Foundation Day 2007
December 12th is the day when we remember the founding of our Congregation by Catherine McAuley in 1831.
This year we have been asked to remember Foundation Day by putting aside the 2 hours between 12 noon and 2 p.m. to pray for Sisters of Mercy, for vocations to the Congregation, for spread of devotion to Catherine and subsequently for her canonisation, so that she may be an exemplar of discipleship for all of us.
Mercy Day 2007
On the 24th of September every year, 11,000 Sisters of Mercy and their friends and colleagues around the world celebrate Mercy Day. This is the day on which Catherine McAuley first opened the House of Mercy in Baggot Street, Dublin, Ireland and dedicated it to Our Lady of Mercy.
To download a prayer service for Mercy Day 2007, click here
Foundation Day December 12th 2006
December 12th 2006 is the 175th Anniversary of the Founding of the Sisters of Mercy by our Foundress Catherine McAuley. It is a very important day in the life of the Congregation and it is good to mark the occasion with prayer. A beautiful prayer service has been put together by Kathleen Murphy rsm. To download your copy of the Prayer Service for Foundation Day 2006 click here
Mercy Day 2006
On the 24th of September every year, the 11,000 Sisters of Mercy and their friends and colleagues around the world celebrate Mercy Day. This is the day on which Catherine McAuley first opened the House of Mercy in Baggot Street, Dublin, Ireland and dedicated it to Our Lady of Mercy. This year we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Mercy.
The first House of Mercy in Baggot Street, Dublin, Ireland which is now Mercy International Centre
To download a prayer service for Mercy Day 2006 click here
Sisters of Mercy were founded by Catherine McAuley to be the ‘walking nuns’ who sought to alleviate and eradicate pain, want and misery.
She generated in her sisters a deep concern for the sick and dying poor, for those at risk in society and for the spiritual needs of people around her. She grasped intuitively that mercy is a gift given in response to need, neither earned nor deserved.
Catherine was not content that her institute merely attend to the social ills pervading in her society. She was impelled to affect the spirit, the inner life. Her grasp of the presence of God in every person allowed her to see that the poverty, sickness and ignorance, which prevent the spirit of a person from shining through, were enemies to be overcome so that the divine spark would inform all of life ever more brightly.
She insisted that active work must be done without losing awareness of the presence of God. Her ability to reflect on her experiences taught her the rhythms of light and darkness, of sorrow and joy, of death and resurrection.
Catherine McAuley’s virtue of confidence in God is a fundamental principle of her apostolic spirituality – her simple unswerving trust in the abiding providence of God. Her loving and simple trust in God was the mainspring of all her decisions and actions.
Today, Sisters of Mercy engage in the care of the sick and in education. We work with the poor and distressed and campaign for social justice. Visitation is an expression of our mercy apostolate. We serve in the local church and collaborate with the clergy and laity of the church and with all who make the Gospel of mercy live in today’s world. We seek to incarnate the mercy of God in the countries in which we work.
Click for more information on the Cause of Catherine McAuley
