On Sept. 24, Mercy institutions around the world celebrate the day Mother Catherine McAuley founder the Sisters of Mercy. For the third year in a row, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, 3737 W. 99th St., made Mercy Day a weeklong celebration during which students engaged in acts of service and listened to inspirational speakers.

“Mercy is so foundational to who we are at Mother McAuley that we couldn’t contain all that we wanted to do in just a single day,” said John Kyler, director of mission and ministry. “We really hope to give our students opportunities to understand that mercy is a daily choice.”

The school’s 774 girls participated in acts of service, including making tied blankets for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and cleaning up the graves of numerous Mercy Sisters buried at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Alsip.

The school rounded out the week with a tea party for students because one of Mother McAuley’s wishes before she died was that her community of sisters would gather regularly for tea and fellowship, Kyler said. Mother McAuley was Irish and afternoon tea is a traditional daily meal.

Catherine McAuley went out to the streets and brought people what they needed and that spirit is what Mercy week is all about, said Principal Kathryn Baal, whose aunt was a Mercy sister.

“The importance of the week is to reiterate what our mission is to make sure they understand what it means to live like Catherine McAuley and to bring mercy into the world,” Baal said. “For us it’s about — Catherine served the underprivileged and people who had no way out — teaching our girls what it means to do a little bit for other people in the world and to give back.”

“It just reminds us to care for everybody in the world, just treat everyone how we want to be treated,” said senior Michelle Scott. “Mercy Day always reminds me of why I wanted to come to McAuley, that we have these traditions and we all come together for everybody.”

Fellow senior Isabel Salgado agreed.

“It just reminds us how grateful we should be for what we have, because other people don’t have as much as we do,” she said. “It’s also like a fun time that the school as a whole celebrates together and we unify as one.”

For Mercy Sister Nancy Houlihan, assistant director of mission integration, taking the girls to the cemetery to tend to the graves of the Sisters of Mercy shows the students that they are standing on the shoulders of women who have gone before them.

“This is literally where they are. These are the sisters who started our school,” Sister Nancy said.

The sisters who passed in recent years still have family or friends who may visit their graves, but the sisters who have been deceased a long time don’t.

“The graves that have been there for a while, they shouldn’t be forgotten,” Sister Nancy said, adding that it is an exercise in hospitality. “The sisters showed hospitality in their day and we’re giving back.”

The Sisters of Mercy have been in Chicago 179 years and opened the first school for girls in the city that same year, she said.

“The Sisters of Mercy have done so much for this city and this area and the girls need to know this and they need to live it,” Sister Nancy said.