Mercy connection june july 2013 final

1 Mercy Connection • June/July 2013

June/July 2013

The Ministry of Melody: Musicians in Community

Auburn Burlingame Cedar Rapids Chicago Detroit Omaha

West Midwest Newsletter

Musicians abound in the West Midwest Mercy Community. Sisters are harpists, psalter players, violinists, and, of course, pianists and organists. Among them are a bass guitar player, accordion players, and a Native American flute player. They are cantors, choir directors, music teachers and composers.

Some of these musicians entered the Mercy Community convinced they would have to sacrifice their playing and singing. “That’s what I thought God wanted,” said Sister Cecile Ley, a pianist who entered 58 years ago. After years of teaching and chaplaincy, she began ministering by playing the

piano in the lobby of Scripps Mercy Hospital in 2002. "I can't imagine being alive and not being able to do music, " she said.

The musicians who entered wouldn’t let the music go. It was too precious to them. ”My first love was music. In my home I was surrounded by music,” said Sister Mary Jo Baldus. “My mom was the music minister at our home parish at St. Peter and Paul in Iowa, a small country parish.” Her mother traded ironing shirts for Mary Jo’s piano lessons. The piano teacher’s husband was a car salesman who needed crisp shirts. Mary Jo’s mother was willing to iron them, so a deal was made.

Sister Claudette Schiratti’s family bought an upright piano for $15 in 1944, so that Claudette, age 5, and her older sister could take lessons. Her sister saw that Claudette was talented and insisted that Claudette continue. “I owe my career to her. I thank her,” said Claudette who even as a child loved performing in recitals and easily memorized pieces. “I thought I was giving up a career in music when I entered, but the Community recognized my talent.”

The musicians’ paths have been varied, often including More about music continues on page 4

“Music has a special way of touching our hearts, of laying open the mystery. Because it is a social art, it enables us to do this together as a Community. Music enlarges and expands the message.” --Sister Suzanne Toolan


Attitude of Gratitude —This is the title of a small book that has been by my bedside for years. If I have a challenging day, I often find it is helpful to read one of the short stories before I go to sleep. They are stories of gratitude -- how to offer it to others and how to graciously receive it. I recently spent a beautiful sunny day visiting Mercy ministry sites in Cedar Rapids with Sister Kathy Thill, WMW ministry director. On our first day, we visited the Catherine McAuley Center (CMC) where single women have the opportunity at a new life. Many have been victims of violence and are without a trusted friend, a home or a job. Sadly, many are without hope when they arrive.

The CMC staff and volunteers have been providing these women with shelter in a transitional housing program designed to help women overcome poverty and homelessness. The staff members work endlessly and compassionately with the residents. Then,

about eight months later, they transition to a Mercy-sponsored home in the Community, well on their way to becoming independent with new hopes and dreams for their future.

In addition to the transitional housing program, Cath-erine McAuley Center offers tutoring and assists immi-grants in studying for their tests for citizenship. They are serving immigrants from over 51 countries. As Sister Kathy and I reflected on the day, we realized that all of the dedicated staff members and volunteers were acting from their hearts, showing compassion and respect to those they serve. These are true acts of Mercy that can only be delivered through an attitude of gratitude!

The following day we visited another WMW ministry grant funded site in Cedar Rapids called The Metro Catholic Outreach Center. Co-Director Barb Kane explained their mission and gave us an informative tour.

She works with 11 area Catholic parishes to provide social justice and outreach services to include a food pantry, emergency financial assistance and a call center that connects people with needed ser-

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Sister Kathy Thill at Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids

Lori Pinkterton,Community Operations Officer

http://http://www.sistersofmercy.org/images/stories/MembersNews/2011/ilc_commitment_to_chapter_declarationfinal.pdf


vices. The dedicated staff of volunteers provides over 40 food baskets per week and financial assistance to many fami-lies, helping them with rent shortages or other unexpected expenses.

This center exists due to the vision of Sister Linda Bechen and other parish representatives. Collectively, they orga-nized their services and have been able to help more struggling families and individuals in the Cedar Rapids area as a result. Mercy is at the heart of their ministry.

The same dedication, compassion, and heartfelt service were obvious in the other Mercy ministries we visited in Ce-

dar Rapids, including Hospice of Mercy, Mount Mercy University, and Mercy Medical Center. Thank you to all for sharing your Mercy ministries, it was a wonderful visit.

Over the last four months, serving as your new community operations officer, I am grateful for this opportunity to visit Mercy ministry sites, and I have a much better understanding of what Mercy is and how it is extended to those less fortunate than us. I want to thank every staff member, sister, associate and volunteer in the West Midwest for your dedication and support as I become more oriented to my posi-tion. Having a deeper understanding of the history and the ministries throughout the West Midwest will help me approach the operations of the Community with an attitude of gratitude. I truly feel blessed and look forward to working in partnership with you, our employees and the new Community Leadership Team in the months ahead.

“Let us rejoice when good is done, no matter by whom it’s accomplished.” – Catherine McAuley

Lori Pinkerton, MPHCommunity Operations Officer

Metro Catholic Outreach Center in Cedar Rapids

Attitude of Gratitude, cont.


Sister Helen Gilsdorf: Music as Life's Basic Element

Sister Helen Gilsdorf has joyful music in her bones. Eager to spread that joy, she reveled in teaching it to 18 classrooms of children at St. Peter’s School in San Francisco. Her kindergartners learned to read notes by imitating hand signals and to feel rhythms by marching; older students used drums, mariachis, autoharps and their voices. Helen’s ministry always required the energy of two people. She began teaching fourth grade at Holy Name School in San Francisco in 1959. Over the years, she added music teacher, liturgist, director of religious education, volunteer choir director and parish music director to her roles. She made time to compose, publishing the collection of

her work, In the Breaking of the Bread, in 1981, now re-released as a CD.

Her tenure at St. Peter’s School in San Francisco was most recent, and she is closely attuned to the joy children derive from music. “I sang in a choir since I was very young. Children love to sing. It is the job of the music teacher to get them to see a broader expanse that whatever is the current musical mode, connect them to history.”

She sees music as life’s basic and necessary element, especially now as she is retired and living at Marian Oaks. “Music is very helpful to calm us, pick up our spirits, to be a part of bigger things than our individual lives.”

After Sister Mary Jo Baldus entered in 1965, she first attended Mount Mercy College and began the first of three music ministries. She taught music and band in a small K-12 school. Then, after a masters degree in music and liturgy from Notre Dame University, she moved to become director of liturgy, post Vatican II.

She observed that people find change difficult, and she had requests for a quiet Mass (one without all those new songs in English), but, despite the longing for tradition, she explained the new guidelines. “Music is a way to participate. Music is integral to the ritual. When you sing, you pray twice. That was my mantra.”

In 2005, she asked the Community if she could do full-time music therapy. Once she had permission, she began working freelance in Winona, MN, where she lives.For this, her third music ministry, she takes her lap harp and guitar to hospital rooms, private homes, assisted living facilities, group homes for children, care centers and hospice settings. She plays music that encourages expression for those who have trouble with language. Assisted living residents sometimes dance to her waltzes. For hospice clients, she plays music tailored to the person’s tastes. For a dying German man, she played marches on her guitar.

“One of the rewards in working with smaller groups and individuals is seeing the results, how people are touched. It is not about the music but the person in front of me.”

Sister Mary Jo Baldus: Music Encourages Expression

To hear Sister Helen's "Abba Father" click here: http://bit.ly/13UIAav

The Ministry of Melody, cont.


Sister Claudette Schiratti: Music Performer

Sister Claudette Schiratti's first assignment was to St. Joseph High School in Denver where she taught religion, English, and music for six years to primarily Hispanic students, a culture which she knew little about but grew to love dearly. When she received her master's degree in music in piano performance, the Community tapped her to teach at College of Saint Mary in Omaha. She was offered the chance to go on for a PhD, which she firmly declined. Instead she became the first liturgist at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha in 1971.

The early 1970s were an exciting time in liturgy, as changes from Vatican II began to take hold. The development of lay ministry was a joyful enterprise. She thrived as she was mentored, first by liturgy expert Father Richard Swolek in Omaha and later by Father Bill Bauman in Kansas City, MO.

Music’s role in liturgy was clear to her. “Music is our way of coming together as the People of God, and is vital to liturgy. It is the difference between just going to church alone and knowing I am part of a Community. Going to Mass is not an “I.” It is a

“We.” The music and the silence we create, hopefully, help to lead people to God.”

She moved from the Cathedral to St. Bernard’s Parish in Omaha, a vibrant church, but after working with the parish on a difficult church renovation, she learned “that the best laid plans can sometimes go awry.” After a sabbatical, Sister Claudette relocated to the Kansas City area where she served as liturgist and music director in several parishes. She continued to perform as a pianist. One of her favorite roles was in the Piano Trio La-Jacque-Dette with two other women from the Kansas City Symphony. In the 1980s, they performed yearly classical chamber music concerts.

Her richly varied freelance ministry has extended throughout the West Midwest, the Institute, Catholic parishes and the Diocese. She has prepared prayer for two LCWR conventions, in Atlanta and Dallas. She has served as organist and music director in Catholic and Protestant churches and a synagogue.

When asked if it is difficult to be an artist in a community that values direct service, Claudette answered, “Sometimes I have wondered, What am I doing in this community? What am I doing about the fourth vow? It gives me peace to think that, although I am not attending to the corporal works of Mercy, music gives comfort to people and is a spiritual work of Mercy. It is a tension I live with. Tension is okay. It keeps me focused on the question: What am I about today?”

It gives me peace to think that although I am not attending to the corporal works of Mercy, music gives comfort to people and is a spiritual work of Mercy.

Sister Claudette traveled to New York with Sister Catherine Franey to pick out a Steinway grand for Mercy High School Omaha. Here she is giving a recital on that piano at the school.

To hear Claudette's "Dancing, Singing, Circling": http://youtu.be/fsBgPZaeKfY


Sister Michon Rozmajzl came to the Mercy Community in 1955 hopeful that she could continue her music studies. In fact, she has been able to integrate music into a classroom throughout her life. She has taught in private, classroom, and university settings for 38 years, many at Boise State University (BSU) where she was professor of music and associate dean. She is the author of Music Fundamentals, Methods, and Materials for the Elementary Classroom. She currently holds the honor of professor and associate dean emerita at BSU.

Her teaching has benefitted the Sisters of Mercy in fees and salaries, but also in her contributions to Community celebrations and rituals. The spiritual contributions are less definable, but of deep impor-tance. “All things of beauty affect my spirituality, music being one of the most prominent,” she said.

“The Psalms often speak of music being a means of lifting up our mind, heart and spirit to God. That my gift can, in any way, contribute to the spirituality of others is a great blessing.”

She has a perspective on the changes made by Vatican II when musicians were struggling to come up with contemporary sounds and hymns to fit the Mass in Eng-lish. She is dubious about some of the attempts. “We had some very trite music from the early years following Vatican II, but composers were trying their best, and over time, the music has improved greatly,” she said. “I enjoy including our lovely Latin hymns periodically when preparing for liturgies. Gregorian Chant is part of our liturgical tradition, and I don't want it to disappear altogether from our liturgical music.”

When asked if there could be liturgy without music, Michon was startled. “How could we possibly have liturgy without music?” she asked. “Go back as far in time as you can, and you will find that no society, however primitive, ever existed without musical elements. It may only have been rhythm used in ceremonial dance, or beat on drum-like instruments, or the clicking of sticks, but it was there. Our whole being moves to the rhythm of life. Rhythm is part and parcel of who we are.”

She added with a smile, “Check your pulse for proof.”

"How could you have liturgy without music?....Rhythm is part and parcel of who we are."

Sister Michon Rozmajzl: Music Contributes to Spirituality


Sister Suzanne Toolan: The Bread of Life

Jean Adam Mary Jo BaldusMarguerite BuchananMaria CamposMaura ClarkKatherine DoyleJean EvansSarah FosterHelen GilsdorfGloria Heese

Marilee HowardBrigid JohnsonCindy KayeCecile LeyMarilyn MorganAnita NewMary OladimejiM. Krista RamirezMichon RozmajzlEllen Marie Ryan

WMW Sisters who are musicians full- or part-time:

The West Midwest Community appreciates the contributions of all of our sisters for whom music is a ministry. Have we missed anyone? If so, please email [email protected].

Sister Suzanne Toolan’s "I am the Bread of Life" is known and sung throughout the world, although most know nothing about the composer of the piece. She wrote it in 1966 when she was teaching chorale at Mercy High School Burlin-game. The story about this hymn seems apocryphal, but it is one she tells herself.

At a break in her chorale classes, she took refuge in the music room in the Kohl Mansion, which houses part of the high school. The words, “I am the Bread of life, he who comes to me shall not hunger,” seemed to fit naturally into the notes.“I was frustrated with it and threw it into the trash,” said Sister Suzanne of her now famous work. Fortunately a student lying on a bed in the infirmary next door spoke up, “What was that? It was beautiful!”

Sister Suzanne took the piece of paper out of the trash and taped it together. The piece premiered at the National Catholic Music Educator’s Association Convention in March 1966.

“Music has the special way of letting us linger over the words," she said in a talk to pastoral musicians in 1980. "It has a special way of touching our hearts, of laying open the mystery. Because it is a social art, it enables us to do this together as a Community. Music enlarges and expands the message. We join one another in enthusiasm for the message.”

To hear Sister Suzanne's "I Am the Bread of Life" click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C9vRLI4G4o

Patricia RyanJeanine SalakJanel SawatzkiClaudette SchirattiMary Schroer deChantal Selenger Sally Smolen Shari SutherlandSuzanne Toolan


The Careful Instruction of Women

Three high schools sponsored by the Mercy West Midwest Community have new leadership this spring. Mercy High School in Burlingame has both a new president, Karen Hanrahan, and a new principal, Ivan Hraga. Mercy High School in Omaha welcomes Sarah Regan as principal. Mary Klingenberger takes the lead as president at Mother McAuley High School in Chicago.

Although none of the new leaders is a Sister of Mercy, they are outstanding lay leaders who are imbued with the Mercy charism. All have a strong commitments to the mission of Catherine McAuley. In this era of challenges to Catholic education, all bring fresh energy and new perspectives.

Mary KlingenbergerAn alum, Mary Klingenberger is excited to begin her role at Mother McAuley High School in Chicago. She brings a master’s degree in business administration from DePaul University, and finance experience from a career at Harris Bank in Hinsdale where she was regional vice president. Her later work as director of gift planning at Hinsdale Hospital added the dimensions of community outreach and fundraising.

She is delighted to see that the students at McAuley are, in many ways, the same as when she graduated in 1975. “I had assumed the girls would be different,” she said, “but really, the collegial atmosphere that exists among the students fosters the same amazing friendships.” A broader curriculum extends possibilities for the girls. “The evolution of programs, especially those that prepare our girls for careers in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), open new doors for them to gain confidence and comfort in those fields.”

“The spirit of Catherine is ever present in the school culture. The students are immersed in her heritage and are well-versed in the origins of the Sisters of Mercy. Beyond the image of Catherine which hangs alongside the school mission statement in every classroom and office, it’s heartwarming to hear the words of Catherine echo throughout the school as they are shared during class, liturgies and other ceremonies.”

Sarah ReganNew Mercy High School Omaha Principal Sarah Regan comes from the Diocese of St. Petersburg, FL where she served as the president and principal of Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School. She began her career

No work of charity can be more productive of good to society than the careful instruction of women." --Catherine McAuley

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as an English and speech teacher and took on administrative roles of strategic planning and curriculum development.

“The Sister of Mercy’s charism is compelling, especially for the young women of today,” she said. “Following in the footsteps of Catherine McAuley, there is a deep trust in God’s providential care as we work together to teach our students how to strive for a living faith, knowledge and compassionate service in a global society. A true understanding of Catherine McAuley’s words ‘the proof of love is deed’ resonates at Mercy High School!”

Karen HanrahanKaren Hanrahan comes to Mercy Burlingame with warmth, wisdom and experience. She served at St. Mary Academy-Bay View in Rhode Island and from that experience

of a Mercy School, expected to find “a welcoming atmosphere, a good academic program, a strong commitment to community service and outreach, and an enthusiastic and committed community. This is what Mercy schools are all about. At Mercy Burlingame all this exists times 10!”

Her 25 years of experience in mission advancement and fundraising, along with her master's in public administration, prepare her well for her new tasks. “I enjoy challenges and getting my hands around issues and finding ways to make things work well,” she said. “In Burlingame, I have found a community - faculty, staff, board, parents and students - that is ready to embrace the future and deal with an evolving education system that is making us look at what and how we are teaching. At the same time, there is a very strong commitment to our mission of service to others, hospitality, compassion and excellence.”

Ivan HrgaIvan Hrga has the unique perspective of attending Mercy Burlingame as a

teen in the Mercy-Serra-Notre Dame Tri School program. Perhaps his early experience at a girls’ school helped hone his skills for listening and collaboration while grounding him in the Mercy vision. After attending University of Arizona for a teaching credential, then Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, for his master’s degree, and lastly, CSU Sacramento for his administrative credential, he became assistant principal for academics at St. Francis High School in Sacramento, another all girl’s school.

“When the opportunity to come to Mercy Burlingame arose, I thought deeply about where I was and where I wanted to be," he said. "I looked back on my time going to school, living and working in the Bay Area. I have the greatest memories of Mercy during my time at Serra. After nine years of being away from the area, starting a family (having a daughter first) and continuing my vocation at an all-girls’ school, I knew that it was the right opportunity at the right time for me and my family. I let the Spirit guide me and take over from there. "

High School Leaders, cont.


What I'm reading!

Women's Ordination: Who/What is Incompatible?Review by Sister Helen Marie Burns

Incompatible with God's Design: A History of the Women's Ordination Movement in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church by Jeremy Daigler, RSM

The adage that you cannot tell a book by its cover may be true, but I’m inclined to think you can tell a great deal by its title. Jeremy Daigler’s Incom-patible with God's Design: A History of the Women's Ordination Move-ment in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church immediately engages the reader with its paradoxical reference, its scholarly allusion, and its practical chal-lenge. A reader familiar with the question of women’s ordination thinks first of Paul VI’s Inter Insignores (1976) and the in persona Christi argument. This same reader, however, soon finds the correct reference and full quotation from which the title comes and discovers also its tour de force – an argu-ment for, rather than against ordination. An equally insightful tour de force occurs in Chapter 6 when the author asserts that the “Vatican can be called a contributor to the movement [of women’s ordination] since an increase in the number of women’s ordination supporters follows each punitive episode or sexist statement from members of the hierarchy.”

Such interplay of paradox, scholarship and engaging narrative marks Daigler’s work and makes for a comfortable journey through “a mass of his-torical data” that might otherwise overwhelm and confuse. Such interplay ac-counts also for the overall success of this first-time, comprehensive recording of the many diverse efforts to keep alive, to deepen and to focus strategies and research in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States relevant to the question of women’s ordination. The author knows from experience many of the personalities, the struggles, and the small victories marking the sev-eral decades of which she writes. However, she is careful to present rather than pronounce, to report rather than interpret, to contextualize and connect rather than isolate and divide. Along the way, she manages to challenge long-held misconceptions: that this movement is led by women religious; that it is centered in developing countries, especially the United States; that it is elitist, classist and theologically monolithic.

Gaudium et Spes states clearly that “every form…of discrimination…on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God’s design” (Article 29). As a Sister of Mercy, as a woman in the Roman Catholic Church, as a feminist and an activist, I applaud Jeremy Daigler’s work and encourage all who are serious about church reform to read this book for inspiration, validation and affirmation.


Auburn Historic Display Blends Past and Present

By Sister Katherine Doyle

The old phrase: “A picture is worth a thousand words” has taken on increased meaning as local heritage displays emerge across the West Midwest Community. Through a combination of photos, artifacts, multimedia materials and texts, each display captures the stories, mission and lives of the sisters who have gone before us leaving behind stories that inspire, motivate and ground contemporary Mercy life. Thesedisplays provide a face to our WMW Community by capturing both its local histories and the wider story as Institute and WMW Community.

Prompted by the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of Mercy in California, sisters in Auburn, Calif.,

began to develop a display telling the story of Mercy in the Northern California region. Blending together historical displays with those highlighting the founding of the Institute and current events, the display invites its visitors to see one integrated story. Challenges of limited space, design of display cases for easy access and utilizing a wide variety of artifacts required lots of creative solutions. Amy Pelto, graphic designer for the project, suggested the use of specially designed wallpaper collages which maximize space while providing the widest range of photographic display. Artifacts reflect a wide variety of items from John Sutter’s compasses donated by Bishop John Grace to the Sisters Natu-ral History Museum to an Indian pottery bowl containing soil from the original 25 regions of the Institute.

Since its opening in 2007, the heritage display has hosted a variety of groups seeking to learn more about Mercy. Each fall, fourth grade students from local schools come to be schooled in California mission history, which utilizes the mission tiles left by Mother Baptist Russell, as well as to be introduced to the role of Mercy Sisters in California church history. Tours of the center are also part of some ministry partner retreats and orientations.

While the heritage room is a major focus of the center, visual displays of Mercy history are spread throughout the convent and Mercy Re-treat Center. The final aspect of the display is a reliquary of sacred relics given to the sisters over the years.

The Auburn Heritage Room is near the front entrance of Our Lady of Mercy Convent.


Associate Marylyn Felion

Sister Nancy Thompson

A convert to Catholicism at the age of nine, Sister Nancy Thompson entered the Sisters of Mercy for a time-honored reason: She had a mentor. Sister Mary Leila Koeppe, a revered ninth grade gym teacher at Detroit’s Our Lady of Mercy High School, guided her into the Mercy Community. Nancy entered with the idea that she wanted to be a nurse, but she was told that the Community needed teachers. She became a teacher. “I haven’t regretted it,” she said. Education has been her life, except for the years when she was assigned to vocation/forma-tion team work from 1967 to 1974 and later from 1986 to 1994 when she spent two terms in Community leadership. She has taught grades four through 12, served as associate principal, principal and interim president at Mercy High in Farmington Hills. She has been a part-time member of the advancement office team of the high school since 2002, doing special projects.

She sees the major challenge in today’s Catholic high schools is raising funds for tuition assistance for students from lower income families. An-other challenge is for faculty who are teaching religious studies. “There are so many questions facing the Church today.” Besides her role in the school’s advancement office, Nancy is a member of the WMW Education Sponsorship Council and serves as a Personal Contact sister. "Most of all, I am grateful to our God for the grace and privilege of a Mercy vocation,” said Nancy.

Mercy Associate Marylyn Felion of Omaha has helped unleash the artist within many of the sisters at Mercy Villa. Marylyn is a teacher by profession, a former Sister of Mercy, a peace and justice activist, a Catholic Worker for 15 years, and an artist on the side. She spends her time and talent to help bring out the inner artist in any sister wanting to journey down that creative path. Her classes often include more than a dozen sisters, and she has helped them all develop their artistic skills—taking many to the advanced level. Watercolor is her preferred form. She says, “I have loved to draw since I was a small child, and used this ability as a classroom teacher for many years. I fell in love with watercolors in the early 90s, and I continue to explore the mysteries and potential of this lovely, elusive medium. Always, I am trying for a thing of beauty, a symbol of the awesome, trans-formative power of the Creative Spirit in our universe.” She adds, “I absolutely love working with the sisters. They keep me young!”


Note: Faces of Mercy from Auburn, Burlingame andChicago will be featured in the next Mercy Connection.

continued next page

Sister Emily DevineSister Emily Devine retired from active ministry three years ago. How-ever, she has remained busy with her involvement in the social justice issues of human trafficking, jail ministry and immigration. Her work differs from her early years as switchboard operator and director of housekeeping at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Emily notes that during her early years in religious life, she felt she was "row-ing upstream." Today her life flows like a ship riding the water. She likes to quote author John A. Shedd, who wrote, “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships were built for.”

Prior to her retirement, Emily was enriched through her ministry ex-periences in Mason City, Iowa, as a chaplain, assisting in mission, and serving nine years on the Mercy Foundation Board. She was also instrumental in the ecumenical centering and opening the Northern Lights Homeless Shelter. Additionally, Emily served years in ministry in Kalispell, Montana and in Minnesota.

This summer, Emily is spending one month as a volunteer at Cath-erine’s Center in San Francisco, her fourth year at the transitional home for women just out of prison. She connected with the ministry opportunity through Sister Kathy Thill, WMW ministry director, and Sister Marguerite Buchanan, director of Catherine’s Center. Now the newly developed West Midwest Volunteer Ministry Network offers other sisters the same opportunity for short-term ministry.

Her previous 30 years in chaplaincy in parishes and healthcare centers and her knowledge of enneagram provide her with experience to assist the women at Catherine’s Center. While serving in the Bay Area, Emily has loved the hospitality of the Burlingame Mercys with the Taizé eve-ning prayer, contemplative times and walking the labyrinth. Of course, there are a few games, happy hours and the evening news.

Mercy Connection is published by the Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community Communications Office, 7262 Mercy Road • Omaha, NE 68124 • (402) 393-8225 • www.mercywestmidwest.org

Director of CommunicationsSandy Goetzinger-ComerEditor: Elizabeth Dossa

Contributing Writers: Sister Helen Marie Burns, Patti Kantor, Melissa Pence, Lori Pinkerton

Graphic DesignElizabeth Dossa

MercyConnection

June/July 2013

Sisters of Mercy West Midwest

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Copyright 2013 Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community • Mercy Connection articles may be reproduced with written permission from the Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Communications Office. Direct reprint requests to: [email protected]

Sister Emily and the Peace Pole

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