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Caroline Thompson is Head of Heritage and Spirituality with Mercy International Association. She shares a Spiritual Reflection for the Mercy World on Catherine McAuley as Mystic:
A study of Catherine McAuley’s life gives us much to ponder – the tension between poverty and wealth, the formative influence of father and mother, the Catholic sensibility in a Celtic heart open to the urgings of the Spirit, the contemplative activist. In a world of analysis and causation, of nature and nurture, a different path emerges – the reality of mystics – those born with spiritual gifts and the capacity to perceive God differently.
Catherine McAuley was certainly a mystic. As Mary-Pat Garvin rsm notes, she was a woman deeply rooted in God and sent on mission:
In her capacity to see beyond the squalor and deprivation of her time, to understand the Gospel as an imperative to action and to honour every person, however small or humble, as Christ himself, she operated outside of the prevailing notions of God and religious orthodoxy. This ‘seeing’ underpinned her embrace of mercy, given and received, animating her work and her community (2009. For the Love of Mercy. Listen Vol. 27. No.2. 50).
Catherine McAuley despite her context of post- reformation theologies … religious prejudices … limited recognition of women (and) ecclesiastical attitudes (Sullivan rsm (2012). The Path of Mercy. 1-2) found within herself, within scripture and in the blessing of Coolock solitude a radical eucharistic table which excluded no-one and allowed mercy to pour forth in her place.
This short poem captures the complexity of Catherine’s life:
To unpack a life is simple they say
there are parents … a home
a community and a country
To unpack a life … a single life is not simple I say
Unpacking is deaf to heart
anxieties and deep fears
the internal workings of the Spirit
air … land … connections and disconnections
To unpack this life
a woman’s life … an Irish life … a Catholic life
a remarkable life
is to accept an invitation to journey
to embrace ambiguity
and to sense God as mystery at work in our world.
(Poem: Caroline Thompson)
ENDS