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Our pilgrimage started on the Franciscan path at the Sanctuary of La Verna – a hermitage perched on limestone cliffs – where St Francis received the Stigmata. We then travelled through the beautiful hills of Perugia to the stunning city of Assisi, where the lives of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi were celebrated in architecture, chapels and sacred sites. The well-it path wound through the city as well as beyond the walls to significant sites like St Mary of the Angels and the Portiuncula and San Damiano. This path of mercy and love for all of creation gave our pilgrims time to reflect on the enormous gifts that Francis and Clare brought to the Catholic faith and to the world – gifts we still need to fully appreciate and enact – inclusivity, humility, peaceful co-existence and care for others.
The pilgrimage then took to the skies as we flew to Ireland to visit Cork, where Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Sisters, opened schools for Catholic children denied an education by the Penal Laws as well as caring for those most vulnerable in the filthy alleyways and garrets of the city. Nano Nagle’s paths of compassion were dangerous, but her lantern flame would have gladdened the hearts of those she visited with food, blankets and kind words. Pilgrims were not only able to visit the South Presentation Convent but also St Finbarr’s Church where Nano Nagle worshipped and the sites of the seven schools she opened across the city. We toured the Nagle Hills and visited Mass Rock and the Famine Walk and on leaving Cork we visited the St Anne’s Retreat and Conference Centre where Sr Elizabeth and Sr Catherine shared the story of Nano Nagle in the “Hearts Aflame” exhibition.
In Dublin pilgrims followed the paths trod by Catherine McAuley and the early Sisters of Mercy including the House of Mercy in Baggot Street, Coolock House, the Carmelite Church on Clarendon Street and Georges Hill Convent and Chapel. Catherine McAuley’s work, a generation after Nano Nagle, addressed the similar injustice and social disadvantage, supporting vulnerable women and children through education, care for the sick and provision of basic needs like food and warm clothing. Catherine McAuley’s paths of mercy were a lifeline to the thousands of people who were victims of poverty and shocking disadvantage.
The sixteen pilgrims who joined us on the second Mercy Partners Pilgrimage certainly walked pathways illuminated by courage, perseverance, love and compassion. The pilgrimage was a wonderful opportunity for our pilgrim leaders to not just experience the stories of the founders and the places sacred to these stories, but also to reflect on the leadership challenges still present in their own ministry. We were blessed to have Sr Sandra Lupi rsm (Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation) with us, her wisdom and insights made this pilgrimage an amazing experience.
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