Category: Sisters News

Celebration of 100 Years: Presence of Sisters of Mercy on Bell Island

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On Monday evening we attended a most impressive celebration on Bell Island at the invitation of St. Michael’s Parish.  Exactly one hundred years ago, on 19 September 1917, four Sisters (Sisters Mary Consilio, Mary Cecily O’Reilly, Alphonsus McNamara and Mary Aloysius Rawlins) crossed the Tickle and founded our community at the Front.

The people of St. Michael’s Parish invited any Sisters who could attend to join them for Mass, dinner and music. Twenty-one of us joined them for the special evening.

(Going around the table beginning on left)  Srs. Charlotte Fitzpatrick, Maureen Lawlor, Eileen Penney, Barbara Kenny, Rosaline Hynes, Ruth Beresford, Marcella Grant, Sheila Grant, Theresa Boland, Rosemary Ryan- 10 of the 21 Sisters who attended.

The crossing on the new ferry, the Legionnaire, was beautiful – calm and sunny.  The Archbishop and eight priests joined us for the trip.  We were met at the ferry by several Knights of Columbus who offered us drives if needed.  We went directly to Church and joined the parishioners and many others who had come back home for the occasion.

The bell, used at the original St. Michael’s Church and preserved by St. Michael’s High School, was relocated to the grounds of the modern St. Michael’s Parish Church (build on the site of the Immaculate Conception Church after it had burned to the ground).  Archbishop Currie blessed the bell, rang it and then invited a small choir from St. Michael’s School to lead us in O Canada and the Ode to Newfoundland. The bell has so much significance in joyfully in linking our built heritage with the geography of this Island.

We then went into the Church for Mass at which the Archbishop presided.  The sanctuary was lovely, adorned by a single vase of red roses and new white altar cloths with gold embroidery.  The School choir joined the adult choir to lead us in song.  Members of the parish led the Liturgy of the Word.  The Archbishop, in his homily, recalled some of our history on Bell Island right up to the present day with a special mention of Sister Phyllis’ pastoral presence.  He reminded us that the Ode to Newfoundland was sung for the very first time at the opening of the first Catholic school on the Island in 1901!

Parish hall beautifully prepared for the celebration
Display: Timeline showing some of the events
of the past 100 years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more about the wonderful celebrations on Bell Island. Download the report here

From the Postulator to the Mercy Family Worldwide

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The Mercy Family has been asked by the Postulator for the Cause of Catherine McAuley’s Canonisation, Sr Brenda Dolphin, for continued support of prayers for a diocesan inquiry into an alleged miracle of healing through Catherine’s intercession. The task of the Postulator is to guide the case (cause) for canonisation through the processes required.

In October a diocesan process of inquiry will begin in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA to gather materials about an alleged healing through Catherine’s intercession. It is hoped that the proceedings will be finished in November.

Sr Brenda writes: ‘This is the first time we have proceeded to a diocesan inquiry and while we cannot be certain that this will lead to beatification we continue to keep faith and trust in the power of God and the intercessory power of Catherine McAuley.’

She then continues: ‘We are very grateful to each and every one of you for the constant support of your prayers and for the marvellous way by which you give witness to Catherine McAuley’s fame for holiness which is very evident and continues to spread to so many places throughout the world.’

The Sisters of Mercy Newfoundland thank you for the support of your prayers for this inquiry.

We invite you to post a prayer in our online chapel

Download and share this invitation for prayer support:

English: A4 Paper Size (PDF); US Letter Size (PDF)

Spanish: A4 Paper Size (PDF); US Letter Size (PDF)

Opening of Greenhouse at The Gathering Place

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On August 25, 2017 a number of people were part of the official opening of a brand new greenhouse at the Barnes Road garden of the Gathering Place.

Representatives of the Gathering Place, staff, volunteers and guests along with the President, teacher, students and parents of St. Bonaventure’s College, Presentation and Mercy Sisters, Archbishop Martin Currie and others watched as students cut the red, blue and gold ribbons.

The greenhouse and the raised bed gardens are part of a collaborative ecology and food project between St.Bonaventure’s College and the Gathering Place that will provide a teaching and learning environment as well as an array of health foods for the cafeterias of both facilities. Today the beds were lush with cabbage, kale, lettuce, zuchinni, peas, herbs and more yet to grow. Marigolds and sunflowers added some color to the garden whilediscouraging grubs and encouraging bees!

Thanks and appreciation was expressed to the teachers, parents and students involved in the building of thegreenhouse, to the summer students and Roger who build the raised beds that had been planted earlier in the summer and the stairway, and to the donors of soil, gravel, wood, plants.

After the cutting of the ribbons a beautiful chocolate cake decorated to look like a kitchen garden was served to those present.

Photos from the 21st General Chapter

Posted on by Diane Smyth

Images from our 9 Chapter Days

Ms. Judith King facilates Chapter Service of Remembrance of Deceased
Sisters of Mercy
Chapter Day with Associates,
colleagues and friends		 Archbishop Martin Currie enjoys a break
Interested and engaged sisters, associates and colleagues Sister Elizabeth Davis, newly elected leader,
greets Sisters at McAuley Convent
Banquet of Gratitude Welcome to our kitchen party!
Catherine (Mona) McAuley and her schola visited! Treated to a dance from Peruvian sisters
A visit from Marg and Stace (Alverna and Rosline) Eight Sisters in Peru missioned in Huarmey and
Pt. Eten
New Leadership Team – Sisters Betty, Diane,
Elizabeth and Eileen		 Whole group including Cait Wims rsm and
Judith King
Congregation blesses newly elected team
member, Eileen Penney		 Esther places candle in closing ritual of
21st General Chapter
Closing BBQ at McAuley Convent Chapter Planning Committees:
Coordinating Committee and Contemplative
Listening Committee 

New Leadership Team – Sisters Betty Morrissey, Diane Smyth, Elizabeth Davis (Congregation Leader) and Eileen Penney

Messages to: Sisters of Mercy Newfoundland

Read the reflection on the 21st General Chapter

21st General Chapter Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland, 20 – 28 July 2017

Posted on by Diane Smyth

For nine days we have met as a community holding accountability for our life in Mercy for the past four years and imagining the unfolding of our life in Mercy over the next four years. Contemplation has been the thread weaving the texture and the colour through our days together. Our profoundly centering logo has drawn us time and again into deeper contemplation as we endeavoured to explore the depths of our motto “Mercying into the future. .  . Misericordiando hacia el futuro. . .”

Two images, one from the logo and one from the motto, now invite us into the living out of our Chapter Statement.  In the logo, the simple panes of the side panels (not the ornate decoration of the earlier drafts) remind us of a time in Catherine’s life when she was uncertain, seemingly out of her depth and without the security of her faith tradition.  We are told that, denied the right to have access to any Catholic symbols or rituals, in her ingenuity she found the Cross in the window panes and door panels and the intersecting branches of trees on the lawn. I see six such crosses in the side panels of our logo – how many do you see?  In a postmodern world, in what familiar yet unexpected places will we find the Creating One, the Risen One and the Spirit of peace and justice?

The time has also come to look at the three dots embedded in our motto.  These three dots, a punctuation mark known in English as an ellipsis, are at the end of the quotation in English and in Spanish and are the link between the two phrases.  There is an invitation to graceful movement inherent in this punctuation mark – it suggests the unfinished thought, the slight pause, the intentional silence, the echoing voice.  In these coming four years, let us attend to those unfinished thoughts, let us respect the slight pauses, let us become calm in the intentional silences, and let us delight in the echoing voices.

During our Chapter days, we heard the echoing voices of four profound phrases: Who we love transforms us ~ Where we live reshapes us ~ How we create remakes us ~ What we choose changes us.

-Reflections given by Elizabeth Davis, rsm on the closing of the 21st General Chapter of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland.

Cait Wims rsm, translator Chapter centerpiece

Click here to view more photos from the 21st General Chapter

21st General Chapter: Announcement

Posted on by Diane Smyth

On July 21, 2017 Sister Elizabeth Davis, Congregational Leader, will open the 21st General Chapter of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland.

The theme and logo of the Chapter have been drawn forth from the engagement of many sisters, associates, colleagues and friends in the Mercy International Reflection Process of the past year.  Our previous engagement in the Year of Consecrated Life and the Jubilee Year of Mercy have served to establish a solid foundation.   Our Chapter theme Mercying into the future . . .Misericordiando hacia el futuro resonates with  our desire to experience a renewed sense of mercying in this new time leading us into Mercy Global Presence.  The logo faces us with a lively Mercy Cross leaping out of the doors at Baggot Street!

Ms. Judith King, Ireland, has been working with coordinating committees for the past year in planning for the Chapter.  The first two days of Chapter will be experienced in a spirit of contemplative listening, dialogue and presence. The following day associates and colleagues will join us to continue in a mode of contemplative listening with a focus on “mercying” in the context of mission, charism, ministry and community living.  By the end of the day we hope that we would further in creative and energizing ways the initiative and leadership of the Mercy International Reflection Process towards Mercy Global Presence in its dual focus on degradation of earth and the displacement of persons.  We will explore with associates and colleagues to discover how the Sisters of Mercy, in collaboration with them and others, might further such initiative.  In the next days, the chapter delegates will continue to focus on our congregation’s current reality and how we are called in the great movement of mercying now and into the future. We will explore ministry and community living in collaboration and partnerships with others and the way we will live this out in the next four years.  By the end of the week on July 28 the Chapter will hopefully have set clear directions for the future.

Another important part of our Chapter is the election of a new leadership team.   Members of the congregation have been praying and engaged in a discernment process for leadership.  Four sisters will be elected to lead us during the next four years.

Complementing the contemplative aspect of the Chapter and important business there will be plenty of time for celebration, prayer, fun and food.  We have much to celebrate especially in this 175th year of our foundation in Newfoundland.  We have jubilarians celebrating 25, 50 and 60 years; we and relatives of our deceased sisters will remember our deceased members in a ritual in our cemetery; we have invited the general public to pray with us in a Eucharistic celebration followed by  refreshments and gathering; we will have a grand banquet where we express gratitude to the team members of the past four years. We will also have a “kitchen party” that is sure to be entertaining and light-hearted featuring the hidden talents of our members.  We will conclude our Chapter with a barbecue hosted at McAuley Convent in presence of our elderly and sick sisters..

We invite our Mercy friends and others around the world to join with us these days in prayer and support.  We are grateful for the energy and effort of so many with whom we share “Mercy”.

Messages to: Elizabeth Marrie rsm

 

MIRP Review Endorsed

Posted on by Diane Smyth

The Members and Board of MIA have endorsed the Review of the Mercy International Reflection Process: What has been discovered? What has been revealed?

Read their letter of endorsement here

At their May 2017 meeting in Dublin, the Members and the Board of MIA endorsed the further exploration and development of Mercy Global Presence in all its rich and profound promise.

Over the next months we will learn more about how we can become involved locally and connected globally in exploring the three dimensions of Mercy, Global and Presence.

 

MIRP Review Document Now Available Online

Posted on by Diane Smyth

During 2016, the Year of Mercy, Sisters of Mercy and partners in Mercy met together in small groups to discern together globally a shared response to the ‘cry of the Earth and the cry of the Poor’ in our world today.

The fruits of that reflection process have now been published online.

We invite you to share this Report with your own networks and with anyone interested in the vision and ministry of the Sisters of Mercy.

Click here to read or download the full report from the Mercy International Association website.
Image: © 2017 Mercy International Association

Preparing for Chapter 2017

Posted on by Diane Smyth

The Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland are preparing for their Chapter to be held July 21 – 28, 2017.

The theme of their Chapter is Mercying Into the future…Misericordiando hacia el futuro…

They invite sisters, associates and colleagues to join with them and pray with them as they prepare.

As part of their preparation and to deepen their appreciation of contemplative listening and dialogue they are using a video prepared by Judith King, their Chapter facilitator.

The video was produced by videographer, Ruaidhri Nolan, Dublin of thelivetimes.com in January of this year.

Messages to: Sisters of Mercy Newfoundland

Foundation of Mercy in Newfoundland

Posted on by Diane Smyth

What must have gone through the heart and mind of Marianne Creedon when Bishop Fleming asked her if she would return to Ireland to train as a Sister of Mercy!  “Go back to Ireland; enter the convent? Come back to St. John’s and start up a convent here?”  What must the bishop be thinking!!

Life was fairly comfortable now in St. John’s and Marianne had settled in well.  Her family and friends were here and she was teaching and serving the sick and the poor in various ways.  At the age of 21 she had earlier faced the unknowns of life in her move to St. John’s in 1833: the loss of what was secure and familiar in her home with the Nugents in Waterford, the risk and suffering of crossing the ocean to a new land, the leaving of all that was familiar.

Now, what was Bishop Fleming asking of her?  What was God asking of her?

The thoughts of returning to Dublin may have been exciting for the young woman; but the long voyage over the north Atlantic ocean!  This would indeed be a challenge!  Then there was the excitement of a new challenge to join a certain Catherine McAuley in a brand new religious order, an order different from other orders in Ireland.  Weren’t the Sisters of Mercy called the “walking nuns” because they visited the poor and the sick in their homes and in the hospitals?  Is God calling her to something new,  again?

Bishop Fleming must have seen great potential and giftedness in Marianne.  He must have had great trust in her leadership, her ability and her faith.  He knew of her skill to nurture the spiritual, intellectual, artistic and social life of the Catholic population in St. John’s and beyond.  Catherine McAuley, too, must also have had deep trust in Marianne and guided her to completion of her novitiate at Baggot Street where she made religious profession as a sister of Mercy in August 1841.  There seems to have been an agreement with Catherine that Marianne, now Sister Mary Francis, would return to Newfoundland to found there the Sisters of Mercy.  Likely Catherine McAuley would have accompanied the founding group but she was too sick and died a few months later.  Catherine’s successor, Sister Mary dePazzi upheld the foundress’ commitment to Newfoundland.    Francis Creedon, Rose Lynch and Ursula arrived in St. John’s on June 3, 1842 to establish the first foundation outside of England and Ireland.

Marianne was home, now as a Sister of Mercy.  She, Rose Lynch and Ursula Frayne  immediately took up the works of Mercy.  The three founding sisters opened a school on Military Road in May, 1843 and continued to visit the sick poor in their homes.  By the middle of November that same year Sisters  Rose and Ursula had returned to Ireland leaving Francis and a newly professed Mary Joseph Nugent in St. John’s to carry on the mission.  So thanks to these two the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland continued to grow and to flourish.  This is our story!   June 3 is our foundation day!