Director of Mission

Reflection | Mercy Key of Loyalty

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This reflection was written by our liturgist, Sister Duyen Nguyen on the readings chosen for our Staff Liturgy which also launched our Mercy Key of Loyalty for 2022.

The first reading is a quote from Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, and the Gospel reading is John 15:5-8,12. 

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…” (Jn 15:5).

What a powerful image, which beautifully reflects our Mercy key of Loyalty – Being Loyal to our Global Family – that we are focusing on this year.

There are many stories in the Gospels telling us about Jesus, a great model of loyalty. This particular teaching, according to John’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking with his friends around the last supper table, a few hours before he is to be arrested, and is crucified on the cross. Jesus’ death on the cross is a great example of his loyalty to his Father, to God’s will and love for the world. Before leaving this world, Jesus commands all of us “Love each other as I have loved you”.

Therefore, loyalty needs to go with Love. A committed married couple can’t be fully loyal to each other without having love for each other. We can’t fully commit ourselves to teaching if we don’t love children or don’t love teaching at all. If we see teaching as a job and do it because we have to, we will soon be drained out, but if we see it as a call or a vocation, we will do it with passion, with love, joy and fulfilment. 

The image of the vine and the branches also gives us a sense of team, of interconnection. All are important, all have a contribution to make, something to offer to the bigger community. In order to bear much fruit, we must be active parts of the vine, open to seeing and nurturing the gifts of others. All the branches are different. Embracing diversity is also a part of our call to Being Loyal to our Global Family.

How can we, the branches, stay connected to Jesus, the vine? Prayer! Prayer will help us stay connected to Jesus, the vine, and God’s words in the Scriptures is our study manual. Being a branch of that vine, means becoming one with God. Therefore, God is the centre of our lives.

This will lead us to our second symbol of Loyalty, the compass, from a quote of Catherine McAuley: “We should be as the compass that goes round its circle without stirring from its centre. Our centre is God, from whom all our actions should spring as from their source”.

As a Catholic and a Mercy school, being a branch of Mercedes College community, we need to abide (to be loyal) to our Mercedes Catholic identity and Mercy tradition. Our teaching programs and our treatment and relationship with one another need to reflect the core value of our College.

Our College motto is: Loyal En Tout – Loyal in all things. Also, at Mercedes, we use Mercy Keys to help set what is important to us. We celebrate Class Mass/ Class Liturgy every Friday, and Morning Prayers daily. We also celebrate Mercy Week with various activities to raise funds for charity and end the week with the whole school Mercy Day Mass celebration.

Learning from Catherine McAuley – as the compass always sticks to the centre, and its centre is God – we are called to place our trust in God, to ask for God’s guidance, and to learn from Jesus, in order to produce our work, our teaching and learning and our actions that always reflect God’s love.

Recently, you may have heard about the death of Sr Janet Mead, a Sister of Mercy in Adelaide. She was best known for recording a pop-rock version of The Lord’s Prayer and won the Golden Gospel Award in 2004. Her life and work is an excellent example of loyalty to God’s call in her, as a follower of Jesus Christ and Catherine McAuley.

Sister Duyen Nguyen, RSM
February 2022