The Poet Mary Oliver shares instructions for living a life. She invites us to ‘Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.’ These instructions align perfectly with the Venerable Catherine McAuley. Emerging from her story is evidence that even as a child, Catherine paid attention. She paid attention to her role in life, to those around her and to what she could do to empower others as her – initially privileged – life unfolded. Catherine always sought to bring whatever giftedness she had and to share it for the good of all. She was astonished, she loved life and never failed to be excited by it, to embrace it, to work to make it all it could be. And yes, she told about it, she shared her intrinsic goodness and love of life with all who came into contact with her. Be they rich or poor, male or female, young or old, Catherine listened, nurtured and loved, encouraging the potential she encountered to be, in the sentiments of Catherine of Sienna, all that it could be, and so to set the world on fire.
Catherine’s was a blessed life. Growing up in Dublin as a child of considerable privilege, she was surrounded by a loving family. Certainly, she would encounter loss, pain and many mountains that had to be overcome, but having lost her beloved father, mother and other members of her family to illness, Catherine remained single-minded in her quest to spend each day for the good of others. She spent an inheritance on the building of a house in the middle of Dublin’s wealth, to allow her to fulfil the mandate, ‘love one another as I have loved you’ (John 13:34). Her inbuilt sense of justice and equity was unrivalled at that time.
Catherine danced, she loved singing and sharing evenings of fun. The rules of religious life did not rest easy with her, nor had she intended to become a member of a religious order. However, for the good of others and to fulfil her vocation in life, she entered the Presentation Convent and took her final vows. Following this, Catherine could now run her beloved House in Baggot Street for the poor and less fortunate of the city. She founded the Mercy Order December 12th, 1831. Having travelled to France to learn new techniques in peer teaching, Catherine fostered personal zeal and humility as she encouraged teachers to take a keen interest in their students, ensuring that students could appreciate their own giftedness and work to develop their potential.
Catherine was a relaxed lady, she was fun to be with and loved to have evenings with fun and dancing. All through her life, Catherine showed herself to be positive, practical and prayerful; above all displaying a deep kindness to others. If holiness is ‘doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it’ (Meister Eckhart, 1260-1329), then Catherine certainly was a wise and holy woman. She did not take herself too seriously and her abounding sense of joy was unveiled through her poems, her sense of humour and the way she defused tense community situations with her capacity to see the bright side and to laugh, especially at herself.
My own introduction to Catherine McAuley was when I became Deputy Principal in St. Vincent’s Secondary School in Dundalk. Wanting to imbue the Mercy ethos into a senior student leadership programme, I set about exploring the school crest and founding story. This led me to a meeting with Sr. Joan, a Mercy Sister. Sr. Joan introduced me to Catherine and her story. Immediately I was captivated, and from that first introduction I knew that I was beginning a lifelong journey that would always include Catherine. A sense of peace settled as I researched further and eventually found myself at Mercy International in Baggot Street. The Sisters I met shared many beautiful vignettes from Catherine’s life and loves. The joyous sense of overwhelming peace there, the honour of actually standing at her grave and the beauty of praying in her chapel for the first time, will remain with me always. Journeying with 6th year mentors from then on, encouraging them to open their hearts and their leadership roles to Catherine’s guidance, was a great privilege. I include Catherine in my prayers daily and will continue to do so, as she brings an extraordinary richness to life that cannot be captured with ordinary words. The grace that often interrupts my day, I attribute to the faith of Catherine.
During that time, I was engaged in research, through which I met and befriended many allies. As if I were a child, a particular companion became my ‘one significant adult’. Always there to bounce ideas off, never failing to champion me in times of darkness, or offer a smile to celebrate little victories; always there to help frame the new reality as it unfolds in the course of a research project.
A year after the research had been completed, I made contact with that person – they had been on my mind intermittently during the summer. I was surprised to hear that a cancer had been diagnosed, a cancer with a two-year survival rate for less than one in three. When I renewed contact, those two years had not yet passed, and on hearing the news I went straight to Catherine. I placed the person’s name in the chapel at Mercy International and I spent time at Catherine’s grave. Every day since (as I write, it is eighteen months since the diagnosis), Catherine has been invoked to heal the cancer. I have shared this appeal with other pray-ers and of course with my ‘significant adult’. I am writing this article because I believe in Catherine, I believe in her intrinsic faith and her ability to intercede for full healing, I have faith in her unconditional love of God and her innate will to overcome suffering and pain. I invite you to pray for my ‘one significant adult’ and to seek healings completed through the intercession of Catherine.
Catherine will become a saint, and how blessed it will be to champion an Irish female saint, for us a source and summit of authentic feminism and genuine mercy. Catherine loved to dance and chat and allow the companionship of others to penetrate her day. It is through this collegial prayer and collective invocation that one can be gifted with a miracle.
She was a woman of prayer and of deep and confident faith. Catherine was a pioneer who lived in Christian mindfulness, asking that we ‘… take one day only in the hands at a time, merely making a resolve for tomorrow. Thus we may hope to go on, taking short, careful steps, not great strides … Each day is a step we take towards Eternity … The final step will bring us into the presence of God’.
Catherine’s advice allows us to stay strong, be steady and remain solid, to be neither overwhelmed nor rudderless but to embody resilience. She lived Mary Oliver’s advice long before it was the bright spark of an idea. Catherine you have paid attention, you were astonished, and you have told us about it. In your name we carry on, placing one foot in front of the other, solidly and steadily, we walk shoulder to shoulder with you Catherine, towards your sainthood.
To read the Suscipe of Catherine McAuley, please click here
* This piece was written by Orla Walsh, Deputy Principal, Mount Sackville Secondary School, Sisters of St. Joseph Cluny, Chapelizod, Dublin 20 in the March 2019 issue of Intercom Magazine. Reprinted here with their kind permission
