The Faces of Mercy

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Sister Mary Jean of North Carolina, via Martha's Vineyard, Mass. She's preparing to lead a decade of the Rosary in French from the field altar, just before Mass begins. I'm a widowed nun in an order of widowed nuns. We pray for priests, and we're getting ready to open up a couple homes for retired priests who don't have a home to go to. In September they're sending me to Molokai to take care of some of the orphaned children. I went there awhile back and it changed my life. Over the years, I worked for the federal government, in the Forest Service, and I was with the American Red Cross, too. So you lead a very boring life? Is that what you're trying to tell me? (Laughs.) Never a dull moment. You got a hundred years to listen to my story? She's holding up a crucifix etched with the four vows of her order: Charity, chastity, obedience, and joy.