The latest reflection organized by Assistant to the President for Mission Integration Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos:
Today we celebrate Mercy Day, a commemoration of the opening of the House of Mercy on Baggot Street in Dublin in 1827. As we do so, I am aware that during this time, the Sisters of Mercy are slowly vacating Mercy Center in Farmington Hills with retired sisters finding new homes with some as far away as Fremont, OH or Belmont, NC. After 60 years at Mercy Center on 11 Mile, the sisters leave us with ways to always remember the community. They have generously donated numerous pieces of art as well as chapel artifacts that you can see going up on our campuses, beginning with a cityscape mosaic by Sister Mary Ignatius Denay, RSM that now greets you as you enter the McNichols Campus Library. You can also see some of what they have shared with us by visiting the dean’s wing in the College of Health Professions. For those unable to come to the McNichols Campus, preview some of the artwork through this PowerPoint.
In addition to sharing the artwork from the Farmington Hills community of the Sisters of Mercy, in the spirit of Catherine McAuley building a house of mercy in the middle of affluent Baggot Street to take in vulnerable, poor women and children, I invite you to reflect upon the questions:
- Where would Catherine build her House of Mercy in our country today?
- To whom would she open this house?
On this Mercy Day marked by the reality of continued pain and suffering of so many of our brothers and sisters because of the failure of social systems to acknowledge the value of all lives by failing to acknowledge the value of Black lives, may the Spirit of mercy that inspired Catherine’s courageous act of building the House of Mercy inspire us to act to help bring about peace through the work of justice.