As I begin this ministry as the Marymount alumnae chaplain, I will tell you a bit about myself and my hopes for working with you. I grew up in Stony Brook, N.Y., and attended Marymount College, graduating in 1962. In 1964 I entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. Since then I have worked as a teacher, pastoral minister, campus minister and an economic development worker in New York, Virginia, Colorado, Florida and Zimbabwe. Most recently I served on our Provincial Leadership Team from 2003 to 2009 after returning from six years serving in Zimbabwe, Africa.

I have great enthusiasm for sharing what is going on now in the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (R.S.H.M.). I have a particular interest in justice, peace and integrity of creation. We, the R.S.H.M., have recently taken a corporate stance to work to stop human trafficking in all its forms. We work together with 30 other religious congregations of women and men, and lay groups, in New York, as well as other groups across the country and in the rest of the world to stop this injustice. We have begun a study of the New Cosmology these past two years and this summer we will study religious pluralism, especially the Jewish and Muslim faiths.

This November I am in Rome, Italy, as member of the R.S.H.M. Volunteer Task Force exploring the possibility of creating an R.S.H.M. volunteer program of lay people to participate in our ministries around the world. Currently, the R.S.H.M. are located in Brazil, England, France, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Mozambique, Portugal, Scotland, United States, Wales, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Jesuits have had long experience in lay volunteer programs and we will seek the advice of many congregations and lay groups before starting this program.

I look forward to working with you all and hearing your suggestions and needs. Please contact me at (212) 636-6089 or at mpheyser@fordham.edu.

Mary Heyser, R.S.H.M.
Marymount Alumnae Chaplain