To celebrate Foundation Day when Catherine McAuley, Anna Maria Doyle, and Elizabeth Harding made vows as Sisters of Mercy and thus established the Mercy congregation, Mercy International Association is hosting an afternoon of music, prayer, and meditation on icons.

The festivities from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. will include a prayer service with the renewal of vows for Sisters of Mercy present, an icon exhibition of the work of members of the Association of Iconographers of Ireland, input by Carmel Murtagh rsm on the meaning and writing of icons, music by organists Eithne Doyle rsm and Teresa Martin rsm and violinist Ailish O’Brien rsm, and light refreshments.

Further details are linked to this item.

Messages to Madeleine - Receptionist MIC

There have been a number of new posts this week on issues of shared concern:

Report: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Report: Quality Education Needed for Poverty Eradication
Report: Climate Change
Report: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Report: Poverty Eradication

These five statements have been worked on and / or endorsed by Deirdre Mullan rsm in her role of representing Mercy at the UN.

Messages to Deirdre Mullan rsm - Director MGC

Prayers through the intercession of Venerable Catherine are asked for the intentions of all those who have requested remembrance in our prayers, and in particular:

Anne, Holly Corey, Rosemary Anderson, Marilyn Fenton rsm, MaryAnn Fitzgerald, Eileen O'Grady, Martin, Eileen Chambers, Little Chloe, Christina

Messages to:
Anne Hannon rsm - Vice postulator Europe and Africa
Sheila Carney rsm - Vice postulator Americas
Mary Duffy rsm - Vice postulator Australia, New Zealand, Philippines

Editor: In this the 150th year of Our Lady of Abingdon School the main speaker at Senior School Prize Giving 2010 was Penny Roker rsm who had been a teacher and Senior Mistress at the school between 1995 and 2000 before she joined the Sisters of Mercy. An extract from her speech follows:

...How can we be strangers, when we share the same story? And what a fantastic story it is... the story of how, 300 years after the destruction of that great Benedictine Abbey of Abingdon, a new centre of religious life and education began...in those early years of Victoria’s reign Mother Clare Moore, one of the first Sisters of Mercy, travelled down by train from Bermondsey at the request of the Bishop to set up a school for Abingdon’s Catholic children. In a matter of days after visiting the town, she sent three young sisters to found a Convent here in those first chilly weeks of 1860. So prejudiced were the people of Abingdon against Catholics in those days that the nuns had stones thrown at them as they walked down the Oxford Road. They faced other trials too ... the tragically early deaths of some of the Sisters. But they didn’t give up and the work of teaching grew and grew...

Messages to Penny Roker rsm

Editor: Our Lady's Abingdon is this week's featured website

The Sisters of Mercy went from Australia to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1956. The first foundation was established in Goroka in the Eastern Highlands. The following year another was established in Wewak in 1957.

In the 1980s these two groups of Sisters of Mercy decided to form one group of the Sisters of Mercy of Papua New Guinea to make it possible for the Papua New Guinean women to join the Sisters of Mercy. The first three young women Petronia Gawi, Theresia Gongi and Veronica Lokalyo were received as candidates in 1980. Today, there are 23 Sisters in perpetual vows, 4 in temporary vows, and two novices/candidates.
 

Messages to Mary Kay Dobrovolny rsm - Assistant Director Heritage & Spirituality

The parish of Donoughmore, county Limerick, has recently been looking back on its history. Last year the schools and the students who attended down the years were researched. This year they are exploring the religious and priests who have come from the parish. Mother Canice who entered in Doon, County Limerick came from Donoughmore, and looking back on her life in order to help the parish with its research brought back many memories of a time gone by and a way of life that no longer exists.

Messages to Mary Coyle rsm

In mid-2010, Perth’s Director of Heritage and the Strategic Planner for the City of Perth requested that the Mercy Heritage Centre at Victoria Square be opened to the community during, at least part of, the City of Perth Heritage Weekend.

Joan Smith rsm was one of a number of sisters and associates of the Perth Congregation who helped to prepare the historic 1871 Sisters of Mercy Convent for a public viewing during the City of Perth Heritage Weekend on November 13 and 14. Joan says, at last count 645 people visited the convent.
 

Messages to Joan Smith rsm

1916: Novitiate opened at Bella Vista, Cobh, Co. cork

The quotes attributed to Catherine McAuley and other Mercy women have been reviewed,  amended and added to, where necessary,.

An invitation is given to submit other Mercy quotes, making this feature of the website an authoratitive source of Mercy words.

We believe that God creates each of us as a unique person with gifts that need to be recognised, celebrated and developed. Inspired by the words of our foundress, Catherine McAuley, ‘To each according to their needs’, we encourage a respect for every individual, regardless of background, beliefs or ability.

WE COULD blithely drive into a lake if instructed by a GPS device.

We leap from one website link to another, scanning instead of reading. We can barely add a few numbers without a calculator...

Are smartphones making it too easy for us? 

Source: The Age Digital Life