Mary C. Sullivan, RSM, was a prolific writer about the life and mission of Catherine McAuley. She shared the Mercy story with thousands through her teaching, books, seminars and retreats all over the world. Her books include The Correspondence of Catherine McAuley, 1818-1841 (2004), Catherine McAuley and the Tradition of Mercy (1995) and The Path of Mercy: The life of Catherine McAuley (2012). She also published numerous scholarly articles and edited several books. She holds a master’s degree in systematic theology and a master’s and doctoral degrees in English. She was a deeply spiritual woman and religious scholar and inspired many to live mercifully.
In this essay I wish to explore Catherine McAuley’s concepts of comforting and animating, by which I believe she defined both her own unique contribution to the founding of the Sisters of Mercy, and two essential works of those who would personally quicken the re-founding of the mission of the Sisters of Mercy in this and the next century.
Somehow we know, beyond all doubt, that the eager enkindler of our personal and corporate vocation as Sisters of Mercy is, even now, steadily at work among our dry bones and sinews. More than anything else in this world we wish to surrender to this enflaming. We realize that we are not the source of the ardent shape we hope to become, only the ready
The “visitation” of the sick poor was one of the three central elements in Catherine McAuley’s vision of the merciful work to which she and, later, her companions in the Sisters of Mercy were called.i She conceived of this “visitation” as affording to the desperately ill and dying both material comfort and religious consolation. What is especially striking about her service and advocacy of the
The theme for our reflections is “Sowing Hope: Embracing Cultural Diversity,” and I have been asked to focus on Catherine McAuley’s legacy as it relates to this theme.
The word “prophetic” is often used in relation to religious life: as an exhortation, a complaint, a compliment, an assurance, a definition, a description. In fact, it is currently quite a fashionable word: if one can say that someone or something is “prophetic,” one’s theological vocabulary, at least, is not outmoded. I myself have used this word in the past as if it made no
If we wish to enter deeply into the prayer of Catherine McAuley, as a place where she and Christ may teach us, we may enter the ordinary scenes of her praying that have been recorded for us by those who lived with her. Whether we come in the early morning moonlight, or the noonday of ministry, or the late night darkness, we may in these
The history of the Sisters of Mercy is a history of radiant public symbols: living persons, objects, events, and actions that by their symbolic character and presence proclaim the enduring and gracious mercy of God. Some of these symbols have remained constant in their vitality for
170 years; some have evolved into new symbolic forms; some have been newly retrieved from the past; and
Spiritual leadership involves at least three efforts on the part of a religious or ecclesial leader.
Mary C. Sullivan, RSM, was a prolific writer about the life and mission of Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy. These writings continue to shape and inspire all who are called to the Mercy charism. Her writings also include a number of scholarly articles reflecting her literary studies—an MA and PhD in English from the University of Notre Dame with a doctoral
Catherine McAuley evidently thought the Sisters of Mercy and their companions in merciful action could learn something centrally important from St. Catherine of Siena. In the 1830s, when she composed the original Rule of the Sisters of Mercy, using the Rule of the Presentation Sisters as her guide, she inserted references to Catherine of Siena in two places. In listing the saints to whom the sisters were
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