Our Faith - Religion - Prayer 

St Patrick's Church Walcha 

For Baptism or Marriage enquiries phone Monsignor Ted Wilkes 67784070.

Monsignor Ted Wilkes would like to invite parishioners to Sunday Mass at 10 am.

Reflection

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day for the end of World War I in 1918. A hero from the Second World War is Sir Edward Dunlop. He was a surgeon in the Australian Army. He was nicknamed 'Weary" because he was tireless in caring for wounded soldiers.

Many had been taken prisoner and forced to build a railway from Thailand into Burma, even though many were very ill. He is sometimes remembered as 'The Surgeon of the Railway' or 'The Christ of the Burma Railway.' He died in 1993.

Catherine McAuley's Anniversary Tomorrow: November 11 marks 181 years since Catherine McAuley’s death.

PRAYER

May the God of strength be with us, holding us in strong-fingered hands; and may we be the sacrament of God’s strength to those whose hands we hold. 

May the God of peace be with us, stilling our hearts when they hammer with fear or doubt or confusion; and may the warm mantle of God’s peace cover those who are troubled or anxious. 

May the God of dreams be with us. With all the dreamers - like Catherine - who have gone before, may we come to trust in God’s dream for us. 

May we open ourselves to become what God envisioned at our birth and may we have the courage to live into the reflection of God that we are. 

Knowing Catherine Adapted from Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy of Ireland, p5

 Catherine McAuley, a woman of prayer and compassion, opened the house on Baggot Street in 1827. 

She died there, in an upstairs room, around 7.30pm on November 11, 1841. 

Today, we gather as a global Mercy community, as people of prayer and compassion, in remembrance of her life, in gratitude for her legacy, and in prayerful hope as we look towards the future of Mercy.

 At the end of her life, looking to the future, Catherine said, "If the Order is my work, the sooner it falls to the ground the better; if it is God’s work it needs no one." 

In the ten years of her religious life, Mother Catherine founded ten convents in Ireland and two in England. 

Since then the Sisters of Mercy have spread to many corners of the world: to North America (New Foundland) in 1842 to Australia (Perth) in 1846 to South America (Buenos Aires) in 1856 to Africa (Bechuanaland) in 1896, and to Asia (India) in 1953. 

Mass -Friday 18th November at 11.30am

Friday 18th November, all of the staff and students will be celebrating Mass at St Patrick's Catholic Church at 11.30 am. Everyone is welcome to join us.