Great Gathering Celebrates Catherine's Legacy on her Birthday (The Congregation)

By all accounts, the Sisters, Associates, Circle of Mercy Members, Colleagues and Friends of Mercy who gathered in Charleville on 29 September, Catherine McAuley's birthday, enjoyed a wonderful day, the fruit of twelve months planning by The Congregation's Canonisation Committee.

Symposium events, organised in each of the Mercy Congregations across the globe, are intended to help make the Cause for Canonisation and Catherine McAuley ‘known and loved’. The large turnout for this second national Catherine McAuley Symposium and the responses to the speakers confirm that 'Catherine's life provides a strong and graced model for people today, especially women' (Sheila Carney rsm).

Those present were fortunate to hear 3 excellent presentations on gathering the harvest of Catherine's legacy: her faith - from Mary Reynolds rsm (MIA); her love and humility - from Mary C. Sullivan rsm (Americas) and her hope - from Brenda Dolphin rsm (Postulator)

Those of us unable to be present at the Symposium can download the texts of the presentations from The Congregation's website, purchase the audio recordings from the Mercy International Centre Shop in Baggot Street, Dublin and will be able to view the videos of each presentation on the mercyworld.org website as soon as these become available (to be advised in a forthcoming issue of Mercy e-news).

A special highlight of the day was the unveiling of the recently discovered portrait of Catherine McAuley. This was the second unveiling, the first being on Mercy Day at Baggot Street.

Listen to Mary Reynolds rsm (Executive Director MIA) in the video clip below as she takes us through the story of the great discovery of the portrait within an illumination by Clare Augustine Moore.

Messages to:
Anne Hannon rsm - Vice postulator Europe and Africa
Ailish O'Brien rsm - Communications Co-ordinator

Image: Irish experts on Catherine McAuley. L-r: Brenda Dolphin rsm (Postulator), Caitlin Conneelly rsm (Provincial, Western Province), Mary Reynolds rsm ( Executive Director MIA), Anne Reid (Mercy Associate), Aine Barrins rsm (The Congregation)

Photographer: Adele Howard rsm (ISMAPNG); Videographer: Marie Stuart rsm (The Congregation)