Catholic Poetry

THE SISTER OF MERCY

By Author Unknown

 She shares in the hopes of those who sow,

In the gladness of those who reap;

She smiles for the joys that the joyful know,

And she weeps with those who weep.

She prays for the living—she prays for the dead;

She joins in the children’s fun;

And grief-worn hearts have been comforted

By the words of the gentle nun.

And a queen might envy her peaceful smile

Of radiant and deep content,

That tells how duty and love the while

In her life and heart are blent.

She walks in the path she chose in youth,

With never a thought for earth;

Bright in her holiness—grand in her truth;

Light in her innocent mirth.

In her Master’s vineyard with willing hand

She toils from dawn to gray,

And well for her when she shall stand

At His right on judgment day.

Kathleen Healy, R.S.M., ed., Sisters of Mercy: Spirituality in America, 1843-1900 (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 308.