It was just a simple question.

But it was the one question Sister Maria Glorina Jugo never expected: “Glorina, have you ever considered religious life?”

It was June 2000 and Sister Jugo, a member of St. John the Baptist Parish in Folsom, was fully engaged in a successful career in medicine.

“I was speechless,” Sister Jugo said. “It was the defining moment in my life.”

Mercy Sister Katherine Doyle, Sister Jugo’s spiritual director, said she asked the question because she saw in her directee a tangible “hunger for God.”

“It was so clear God was calling her to be of service,” said Sister Doyle, currently director of adult formation at Holy Spirit Parish in Sacramento. “A great sense of peace comes out of the center of one who stands in availability to God.”

Born in Dagupan City, northeast of Manila in the Philippines, Sister Jugo was the only child of devout Catholic parents.

By the age of four or five, she told her mother she was thinking of becoming a nun.

“While my parents did not express disapproval, no one encouraged me either,” Sister Jugo said. “I decided to forget the only dream I ever had.”

At the age of 16, after attending the Dominican School in Dagupan, she enrolled in the University of Santo Tomas, a Dominican college.

While completing a bachelor’s degree in medical technology and pharmacy, Sister Jugo participated in a medical mission to Manila’s inner city slums, her first encounter with abject poverty.

“It never occurred to me how poor people could be so poor,” she said. “I never forgot the experience.”

Following graduation from college, Sister Jugo worked as a medical technologist in New York City for six years prior to being hired by a Fortune 500 corporation in the health care industry.

In 1984 when a company transfer relocated Sister Jugo to Sacramento, she became actively involved in St. John the Baptist Parish, serving as a lector, eucharistic minister, member of the Cenacle Prayer Group, Bible study class, pastoral care program and prison ministry.

Father Ignatius Haran, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, said that Sister Jugo’s “absolute dedication to God” made her “a fantastic example for everyone.”

“She is an extremely spiritual and sincere person. God came first in her life and in everything she did,” Father Haran said. “When she proclaimed God’s message, everyone in church realized it was God’s word.”

St. John the Baptist parishioner Tess Poling said Sister Jugo made an immediate and profound impact on the church and its people.

“She was our teacher on questions of faith,” said Poling, a leader in the Cenacle Prayer Group. “We became family, spiritual sisters, we became that close.”

Both women were active in the Apostolate of Divine Mercy and a healing ministry, in which they visited the chronically ill in their homes.

“Somehow the Lord just sent people her way,” Poling said.

One of those people was parishioner Pedrito Rivera.

It was 10 years ago and Rivera had been diagnosed with stage four cancer of the nasal pharynx.

Sister Jugo and Poling stopped by the Rivera home to pray with the family, the first of many visits.

“Sister Glorina has the gift of wisdom and healing hands,” said Soledad Rivera, who believes she and her husband would not have been able to endure the pain accompanying endless chemotherapy and radiation treatments alone.

Ten years have now passed and Pedrito Rivera is cancer free.

“Sister Glorina taught us the Gospel message of love and peace and what suffering is all about,” Solidad Rivera said. “We both grew in our faith.”

Sister Jugo said that when her decision was made to become a woman religious, she began with the Dominican sisters who had been a big factor in her life.

She contacted Dominican Sister Paulina Hurtado, director of the permanent diaconate for the Diocese of Sacramento and a member of the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation.

“I found (the Dominican) motto is ‘veritas’ (truth). They love and seek the truth,” Sister Jugo said. “It fit me since I consider myself a seeker.”

Sister Hurtado said what she immediately saw in Sister Jugo was “a very authentic person who wanted something where she could be totally given.”

On Oct. 14, Sister Jugo made her first profession of religious vows as a Dominican Sister of the Presentation at the Dominican Sisters’ provincial house in Dighton, Mass.

“It was a leap of faith and total trust in God that made me able to do what I did,” Sister Jugo said.

The Dominican Sisters, an international religious order, have approximately 2,800 sisters engaged in diverse ministries including health care, education, pastoral care and social services.

Among those just beginning their journey with the Dominican Sisters is Mauricia Burke, a member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Sacramento, who recently joined the religious community.

As for Sister Jugo, who currently lives in Brownsville, Texas, she is now working in pastoral ministry, visiting people in need, the poor and the sick.

“I now have the opportunity to be out in the trenches, helping the poor,” she said. “My life was all about doing. Now it’s all about being, and there is a world of difference between the two.”

Copyright © 2007 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved