Help for Haiti – St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital & St. Patrick’s Mercy Home
During January, Sisters, chaplains, staff, volunteers, physicians and visitors at St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s Newfoundland opened up their hearts, their wallets and their piggy banks
in an attempt to assist the people of Haiti. Through a fund-raising campaign of a few hours, $2,000 was collected. This amount has been forwarded to “Doctors Without Borders” to assist physicians and coworkers in their efforts to save lives and to control infection and disease.
A similar initiative took place at St. Patrick’s Mercy Home under the direction of Sister Monica Hickey. Sisters, staff, residents, volunteers and visitors responded with open hands and open hearts. Through a fund-raising campaign, $650 was collected and this amount will be forwarded to the “Canadian Red Cross” to assist workers in their efforts to alleviate the pain and suffering of the Haitian people.
From the Opening Prayer/Ritual, where we heard the call to acknowledge the presence of God within us, among us and in all creation, to the welcome, where we were challenged by the words of the poet, Mary Oliver ‘Can one be passionate about the just, the ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so…Be ignited, or be gone’, to the Litany of Blessing where we were reminded that we are blessed as custodians of the open table, symbol of creation’s abundant resources, from which no one is ever to be excluded, we heard the same call, to be agents of change, to engage in a more expansive way of living, a more integrated way of being.
Conlon spoke of the effects that a culture of greed, oppression and domination lead to – widespread unemployment, violence, substance abuse and ecological devastation. Yet the message was a call to hope. The brokenheartedness is not about despair but rather the call to break our hearts open so as to become people of compassion, leading to joy in the struggle and faith in the fulfillment. Drawing on the spirituality, the wisdom, the teaching of a number of our great thinkers, mystics, teachers, scientists, Conlon laid out for us a new way of being, a new way of living. The stars tell the great cosmic story; the streets tell our human-based hopes and dreams. He reminded us that we are genetically coded to live as community and that humans have the choice as to what the community will look like; it is all about Story and Dream. He challenged us to become geo-justice people, honoring each other’s gifts and respecting soul life.
