Posted on 30 June 2016
By Richard McMahon, Catholic Outlook, July 2016
Momentum is building for the Way of Mercy, involving the journey of the Mercy Cross and Relics around the Diocese of Parramatta from August through to November. We are grateful to everyone who has already engaged in this diocesan initiative via your prayers, ideas, questions and other feedback.
A Mercy Cross provided by the Parish of Richmond and Relics of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta will journey around our Diocese from August through to November.
Richmond Parish has provided the Mercy Cross.
A gathering of parish Mercy Representatives will take place at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Parramatta on Saturday 2 July 2016 when Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv will commission the representatives.
There has been a fantastic response from our Catholic systemic schools. Each school is willing to host the Cross and Relics, and our Catholic schools are committed to engaging in the Regional Parish Celebrations.
Interest has been expressed by those in the fields of university, healthcare, youth and care of the environment. An itinerary is being finalised and will be released soon.
For Frequently Asked Questions click here
Mercy Cross
In 1990, the Redemptorists came to Richmond Parish to give a mission where they engaged the interest and imagination of parishioners. The focal point of the mission was a large cross, built by the late Paul Krupner, which was central to the prayers of the faithful.
On Good Friday each year it is carried into St Monica’s Church at the time of adoration of the cross. This action has touched the lives of many over the years and has brought a realism to what Jesus did for us.
The parish is delighted to share this precious symbol of faith with the Diocese.
Fr Paul Roberts has provided the relic that is a message penned by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
Message from Mother Teresa
Fr Paul Roberts EV has provided the relics of Blessed Mother Teresa – a message and a card.
The message from her was hand written in January 1986. Fr Paul was visiting India that year, before he was a priest, and met Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity at the home for the dying in Kolkata.
He asked if she would write a message for his students at Gilroy Catholic College, Castle Hill, where he was a teacher.
After she wrote the message, Mother Teresa smiled and chuckled, surprisingly asking: “Paul, would you also like my business card?’” She hurried from the room and returned with the small card, now faded.
The card reads:
The Fruit of Silence is Prayer
The Fruit of Prayer is Faith
The Fruit of Faith is Love
The Fruit of Love is Service
After Blessed Teresa is canonised on 4 September this year, the written piece and card will classify as second-class relics.
A relic of our diocesan patron, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, will journey with the Mercy Cross. Photo: Diocese of Parramatta.
St Mary MacKillop of the Cross MacKillop
Following her canonisation in 2010, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart provided the Diocese with a relic that is a strand of Mary MacKillop’s hair.
Mary is our diocesan patron and the Diocese has a special connection to Australia’s only recognised saint. Blue Mountains woman Veronica Hopson developed acute myeloblastic leukaemia in the early 1960s.
Her complete recovery, without scientific explanation and through prayers to Mary MacKillop, was the miracle accepted by the Vatican in 1993 which led to Mary’s beatification in 1995.
Mary worked in the community, reaching out to the poor to raise them up through the service of education.
Upper Blue Mountains Parish is named for St Mary of the Cross. Eighteen diocesan schools have close links to Mary MacKillop who visited St Nicholas of Myra Primary at Penrith, the first Josephite school established in the Diocese in 1852.
For updates on the Way of the Cross visit our diocesan website www.mercyhasaface.org.au
