Sister Celia: 50 years of nourishing bodies and souls

Sister Celia Hernandez, MJMJ has worked 12-hour days for many years as a cook and cleanup crew all rolled-into-one. Now, at the age of 80 she is tired and her feet and knees hurt. A few months ago she was able to slow down to about a 4-hour day, but the "little ones" and the staff still depend on her quietly working in the background at The Ark Assessment Center and Emergency Shelter for youth.

Sister Celia celebrated her Golden Jubilee with her congregation, the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on Aug. 23 in the chapel at Mount Thabor Convent.

One of eight children, she was born in May 1934 to Felipe and Rosa Hernandez in Durango, Mexico. Her family included four boys and four girls who lived on a ranch with 25 other families. She was baptized Catholic, but "because the ranch was too far away from the city, they could not attend Mass every Sunday," she said.

Everyone on the ranch prayed together. They did not have phones back then, so when someone made a new rosary or they wanted to celebrate a Holy Day, "firecrackers would alert the ranchers that it was time for prayer and a family would give a supper," she said.

She received her confirmation when she was just two-years-old. She said when she was little the priest held Mass, baptisms, blessings and confessions all in the same visit.

In March 1955 Sister Celia went to live with her aunt in El Paso and began volunteer work at Sacred Heart Church, going from house to house, taking children to Mass.

She then started work as a cook with the Sisters of St. Joseph who were also at Sacred Heart in El Paso. A turning point in her life happened when she accepted an invitation to join the sisters for prayer and adoration during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. She had a spiritual experience and she spoke to God in prayer saying, "I want to serve you all the days of my life, but?" she said, "as a good Catholic--not as a nun."

Two years later she asked to join the Sisters of St. Joseph. "They were very kind," she remembers, but they encouraged her to join a different congregation. They told her it would be difficult to learn English and she should, "pick sisters who spoke her own language," she said.

Later she joined the Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (MJMJ) in El Paso and entered the convent as a postulant in June 1962. She received her habit the following year. After discerning for a year she took her First Vows on Aug. 23, 1964 and her congregation assigned her to Corpus Christi in September the same year as head cook for the Corpus Christi Minor Seminary. Six years later, in 1970, she became a United States citizen.

Two of Sister Celia's "boys", Msgr. Michael Howell and Msgr. Roger Smith, concelebrated her jubilee Mass. Mary Cottingham, South Texas Catholic

She cooked for 150 youth who attended the all-male school and the priests and nuns who staffed the facility. Sister Milagros Tormo, MJMJ remembers Sister Celia "begging the staff to give up some of their own food, so she could give it to the boys who were still hungry."

"When they were hurt, hungry or sick they came to me. I was there mama," Sister Celia said.

Six sisters worked at the seminary. "We cleaned, cooked, washed. I was the main cook and I made everything from scratch. I learned a lot," she said.

In the evenings she would visit the Incarnate Word of the Blessed Sacrament Convent and learn English with Sister Kathleen McDonagh, IWBS who she remembers fondly also gave "her religious classes."

"I read my first books in English--the missal and the cookbook. It was very hard work, but I was very happy," she said.

She fondly remembers several of the boys who later became priests, monsignors and bishops, including Father James Harris, Msgr. Lawrence White, Bishop James Tamayo, Msgr. Mark Chamberlin, Father Bob Dunn, Msgr. Michael Heras, Msgr. Michael Howell, Msgr. Louis Kihneman III, Father John McKenzie, Msgr. Richard Shirley, Msgr. Roger Smith, Father James Stembler, Msgr. Leonard Pivonka and many who now serve in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

Sister Celia believes in the power of prayer, whether for good or ill. In a hushed voice she speaks of a day in 1970 when she was very angry with members of her congregation--so angry in fact that when Father John Walsh, SJ walked in on her while she was making a racket in the kitchen he wanted to know what had made her so mad. "I asked God to send us a good wind to shake us, but I spoke to him in Spanish, so he didn't understand me," she said.

After the outburst she remembers taking a long nap and when she awoke so did Hurricane Celia. "I didn't tell anyone about it for 20 years," she confessed.

When the minor seminary had to close in the early 1980s, Sister Celia went to work in El Paso for a daycare center run by the Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph where she cooked for nine more years.

Afterwards she asked permission from her Mother Superior to take time away to care for her mother in Mexico, who was dying of cancer. After her mother's death she came back to Corpus Christi and cooked for troubled young girls in the Catholic Charities' New Life Program, under the auspices of Msgr. Robert Freeman, who was director of Catholic Charities at that time. The program helped girls ages 13-17 from all over the diocese. They would spend every other weekend with the sisters of Mount Thabor Convent and Sister Celia cooked for them.

When The Ark opened 15 years ago, Sister Celia became head cook for the children and staff--cooking all three meals daily.

Today Sister Celia should feel satisfied. She has done her job well and will leave a legacy of nourishing bodies and souls.

To view photos from the Mass of Thanksgiving go to www.southtexascatholic.com/news/celia