Nuns Having Fun: A look at nun life with Sister Mercy

Link: Fr. Stanley Rother

In this delightful episode, Sister Mercy returns to share her eventful summer escapades. 

From fishing expeditions with her father to driving tractors filled with nostalgia, Sister Mercy finds joy in the simplest of adventures. 

Listeners are regaled with tales of battling massive sturgeons and panning for gold on a tourist train. 

Despite the joys of the season, her spiritual devotion remains unwavering as she balances her adventurous spirit with prayerful reflection. 

The episode captures her humorous anecdotes and lively storytelling, revealing a summer well spent in the company of nature, family, and spirit.

For more of Mercy's stories, listen to episodes 6 May 24, 2024 & 37 December 25, 2024. 

Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/the-summit

License code: YEMOID7DEYZIE4N3

#NunsHavingFun #JustTalkinAboutJesus #CalledByGod #CatholicLife #JoyInJesus 

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Transcript

[00:00] Jan: Hello, everyone. Guess who I have back now we have Sister Mercy here. Welcome, Sister Mercy.

[00:08] Sister Mercy: Thank you. Happy to be here.

[00:10] Jan: I thought you needed to see what an update is. I'm just so happy that she is here with a visit this summer and it's been in a week. What have you been doing since you've been here?

[00:21] Sister Mercy: Sister Mercy, let me tell you my goal.

[00:26] Well, okay,

[00:27] I tried to not have big, lofty goals because I, I,

[00:32] then, you know, everyone wants to spend time with you. And so you don't want to, like, man, I'm real set in stone on this. So here is my goal.

[00:39] Get my real id,

[00:41] drive the tractor,

[00:42] go fishing.

[00:44] Jan: You went fishing.

[00:45] Sister Mercy: And the rest, just see what happens.

[00:47] Jan: Okay, tell us about fishing.

[00:49] Sister Mercy: Well,

[00:50] let me tell you about fishing. So I keep, I, I, well, okay, since you know me in the convent, I don't fish a lot, but I did enter with my fishing pole.

[00:59] It's my little trout pole, yellow, cute.

[01:01] With my little tap, my little tackle box, very cute, has a bumblebee on it.

[01:06] But I, Courtesy of my dad.

[01:10] But I don't get to go fishing all the time, obviously. And so I told the sisters that I wanted to go fishing. My goal was to go fishing. My goal was to go salmon fishing when I got home for the summer.

[01:20] But unfortunately, it's not the right season for that.

[01:23] So one step up, because I wanted to have,

[01:25] you know, photographic evidence, obviously, of my big catch.

[01:30] And so, you know, when you go salmon fishing, you get your fixture, whatever. Sounds like great.

[01:34] I'm going to go out there, get my picture, get my fish,

[01:38] feed my family,

[01:39] you know,

[01:40] and make all the other sisters jealous. Yeah, wish they were here.

[01:45] Jan: Isn't that a sin?

[01:47] Sister Mercy: Anyway,

[01:48] so unfortunately, not salmon season, but better yet, sturgeon season.

[01:55] So me,

[01:57] my dad,

[01:58] the neighbors,

[02:00] got out there Friday morning ready for some sturgeon fishing. And let me tell you, I had no idea how big a surgeon was.

[02:08] He said, oh, it's like fighting a shark. You gotta do it. And I thought, huh?

[02:13] Fighting a shark,

[02:14] okay.

[02:15] You know, because when you're doing sand fishing, it's like, you know, it's, it's work, you know, it's effort, right? But, like, it's doable. Okay, you got some bruises, but it's doable.

[02:23] And this, let me tell you, it's like fighting a shark. The first one got up there. Logan got the first one.

[02:29] We're out on the boat anyway.

[02:31] Holy mackerel, it's alive.

[02:33] It's like the first. Okay, the only one, the smallest one we caught was about 2ft long. And that was the smallest one we caught. The rest of the were like five or six feet long.

[02:43] It's like when you're telling your fish joke and you're like, no, it was this long. No, it was this long. No, it was this long.

[02:48] Let me tell you,

[02:49] suckers are huge.

[02:51] Jan: How many did you catch?

[02:53] Sister Mercy: We caught seven total.

[02:55] But you can't keep them, so we threw them away. But I got my, my photo because Ernie was very kind. The one that I caught that was like two feet long and you go,

[03:07] it's like 45 minute battle to give thing on the boat. But then this one I was like, come on, I'm getting a photo. Okayt3:07t, A nun with a fish. Come on.

[03:13] So I got that sucker on there. I meaning Ernie, got it on me because I'm a. It was.

[03:18] Jan: Who's Ernie?

[03:20] Sister Mercy: The lovely neighbor who took me fishing. Thanks, Ernie and Logan,

[03:24] but manhandle that thing on there. And I said, can I grab it? And he said, sure.

[03:30] So I got my fish and I got my photo and then I had to let him back, but all right, well worth the fight. Well worth the fight.

[03:39] Jan: And where did you go fishing?

[03:40] Sister Mercy: We went out of Aldrich Point. So we went to the Columbia and we went by a bug hole.

[03:46] Jan: Okay.

[03:46] Sister Mercy: And then around the back of the islands.

[03:48] Jan: I don't know where it's going, so check one thing.

[03:51] Sister Mercy: I don't know if I can tell you where we went fishing. That might be top secret information.

[03:54] Oh, what if that's their secret fishing hole? We went on the Columbia river.

[04:03] Jan: And. Tell me about tractor driving.

[04:07] Sister Mercy: Well,

[04:08] let me tell you about tractor driving.

[04:10] Way back in the day before I entered the convent,

[04:13] I loved driving the tractor. And it was great. It was wonderful. It was the time of my life. Because who needs a roller coaster when you're on a tractor and you're going,

[04:23] you know, and your whole body's getting beat up and you're just really having a great time.

[04:27] But I mean, it's so peaceful, it's so relaxing. All you're doing is driving in circles all day. You're praying your rosary, you're praying your divine mercy chaplet. If there's anyone in the world you need to pray for, now is your time.

[04:40] You're contemplating life's deepest problems, really.

[04:44] And that was very good for me. I loved that. I enjoyed that. And then when I entered the convent, actually that first summer, I read a book on my friend, Blessed Stanley Rother,

[04:55] who we saw in Guatemala. Look him up. I don't know how you.

[04:59] Jan: There will be links in the show.

[05:01] Sister Mercy: Notes. That's the word. That's the word. Okay, but shortcut, short synopsis. What do you call that Cliff Notes version of his life? Basically,

[05:10] he's a priest who is from Oklahoma, and he's a farm kid like me.

[05:16] And he couldn't. He was, you know, real, not intelligent. And so he flunked out of.

[05:21] Jan: Like you.

[05:22] Sister Mercy: Yeah, exactly. He flunked out a seminary twice because he couldn't figure out languages. He couldn't learn philosophy, and he couldn't learn Latin.

[05:29] But eventually he got back into seminary, graduated, became a priest, and they were looking for people to go to go as missionaries to Guatemala. And so he volunteered. He went to Guatemala.

[05:41] And this man who was so dumb and couldn't learn any languages and couldn't learn philosophy or anything,

[05:46] he learned Spanish, and he learned the native language of Kiche,

[05:50] which he used to translate into the Gospels. He translated them because they didn't have a written form of the Bible in their Mayan language. And so he translated it. But the point of this story is.

[06:02] Point of this story.

[06:03] Back up. He died.

[06:05] Jan: Did he drive a tractor?

[06:06] Sister Mercy: Well, yes. Okay, so the point of the story is he. He died as a martyr. That's not the point of the story. He died as a martyr. He was shot. And,

[06:13] like, while he was celebrating. Anyway, point is.

[06:15] Point of the story is he is a farm kid from Oklahoma. And in this book, it talks about when he was growing up, how much he loved to drive his tractor, his dad's tractor, and mow the fields because he would just go in circles and pray the rosary.

[06:31] And I said, that's me.

[06:35] Jan: Okay, so you got two fish, you got two mo. Drive the tractor.

[06:42] Sister Mercy: Just need to get my real id and then.

[06:43] Jan: And now we just have your real ID because you want to travel, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did some traveling this summer?

[06:51] Sister Mercy: I did do some traveling this summer. Nothing too crazy, but. Well, okay, so during the school year, I live with approximately 29 other sisters.

[07:02] Jan: Approximately?

[07:03] Sister Mercy: Well, yeah, I can't count,

[07:06] but I'm pretty sure we're 30 in the house. Typically in a school year, I'm pretty sure we're 30,

[07:11] but so during the school year,

[07:14] we obviously, you know, school year. So we study and we teach catechism on the weekends and stuff. But in the summer, we kind of spread out and go crazy. So most of what we're doing is putting on,

[07:27] like, kids camps and oratories and, like, summer full of fun adventures or doing popular missions and, like,

[07:34] Knocking door to door and you know, all sorts of stuff like that.

[07:37] But at the end of the.

[07:40] So yeah, basically we're spread out all over. So this summer we had sisters in Canada,

[07:45] Arizona, California,

[07:48] Alaska, Suriname, Guyana,

[07:51] Maryland,

[07:52] Pennsylvania, New York,

[07:55] Texas,

[07:57] Minnesota and anywhere in between.

[08:01] But I went. My highlight so far was I went to Alaska for about two weeks and we put on a kids oratory which basically is like a kid's summer camp of just explosion of fun and goodness.

[08:18] So we play a lot of games. We have water balloon fights every day and except they're little Alaska kids. So they were like,

[08:26] it's so hot. It's so hot. It was like 70 degrees but the sun was out. So they were like,

[08:32] we need sunscreen. I've never been so hot in my life.

[08:36] But it was delightful. I had a grand time.

[08:39] We had. So we basically we play a lot of games, we have a lot of fun and we do like competition games and minute to win it games.

[08:48] And then we like break them off by age group and they have their lesson, they're like, you know,

[08:54] catechetical lesson that they're learning about. So this, we did it basically on like the story of looking at Christ throughout the Bible, specifically as savior and but like in age appropriate things.

[09:09] And then we had craft time and snack time and lunchtime and the brothers always come. So we, we're split. So we have are. We're religious families. We have sisters and we have brothers.

[09:23] Who are those?

[09:24] Jan: Why are you pointing at me?

[09:30] Sister Mercy: Well, we have.

[09:31] Jan: And you have brothers and you have.

[09:33] Sister Mercy: Some mothers who are going to be studying to be priests. So a handful of them came with us and they are well known for their. We call them de,

[09:43] but they're like really ridiculous skits that they put on for the kids after lunch.

[09:49] Yes.

[09:50] Jan: So that was a highlight.

[09:51] Sister Mercy: That was a highlight. And then we went to as part of this after the camp was over and we had ice cream every day because you know, which was also a highlight obviously.

[10:02] We went to Denali and we drove two hours to get there. We got out, we went on a tiny little mile hike and then we drove two hours back to get to our plane and we went gold mining.

[10:16] Jan: Yes. I was going to say you had.

[10:18] Sister Mercy: Another highlight for my birthday. Best day ever. Minus Christmas.

[10:22] We went on a little train. It's total tourist trap. 100% worth it.

[10:27] You get on your little train, you go around and there's the, you know, men and the women that are like dressed as old mine workers and they like explain everything, blah, blah, but the highlight of it,

[10:38] panning for gold to give you a little poke sack. And you go in there and you go.

[10:43] They teach you how to do it. And he has very specific, you know, worth the wait. Worth the wait. But I got 20 bucks in gold,

[10:50] which I gave to my dad for whatever purposes. It's probably in his drawer forever.

[10:56] Jan: Well, all right. That is an exciting time.

[11:00] Sister Mercy: Yeah.

[11:01] Jan: That's like a summer worth having.

[11:03] Sister Mercy: Yeah.

[11:04] Jan: And where are you?

[11:05] Sister Mercy: Next, I'm going to Vermont and New Hampshire to go hiking.

[11:10] Jan: And stay away from ticks.

[11:12] Sister Mercy: And stay away from ticks.

[11:14] Jan: Yeah. So how is the Lyme disease at this point?

[11:20] Sister Mercy: She's tired.

[11:21] Jan: Yeah. Okay, well, we'll stay. Stay away from Lyme. Lyme disease carrying ticks. Yeah, this time.

[11:28] Sister Mercy: But last year I saw a bear and a moose.

[11:31] Jan: Ooh.

[11:32] Sister Mercy: Yeah.

[11:32] Jan: Ooh. Ooh. Okay. All right.

[11:35] Sister Mercy: My prayer for the past three years.

[11:38] I want to be good. I want to be holy. I want to be saint.

[11:42] And I really, really, really, really want to see a moose. But, like, I want to see it. Not just like a glance, not just a drive by. I want to see it.

[11:49] Want to get a good look at it.

[11:52] Jan: And you did.

[11:53] Sister Mercy: I did. I did. We went on a midnight hike.

[11:55] Jan: It didn't happen because I didn't see any photos.

[11:57] Sister Mercy: Well, yeah, because there's a video. There's a very fantastic video of it somewhere by some sister.

[12:06] Jan: Somewhere who happened to have a cell phone.

[12:08] Sister Mercy: No, she had. She had. So she was in charge of taking pictures for the whole adventure. And none of us in the car knew that she was filming.

[12:15] So it's.

[12:17] I mean, it's really hilarious because it's. We didn't know she was filming and we were freaking out because there was a moose in front of us. But it's like, you know, a caravan of nuns in a line and their minivans.

[12:26] And we were going to a midnight hike because our mother's crazy and she wanted to see the sunset. Sunrise. Sunrise from the top of a mountain. And I said, I've always wanted to do this.

[12:36] Let's go.

[12:37] So we did it. But that means we went to bed at 10 o' clock and then woke up at 12 o', clock,

[12:43] I think.

[12:44] And so we get in the car. Boop, boop, boop, boop. And the native New Hampshireite. New Hampshire. New Hampshireite. The sister from New Hampshire that knows where she's going and planned the trip.

[12:53] We took a wrong turn.

[12:54] So we were the lead car in.

[12:56] Jan: The caravan who was supposed to know.

[12:58] Sister Mercy: Where she Was going. She was driving. It was the best. So it's like. I mean, we were, like, loopy because, you know,

[13:04] it can go two ways. You can either be ready to kill each other because you're exhausted, or you can be super loopy and everything's hilarious. And thankfully, it was that option.

[13:12] So we're driving,

[13:14] and she says, that looks like a man with a sweatshirt.

[13:18] That's the weirdest thing in the world. And she goes, it's a moose.

[13:23] Jan: A man with a sweatshirt.

[13:24] Sister Mercy: Turn. I don't know how you get from a man with a sweatshirt to a moose,

[13:28] but said moose. He was a grandpa moose. Okay, he was.

[13:31] I mean, I don't know.

[13:32] Jan: He had gray hair.

[13:33] Sister Mercy: Yeah, he had gray hair. He was old and massive, but, like, skinny, you know? Like, he just. I don't know. He looked like. He looked like a grandpa moose. Anyway,

[13:41] so we're in the first car in the thing, and it was like, I know, 20ft in front of us.

[13:47] So I'm. There's, driver, passenger, person,

[13:53] me,

[13:54] person.

[13:55] This person in the passenger seat is a sister from Guyana who basically doesn't speak really often at all. So if she does say something, it's significant, and it's hilarious because she has these little, like, side comments that, you know, you just kind of slip under there.

[14:09] And if you're not listening, you miss those hidden gems. So this, the entire time,

[14:13] this sister freaking out,

[14:15] it's gonna charge us. It's gonna break all the windows.

[14:22] Me,

[14:25] I prayed for this. Jesus,

[14:29] okay? This sister,

[14:31] he's majestic.

[14:33] This sister running commentary, filming the entire thing without us realizing it.

[14:38] This sister,

[14:40] the only word she said, the only thing she said was, at one point,

[14:46] the moose turned, looked at the car, and she said,

[14:50] oh,

[14:51] that's it.

[14:54] And the car is behind us. The caravan of guns behind us are flashing their lights. Flashing their lights, you know, because they're, like, trying to scare it. And, you know, the native, New Hampshire.

[15:01] I go,

[15:02] no, he's gonna freak out. He's still in a charge.

[15:06] And eventually,

[15:07] he just walked off the road. Oh,

[15:09] but we didn't die.

[15:11] Jan: You didn't answer.

[15:12] Sister Mercy: And I said, answers.

[15:14] Jan: So all of that to say, God answers prayers.

[15:17] Sister Mercy: He does.

[15:18] Jan: Right there.

[15:18] Sister Mercy: I also saw a baby right there.

[15:21] Jan: So during the year, you teach some classes. Tell us about that.

[15:27] Sister Mercy: I do.

[15:28] So during the school year, we have classes that we take from. From Monday during the school.

[15:34] The weekday we have. Monday through Friday, we take classes for just our studies that are a lot of.

[15:42] Mostly right now, it's a lot of philosophy and then some Latin, Spanish,

[15:48] a little bit of theology.

[15:50] But in the weekends we go to different churches around different parishes and we teach catechism to kids.

[15:58] So mostly what I've done the past few times has been first communion age kids or like pre communion. So like age 6 to 9 and that's like my realm. They like crafts, they like games, I can draw on the board and like teach a good lesson and they can follow and like,

[16:19] you know, they're crazy, but I'm crazy and it just works out. It's great, it's fun, it's a grand time.

[16:24] Teenagers, they can smell my fear.

[16:26] And I like, God help me because one day I'm going to be in the mission and I'm going to teach confirmation aged carols and I'm probably going to cry but like, you know, God gives the grace.

[16:38] So one day it's going to happen.

[16:40] Anywho, so this year I had on Sunday mornings I taught first communion age kids. So like 7ish years old.

[16:53] And they were cute and wonderful and great.

[16:55] But on Saturday,

[16:57] all day I taught at one of our parishes called St. James. And I call, I taught a program, it's called Don Yoki. And so it's named for a man who is a priest in Italy.

[17:07] And he.

[17:09] After World War II there were all of these children who had been harmed during the war, like had lost limbs or something due to mime's mine bombs, you know, like playing out in the field.

[17:20] Landmines. Landmines. Thank you. And so he, he did adaptive teaching things like he would like help them have prosthetics. Prosthetics or things like that would help them be able to go to catechism and learn about Jesus and receive his sacraments,

[17:34] but in an adaptable way so that they could participate.

[17:37] And so we have formed this program at this church which is really unique because it's the only one in the D.C. area that as far as I know that does this.

[17:46] And so it's teaching kids catechism with special needs.

[17:49] And so I had four kids.

[17:53] Kids, they're not really kids, some of them are kids. The so one girl and three boys. So the girl is 26 years old and she's kind of the mentality of like a 3 to 4 year old.

[18:04] Jan: Ish.

[18:05] Sister Mercy: She's mostly non verbal but she kind of has her own little like language like scissors. I don't know why, but this is scissors.

[18:13] She's adorable.

[18:14] And she's like, she's already received all your sacraments. She's already like, she's been confirmed, she's been baptized, she received first Holy Communion.

[18:21] But she's just there because she loves it. And she just, like, she just loves to play. She loves to be there.

[18:27] And then One boy who's 19 years old,

[18:31] he's absolutely adorable. So that the boys all have some. Some spectra. They're on the autism spectrum somewhere.

[18:39] And so One boy is 19 years old, and this was his first year coming. He had been when he was a little kid, but this he hadn't been for years and years and years.

[18:47] So he hadn't received a sacrament. So he was coming back.

[18:50] And he just adorable. Every day he wears sweatpants.

[18:57] And he has this, my favorite shirt of all time. Which is hilarious because his parents don't speak English.

[19:03] So for sure they like,

[19:05] probably don't know what this says,

[19:08] but it's just makes it even cuter, really.

[19:11] So he comes in and he has this T shirt that says world's best Grandpa.

[19:16] And he has his glasses,

[19:18] his. His shades, his cool shades, and his hat. He always has his beanie and he always comes in,

[19:25] always. This is his face.

[19:26] He has like, you know, he's like starting to grow a beard, but he's like a baby face. He's a. He's a little boy in a big man's body, you know, but he's just a hundred percent pure cute.

[19:36] And his response, he's just happy to be there. So his response to everything.

[19:41] His response to everything you say,

[19:43] hey, so we're gonna make flowers, okay? We're gonna do a big thing, like in Latina culture is doing processions, right?

[19:52] So we have an Anda. We have a statue of Mary, like, but a baby statue of Mary. Cause, you know, they're little.

[19:57] So I had this big thing planned. We have this little baby Onda. We have a little statue of Mary. We have the foam all around. So we're making this flower arrangement, making it really beautiful.

[20:06] And we're going to go out in the parking lot,

[20:08] pray the rosary around the parking lot. And my goal, I was like, listen, if I can get three Hail Marys out of this,

[20:15] I am good. Okay, I got this.

[20:18] And so he was the only kid that showed up for class that day. And so putting in the flowers and you say, okay, Wendell,

[20:26] do you think. How about this one? Do you think Mary likes yellow? Yeah, yellow sticks it in. How about red? Do you think she likes red? Yeah, red. Red.

[20:37] So by the end of this, I wish I had a picture of this. But by the end of it, the onda I mean, it was every bit as beautiful as I anticipated.

[20:44] It's like a daisy here, a tulip here, a rose here, you know, greens here. It's all over the place.

[20:49] Jan: It's wildflowers.

[20:50] Sister Mercy: It is, it's wildflowers. But I was like,

[20:52] honestly,

[20:53] it's beautiful. Like, any mom's little heart is just gonna melt seeing that. Like, I am absolutely positive that Jesus and Mary loved it. And I just really, everything that they do, I just really think I'm like, you are just melting that little heart right there.

[21:07] Like, who can say? I think they really, truly, like, I think they are an elevator straight to God's heart. Like, because they're so pure, they're so innocent. And like, what's your job in life?

[21:16] Just be adorable.

[21:18] Like, to be, like, to receive God's love and bring other people to him. Like experiencing you is experiencing Christ.

[21:27] That's it.

[21:28] Jan: Yeah.

[21:28] Sister Mercy: Like, he's. They're just pure love.

[21:31] And so the other two boys, my lovely mom, she got us a CD player for class.

[21:40] And so part of,

[21:42] part of the CD player is real cheesy, like, you know, Christian Bible story, kids songs, whatever. And so there's two CDs that she got, but the boys only like one CD.

[21:53] And so every time they get real excited about whose turn it is to put the thing in. But let's be honest, we don't really have turns. We just kind of go back and forth, back and forth.

[21:59] Take it in, put it up, take it and put it out. Take it in, put it out. And at first one of the boys,

[22:04] he would, he would listen to the song and he would do this, you know,

[22:08] like hands over his head, rocking back and forth. And I thought, oh man, is like overstimulating. He doesn't do the,

[22:14] the music.

[22:15] But then after I realized he likes it because that was like his happy. So he would like, he doesn't really like, smile so much. He's just like,

[22:23] he would go over when he'd slide over and then repeat,

[22:27] repeat. So I can't tell you how many songs, how many times I've heard track 18,

[22:33] Onward Christian Soldiers,

[22:38] over and over and over again. And then it ends,

[22:40] Repeat,

[22:41] repeat. And the whole time, I'm a big boy, I can do it. I'm a big kid, I can do it. It's just like, they're so cute. We also have a puppet show.

[22:50] So the brother that's in the class with me, he is a seminary and he's in school to become a priest. And so the two of us are in this class together.

[22:58] And he made the amount of things. Let me tell you the amount of things I can do with hot glue and cardboard.

[23:05] I am my mother's kid. And everything else, I take after my dad, okay?

[23:10] But this, I am my mother's kid.

[23:11] Jan: Your dad can drive a tractor.

[23:13] Sister Mercy: Yeah, that's why I can. I take after my dad in my thing. Anyway, point of the story is he made this awesome Don Yoki Productions theater.

[23:22] It has a light,

[23:23] like. It has this little, like a lamp reading light. So you can press the light on. It turns on. He painted the whole thing. And it has a trash bag, a black trash bag for the backdrop.

[23:33] So you can go behind the table. You put on the table, go behind it. You put your little puppet hand up. Put your little puppy.

[23:39] We did puppet shows of, like, saint stories, Bible stories, whatever. But my mom and I,

[23:45] we made.

[23:46] Over Christmas, we made little outfits, little costumes, you know, so they have like a little, you know, they could be little Mary, little Mary Magdalene, it could be Jesus, Peter, the other apostles, whatever, and their little outfits.

[23:56] But I mean,

[23:58] they. They're.

[23:59] They're abs. It's so cute. And they get so excited. They.

[24:04] And one little boy, he gets. He.

[24:06] Whenever he gets really excited, he like kind of clenches up and curls up in the fetal position on his back and just rocks. And it's the cutest. I absolutely. I love it.

[24:15] My favorite, favorite day, though, was there was one day. They're never all there at the same time. Like, one doesn't show up, one shows up, whatever.

[24:22] That's one day. They were. All four were there. And we were getting ready for Advent. It was right before Easter. And so I was doing a lesson on Advent before Easter,

[24:32] Advent before Christmas.

[24:35] Jan: Even I know that.

[24:38] Sister Mercy: Okay, so we're doing this lesson on the annunciation. So it's like the angel Gabriel is coming to Mary to say, you're going to be the mother of Jesus, right?

[24:48] And so it's. We had made this very simple song of Mary saying yes. Like, yes to being the mother of Jesus, right?

[24:57] So you do the lesson. We do a little craft, whatever. And then we got these water bottles and we made maracas. So I put rocks in them. And then they gotta decorate their.

[25:05] Their little shaker, right? So it's to the fr. It's to the tune of Frere Jacques. So it's. Mary said yes. Mary said yes. And I don't remember the rest, but the point is it's cute.

[25:16] So they loved it. They loved it. All four of them. They, I mean, it's like just giant smiles. Just.

[25:26] Yes. And they're rolling on their backs and just giggling. Go find. Like, you cannot help but just experience their joy. Like, absolutely.

[25:36] It's so, so contagious. I had to leave. I said, okay brother, you're in charge, I gotta go. And I left and I ran down the hall to the office and I said, listen, whoever's in here, come down to my room right now.

[25:45] I don't care what you're doing, but if I'm down my room now, as they came down to watch them and they did their little concert for them every time.

[25:54] But they're, I mean, they're just,

[25:57] they're so stinking cute.

[25:59] Jan: I think that's right where you're supposed.

[26:00] Sister Mercy: To be whatever God wants. But it, I'm just, I really am. So every day I would leave class and I just, I was like, there's so many times I just, like, I felt like I was just on the verge of tears because it's like why I did not deserve these kids.

[26:19] Like, I, there is nothing that I did that I deserve to be here in this class with these kids. Like they, I am so, so, so blessed to be able to be with them and to experience them and to be the one that like helps them experience Jesus and helps them know Christ better.

[26:40] They're just.

[26:42] Yeah.

[26:43] Jan: Well, do you think maybe that's why Jesus said let the children come to me because he wanted to be around them?

[26:49] Sister Mercy: They really aren't. One time we hopped the rosary.

[26:52] So we made, we made this big. I made a huge,

[26:55] like the room is quite,

[26:58] I mean, it's quite, it's. It's a very large classroom. It is super fun because it's all these like adaptable things for the kids. So it's like a little mini mascot, a little mini taborium, a little mini like everything, you know.

[27:10] So I made a huge, huge, huge life size rosary.

[27:15] So each little bead, I made a big bead for each little prayer, said the prayer on it and it covered the entire room.

[27:22] And then at the very end I had a huge, huge, huge cardboard box crucifix that I made.

[27:28] And so we were praying the rosary and the one little boy, like, he's got it, nailed him,

[27:35] but he's, you know, got it. And the other boy,

[27:40] you know, all over the place. And so he said, boy, do you think we can hop it? Do you think we want to hop the rosary? And so we, we'd say, okay, we'd pray the prayer.

[27:49] We'd Hop on the beat. And then we'd hop to the next beat and pray, talk to the next be. Talk to the next be.

[27:54] We did, we did,

[27:56] we did the Sea of the Cross. So before Easter, we did. For Holy Week, we did a living Stations of the Cross. So I found these really beautiful images for each station of like, you know, Jesus condemned to death all the way through the burial of Jesus, right?

[28:12] So each little station along the way, and I hid them throughout the building.

[28:17] And I, I made a crown of thorns.

[28:20] I got the boys costumes, and then I made a huge. This huge cardboard crucifix.

[28:26] And I. Part of the most fun thing for them was being able to find, to look, to see, to see where the next station was. It was like a little Easter egg hunt for, you know, but so they're all dressed up.

[28:38] And I said, I said, seriously, do you think, you think you can be Jesus for me?

[28:42] Yeah.

[28:43] Yeah, I think I could do that.

[28:45] Yeah.

[28:46] So he was dressed up and his clothes are falling. I mean, at every station we're like, you know, re putting your costume back on. And also only the boys showed up.

[28:54] So we had to have a boy like, you know, play Veronica and play the Weeping Women or whatever. But it was really, I mean, they really,

[29:02] they really loved it. One of the boys who's the most like,

[29:06] special,

[29:07] we got to the crucifixion and he,

[29:10] he just imitated it. He went up to the cross and he. He saw, you know, the picture of the image of Jesus on the cross and he just went up and went.

[29:20] Which is really spread his arms and. Yeah. So then we had,

[29:25] a couple weeks later, we had. We have a huge, like life size cross and someone brought it to the classroom to like, show them, like, you know, this is, this is what the real cross probably looked like.

[29:36] This is, you know, like Jesus died on the cross and he did the same thing. He went right up to it.

[29:41] He extended his arms, he put his arms on the cross and stood there. And then just.

[29:48] It was really.

[29:49] It was really.

[29:50] Jan: I would have cried.

[29:51] Sister Mercy: Yeah, it was, it was really. It was the other sister whose class had come down.

[29:55] I mean, she really, like, she, she was so moved by it because she really, she's like, you know, you talk about them all the time and you, you know, say how much you love them.

[30:03] Obviously you love them so much and it's so great and you love your class.

[30:06] But like, seeing him and seeing that in person,

[30:08] it was, I mean, it was really moving for her, but also for her class that had Come because they were teenagers.

[30:13] And so having these kids that came down to,

[30:19] you know, see these boys with special needs and to help them and, you know.

[30:23] Jan: Yeah.

[30:23] Sister Mercy: Witness that.

[30:24] Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because all life is precious.

[30:29] Sister Mercy: It really that. I mean, the dignity of the human person, really.

[30:31] Jan: Yeah.

[30:32] Sister Mercy: It's like you. You can't deny that. You cannot look at them and deny that you can't.

[30:37] Jan: Yeah. Yeah. So what is this upcoming year? What's God in store for you?

[30:45] Sister Mercy: Who knows?

[30:48] Jan: God only knows.

[30:50] Sister Mercy: More classes, more adventures. Still trying to learn Spanish.

[31:03] Jan: And. Okay, well, that was entertaining. Yep. Definitely a nun having fun.

[31:12] Sister Mercy: That's what I'm here for.

[31:13] Jan: Nuns having fun, so. Well, thank you, Sydney, for joining me for this. Oh, excuse me. Thank you, Sister Mercy.

[31:24] Sister Mercy: You have to do a little editing.

[31:25] Jan: Here,

[31:26] joining me for this episode and.

[31:30] And enlightening us on things that a day in the. A day in the life and the things that are not just serious.

[31:40] Maybe. Maybe putting aside some preconceived notions about what nuns.

[31:46] Sister Mercy: You should see us play Whack a Mole on a weekend. You know what Whack a Mole is?

[31:51] Yeah. It's not what you think it is. It's a great game. It's a fantastic game. Y' all get in a circle, you pop up. Person in the middle has a pillow, you know.

[31:58] Oh, And. And then they say a name and this person walks up. And if they don't say another name before they sit down.

[32:04] Jan: Oh, this is sound like a little vicious.

[32:09] Sister Mercy: Come to the convent on Friday night.

[32:12] Jan: Okay.

[32:14] All right. Well, it looks like God takes the gifts that he knows that are within us and places us in places.

[32:21] Places us in places where we can use those gifts. Where he thinks that you're most needed.

[32:27] Sister Mercy: Amen.

[32:28] Jan: Right. Okay. Thank you.

[32:31] Sister Mercy: Thank you.