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

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

21st General Chapter: Announcement

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

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

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

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

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!

The Forgotten Graveyard

The first Sister to enter our Congregation in Newfoundland and also to be the first Sister to die in Newfoundland was buried in what has come to be known as “The Forgotten Graveyard.” A number of our Sisters gathered with members of the Benevolent Irish Society (BIS) and other community members on Saturday, May 28, 2016 to dedicate a plaque in memory of the first Catholic graveyard in St. John’s as well as to honour the memory of Sister Mary Joseph Nugent. This plaque has been installed on the stone wall near the bottom of Long’s Hill.

The Forgotten Graveyard, located on the grounds on which the Kirk now stands and extended to Queens Road and west to Long’s Hill, opened in 1811 but was no longer in use by 1849. In those years over 400 people were buried there.

A fire in 1846 caused extensive damage to the graveyard. Then the typhus epidemic, which broke out in June 1847, saw many Irish people buried there – including our Sister Mary Joseph Nugent who died on June 17, 1847 having contracted typhus as she ministered to the people who were sick and dying from this terrible epidemic.  Fear that the town’s water would be  tainted from the disease caused the graveyard to be closed and Catholics began to be buried in the recently opened Belvedere Cemetery.

The Great Fire of 1892, which destroyed most of St. John’s, did further damage to the Long’s Hill Graveyard since much of the debris from the fire was dumped on the site. At that time, many bodies were moved from there to Belvedere Cemetery.  In speaking to the gathered group at the BIS event on Saturday, Larry Dohey, from The Rooms, noted that not all of the bodies were removed from Long’s Hill. Later, one of us asked him if the bodies not moved were those who had died from the 1847 typhus epidemic. And he replied “yes”. 

Now that the BIS has brought forward the knowledge of the “Forgotten Graveyard” there is a further desire to re-establish the area as a sacred space. Mr. Bruce Templeton spoke during the ceremony on behalf of The Kirk. He told the gathering that he first heard of the Forgotten Graveyard from Sister Patricia March! He further explained that when you step out of the Kirk you are actually in the graveyard.  Mr. Templeton finished his remarks by saying that the people of The Kirk and the BIS are planning to go further in making the area a sacred space once again.

 

Opening of Our Holy Doors

On Sunday, December 13, 2015 Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Rome. In Dublin on that same Day, during Foundation Day celebrations, the red Doors of Mercy International Centre were opened.

The Leadership Team Newfoundland invited every local community or Sister living alone and every place of ministry, on or near December 12, to name their Holy Door of Mercy, to celebrate its opening and to place on it a symbol. The Team made a composite of all our Holy Doors in Newfoundland and Peru as a reminder of the privilege we have in being doorkeepers and guardians of the in-between places of Mercy in our world.

Attached are the components (four panels) of our Collage for the Opening of our Holy Doors of Mercy. Sisters, Associates and Partners in Mercy have received the actual Collage which is in a larger size and which opens to be able to stand up on prayer tables or other special places.

An explanation of the doors on the panels can be found in the accompanying Notes here (PDF) . These Notes appear on the back panel of the collage.

FRONT of Collage

INSIDE of Collage

Will we as doorkeepers hold wide the door to invite those who are hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, sick, strange, or naked to come in to find Mercy? ¿Mantendrán ustedes como guardianas, la puerta abierta para invitar a quienes tienen hambre o sed, a las personas prisioneras, a quienes están enfermas, forasteras o desnudas, a entrar y encontrar Misericordia?

 

¿Vigilarán ustedes como guardianas de la puerta nuestras «salidas y regresos» (Salmo 121, 8) al arriesgarnos a esta nueva forma de ver Misericordia y ser Misericordia en tiempos que pueden ser tan aterradores y desalentadores?
Will we as doorkeepers guard our “going out and our coming in” (Ps 121:8) as we dare this new way of seeing Mercy and being Mercy in times that can be so fearful and discouraging?

SIDE PANELS

Since the making of this composite many other Associates and Partners in Mercy either as groups or as individuals continue to create symbolic doors for not only opening the Holy Doors but even more for living the Mercy that comes into and goes out through these doors.

Messages to: Elizabeth Marrie rsm – Leadership Team

Opening the Year of Mercy in St John’s

The Holy Door of Mercy of the Archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador was opened at the Eucharistic Liturgy celebrating Mary, December 8 at 7:00 p.m.

Archbishop Martin Currie knocked on the door with the request that it be opened. Many priests, Archbisbop Emeritus, Alphonsus Penney, men, women, youth and children participated in the celebration. Sister Rosemary Ryan was server and Elizabeth Marrie did the second reading.

The Holy Door faces the Gathering Place, a ministry of the Presentation and Mercy Sisters established for the poor, homeless and others seeking nourishment of body, mind and spirit, and those calling forth a response mandated by the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Holy door also looks out over the entrance to St. John’s Harbour and the hills surrounding the city – the beauty of nature in its majesty and simplicity. It is through this harbour that the first three Sisters of Mercy, Ursula Frayne, Rose Lynch and Francis Creedon, arrived from Baggot Street on June 3, 1842.

Many Sisters of Mercy and their associates, family and friends participated in the historic event – the proclamation of the opening of the Jubilee Year of Mercy and the opening of the Holy Door of Mercy. This will indeed be a special year, rich in mercy.

 

Invitation: Become a ‘Doorkeeper of Mercy’ in the Year of Mercy.

Sisters of Mercy and partners-in-Mercy are invited ‘to be guardians of the Door of Mercy, keepers of the in-between place of Mercy’ in this coming year of Mercy (8 December 2015 – 20 November 2016).

‘Pope Francis says that, in this coming Year of Mercy, “the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God.” The logo for our Mercy International Reflection Process, unfolding during this Year, is centered on the red doors of Baggot Street. In a profoundly mystical way, these red doors connect all our doors of Mercy – in our convents and houses, in our places of ministry, in holy places around us, in Earth which nourishes us, in the cosmos which holds us in communion, and in the hearts of all Sisters of Mercy, Associates and Partners-in-Mercy…’

Doorkeepers of Mercy:       A4 Paper Size (PDF)                       US Letter Size (PDF)

‘El Papa Francisco dice que, en este Año de la Misericordia, «la Puerta Santa será una Puerta de la Misericordia, a través de la cual cualquiera que entre podrá experimentar el amor de Dios». El logotipo para nuestro proceso internacional de reflexión de misericordia, que se desarrollará durante este Año, se centra en las puertas rojas de la Calle Baggot. En una forma profundamente mística, estas puertas rojas conectan todas nuestras puertas de Misericordia – en nuestros conventos y casas, en nuestros sitios de ministerio, en lugares santos en derredor nuestro, en la Tierra que nos alimenta, en el cosmos que nos sostiene en comunión y en los corazones de todas las Hermanas de la Misericordia…’

Guardas de la Misericordia:    A4 Paper Size                                   US Letter Size

NB:This video and/or text are suggested for inclusion in the ‘Called to the Ministry of Mercy’ Ritual for Opening Doors of Mercy on (or around) 13 December. The Leader and Participants copy of the ritual in both English & Spanish, full colur & black and white are available for download here