The 68th Session of the General Assembly of the UN is now underway in New York. Srs. Áine O’Connor and Rita Parks are attending many of the important sustainable development meetings open to NGOs and organizations that have been active in post Rio+20 follow up, particularly as part of the process for the development of Sustainable Development Goals.

Details are linked to this item.

Messages to: Áine O’Connor rsm - MGA Co-ordinator at the UN

Image: UN Photo/Joao Araujo Pinto

'The House of Mercy was established to serve the needs of the poor, the sick and the uneducated...Like Catherine, we have established institutions to address our enduring concerns:
Through our sponsored works may we model mercy and justice and promote systemic change according to these ideals.

Catherine McAuley was assisted in her ministry by many who were animated by her vision of service:
By collaborating with others in the works of mercy, may we learn from them how to be more merciful.'

From: Intercessions for Special Mercy Feasts, Morning and Evening Prayer of the Sisters of Mercy, p855

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

In our work on Sustainable Development and promoting Eco-Justice and the Rights of Nature, we continue to learn from organizations on acknowledging and realizing the rights of nature. Two such organizations are the Global Exchange and the Earth Law Center...

Messages to: Aine O’Connor rsm - MGA Co-ordinator at the UN

Prayers with the intercession of Venerable Catherine McAuley are asked for all whose names are in our hearts and on our prayer list .

We also remember in a special way today all our Sisters, Associates, Partners in Ministry, Benefactors, Friends and family who are in need of healing.

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

Mass being streamed live (right now) from Mother of Mercy High in Cincinnati, Ohio, a “Stuff the Bus” donations collection and service fair for students in Pennsylvania, Associates in Farmington Hills making commitments, announcement of 2014 school captains in Parramatta, NSW... just some of the ways Mercy Day is being celebrated this month and this day.

What are you doing to celebrate Mercy Day?

Send your story and images to the Editor of Mercy E-news by Saturday 28 September and we'll include them in next week's Mercy E-news.

Messages to: the Editor

The Chapter of the Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation begins on Monday 30 September. We invite you to remember us in prayer during this time.

Messages to: Sandra Lupi rsm - Congregation Leader

Editor: The Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation is this week's featured Mercy website.

On 6 October at Mercy High School San Francisco, Marguerite Buchanan rsm and Suzanne Toolan rsm will be honored in a collaborative musical evening with performances from the choirs of Mercy High School San Francisco and Mercy High School Burlingame, schools where both once taught and where Sr Marguerite was principal.

This will be a benefit concert to support Catherine's Center in South San Francisco, a Restorative Justice Program of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of San Mateo County in alliance with the Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community, a ministry helping formerly incarcerated women.

“We honor Suzanne and Marguerite because they are women of courage and vision who have helped to establish this important ministry,” said Dotty McCrea, principal of Mercy, San Francisco..

In an article in the Catholic San Francisco linked to this item, the origins of the Center through these Sisters' 'visioning' and their gifts are celebrated, as they will be again in October.

Messages to:
Suzanne Toolan rsm and Marguerite Buchanan rsm c/- Pat Kenny rsm - Institute Communications Office

On Wednesday 11th September, 220 Year 6 Primary school students, most of them school leaders or members of their schools’ Mercy Action Groups, and 50 accompanying teachers, gathered together at St.Kevins Eastwood to participate in Day 2 of the Mercy Summit. The students were from schools founded by the North Sydney and Parramatta Congregations of the Sisters of Mercy...

Messages to: Kate Anderson & Anne Ferguson

Editor: On 26 September, Mary Pat will give the keynote at this year's Mercy Network on Aging (MNOA) conference. Keynote Title: 'Celebrate Age, Celebrate Life!' On this Mercy feast the title has particular resonance.

Summary: Catherine McAuley, an Irish woman, who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831 understood deeply that life offered us “joys and sorrows mingled, one, succeeding the other.” This same Catherine encouraged her early Sisters to “dance every evening!” If Catherine was with us this evening (and whose to say she is not!) she would be the first to affirm that we should celebrate age, celebrate life!

With Catherine’s sense of both the seriousness and lightsomeness of life we will explore the strengths that many older adults bring to the process of aging; strengths which are to be named, claimed, and celebrated! We will also examine how an appreciation of the spiritual dimension of people’s lives is an avenue for compassionate caregiving in the Mercy tradition.

Messages to: Mary Pat Garvin rsm - Institute Leadership Team
 

1. On Global Frack-Down Day, Saturday, October 19, Mercies will be facilitating a session on fracking from 9:00 to 12:00 to be held at the Office of Adult Faith Formation in our Archdiocese. There will be a showing of the documentary film “Gasland” and a person from Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Fracking Awareness Network will be a guest speaker as well as a speaker from the opposition party of government.

2. There will be an invitation on the eve of Frack-Down Day, Friday, October 18th, to a prayer centered around fracking and a showing of the film “Gasland” with Mercy Sisters.

3. Mercies in Newfoundland have also talked to the fracking groups in the area of the Gros Morne Park on the West Coast of NL where the exploration for fracking is taking place and will be involved in some initiative there.

4. On Sunday, September 22, to end Fracking Awareness Week, a few Mercy Sisters who live in the West Coast area will attend a People’s Forum on fracking with guest speaker Jessica Ernst from Rosebud, AB. This is being sponsored by the West Coast Fracking Awareness group. A couple of Sisters from St. John’s on the East Coast will also attend the forum.

Messages to: Sheila O'Dea rsm - Congregation Leadership Team
 

Last month 80, Year 7, 8 and 9 students from Catherine McAuley Westmead, OLMC Parramatta, Mercy Catholic College Chatswood, Monte Sant Angelo North Sydney and OLMC Burraneer gathered together to participate in the Mercy 5 Junior Mercy Action Group (MAG) day...

Messages to: Kate Anderson - Coordinator of the Mercy 5 group

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

Three new items featuring the Clare Augustine Moore portrait have been added to the online gift store:

A4 Poster - Full Face of Catherine and has a backing board showing manuscript and description - A4 Cello bagged and euro hook. Retail: €4

Notecard with full face of Catherine and manuscript/description on back. 6 cards per pack. Retail: €5

5x7 Greeting Card – showing manuscript on front and image of Catherine on the back with description - in a cello bag, with envelope. Retail: €2.80

Ellen Whitty (Mother M Vincent) and her five companions arrived in Brisbane on the 10 May 1861 at the invitation of Bishop Quinn, thus bringing the first Sisters of Mercy to Queensland and establishing what we know today as the Brisbane Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy.

What's so different about iOS7?
In this video The Guardian technology editor Charles Arthur takes a close-up look at Apple's overhaul of its iOS software for iPhone and iPad, and delivers his verdict on features such as gesture control, multi-tasking, and photo organisation (04:07)

Source: The Guardian