August 30, 2025

Dear Sisters, dear Mercy Family,

We have shared our Founders’ dreams with you.
We love you so for making the dream come true
in each succeeding generation.
Today you have a new name
“Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas”.
Quite impressive!
But the dream remains singular and unchanged.
In each of you,
We see our dream repeated, nourished,
Clothed in the needs of your day,
Assisting in the merciful recreation of the earth.

Many sisters now have come to be with us in heaven.
Know that they all join us in blessing you this night.
Do not fear diminishment.
I made that mistake myself in the early 1900s
When I expressed the fear that
There would not be enough hands for all the work.

But God makes a way.
We flourished after that
In ways I had never imagined.

Right here in these seats, in these balconies,
in these neighborhoods and homes,
There are pure young hearts
Who know that God’s dream for mercy lives in them.
They will have the courage we had.

And so we say good night. God bless you all.
We will see you in another 50 years or so.
Go now and dream the Mercy dream
For the generations you have yet to see.