Sister Sarita Cordova "Suffering - I hate it. My vestibule for suffering is very limited... But suffering leads to growth. Then more suffering and more growth. I wish God would think of another pattern!"

“Suffering – I hate it. My vestibule for suffering is very limited. I once asked a priest about this “weakness”. He told me, “God will be gentle with you and your suffering will be short.” That may or may not be so, except God has always been gentle with me. Still in the admonition and thoughts that followed, I came to an awareness that the Magnificat, Mary’s prayer in the Gospel of Luke, held a wisdom about suffering. There are many ways of suffering and we set ourselves up for some of these when we imagine we are superior or when we let our thoughts confuse us.

“Then I think of Mother Seton’s suffering in the Lazaretto, her husband’s death and her distance from home. All that brought her to the Church and to devotion to the Eucharist and to founding the Sisters of Charity. Then more suffering and more growth. I wish God would think of another pattern!

“St. Paul understood that suffering and death are essential to the birth of love. Here I am in this beautiful place with all these truly wonderful Sisters and these advantages. Will these make me strong enough to love? I hope so!”

Sister Sarita Cordova entered the Community in 1931 from Alameda, New Mexico. She taught Latin and Spanish to high school students for more than 40 years. In her retirement at the Motherhouse she has taught Spanish to continuing education students from the College of Mount St. Joseph Lifelong Learning program.

back to top