WINTER PARK | Servant of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary Sister Mary Rachel Hart grew up in the Clearwater/Safety Harbor area. The eldest of three children, she said, “I wanted to be about 20 different things when I grew up, a nun was one of them.”

But as time passed, she changed her mind thinking the Lord was calling her to married life.

While studying aerospace engineering at the University of Florida, she grew in her faith, but still never imagined being called to religious life until she attended a retreat.

“There, the Lord revealed His love to me in such a way that I knew that was what He wanted of me,” Sister Hart said. “I wanted to respond to Him with my whole heart. In that moment, it came as a surprise, and it changed my views of what I thought of life and all my own plans. But I can say that the Lord’s plan is better than anything I could ever have dreamt for myself.”

As she discerned the order God desired for her, she planned to visit the motherhouse of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Just before going, she met foundress, Mother Adela Galindo. Although Sister Hart knew the charism was important, Mother Galindo explained a charism is “like a seed in our hearts and the community is the soil where that’s going to grow the best.”

Sister Hart said visiting the order “felt like a coming home.”

“I know people always say that, but it really spoke to my heart more than anything I ever heard before,” she added. “We are called to offer our lives in love and consolation to the pierced hearts of Jesus and Mary, and we have a uniquely Marian charism. We’re called to be a living image and presence of the heart, person and mission of Our Lady because she’s the one who consoled the heart of Jesus the most. We’re called to live for the reign of their love (that of Jesus and Mary).”

After professing vows in January 2018, she served in campus ministry in Illinois, and then in the Diocese of St. Augustine, caring for students in the Jacksonville area. The past few years she served as a formator of postulants in Miami. Sister Hart arrived in Orlando in August 2024 and is serving in campus ministry at Bishop Moore Catholic High School with fellow Sister Kristi Bergman until Cristo Rey Catholic School opens next year.

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, October 31, 2024