Sr. Margaret Park, RSM

Religious Community: Sisters of Mercy New York, Pennsylvania, Pacific West Community

Present Ministry: Preschool science teacher and treasurer, Mercy Center of the Arts; delegate to the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Chapter in Laredo, Tx, 2005.

Home Parish: Immaculate Conception Church, Brookville, Pa.

Hobbies/Interests: Reading, singing, occasional embroidering

I recognized God’s call in my life in the sense of an inner drawing by a loving God, in my experiencing “a homeness” with Mercy Sisters, in my feeling of peace with God when embracing the Mercy way of life, in my sense of being “hounded” by God when I tried to run from God’s invitation to union through religious vows.

The spirit of my community is alive today in its desire for the centrality of Christ’s mission of mercy so needed in today’s violence-prone world, and in its emphasis on dialogue and communal growth. Through experiences of receiving God’s mercy, sisters are empowered to endure for justice and to extend merciful service to others in need.

“For I have seen the face of Christ” through the years in very young children in the United States who have struggled to be free of their gripping fear of their feelings of abandonment sometimes intensified in them by their parents’ battles with drugs, mental illness or divorce. Also, I have caught the joy of Jesus in children’s ringing laughter, in their trust and in their innocent capers. I have seen the young Christ’s persistent choice of life in some teenaged Jamaican boys who have admirably handled the disadvantages that life has given them. I have also seen the suffering Jesus in the faces of dying sisters as theywitnessed the Paschal Mystery to me with its final gift of peace.

Web site: www.mercyerie.org