Remembrance Day Celebrations at Baggot Street

November 15, 2015

On Wednesday, 11 November, Sisters, Associates and Friends of Mercy gathered in the chapel of Mercy International Centre to commemorate the life and death of Catherine McAuley. People from all four provinces in Ireland and some with connections to the USA and Kenyan Provinces of the Congregation joined MIA staff and team for a Eucharistic liturgy and lunch in remembrance of Catherine.

Image: L-r: Sheila Curran rsm, John O'Gara, Mary Reynolds rsm

In her welcome, Mary Reynolds rsm (Executive Director, MIA) invited us to remember all women and men of Mercy who have gone before us, and all who are currently negotiating through challenging life circumstances. In particular, she encouraged us to remember in prayer Marie Chin, former President of Mercy International Association and Former President of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, who is receiving treatment for cancer.

John O’Gara, a Marist priest who ministers in both Coolock and in the neighbourhood of Baggot St, presided at the liturgy, and Sheila Curran rsm, a Sister of Mercy from the Northern Province of the Congregation, broke open the Word.

In reflecting on the scriptural readings of Elijah being fed by a poor widow in 1st Kings 17:10-16, and an end of time judgement scene in Matthew 25:31-46, Sheila points out, ‘Worshipping God involves direct contact with those on the margins, those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked or in prison.’ She also highlighted that our globalized world is very different from the time in which Catherine lived, and encouraged all present to engage in the forthcoming Mercy International Reflection Process designed for the Year of Mercy so that ‘we can discern together globally a shared response to the human and other than human cry for Mercy in our world today’.