For a second year, OLMC has celebrated Mercy Day remotely, where students and staff were challenged as Mercy people with, “Am I walking with my Mercy friends, as Mary walks with the suffering?”
In celebrating all that our Mercy tradition offers, we look upon the role of Mary, Mother and Mercy, who encourages and calls us to be women of Justice, Compassion, Courage and Joy. Fr Kevin Hennesy CP preached about the courageous women in our lives, who call on us to be proud, compassionate, independent and Mercying women. He focused upon the narrative of strong Indigenous women of Australia; upon Mother Ursula Frayne and Sisters of Mercy who ministered bravely in this land; and the women of Afghanistan seeking to live life to the fullest. This virtual day of celebration consisted of three important elements, where students have offered the following thoughts.
Eucharistic Celebration
- “I really loved the hard work everyone who was involved put into it, especially the amazing way that Father Kevin led the Eucharist!”
- “Despite the circumstances of COVID-19, it was a great way to unite together as an OLMC community”
- “Being able to see everyone from different year levels virtually participate in the Eucharist was really uplifting. It was great to see the way we were able to really be together even during COVID”.
- “It was nice to see students so actively involved in the mass, especially some of my friends.”
- “I really loved how smoothly the Eucharist ran even though we were doing it remotely!”
Activities celebrating community and life
- “Loved trivia!! so much fun incorporating different topics - especially guessing which Beatles song was which!”
- “My highlight was ecojustice conversation! It is so good to be Mercy.”
- "Listening to the Afghanistan conversations, challenged me to be and do more as a woman in the Mercy tradition.”
- “The drama games were so much fun. I have a prize coming for me in the mail!! Karaoke was also good!”
- “My highlight of the day was the escape room, as it was really fun. It was challenging and exciting!”
- “I loved the disco since everyone was having a good time and it was a space where you could forget about all the things that stress them out.”
- “I really enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt! It was led by the Year 9 House Vice Captains and it was so much fun to do something different and just have a great time with everyone else that participated!”
Walking with MercyWorks in our support of our Mercy Friends in Papua New Guinea
- “I think it is so wonderful that we are still able to support the MercyWorks organisation despite our current circumstances, and show true solidarity.”
- “It was great that we could donate online to show our support to MercyWorks in Papua New Guinea”
- “Helping our Mercy family in Papua New Guinea is so important, and I'm glad the day was not just about the fun for students.”
- “I was very concerned for the people of PNG, given the COVID outbreaks earlier in the year, and this day gave me the opportunity to help them”.
If you are able to offer financial support to MercyWorks, I invite you to donate using this link, as the students and staff have done.
https://www.givenow.com.au/mercyworks
The Students Leaders did such an amazing job in celebrating our Mercy Day virtually, yet still able with all their energy and creativity to focus on what it means to celebrate and live Mercy! We are so grateful to all the students (and staff) who coordinated and ran sessions for their peers. We continue to be so proud of the passion of OLMC students and their ability to empower each other and to lead.