Sister Mary Mark Mahoney taught elementary school for more than 35 years, and even helped start a house of prayer. But the 100-year-old Religious Sister from Minnesota will tell you that writing to death row inmates for the past 16 years is “the best thing I ever did.”  “I don’t ask what they did,” Sister Mary Mark explains.  Nor does she condone their actions. “I let them know that we are all God’s children,” she says, “and I remind them that God loves us no matter what.” 

Sister Mary Mark suspects that most on death row have nobody communicating with them.  “So somebody who takes the time to communicate with somebody like that will be, I think, rewarded in heaven,” she adds.

In our own lives, we need to remember that our Lord’s love is for all people – including those we may judge unworthy. 

         Beloved, let us love one another.  (1 John 4:7)

 Forgive me the wrong I do, Father, as I forgive my neighbor.