By Sister Pat Kenny — Years ago someone gave me, or maybe I found, a copy of “Desiderata,” a short poem penned by lawyer Max Ehrmann in the 1920s. We all have the experience of discovering something that would have meant very little at any other time but, when it discovered you, it meant everything. When this poem found me, several lines “spoke” to the very questions with which I’d been struggling.
By Jocelyn Welch, Mercy Montessori Erdkinder/Farmessori Directress —
Mercy Montessori’s Farmessori and Erdkinder Program in Cincinnati, Ohio, is rooted in Montessori philosophy and strives to give all students opportunities to work with the land and grow into stewards of our Earth.
By Christina D’Amico, Library Assistant, Mercy High School, Middletown, Connecticut — As the final bell rings at Mercy High School, a committee of faculty, staff and administration gather to pray. They are dubbed the Mercy Circle in collective spirit of keeping the mission of the Sisters of Mercy thriving within their community. Several months later, the Mercy Circle prepares a celebration honoring the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy to Middletown, Connecticut, from their home turf of Ennis, Ireland, 150 years ago.
By Sister Honora Nicholson — Today we celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene, the woman whose place in the circle of Jesus’ friends was attested to by all four gospels and whose claim to apostleship is equal in every way to both Peter and Paul. Yet, unlike Peter, Mary never denied Jesus and, unlike Paul, she never persecuted him. She was given the title Apostle to the Apostles by the early church, the first to receive a direct mission from the Risen Lord to go and preach the Gospel.
By Sister Michele Schroeck — When I think of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint from the territory of the United States and Canada and patroness of ecology, I think of the Bhutanese immigrants living in my neighborhood. They were expelled from their native lands and sent to Nepal, where they lived in refugee camps in the 1990s before coming to the United States. These Bhutanese like many other native peoples were forced to leave their ancestral home.
More than 50 sisters, associates and colleagues in ministry joined the Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington, D.C., on Saturday, June 18, 2022. Sister Carren Herring and Sister Diane Guerin recently reflected on what it was like to be a part of this momentous event!
By Elsa Cromarty, Coordinator of Mercy Associates in Guyana —
“The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together….In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet….The impact of present imbalances is also seen in the premature death of many of the poor.” This quote from Laudato Si’ reminds us that we and Earth are one. We are indispensably connected, and human actions, good or bad, decisively affect our relationship with the environment.
By Elnora Bassey, Policy Advocate, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) — In early May 2022, I arose from my cozy bed hours before sunrise to catch an early flight to the U.S.-Mexico border. An advocate attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), which works to protect immigrant and humanitarian rights, I was participating in a week-long border immersion experience to El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to learn more about immigration issues facing migrants during and after their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. The program was sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and hosted by the Columban Mission Center.
By Catherine Walsh, Features Writer
— The joy I found on the U.S.-Mexico border in May surprised me. I heard horrific stories of people fleeing violence and poverty in Central America, Haiti and Ukraine, but I also saw countless kindnesses by migrants and those who help them while I was in El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, with the Sisters of Mercy to learn why people are coming to the border in ever higher numbers. I heard people say that the Southern Border is the new Ellis Island.
Following are photos capturing our time at the border.
By Amanda Ricci, student, Georgian Court University, New Jersey —
Making the decision to travel to Washington D.C. and advocate for climate policy was far and beyond my comfort zone but was the leap of faith I needed. Engaging in advocacy trainings and putting those learned skills into action was certainly anxiety-provoking but entirely worth it in the end. Not only did I find my voice to address environmental concerns, but I learned how to do so through a Mercy lens.
By Sister Estela Gomez — “Centered in God and the Spirit of Catherine McAuley, what critical conversations and collective responses are we invited to explore now?” We Sisters of Mercy are currently reflecting on this question as we prepare to gather in the spring for our next direction-setting meeting. At a similar meeting in 2017, we committed to engagement in education and dialogue around the subject of gender identity and sexual orientation. The question before us now invites us to consider the challenges more deeply, beyond what we’ve already been doing.
By Carolyn Shalhoub, Mercy Associate — In 2017, at a direction-setting international meeting, the Sisters of Mercy committed to education and engaged dialogue on gender identity and sexual orientation. How farsighted it was for the sisters to set out on this particular journey. Catherine McAuley would be proud.