July 28, 2015
By Liz Dossa
Sister Taryn Stark’s dark eyes glowed with excitement as she talked several weeks before her perpetual profession ceremony. She had prepared for seven years for this day when she would profess perpetual vows—the final step in becoming a Sister of Mercy.
Looking back, her steps toward religious life seem clear and direct. She knew the Mercy Sisters as a young child when her mother, Ruth, a graduate student at the time, was close friends with them. She was baptized at the convent chapel in Burlingame, California, during the Mass when her mother became a Catholic in 1978.
As her mother traveled the world working for the World Health Organization and Catholic Relief Services in Fiji, South Africa and Peru, she always sought out the Sisters of Mercy. Ruth shared a sense of community and vision with the sisters. This example of trying to serve the world’s most needy deeply impressed Taryn. “I grew up with a mother who taught me to treat every creature on earth with respect, all people, even if I have been mistreated by them. Even the spider which might have bitten me.” Read More