Presenter: Sister Mary Raphael Paradis, RSM

Title: “Perfection of the Ordinary Act in the Thought of Venerable Catherine McAuley: Application in Our Religious Life”

The concept of “the perfection of the ordinary action” was a central idea in Venerable Catherine McAuley’s understanding of religious life and became an important one in her formation of the first Sisters of Mercy. This presentation traces her use of this idea in her writings and oral instructions to her Sisters and its significance to the Mercy charism. 

Biography of Presenter

Sister Mary Raphael was born in 1955 in Bath, Maine, and grew up primarily in New England.  She attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1977 with a B.A degree in Religion and Biblical Studies. 

From 1982 – 1985 she attended Mercy Central School of Nursing in Grand Rapids, Michigan and worked as a registered nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital and Butterworth Hospital, both in Grand Rapids.  During this time, she met the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan and moved to Alma in August 1990 to work at Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Center as a nurse. 

She discerned a religious vocation with the Sisters of Mercy and entered the Institute in November of 1991.  During her formation she became familiar with the writings of Venerable Catherine McAuley.  She professed perpetual vows on November 21, 2000, at the Motherhouse.

Sister worked in several areas of nursing during her formation and graduated from Oregon Health Sciences University in December 1999 with a Master of Science degree in Mental Health Nursing.  She was assigned to the community in Rome and worked there as a nurse at the North American College, and as a counselor with American and British university students. 

In 2005 she returned to the United States, serving as local superior at St. Albert the Great Convent in DeWitt, Michigan and working as a therapist at Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Center.  In 2010, she was missioned to be administrator of Sacred Heart Mercy Health Care Center in Jackson, Minnesota.  When that clinic closed in 2018, she returned to the Motherhouse, serving briefly as administrator of Sacred Heart in Alma.

In May 2020 she was assigned to St. Katherine Convent in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and since then has worked as a part-time Outreach Coordinator at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.