After spending an hour on the phone with Medicare, or a doctor’s office, or an insurance company, Sister Dolores hangs up the phone with a sigh and a fervent prayer, “Help me, Jesus.”

 It was an easy task for Sister Barbara Freemyer to move from the high school classroom to working with people who need a welcoming place to gather for quality education and therapy and to be treated with respect.

Sister René Bourque has much to celebrate this year, her 60th jubilee. Her earliest goals were to be a teacher and to be a nun, following happy examples of both in her family.

“I’ve been collecting cans for 20 years!” said Sister Rita Marie Brennan, a resident of Mercy Convent in Chicago. While it is true that recycling helps the environment, Rita Marie started her can collecting for a different reason: to help a young man in need.

Sister Mary Corkery had the distinct surprise of being invited to accompany Sister Kathy Thill, West Midwest Community ministry director, to Lima, Peru, Dec. 5–12, 2009.

After college, Rose Davis, then a young laywoman, chose to work as an office clerk in the insurance billing department at Mercy Hospital San Diego. She spent so many lunch hours in the chapel that Sister Mary Alma, head of the department, asked her if something was wrong. “I like to pray,” said Rose, then a recent convert.

Sister Maria Campos recently spent two months working with a Mayan cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. The cooperative was started two years ago thanks to a Mercy Action Grant.

Sister Margaret Quinn is pastoral assistant and music director at Saint Louis Church in Englewood, Colo. A former elementary and high school teacher, she also served as chaplain at Mercy San Juan Hospital in Carmichael, Calif. She moved to Denver in 1985 where her love of music and liturgy became the focus of her ministry.

Sister Regina Marie Doelker has been the President of Mercy High in Farmington Hills, Mich., for seven years, and she is proud of what Mercy High has accomplished this year. “We just renovated the science classrooms, and all four years of students have tablet PCs for their classroom and home use,” she said enthusiatically while walking the tidy halls of her beloved school.

Sister Marie Shefchik believed in the holy power of T’ai Chi (tie-chee) and practiced for years. The martial art is a peaceful set of slow and smooth movements, and to learn the art form, she traveled to China to experience the culture there.