Features of a Mercy Education

There are over 200 Catholic colleges and universities in the United States. Most of them were founded and are sponsored by religious orders of priests, sisters, and brothers. The Sisters of Mercy currently sponsor seventeen colleges and universities. While many religious orders divide their institutions among several districts, the Sisters have organized theirs into one standard network under the Conference for Mercy Higher Education. Each religious order has a particular charism: features that distinguish them from other orders. As a result, within Catholic higher education, a Mercy Catholic education is distinctive from a Jesuit or Franciscan higher education. Here are some of the characteristics of a Mercy education.

"Catholic and Mercy, one a major religious tradition, and the other a charism within that tradition, are rich paths that engage the heart and mind, contemplation and action."

- Sr. Mary-Paula Cancienne, R.S.M.

The Walking Nuns

The Sisters of Mercy were distinct in their time as a non-cloistered order whose members walked the streets of Dublin (and later many other locations) seeking to attend to the needs of the poor, uneducated, and most vulnerable. As Catherine McCauley wrote, “Mercy, the principal path pointed out by Jesus Christ to those who are desirous of following Him, has in all-ages of the church excited the faithful in a particular manner to instruct and comfort the sick and dying poor, as in them they regarded the person of our Divine Master, who has said, ‘Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.'” Since that time, the animating spirit of the Sisters of Mercy has been to be present to the communities where they serve, to identify those communities’ most immediate and pressing needs, to fashion institutions to meet those needs, and to accompany those they serve. Thus, Margaret Farley concludes that “the fundamental norm (measure, standard) for a right and good love, and a right and good mercy, is the concrete reality of the beloved." The founding of Saint Joseph’s College is an expression of that spirit.

The Work and Goal of Mercy

Within the Catholic sacramental worldview, exercising mercy towards others is an extension of God’s grace-filled work in the world, particularly for the poor and marginalized. Thus, according to Sr. Leona Misto, “When we encourage faculty and students to practice mercy, we are asking them to engage in the process of liberating others, extending loving-kindness to them and, in doing so, restoring them to wholeness." Mercy seeks restoration where there has been brokenness and injustice. The Jewish tradition provides a useful frame of reference to understand and embrace the work and ends of mercy: tikkun olam or “repairing the world.”

According to Catherine McAuley, this process also requires that the just ends that we seek for the world are also modeled in our relationships with each other. She writes, “Our exercises of charity performed abroad will have no value before God if there be not established at home a solid foundation of this virtue.”

Instructing the "Ignorant"

From its founding, a fundamental element of the Mercy charism has been a commitment to this spiritual work of mercy. Catherine McCauley describes “the relief and instruction of the poor and ignorant as most conducive to our own advancement in perfection.” In Catherine’s time this undertaking had to do with what we today call religious education. It also focused on advancing the prospects of an underserved population, particularly “poor girls” and “distressed women of good character” (Rules and Constitutions 1.1.1). These constituent focal points remain valid today, albeit with adaptation to our own time. To paraphrase Catherine, as well as every place, every time “has its own particular ideas and feelings which must be yielded to when possible.”

The word ignorant fundamentally means one who lacks knowledge “either in general or with respect to a particular fact or subject.” Where do our students lack knowledge on a particular subject? One area is the relationship between faith and reason. They have been encultured to believe that the two are at odds with one another, especially when it comes to science. According to the Barna Group, this generation (Generation "Z") believes that "rational thought makes religion go out the window." However, the history of the relationship between science and religion may be very different than they think.

The mission of the Conference for Mercy Higher Education (CMHE) is the preservation and development of the core Catholic identity and mission of Mercy higher education in accord with the spirit, mission, and heritage of the Sisters of Mercy.

Until a short memory ago, the Mercy colleges and universities in the United States were led, managed, and staffed in majority by Sisters of Mercy. As the number of religious sisters declined sharply over the past 60 years, the Sisters have addressed the dilemma of sustaining the values they imparted through their vast educational system. In 2002, they established the CMHE to carry forward this mission.

In addition to an on-going deepening of the relationship with its colleges and universities, the CMHE has offered and continues to develop mission-related programs. For more information about these resources, go here.

Action and Contemplation

There is no doubt that the Sisters of Mercy were founded and continue “to serve, advocate and pray for those in need around the world.” However, balanced with action on behalf of others is the need for contemplation. For, in it the Sisters and their partners will “take delight and seek in it their comfort and refreshment for the labors and fatigues of the Institute” (Rules and Constitutions 1.9.3). There are a multitude of distractions that occupy our students’ time. Chief among them is digital media. Our students are “digital natives”; they have never known a time before the internet. More than half use screen media four hours or more on an average day. Given that our mission is to nurture “intellectual, spiritual, and social growth in students of all ages and all faiths within a value-centered environment,” a Mercy education can introduce them to the restorative value of contemplation in the curriculum and around the campus at locations such as Julie's Path (pictured above).

In summary

As you undertake your work at Saint Joseph's, consider the following questions as opportunities for reflection on how you can support our Mercy character.

What are the immediate needs of our surrounding communities and in Maine and how might they inform how we educate our students in ways that fulfill our commitment to reach “out beyond our college boundaries to serve the needs of others with compassion and mercy”?
In the spirit of the "Walking Nuns," how do we accompany our students during their time at Saint Joseph's College?
How might our work in the community through community-based learning courses to volunteering illustrate the restorative potential of mercy for our students and those with whom we partner? How do we model this same potential by our working relationships with one another?
How can we structure learning experiences for our students that address where their perceptions have resulted in a lack of knowledge either in general or with respect to a particular fact or subject?
How can reflection serve as a structural feature of the learning experience of our students whether or not community-based learning is employed? How can we help each other make time for quiet reflection on our work at Saint Joseph's?

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