love and mercy with others. As Scofield rsm notes: Genuine mercy, in the biblical sense … must have both the affective and the effective components. The affective is the ability to be seized by and overcome with compassion; the effective is the ability to act immediately to comfort, to bind up. Mercy is not so much a quality as a process, a movement (1992. Towards a Theology of Mercy. The MAST Journal. Vol 2. No. 2. P. 2).
Catherine McAuley’s life and work, her example, inspiration and legacy come down to this understanding of Mercy given and received. And this becomes the ongoing challenge of all of us who seek to share her charism and spirit in our own time and place. I urge you to keep the words of the prophet close and ponder what human kindness looks like in your everyday. Our world certainly needs this now more than ever.
ENDS
26 February 2026