Mercy Leaders

As the new school year begins, it has been all systems go in St. Mary’s College, Naas. We started out the year as we mean to go on, by celebrating the commissioning of 15 new Mercy Leaders who will now join last year’s Leaders as part of the Mercy Leader Faith Development team here in the school. This has been a fantastic initiative led by Mr. Dillon and the fruits of all their hard work is evident around the school from the ever growing numbers at the weekly Prayer Group to their presence in all liturgical services to the visible representations of the various faiths which are going up around the school in time for inclusivity week. Very well done to the girls involved and we wish you every blessing for the year ahead.

Focus on the Divine Mercy and the distribution of Rosary Beads

This year, we as a school are going to focus on The Divine Mercy image as a focal point for all our faith development endeavours. We have hung new images of the Divine Mercy around the school and are encouraging the recitation of the Divine Mercy chaplet. Last year we focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary in particular, with special emphasis on the Miraculous medal and its powerful implications for those who wear it and invoke its help. We distributed silver miraculous medals with chains to everyone in the school who wished to receive one last year. This year we have distributed a set of wooden, multi-coloured Rosary Beads amongst the student body. These beads were blessed by Fr. Liam at our Mercy Day Mass. Each student also received a Divine Mercy Chaplet card and a Rosary leaflet, both of which outline how to say both the very powerful Chaplet and Rosary also. All religion teachers focused on this in class prior to the distribution of the beads so as to reacquaint students with the value and power of prayer. Our Mercy Leaders packed all the gifts and then distributed them before Mercy Day Mass. 

Mercy Day Mass

Each year in St. Mary’s College we celebrate Mercy Day Mass in honour of our foundress Catherine McCauley. The Church was packed with students for this very special event and the brightly coloured rosary beads could be seen dangling from student’s wrists as they sat quietly and contemplated the school year ahead. The choir made the event so special with their haunting renditions of the Psalms and the Circle of Mercy which all staff and students joined in on. A special thanks to Fr. Liam for celebrating such a wonderful Mass and also to our very own Sr. Brigid, whom we are very lucky to have as a continuous reminder of the presence of that initial founding Mercy tradition of dedication, equality, love and excellence in all we do.