EXCLUSIVE | 'The Pursuit of Happiness': Oklahoma film festival features documentary on religious sisters beloved by community

A 20-minute documentary called “The Pursuit of Happiness,” which spotlights the ministry and prayer life of the Sisters of Mercy, saw unexpected success after it premiered this month in a secular film festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

The documentary’s spotlighted sisters, who are technically known as the Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, live out their charism of mercy particularly through education and health care, Sister Brigid Mary Meeks told Zeale News in a July 17 interview about the order and the new documentary. 

According to the Diocese of Tulsa, “The Pursuit of Happiness” was shown as part of a block of short films July 19 at the Circle Cinema Film Festival July 19. The festival celebrated art, media, and music for the local community, especially spotlighting Oklahoma stories. One such story has been unfolding for decades. 

Since 2003, the Sisters have served at the only lay owned Catholic hospital in the nation, St. Francis Health System in Oklahoma, according to Sister Meeks. 

The mission, she explained, “is to extend the healing presence and ministry of Jesus Christ in all that we do.” 

The hope of Manny Marquez, the videographer and Catholic filmmaker behind the documentary, was to fill the theater with Catholics and anyone else interested in learning more about religious life, according to the diocese. 

The outcome exceeded this hope: the screening sold out, and the film festival decided to host a second screening of the documentary at the Circle Cinema July  22. 

On July 20, Sister Brigid Mary Meeks of the Sisters of Mercy told Zeale News that the second screening sold out as well — and that a third showing had now been added to the lineup, premiering on an additional screen at the cinema July 22. 

The diocese celebrated the encore screening as “an inspiring afternoon at Circle Cinema celebrating stories of faith, courage, and hope.”

Sister Meeks told Zeale News in a July 17 interview that dozens of short films were approved for the festival, and that many people came specifically to see the film about the sisters. She attributed the turnout to what she described as “a deep mutual love” between the religious community and the St. Francis Health System where the Sisters serve. She noted that the St. Francis Health System is the largest employer in Oklahoma, with tens of thousands of employees. Those who worked in the health system “would be interested in this sort of video, of wanting to know their sisters [in] a deeper capacity,” she said. 

She added that the sisters are widely involved in the diocese as well, continuing, “Tulsa just has a beautiful community” marked by “a strong Christian environment” where friendships are widespread. Given the Sisters’ longtime presence in Tulsa, the community knows about them and is eager to learn more, according to Sister Meeks.

“And when word got out that there was something that might give a glimpse into this life that they might not ever get to see, and coming to the Mother House or being a part of it, they just were very attracted to it,” Sister Meeks said.

Unlike the pace of many stories, this documentary leaned into the contemplative rhythm of the Sisters’ life. Sister Meeks noted that the documentary, by focusing especially on their prayer life, communicates truth about the Sisters’ identity rooted in God’s love, not their work. 

“What was really important to us was being able to capture that we aren’t the work, and that our measure isn’t what we do,” she said. “But our measure is God’s great love and our union with that.” 

The film also depicts their ministry at St. Francis Health System and a local Catholic high school. Noting that “our prayer life really is our greatest work,” Sister Meeks emphasized that the video captures how their ministry flows from communion with God and how they return Him at the Mother House at the end of ministering. 

A fitting title amid the U.S.’ 250th anniversary

Sister Meeks, who helped develop the title of the film, also commented on the coincidence of the title of the film, which premiered amid the country’s 250th anniversary. Sister Meeks said she was inspired as she listened to Superior General Mother Mary Christa, the main interviewee in the film, speak not only about the order’s charism, but about ultimately the importance of the virtue of religion in human flourishing.” 

The theme of happiness, and the efforts to find it, recurred over and over as the superior general spoke, Sister Meeks said.

“It certainly wasn’t lost on us of what the true pursuit of happiness is,” she said, later recalling that St. Thomas Aquinas has described happiness as the attainment of the final end man is made for: God Himself. St. Thomas Aquinas outlined that power, pleasure, created goods, and fame “are too small for man,” and that “we’re destined to a bigger happiness” — union with God. She also referenced St. Augustine, who said “our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee, oh Lord.” 

How is mercy related to this pursuit of happiness? 

Mercy comes into the picture, Sister Meeks explained, as the fall of man severed that possibility of union with God. 

“All of us recognize that there are times where we long for the Lord or where we might even want to long for Him,” and the Lord responded “by giving Mercy Incarnate, and sending His Son to be the bridge on the cross for us,” Sister Meeks said, “to to be able to attain again divine union.”

The sisters’ living out of this mercy through their ministry is signified especially by a unique cross they wear as part of their religious habit, called a Mercy Cross. She explained it is outlined with black and has white in the center. 

“The black signifies the misery of mankind,” she said, “and the white is the radiant mercy of God that comes and penetrates into that misery and redeems it, and in a sense redefines it for His glory.”

There is no corpus on the cross, she added, “because the sister is meant to be that corpus, bringing the mercy of God to the misery of mankind.”

Historical connection of the sisters to U.S. history 

The sisters’ ministry has grown across numerous states. Sister Meeks explained that the order has 21 convents, 16 domestic and five internationally. Originally established in 1831 by Mother Catherine McAuley, who is now Venerable, the Sisters of Mercy came to the U.S. by the late 1840s. Since then, the order has founded more schools in the U.S. than any other religious order, according to Sister Meeks. 

She explained that the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, was founded following a renewal that started in 1973, when the Superior General of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of the Americas commissioned seven sisters to participate in an experimental community to live out essential elements of religious life. Over time, the community grew and lived out the charism of mercy in a way distinct from the rest of the Sisters of Mercy. The Vatican determined that the community should be established as a distinct Institute of Pontifical Rite.

Along with ministry in Tulsa, the sisters operate their own medical clinic in Alma, Michigan, that serves the impoverished. She noted that they serve those with or without insurance and that “the door is open,” and patient capacity is currently high. In Tennessee and Missouri, the sisters also have delegated ministries for mobile medical clinics. 

Reflecting again on the timing of the film, Sister Meeks said, “Here we are with this new video, as a uniquely American foundation, and in a real way, even before we were refounded in the United States, the Sisters of Mercy have done so much for this nation and been such a beautiful daughters of American patriotism.” She noted that the order ministered during the Civil War, even earning recognition from Abraham Lincoln in his journal entries. Moved by the witness of the sisters’ virtue and charity in serving wounded soldiers, the president even had a painting commissioned of their work, according to Sister Meeks. 

The film “was our own little patriotic contribution, not intentionally but just a recognition in coincidences of the Lord and His providence,” she remarked, “of tossing out an idea of what the pursuit of happiness is really all about.”