Asbury Park school, outreach center impact lives through acts of mercy
Above photo: Students of Asbury Park’s Sisters Academy gather close for a photo together on Mercy Day. Courtesy photo
By David Karas | Correspondent
On the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy – a day also associated with Venerable Catherine McAuley and the religious community that she founded – students, faculty and staff in the Sisters Academy, Asbury Park, gathered to commemorate Mercy Day with a Mass.
Celebrated by Father Brian Butch, pastor of St. Gabriel Parish, Marlboro, the Sept. 24 Mass served as the Academy’s annual recognition of the opening of the first House of Mercy by Mother Catherine McAuley in Dublin in 1827. It also highlights a virtue that is at the heart of the Sisters Academy community, as well as the food pantry and family resource center to which they are connected through the non-profit agency known as Mercy Center.
Origin of a Community Fixture
Mercy Center is a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of Mercy, the religious order founded by Mother McAuley in 1831. “Mercy Center’s mission is to break the cycle of generational poverty,” said Kim Guadagno, who serves as president and CEO of the organization. “We approach that work as a three-legged stool: food, family support and education.”
The Mercy Center began its work more than four decades ago, now serving some 24 communities in the greater Asbury Park area. Its food pantry is open 30 hours each week; it also runs a Family Resource Center with licensed social workers and advocates who support people with housing, immigration-related needs, advocacy and trauma-informed therapy.
The Mercy Center’s commitment to advance education is realized through the Sisters Academy – a tuition-free, faith-based, independent school serving approximately 60 girls in grades four through eight. The Mercy Center community can also offer support for challenges outside of the classroom.
Educating the Whole Person
“I often say education is the real superpower,” said Guadagno, who is the former Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State of New Jersey. “Food helps a family get through today. Social workers and advocates help that family build stability. A great education can change the direction of a child’s life – and the lives of generations that follow. That is what we are working toward at Sisters Academy.”
At the center of the experience for each student is learning and experiencing mercy, and Guadagno’s team works to build among students an awareness of others, and their needs.
“We teach mercy through everyday choices – helping a classmate, including someone who feels left out, listening before judging and treating people with respect,” she said. “We want them to experience mercy and carry it forward into their families and communities.”
For the Mercy Center and Sisters Academy, their interpretation of mercy is deeply entrenched in the teachings of Mother McAuley.
“We can become overwhelmed by the size of the problems around us – hunger, homelessness, poverty, violence and isolation. We can convince ourselves that because we cannot solve them, there is little we can do,” said Guadagno. “Catherine McAuley rejected that idea with her life. She responded to the person standing in front of her. That remains our responsibility today.”
Whether it is through feeding a hungry family, housing someone who is without shelter, uplifting a family in crisis or giving a child the chance to succeed in school, mercy is at the heart of what the Mercy Center does each day – and what they also hope to instill in each student attending Sisters Academy.
“People are hungry today. Someone needs a safe place tonight. A child needs someone to believe in her now,” said Guadagno. “Mercy is not simply something we celebrate once a year. It is something we choose to do every day. See the person in front of you. And then do the next thing. That is mercy. And mercy cannot wait.”
To learn more about the Mercy Center and Sisters Academy, visit https://mercycenternj.org/.
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