Mount Mercy Academy recently celebrated an extremely important event related to its founding and history. The school celebrated Mercy Day on Sept. 22.
Mercy Day is the feast that honors the day that Catherine McAuley founded the religious order, the Sisters of Mercy. It is also the feast day of Our Lady of Mercy. On this day in 1827, in Dublin, Ireland, the House of Mercy on Baggot Street was opened as a school for young girls and residence for homeless women and girls, marking the formal beginning of Catherine McAuley’s mission of mercy. Today the Sisters of Mercy are present in 46 countries, working to actively share Catherine McAuley’s legacy with people around the world.
The students and staff participated in several different activities during Mercy Day. The day began with a mass celebrated by Reverend Robert Mock in the Mercy Chapel with the Sisters of Mercy. Students proclaimed the readings during mass and juniors Amelia Cook (Hamburg) and Erin Hudson (Buffalo), along with sophomore Samantha Arcara (West Seneca), provided the music. In addition, members of the class of 2024 received their senior pins. After the mass, breakfast was served for the sisters and benefactors of Mount Mercy Academy.
The staff and student body then participated in a walk, sponsored by the school’s National Honor Society, to raise money for the athletic department. The walk tied in with the theme for Mercy Day 2023, “Walking with Mercy.” The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas stated, “While the concept recalls the description of Sisters of Mercy as ‘Walking Sisters,’ tied to the very beginning of the Mercy community, it is also deeply connected to the many ministries in which the sisters are engaged today, walking with others, especially those on the margins.”
The students also showed reverence for the earth, one of the critical concerns of the Sisters of Mercy, participating in various beautifying efforts at Cazenovia Park, one of the parks in the Buffalo Olmstead Parks System.
Concluding the day was the showing of the movie Not Broken, an inspiring movie about a young artist with dyslexia who journeys through despair on her way to self-discovery. The focus of this activity was to highlight how intellectual and developmental disabilities can affect people’s everyday lives, exposing them to bullying and discrimination. This is reflecting two additional critical concern of the Sisters of Mercy, dealing with anti-violence and racism. Follow-up discussions and activities occurred after the viewing and will continue in theology classes in the next few weeks.
