kicking off mail merge through code?

I was wondering if it is possible to kick off a mail merge through some code where I would instantiate a Word object and do some functions on it. I have done OO programming, but am totally not familiar with the Word object or Windows programming in general. Most of my coding has been done in Java.

Is this possible? Is there a good reference out there on the web for all methods within a Word object? The Word template would already be there. All I want to do is dynamically pick the data source and then kick off the mail merge.

Any help is appreciated.