Eliza Curtin – Sister Mary Angela Played by Connie Haughton, RSM
And finally, my friends, a word from the youngest! Hello. My name is Eliza Curtin … Sister Mary Angela to you. Do you believe that I too was born in Cork! Quite a hotbed of Mercy, yes?
I was only fifteen when I came to the Sisters of Mercy. They said I was a pure, young soul. My fingers were never still. I was a handywoman and artist. It was my dream to be a saint and so to honor God.
I think as I look out at you, my sisters in the audience You too came to Mercy as pure, young souls. What a precious gift you gave … each one of you – each one of us. That simple gift is the foundation Of God’s mighty works.
Not so young now, some of us? But still, the pure young gift thrives. How is that?
Prayer, my sisters, my friends. It is the fountain of our spiritual youth. No work … no exercise is more important To the vitality of mercy.
It is through prayer that we grow eternally young even as we age. It is through prayer that we can transcend our burdens and are enfolded in the Providence of God. In prayer, we become free. In prayer, we become whole.
It is our elders, who have prayed the longest who pray best. They carry all the rest of us within their web of grace. Their prayer, and mine, has fallen like pure white snow On the landscape of your petitions, Lifting your need in simplicity and confidence Into God’s listening heart.
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Elizabeth Dowling – Sister Mary Gertrude Played by Kathleen Mary Long, RSM
As you have heard clearly from dear Sister Mary Veronica, The journey of faith is deep and mysterious. It takes hold of the whole capacity of our souls And raises us – sometimes in darkness – into the wonder and the light of God.
I am Elizabeth Dowling, later known as Mother Mary Gertrude. I was but a novice when we came to Philadelphia in 1861. I had barely begun to form my “Yes” to the invitation of God.
“Yes” often begins in us As the simple inability to say “No.” How can we see someone hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, imprisoned and not help?
But in helping, it is we, not they, who are transformed. We begin to see, understand, and love with new eyes. God’s own Self is revealed In the wounds we relieve. In the mystery of mercy, our life becomes a wholehearted “Yes” to the “Yes” God is whispering eternally over creation.
It was said of me that my zeal for the work of the Institute Was rarely equaled and never surpassed, But underneath that zeal, my deep dream was always That our every success AND failure Find meaning in our seamless union with God.
My soul was deep like the midnight sky. But stars blazed from my depths to lead others to holiness. With that starlight, I bless each one of you tonight. Be Mercy in the world.
For Your Reflection:
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Margaret O’Reilly – Sister Mary Veronica Played by Eileen Sizer, RSM
Holding on to hope … how weak and fragile is our grasp. Let me tell you my story. It is one you may not have expected to hear tonight.
My name is Margaret O’Reilly. Couldn’t be more Irish, could I? I too was born in Cork but, with my family, Came to America when Ireland languished.
I entered the Sisters of Mercy in Manchester, New Hampshire, And was known as Sister Mary Veronica… “Veronica” … the one who bore the true image of the suffering Christ.
I traveled with the pioneer band to Philadelphia in 1861. I was filled with enthusiasm and energy to do the works of mercy. I wanted to change the world, But instead… the world changed me.
My spirit broke under the burden of our early hardships. We were so often hungry, so cold, so poor. Fear took my heart…. It tried to crush my dream. I spent many years before I died incapacitated by my broken spirit.
‘Tis a heavy tale, is it not? Indeed it would be had I not – all the time – Been held in God’s own heart Which heals and glorifies all our broken dreams And allows them to live in the generations we cannot yet see.
From the wounds of my suffering, God wove the royal purple robe of my salvation and my joy. I have blessed you and embraced you in its folds.
In the silent years, God and I have dreamed a dream of joy for you… A joy expressed in tenderness for those who have been broken, For those deemed “damaged” by a world that doesn’t understand.
So dear ones, it is not my work, But instead my suffering that is my legacy to you. Like Veronica, may you bring mercy to the broken body of Christ.
Through the years, I have seen you embrace the misunderstood and the vulnerable.
I know that in the mysterious way of God You have found great joy in that embrace.
For Your Reflection:
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Marie Mathey-Doret – Sister Marie Madeleine Played by Suzanne Neisser, RSM
It was on the waves of deep emotion, that we came to Philadelphia under the name of Mercy.
My name is Marie Matthey-Doret. Yes – are you surprised? Not all of the original ten were Irish! I was born in Limoges, France, of a Swiss father and French mother.
Many languages could be heard in my family home. Fine arts and the love of music filled my early days with beauty. Perhaps it was there that the love of teaching began to grow in me and my dream of mercy was born.
Even though I was also the first Mistress of Novices, all of us who began in 1861 were teachers in one way or another. This was the first gift of mercy that we sought to offer this dear city.
We didn’t know the way for certain. We heard God’s voice and held God’s hand and we stepped out in faith to do the work of love. This is the way the dream unfolds.
I know the sisters have retold a thousand times the story of our very first schools… But some here may not know that story. After all, it was a tiny house where we first lived. Ten of us had to create sleeping quarters in all available spaces!
But in the morning, rooms that had been bedrooms and chapel were quickly remodeled into classrooms for the children and women who would come to learn that day.
We joked that these rearrangements were our “morning exercises”! Each day, we would laugh as the children arrived And think “Oh, if they only knew!!!” Would your students at the Academy not be surprised to think of that today?
I have watched your “morning exercises” through the intervening years. They’ve changed somewhat – Quite a bit of electricity involved today! – but still … such devotion to the lives of children. Just to think of all those schools and all those students touched by the unfolding of the mercy dream.
The beauty of music and language Wrapped my spirit like a deep blue sea. From that beauty, I have sent you waves of blessing from heaven And smiled to hear the laughter and The songs of Mercy children Across these hundred fifty years.
For Your Reflection:
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Suggested Scripture:Psalm 127 improvised by Rev. Christine Robinson
Unless the house is built solid, and for the right reasons, the work is in vain. When the right thing is done at the right time, it endures like a house built on a good foundation. When a nation is governed justly and wisely, it is safe from all manner of danger. When you do what you can each day with due diligence, you sleep deeply at night, trusting God for the rest. Attend well to the next generation. The children are God’s gift to us, and their good upbringing our gift to God.
Many of my readers will remember the Sesquicentennial Celebration of the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia.
In October 2010, many of you joined us in the magnificent Kimmel Center for our beautiful program of reflection and music. You will remember Patricia Waldron inviting us to hear the dream of our founding Sisters – to serve God in the poor, sick, and uneducated people of Philadelphia.
Sr. Patricia Waldron played by our dear late Mimi Connor, RSM
Have you ever noticed how our dreams unfold? They never happen in the way we first imagined. Instead, they weave – your dreams and mine — Among each other in a latticework of grace. By the way, my name is Anne Waldron. known in my life as Mother Patricia – “Reverend Mother” really. A rather weighty title, don’t you think? But my own dream of mercy was not weighty.
I was born in Tuam (pronounced “Choom”), County Galway, Ireland. ‘Tis a precious place, a mere 20 miles from the glorious bay to the south, Where the soft air carries a hint of the sea And the sweet land holds both a deep promise and a deep scar of famine.
I must seem a long way from you now, after these 150 years – almost like a shadow on your memories. And you must think me a particularly courageous part of your history. After all, you have named buildings after me, I see! But tonight, I want you to know me in a new way.
I was only 27 when I came here to this strange city. I walked these same streets as you, fraught as they are with their dangers and beauties. Do you know that a century and a half ago we sisters lived just two miles north of this very spot! Ah, but the Philadelphia of the 1860s was a far different sight from what I saw outside tonight. I see that a million and a half souls live here now! Oh my! Just a third that number in the city then. We thought it an amazing number having come mostly from our small villages.
I was young then – like all of you are or were once – Young and full of dreams. We all were – I and these my dear companions.
We were not different because of our courage, our spirit of adventure, our dedication or our generosity— Although these marked our lives as we grew deeper into God.
No – what made us who we were was this: We clearly knew and trusted that the dream in us Was God’s dream for a wounded world. In our deepest hearts, We were Sisters of Mercy!
As you listen to our stories tonight, Hold this question in your own hearts: What dream lived in you when you were young? What dream lives in you now?
Over the next nine days, we will revisit the stories of each of these founding Sisters. As you meet them in your prayer, open your hearts to their inspiration.
For Your Reflection:
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Suggested Scripture: Psalm 100 – improvised by Rev. Christine Robinson
Be Joyful Gladly serve the good Rejoice in the gift of life.
Highest above, deepest within Around us in nature, present in each. We are yours, You are ours We enter your presence with Thanksgiving With chants and songs With grateful hearts and open hands And know a flash of eternity.
August 22, 2023 Foundation Day: Sisters of Mercy Philadelphia/Merion
On August 22, 1861, a small group of hopeful women arrived at the railroad station in North Philadelphia. On that hot afternoon, the first Philadelphia Sisters of Mercy, led by a 27-year-old Irish immigrant Patricia Waldron, disembarked from the train and caught their first amazed glimpse of the busy city. They carried few worldly possessions. They came with only a dream for Mercy. It was a dream so alive in them that it still inspires us today, over 160 years later.
Can you see them standing on the cramped platform, the hissing steam trains encircling them in mist? They must have felt “be-misted” themselves, these mostly Irish country girls engulfed in a noisy teeming city.
Union troops heading south crowded the platform. Busy Broad Street crackled with news of the burgeoning national strife. Lincoln himself would visit the city in the coming weeks.
Visiting Old Moyamensing Prison
Where would they begin? And how? Hidden within the seams of this bustling city’s garment lay the poor – the ones for whom they had come. How to reach them? How to help them change their lives?
Ranging from sixteen to twenty-seven years old, these brave young women had been charged with establishing a kind of “new nation” themselves – not of politics, but of mercy. They, like the young stout-hearted soldiers around them, were also a little weak-kneed. They too had their battles to face. They too would see starvation, illness, attack, and death – but they would endure for the sake of the Mercy dream, God’s dream for all those in need.
In 2011, the Philadelphia/Merion Sisters of Mercy celebrated our Sesquicentennial. One of our celebratory events was a thrilling performance at the Kimmel Center commemorating these founding sisters and the decades of ministry built on their commitment.
The performance opened with these imagined comments from Patricia Waldron.
Mother Patricia Waldron (played by our dear late Sister Mimi Connor, RSM)
Have you ever noticed how our dreams unfold? They never happen in the way we first imagined. Instead, they weave – your dreams and mine --- Among each other in a latticework of grace.
By the way, my name is Anne Waldron. known in my life as Mother Patricia – “Reverend Mother” really. A rather weighty title, don’t you think? But my own dream of mercy was not weighty.
I was born in Tuam (pronounced “Choom”), County Galway, Ireland. ‘Tis a precious place, a mere 20 miles from the glorious bay to the south, Where the soft air carries a hint of the sea And the sweet land holds both a deep promise and a deep scar of famine.
I must seem a long way from you now, after these 150 years
– almost like a shadow on your memories.
And you must think me a particularly courageous part of your history.
After all, you have named buildings after me, I see!
But tonight, I want you to know me in a new way.
I was only 27 when I came here to this strange city.
I walked these same streets as you, fraught as they are with their dangers and beauties.
Do you know that a century and a half ago
we sisters lived just two miles north of this very spot -
you call it “The Kimmel” I think!
Ah, but the Philadelphia of the 1860s was a far different sight
from what I saw outside tonight.
I see that a million and a half souls live here now!
Oh my! Just a third that number in the city then.
We thought it an amazing number having come mostly from our small villages.
I was young then – like all of you are or were once –
Young and full of dreams.
We all were – I and these my dear companions.
We were not different because of our courage,
our spirit of adventure, our dedication, or our generosity—
although these marked our lives
as we grew deeper into God.
No – what made us who we were was this:
We clearly knew and trusted that the dream in us
was God’s dream for a wounded world.
In our deepest hearts,
we were Sisters of Mercy!
As you listen to our stories tonight,
Hold this question in your own hearts:
What dream lived in you when you were young?
What dream lives in you now?
Enduring dreams begin with small first steps. So, hailing a horse-drawn carriage, Mother Patricia Waldron led her young band to their new lives. Thus she began the grace-filled saga many of us know so well and of which we are a part today. Their dream lives in us who love Mercy:
in our continued effort to find those who are poor and sick in a world that ignores their suffering
in our choice to be compassionate in a world that often chooses violence
in our commitment to care in a world of treacherous indifference
Today we honor our beloved foremothers who led the way in faith and commitment.
On that sultry August day in 1861, and on this one in 2023, people have choices to make. They have vows to keep. Some choices live forever. In the name of Mercy, what will you choose today?
I think many of you might enjoy a photo review of the Kimmel Celebration. I have only a few photos of the original sisters which I connected with the performer where possible.
Mother Gertrude Dowling (played by Sister Kathleen Mary Long)
Sister Marie Madeleine Mathey (played by Sister Suzanne Neisser)
Sister Mary PhilomenaHughes
(played by Sister Mary Hentz)
Sister Mary Angela Curtin (played by Sister Connie Haughton)
Sister Mary Ann Coveney
(played by Sister Diane Guerin)
Sister Francis de Sales Geraghty (played by Sister Mary Klock)
Sister Mary Rose Davies (played by Sister Marie Carolyn Levand)
Sister Mary Veronica O’Reilley (played by Sister Eileen Sizer)
Virtuoso Sister Marie Ann Ellmer plays the magnifcent Kimmel organ
Maestro Sister Jeanette Goglia leads a resounding rendition of her composition “The Circle of Mercy” sung by 2500 attendees
(Click the white arrowhead to enjoy “The Circle of Mercy” as you peruse these photos. Happy Foundation Day to all who love and live Mercy!)
Lavish Mercy 