On this Mercy Day we send loving greetings, blessings and good wishes to our Sisters and to all members of the Mercy family world-wide.

We are reminded on this, the 185th anniversary of the establishment of the House of Mercy, that God’s call to us is to bring God’s mercy and compassion to those most in need, and that it is in the faces and voices of the poor that God is revealed to us.

May our God who asks of us for others “ the kind look, the gentle word, the patient hearing of …sorrows” (C McAuley), give us always the energy we need for our mission in Mercy.

- Patricia Bell rsm - President MIA
  Read the Mercy Day Greetings from Sisters and Communities
 

Celebrating 185 Years Today of the Opening of the House of Mercy at Baggot Street
On September 24th, 1827, the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the House built by Catherine on Baggot Street opened as a school for the education of poor young girls and as a residence for homeless girls and women.

Today, Sisters of Mercy continue the ministry of outreach to distressed women by opposing human trafficking. Touched by God’s mercy and compassion, and fired by the inspiration of the Gospel and Catherine McAuley, Sisters of Mercy collaborate with others who strive for justice to oppose all forms of human trafficking and exploitation.

To find out more about this shared focus of the member congregations and institutes of Mercy International Association, click here
  -Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA
 

Reflection for Mercy Day 2012
If we utter aloud the word mercy,
standing, each of us, by an open window
anywhere we are in the world,
then the word mercy will carry on the soundwaves
onwards and unceasing,
through the air of the wounded world.
And maybe, when it takes flight
into deed and kindness, justice and effort,
it will effect a healing, a hope and a blessing.
It may call the homeless home,
it may coax to hope the betrayed and broken,
it may ease the burdened earth.
Listen for it, the repeated word mercy, on this Mercy day,
Listen for its neighbourly dialects and global idiom.
Imagine those who, like you, are saying it aloud,
and those who need to hear it, today- the word- mercy.
One word, one deed of justice, one kind effort at a time.

Creator God, sustainer of life,
Jesus, our companion Word,
Spirit, who, like the air, inspires,
give us the simple daring this day
to say and to be Mercy.
  - Mary Wickham (ISMAPNG)
 

On This Day
1827:House of Mercy opened, Baggot Street, Dublin
1838:Foundation to Limerick from Baggot St - M Elizabeth Moore
1839:Foundation to Naas from Carlow - M Josephine Treno
1861:Mater Misericordiae Hospital Dublin, Ireland, formally opened by Cardinal Paul Cullen

" We have ever confided largely in Divine Providence and shall continue to do so."
- Catherine McAuley, Letter to Mary Ann Doyle, September 24, 1841