Programme Presentations

2013 - Touched by the Holy: Contemplation, Gratitude, and Compassion

Watering the Roots at the Wellspring of Mercy, June 23 -28 June, 2013. Overview of the Week Four programme. Presenter: Janet Ruffing rsm (Americas).

Participants will explore the deep roots of mercy spirituality in the interpenetration of contemplation and action in our lives as women in the church today. We will explore the mystical roots of compassion with guidance from Julian of Norwich and Meister Eckhart, the healing of the soul wounds inflicted on the feminine through exploring Teresa of Avila, and the relationship between non-violence and compassion in Catherine McAuley and Julian of Norwich. Finally, we will ponder the mystery of "joys and sorrows mingled" as we embrace the prophetic dimensions of our service to church and world.

There are 14 videos in this resource.

Touched by the Holy: Part 1

Length: 21:54

Touched by the Holy: Part 2

Length: 27:29

The God Quest and the Gift of Religious Life to the Church

Length: 10:49

The God Quest, continued

Length: 29:40

Contemplation, Transformation, and Prophetic Life-form

Length: 39:22

Discussion and Reflection on Transformation

Length: 23:54

Walking on the Waters of Gratitude

Length: 36:32

God’s Compassionate Heart

Length: 50:38

Teresa of Avila and the Dark Night of the Feminine Divine

Length: 46:20

Catherine and Non-Violence – Part 1

Length: 49:53

Catherine and Non-Violence – Part 2

Length: 23:29

Julian and Non-Violence

Length: 44:32

Drinking from the Wellsprings of God’s Compassion

Length: 38:00

Love and Joy in a Suffering World

Length: 39:04

2013 - Contemplating Catherine...a Soul Journey

Watering the Roots at the Wellspring of Mercy, June 16-21, 2013. Overview of the Week Three programme. Presenter: Madeline Duckett rsm (ISMAPNG).

How do we ‘sense’ another’s soul and what moves her to do what she does? Perhaps it can be known in some small way when something of another’s life, vision, motivation and legacy stir us deeply. In this week we will explore and contemplate together aspects of Catherine’s life, vision and the legacy she left. We will seek to ‘sense the soul’ of Catherine within the facts of her story. In this we may know again the deeper roots of our own Mercy hearts. We will draw upon imagination, creativity, lived prayer and experience to plunge deeply into the Wellspring of Mercy and be nourished at the source.

The Beginnings

Length: 8:30

Focus questions for reflection
The Shaping of Soul

Length: 24.41

Coolock House - Catherine's Room

Length: 4:07

At Coolock House a Dream Surfaces

Length: 9:39

A reflection on Catherine
Loss and Death – The Cross as Anchor

Length: 14:21

Reflection
The Larger Context of the Foundations

Length: 21:04

Stimulus Material Reflection by Margaret Adams rsm (ISMAPNG)
Foundation Stories Part 1

Length: 24:12

Stimulus Material Reflection by Margaret Adams rsm (ISMAPNG)
Foundation Stories Part 3

Length: 34:39

2013 - Reading the Gospel of Luke from Earth's Perspective

Watering the Roots at the Wellspring of Mercy, June 9-14, 2013. Overview of the Week Two programme. Presenter: Veronica Lawson rsm (ISMAPNG).

The Lukan narrative, with its emphasis on mercy and compassion, has a particular resonance for us as Sisters of Mercy who have committed ourselves to a mercy way of life in an Earth community “being shattered by displacement”. During this week, we will reflect on the contemporary experience of displacement and bring that experience into dialogue with Lukan stories of mercy, compassion, justice and liberation against the backdrop of the Hebrew Bible.

Opening Reflection

Length: 20:45

Theological Reflection Process

Length: 8:25

Our Earth Community

Length: 11:39

The Attractor and the Energy of Love An Earth Community Being Shattered by Displacement
How do we read the Biblical text?

Length: 14:56

Reading Luke's Story

Length: 29:59

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Length: 23:34

Reflection

Length: 10:53

Exploring the Text (Part 1)

Length: 35:08

Exploring the Text (Part 2)

Length: 30:22

Acts of the Apostles- Tabitha's Story (Part 1)

Length: 26:56

Acts of the Apostles- Tabitha's Story (Part 2)

Length: 27:15

The Prodigal Son

Length: 27:09

2013 - Religious Life: A Deep-down Impulse to Care and Make Creation Whole

Watering the Roots at the Wellspring of Mercy, June 2-7, 2013. Overview of the Week One programme. Presenter: Marie Chin rsm (Americas)

Human beings make sense of their lives by telling stories. We will explore religious life in light of the current global reality of our unfolding contemporary story.

All over the world there are women and men who, touched by their encounter with God, yearn to respond to a deep-down impulse, a call, to find the intersection between an old and new story. This call impels them to live fully in this place of intersection in order to recover the meeting place of their own deep impulse to care and the world’s deep hunger. Religious life searches for and finds God in these dangerous meeting places and has the possibility of telling a profoundly new story. Religious vows can be experienced as the elegant choices we make daily for the sacred task of doing the transformative work necessary to bring healing and wholeness to our world.

 

Introduction to Religious Life (Part One)

Length: 24:09

Introduction to Religious Life (Part Two)

Length: 23.37

Download Reading1, Reflection and Process for Day 1 (PDF) Download Reading 11 (PDF)
Religious Life: The Vows. Setting the Context

Length: 31:24

Religious Life: The Vows. Poverty

Length: 21.01

Download Reading on the Vow of Poverty PDF
Religious Life: The Vows. Chastity

Length: 26.08

Religious Life: The Vows. Obedience

Length: 20.49

Download Reading on Vow of Obedience (PDF)
Religious Life: The Vows. Service

Length: 37.04

Conclusion

Length: 6.23

2012 - For the Love of God: Mercy Spirituality: Context Ecological Urgency

“For the Love of God: Mercy Spirituality in the Context of Ecological Urgency”. Participants in this fourth week (July 22-27, 2012) with Ray Maria McNamara rsm (Americas) had opportunities to explore links between a love of nature and a response to ecological concerns that is rooted in Mercy spirituality.

A shared understanding of ‘Mercy spirituality’ was established; ecological issues and concerns were discussed. Time was be structured to allow for input from facilitator, group sharing.

Day 1, Introduction

Length: 37:06

Day 1, Session 1

Length: 28:13

2012 - Catherine McAuley and the Following of Jesus Christ Today

Catherine McAuley still has very much to say to Sisters of Mercy, especially today, as they commit themselves to the renewal of their personal and communal lives and ministry. She took Jesus' invitation, "Follow me," very seriously. What she tried to be and do as she strove to "resemble Jesus Christ in some one thing at least" speaks to the heart of our Mercy renewal.

Catherine's example, values, instructions, actions, and sufferings offer us encouragement and motivation for conversion, and will be the content that we will explore together during this week-long program ( July 15-20,2012).

Day 1, Session 1

Length: 30:44

Day 1, Session 2

Length: 55:08

2012 - Blessed are the Merciful: Exploring embodied mercy

We bring to this week (July 8-13, 2012) years of reflection on what it means to be/to live mercy in today’s world. This reflection has been and is embodied in us. It finds expression in the materiality of our bodies as these engage the materiality of others in both the human and the other-than-human worlds that we in-habit.

During this week we will bring these reflections into dialogue with the beatitude of mercy in the context of the other beatitudes and of the Gospel of Matthew. The particular focus will be the ways different Gospel characters together with Jesus embody mercy and also the ways Earth and all its constituents are likewise embodied in this story of mercy.

The two video clips made available here were filmed on two separate days: Day 1(Introduction) and Day 5 (Session 1) of the week's programme and should be viewed sequentially.

Day 1 Introduction

Length: 24:53

Day 5, Session 1

Length: 46:52

2012 - The fire Christ cast upon earth is kindling - Being Mercy Women

Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus exclaimed, " I came to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were already kindled!" ( Lk 12:49). Almost two hundred years ago, Catherine answered, "The fire Christ cast upon the earth is kindling very fast."

Today, women religious who echo Catherine's charism in a new age marked by intense social change and growing fragility of earth are challenged to be that mercy fire kindling.

During the week of July 1-6, 2012, the first week of the "Watering the Roots at the Wellspring of Mercy" 2012 programme at Mercy International Centre, sessions focussed on the mosaic of the realities of our earth, our society, our church and our communities - the context in which we are kindling mercy fire. Participants reflected on God's word in today's scriptures, including the Earth Charter, the Millenium Development Goals, the Decalogue of Assisi for Peace, Our Global Neighbourhood, and Caritas in Veritate. They explored the new understanding of the power of diversity and rejoiced in the emerging signs of transformation among us.

The two video clips made available here were filmed on Day 5 of the week's programme and should be viewed sequentially.

Day 5, Session 1

Length: 38:01

Day 5, Session 2

Length: 16:35