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Welcome, Sister Caritas!
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October 19, 2023The position was vacant for a few months – now the Diocese of Corpus Christi has a new Youth Minister: Sister Maryam Caritas Sparke, SOLT has started her new job.
Youth Ministry has a special place in her heart – it was a Youth Retreat that sparked her love for Jesus. Originally from Troy, Ohio, she grew up as the youngest of 12 children: “My mother always wanted 12 children,” she said. Her family were all Catholic, but her mother passed away when she was eight years old: “That severed my relationship with God for some time – I was angry and upset.”
In High School, she participated in a retreat done by people from the Franciscan Steubenville. “They were so happy, and I was not,” she said. During a moment of adoration, she felt Jesus was knocking at her heart, saying, “Let me in.” “It changed my life.”
She immediately wanted other young people to have this experience, too, and so she became a youth minister for middle schoolers. Throughout her journey, she was always involved in Youth Ministry. In college, she met other members of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT), and she felt attracted to religious life. After discerning and joining for one year their mission in North Dakota, she joined the SOLT sisters in 2005 at the age of 20.
After her formation period, she lived for eight years in New Mexico and then for six years in Corpus Christi, teaching at Saint John Paul II High School and working as a youth minister at Christ the King Parish.
Sister Caritas is full of energy and hopes to get to know many teens in the Diocese: “I’d love to be part of their journey and accompany them,” she says.