Sister Solina Hicks Celebrates 100

E-mail Print PDF

Staff_and_sr_solina

Sister Solina Hicks celebrated her 100th birthday on Oct. 25 at Mercy Convent in Chicago. After enjoying the party, which included four cakes, family and lots of friends and an oversized pair of glittery glasses, she said, “This is how the party is going to be in Heaven.”Work_of_Sr._Solinasm

After 10 years of teaching in the Chicago Catholic schools, her study at the Art Institute in Chicago and at Siena Heights University for an MFA led to her life work as an art teacher and a working artist. Solina designed and was the chairperson of the art department in 1954 at what was then Saint Xavier College. For 10 years she was its sole faculty member.

After leaving Saint Xavier University in 1965, Solina opened an art department at a New York university, spent a summer in Paris, and almost 20 years on an Indian reservation.  At a retrospective show of her art at SXU in 2010, when asked what inspired her as an artist, she said, “I can only be me. I can try to be what you want of me, but I can only be me.”

Read more »
 

Sister Develops Taizé App

E-mail Print PDF

taize_app_icon A new app for prayer is now available to download on smartphones for free. Graphic designer and artist Sister Genemarie Beegan realized that those attending the long-running Taizé services in the Mercy Chapel in Burlingame, CA, could use an app in the dark. They could scroll through the songs and prayers on their lighted screens instead of using flashlights to peer at paper copies. Anyone could use the prayers and songs to create their own Taizé service anywhere.

Through trial and error and with the help of iBuildApps website, Genemarie had created an app for her ministry, Misericordia Home in Chicago. She was inspired to build one for Mercy Burlingame. “This free app encourages young people to connect with the Taizé France site, access the music of the prayer services and link to Mercy Center's other events,” she said. Sister Suzanne Toolan, who began Taizé in Burlingame in 1982, and current director Sister Jean Evans email Genemarie the music and prayer in advance, so the site extends for months ahead. Genemarie is elated that by mid-October 550 people from all over the world had downloaded the site.

Read more »
 

Sister Laurentia Cerovac Marks 105 years

E-mail Print PDF

sister_laurentia_105

Sister Laurentia Cerovac has a large, loving family that gathers at Mercy Villa in Omaha every year to celebrate her birthday. This year, about 20 family members came to share cake and ice cream with her on Oct. 29.

The American flag had 45 stars when Laurentia was born in Omaha on Oct. 29, 1907. Five states (Arizona,Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska) had not yet been admitted to the Union. At that particular time, Iowa, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

Sister Laurentia entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1925. She taught primary grades for more than 55 years, having served in Omaha and Friend, NE; Des Moines, IA; Kansas City and Marshall, MO; and Springer, NM. She has spent the majority of her life in Omaha. She retired in 1974, but in 1977 she began tutoring and visiting the sick. She retired again in 1986 but six years later returned to her tutoring and visiting duties. Her ministry now is one of prayer. Her favorite rosary is always in her hands. She has time, though, for the weekly bingo game at Mercy Villa, at which she often wins!

Also, while she admits to not knowing a touchdown from a strikeout, she faithfully wears her Nebraska Cornhusker sweatshirt on game days.

When asked at her party how old she is, Laurentia smiled and said, “29!"
 
Page 5 of 30
« Go Back
 
donate button web

Featured Video

CharismVideo

Mercy Story

  • An interest in brushes and canvas
    After Sister Sherry Dolan completed three years on the Regional Community Leadership Team in Burlingame in June 2008, she took up her brushes, oils and canvas. Painting offered a welcome respite from the structured, left brain world of planning and organizing.
    Read more...