Mercy International Association gives thanks for the gifts of leadership and service of Pope Benedict XVI and joins with the universal church in praying for the election of a successor worthy of this office.

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Sisters of Mercy considering renewal time in 2013 are invited to consider the month long renewal programme being offered at Mercy International Centre ( 2 June - 29 June).

Presenters and topics for the four weeks are:

Marie Chin rsm (Americas): Religious Life: A Deep-Down impulse to Care and Make Creation Whole (2-7 June)
Veronica Lawson rsm (ISMAPNG): The Liberating Face of God's Mercy in Luke-Acts (9-14 June)
Madeline Duckett rsm (ISMAPNG): Contemplating Catherine...Nourishing the Soul (16-21 June)
Janet Ruffing rsm (Americas): Touched by the Holy; Contemplation, Gratitude and Compassion (23-28 June)
 
Facilitator is Dervilla Byrne (The Congregation)

Attached here is further information about the presenters, facilitator and programme which offers participants the opportunity to take 'time out' in an atmosphere of warmth, hospitality, and internationality in order to discern more clearly the invitation of the Spirit in how to live out the mission of Mercy in our church and world.

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

Thank you to all those who sent messages of congratulations on the occasion of the publication of the 500th issue of Mercy E-News. Today we publish the first issue of the next 500!

We appreciate your ongoing interest, support, feedback and encouragement. We renew our ongoing invitation to you to share your Mercy events, ideas, actions, connections, opportunities, resources and weblinks through the weekly Mercy E-News, and to let others in your Mercy network know of its existence if they don't already receive our enews letter each Wednesday.

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Will we all meet in Heaven? Oh what a joy even to think of it! Catherine McAuley,
Letter to Teresa White, February 3, 1841

Prayers with the intercession of Venerable Catherine McAuley are asked for: The family of John-M. O'Donoghue, R.I.P. and all whose names are in our hearts and on our prayer list

Messages to:
Anne Hannon rsm - Vice postulator Europe and Africa
Sheila Carney rsm - Vice postulator Americas
Caroline Ryan rsm - Vice postulator Australia & PNG, Aotearoa New Zealand, Philippines

With the escalating violence and dissent in Honduras following the coup that took place in June 2009, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas’ Institute Justice Team and the Friendship Office of the Americas organized a religious delegation December 6-12, 2012.

The purpose of this visit was to examine firsthand the current situation in Honduras, and to extend a gesture of solidarity to those, including the Mercy community in Honduras, who are working with impoverished and marginalized persons in this Central American country...

A full report of the visit is linked to this item.

Messages to: the Institute Justice Team

A Solemn Mass for the Religious of the Diocese of Westminster was held at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 2 February, the feast of The Presentation of the Lord. Mass was celebrated by Bishop Alan Hopes, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster.

Representatives from most of the 98 female religious communities in the diocese attended. Among them were those celebrating 25th, 40th, 50th and 60th jubilee anniversaries.

Thirty two Sisters of Mercy were among those attending and celebrating Diamond and Golden Jubilees.

Messages to: Kathleen Gooch rsm - Congregation Leadership Team

Sisters of Mercy along with Mercy students and co-workers will gather in Washington, DC on February 17 for the Forward on Climate Rally. The purpose of this rally is to call on President Obama to take action on climate change during his second term of office.

The Sisters of Mercy are participating in this rally out of a commitment to reverence Earth and work more effectively toward the sustainability of life. One of our guiding documents calls us to “act in harmony and interdependence with all creation.”

Join Mercy in this effort. Visit our website (linked to this item) to find out how.

Messages to: Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office

This is the second combined Candidates (novices) program since the formation of ISMAPNG on 12 December 2011. On 28 January 2013, Mai Nguyen-Doan and Michelle Goh from Melbourne, Australia joined Marianna Kolkia and Janet Andrew in Goroka, PNG for a four-week program together. The program coordinators are Kaye Evans, Barbara Broad, Anne Ryan, Cathy Jambet and Margaret Roni. Of the four week program will be spent with Mercy communities in PNG, three weeks will be in Goroka and one week in Mount Hagen.

To read the complete report, click here

Messages to: Barbara Broad rsm
 

As the Nandi Flames, the Jacarandas and a variety of other brightly colored flowers adorned the Villa-Maria compound in Nairobi, so did the Sisters of Mercy-Kenyan Province.

It was Saturday, December 1st 2012, and all came in their element to grace the two-fold occasion: 1st profession of Carolyne Akoth Opong and Jackline Chepjumba Chemekuro and the renewal of vows of five sisters in Temporary vows (Srs Risper Ouma, Catherine Wamboi, Willimena Ayan Epeyon, Virginia Kasai and Pauline King’ori)...

Messages to: Selina Mbuli rsm

The co-founder of the (former) Mercy Private Hospital, East Melbourne, and former Provincial of the Sisters of Mercy in Melbourne in the 1950s, Mother Philippa Brazill rsm DBE, has been honoured by Australian Catholic University. On February 1, 2013, a lecture theatre in the new Health Sciences building at St. Patrick’s campus in Melbourne was named the "Philippa Brazill rsm Lecture Theatre".

To access the occasional address given by Helen Monkivitch rsm AO, click here.

Messages to: Helen Monkivitch rsm AO - Executive Director Leadership & Mission Mercy Health

Six sisters recently celebrated their jubilees of religious life.

Sisters M Irenaeus Murphy, M Aquinas Redmond, and Ruth Oakley celebrated 70 years of religious profession and Veronica McManus, Margaret Jennings and M Susanna Kraus celebrated 60 years.

Family, friends and sisters joined them to celebrate their years of faithful Mercy living, lives of prayer and the many ways they have reached out to people in ministry.

Messages to: Katrina Fabish rsm - Congregation Communications Contact

1950: St Catherine's College opens in Kilbirnie, Wellington
1963: Foundation to Yangoru from Rockhampton

Selected quotations from the Writings of Catherine McAuley are available on the mercyworld.org website in both text and PDF

Our Lady of Mercy College, Burraneer is an all girls 7-10 school situated on Burraneer Bay, near Cronulla, in Sydney's southern suburbs. Our Lady of Mercy College, Burraneer is a Systemic Catholic School which prides itself on its record of academic excellence.

'[According] to researchers at IBM, the world creates around 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data every day - enough to fill 57.5 billion 32GB Apple ipads. The total amount of data in the world is estimated to be doubling every two years...'

Source: February 2013 Qantas magazine p.105