Nga mihi atawhai - greetings to all in mercy! Hurra for foundations,” wrote Catherine McAuley in 1841, makes the old young and the young merry!” She could well have been writing about the gathering in Auckland last month, when Sisters of Mercy and their friends celebrated the founding 40 years ago of their ministry in Samoa.

Nga mihi atawhai - greetings to all in mercy! Our focus last month was on Catherine’s death, remembered around the world by Mercy people gathering for ‘a good cup of tea’, with some fund-raising for projects sponsored by Mercy International Association, not least of them future plans for the house in Baggot Street which Catherine built.

Nga mihi atawhai - greetings to all in mercy! With our penchant for round figures, 2011 promises to be a milestone year for Mercy, as we mark 180 years since the Congregation was founded and - on 11/11/11 - 170 years since Catherine McAuley died.

Nga mihi atawhai - greetings to all in mercy! This month has begun with two Sisters of Mercy at the United Nations leading a panel discussion on violence against women, especially the use of rape as a weapon of war.

Nga mihi atawhai - greetings to all in mercy! Our lives are played out on a global scale these days. The earthquake in Christchurch in February seemed catastrophic until events in Japan last month dwarfed our seismic disaster, both by the intensity of the shake and the tsunami it created, and the untold numbers of lives lost and thrown into confusion.

Nga mihi atawhai - greetings to all in mercy! Fresh from a week-long programme at Mercy International Centre in Baggot Street, Dublin are two Kiwi women closely involved in Mercy ministries in this country.