September 6, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jennifer Roseman, Director of Communications & Development
(509) 474-2395 or (509) 994-5032
For photo availability, contact Jennifer Roseman
Sister Margarita Hernandes began investigating in 2001.
She has joined Vilma Franco in Santiago, Chile, where both are making their canonical novitiate, courtesy of the Provincial Council of Bernarda Morin Province.
Margarita was born in November 1980 in Puerto Parada, Usulutan, and moved with her family to La Papalota when she was 10, seeking to escape from the civil war’s conflict and fear. She felt her life change when she met her new neighbors in her small village in 1995. “God, who is Providence, came to me,” she says. The Sisters of Providence had arrived and they lived right in front of her home.
She and her older sister Rosa became involved in catechetical programs and youth groups, as well as liturgy preparation and dance groups. The sisters invited Margarita to think about religious life. In 2001, she participated in a “Come and See” experience and the following year began a longer living experience with Sisters Maria Antonieta Trimpay and Monica Campillay.
Margarita was received as a postulant in September 2002, with her father, brothers and sisters at her side. Her mother had died earlier that year. During the postulant stage of formation, she hoped to be able “to be well formed in order to serve others and in order to become a Sister of Providence, with all the lovely and difficult moments that might bring.”
Initially, she feared that she would not make it into the community. She no longer fears this, but does question her own ability to be open in the process of formation. She says the thing that has helped most in her discernment process is “accompaniment by a spiritual director and my own personal prayer.”