Mercy Matters

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Thursday, March 6 2008

Celebrating International Women's Day

International Women’s Day (March 8) celebrates the strength, courage and challenges of women and dares us to promote ways to ensure the dignity of all women and support them to live life to the full. The theme for 2008 is “Investing in Women and Girls”. Find out how three Sisters of Mercy of the Australian Institute are supporting women in Papua New Guinea.

Photo credit: Gaye Lennon RSM


	Mercy M@tters email address changes Mercy M@tters welcomes news items for publication each fortnight. Please send any story ideas, articles or photos to your congregation's Local Communications Facilitator (LCF) who will then send material to mercymatters_contributions@mercy.org.au The deadline for our next edition is Monday March 17, 2008. Why not invite your friends and colleagues to subscribe to Mercy M@tters?

	Celebrating ‘golden years’ of mercy Four Parramatta Sisters of Mercy recently celebrated their golden jubilees as religious women. Sister Margaret Sheppard (Parramatta) reports on the celebrations.
	Singleton Sister publishes new book on Mary Singleton Sister of Mercy, Marie Farrell has published a new book on Marian spirituality in the Australian context. Entitled "Gathering with Mary Under the Southern Cross", the book tells the story of Australia’s devotion to Mary, Help of Christians, as recorded in history, prayer and art.
	Sister Mary Eugenius Fox: RIP Sister Joan Smith (Local Communications Facilitator, Perth) reflects on the life of Sister Mary Eugenius Fox who died recently at the age of 98 years.
	Growing need for Christian-Muslim relations Sister Cheryl Camp RSM (Townsville), who worked in Pakistan for seven years, is a member of the Institute’s Pakistan Pastoral Planning Transition Group and is studying for the Graduate Certificate in Arts (Islamic Studies) at the University of Melbourne. Cheryl hopes to be involved in this developing area of ministry and to network with other Sisters of Mercy working in Christian-Muslim relations.
	Children’s grief specialist visits Australia Sister Helen Culhane, an Irish Sister of Mercy and Senior Social Worker at Milford Care Centre in Limerick, Ireland, recently visited Australia to participate in speaking engagements with the Palliative Care Association of NSW. Helen has a special interest in working with children, young people, and their families. Sydney-based palliative care physician, Dr Frank Brennan, writing in Pallium, the newsletter of the Palliative Care Association of NSW, reports on Helen’s visit.
	Mercy World Youth Day In July 2008 the youth of the world will descend on Sydney to celebrate World Youth Day. In conjunction with this event, the Sydney based Mercy Schools would like to invite you to share a day with Mercy students from around Australia and the world!
	Gospel Reflection for 5th Sunday of Lent, Year A Sister Veronica Lawson RSM (Ballarat East) offers a reflection on the Gospel for the fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A (John 11:1-45).
	Celebrating 120 years of ministry in Cairns 2008 marks an important milestone in the ministry of the Sisters of Mercy in the Diocese of Cairns. On June 24 1888, five Sisters of Mercy from the congregation in Dungarvan in Ireland sailed into Cooktown, becoming the founding sisters of the Cairns congregation.


	Claim the Date: AMSSA Conference. The Australasian Mercy Secondary Schools Association (AMSSA) invites Mercy educators to ‘claim the date’ of the 2009 Biennial Conference - July 1-4, 2009. The conference will be held at the Mercy Schools in Perth, Western Australia and will explore the theme “Mercy values alive!” For more information contact Frances Fitzpatrick RSM. The Divine Spark. ABC Radio National’s Encounter programme this week visits Ballarat in country Victoria where delegates have gathered from around the world for a conference on children’s spirituality. They meet teachers, educationalists, health workers and psychologists - some with religious affiliations, some secular. The one thing they have in common is an interest in children’s education and wellbeing, and in what the spiritual can offer children in their sometimes difficult journeys into adulthood. Download the transcript or audio file here. Have a look at RESource. This rich, interactive site is an online teaching and learning initiative of the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne. Fraynework Multimedia recently re-developed the original site from the ground up with a new content management system which powers a wide range of multimedia assets in an engaging and intuitive way. Visit the site.

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