Sister Lourdes Fernandez, M.M. celebrated her 50th Golden Jubilee on Sunday, September 24 in the Main Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center..
Sister Lourdes was born and raised in Ramon, Isabela of Northeast Luzon in the Philippines. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Saint Rita’s College in Manila, Philippines. Before entering the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation in 1967, she was a teacher for two years in the Philippines at La Salette Elementary School and at the Maryknoll Grade School.
Sister Lourdes’s first mission assignment was in Hawaii, where she taught grade school at Saint Ann’s School in Kaneohe from 1969-1971. She was then assigned to Hong Kong in 1971, where she was a teacher for special needs students at Meng Tak School. From 1974-1985, she served as the Co-Founder and Director of the Workers Formation Program for industrial workers at the Kwun Tong Pastoral Center in Hong Kong. The program offered social, cultural, educational and spiritual services to youth in the workforce. From 1986-1991, she was a teacher at the Asian Workers Exchange in Hong Kong.
In 1991, Sister Lourdes returned to the Maryknoll Sisters Center in the U.S. and worked as a journalist, photographer, graphic artist and filmmaker in the Maryknoll Sisters Communications Office until 1994. In 1995, she was assigned to Albania to do pastoral work, where she made home visits to families in need.
In 2014, Sister Lourdes was assigned to the Vocation Ministry Team of the Congregation based in the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary in Baguio City, Philippines. Today, she still serves on the Vocation Ministry Team.
“I can say my Golden Jubilee is truly a Celebration of God’s Love.”-Sister Lourdes Fernandez