She was my piano teacher. Not that I was a musician, but her patience succeeded in making me play the Dream of Olwen at the piano recital she organized for her students. I was a high school student then and Sr. Deolindis, S.Sp.S. was a religious of the Missionary Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit, a congregation that runs exclusive schools for girls in several cities in the Philippines.
You would, therefore, forgive me if I could not believe it when some years later they told me she had decided to found a congregation of sisters who would be working for and among farmers, laborers, peasants…the poor. Not that it was a bad idea, but with her delicate hands of a pianist, her “elite” community…It did not seem a logical choice until I was able to put together the pieces of her story.
Emerita Arambulo Luza was born on September 22, 1927, in Benavides, Manila. Both her parents were jewelry merchants who hailed from good Catholic families. They inculcated in her an authentic love for God and for her people. They wanted to give her a good Catholic education and so she spent her elementary and high school years at the College of the Holy Spirit in Manila.
Her father was an example of loving the poor. She saw how he treated their driver and household helpers with justice and so much love. He used to say: “We need dedicated lawmakers who will serve their fellow citizens, especially the poor” and this influenced her decision to become a lawyer. She then enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas, College of Law in Manila.
Following her father’s death, Emerita went on a soul-searching pilgrimage to Rome, Lourdes and Fatima. This experience led her to understand that God was calling her to religious life. The first unexpected turn in her life took place. She left her law studies unfinished and knocked at the door of the Holy Spirit Sisters.
However, a vocation usually meets obstacles and for Emerita it came from her mother who was just widowed and was begging her to stay and help out with their family business. You can imagine what it was for both of them! Nevertheless, in the end, she too yielded to her daughter’s determination to follow God’s call. On June 10, 1951, Emerita joined the Missionary Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit and on May 8, 1954, she made her first profession during which she received her religious name: Sr. Deolindis, meaning “God’s beauty.”
It was in the course of her pastoral ministry that her musical talent was discovered and she was asked to finish her studies at the Conservatory of the College of the Holy Spirit Manila, majoring in Piano. In 1959, she graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Music. Thanks to this, I had the good fortune of becoming her piano student.
As she was enjoying the calm and peaceful life of a religion teacher who gave piano lessons to students who also had non-academic interests, in an all-girls school, another unexpected thing happened. In 1961, Sr. Deolindis came in contact with the Work of Mary, more popularly known as the Focolare Movement. She was deeply struck by a basic conviction in the Movement: there is only one choice in life, God. Choose Him as life’s only Ideal and, to make this choice concrete, love God and in Him, all people, without exception. Live the Gospel.
Christ himself left a new commandment: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34) and prayed: “That they may all be one …” (John 17:21). Mutual love brings unity. Sr. Deolindis took this as her mission. She was in correspondence with Chiara Lubich, the foundress of the Focolare Movement, who constantly shared with her the joys and sorrows of her life’s journey.
At a social action seminar in 1966, Sr. Deolindis met Atty. Jeremias Montemayor, founder and national president of the Federation of Free Farmers. This enkindled in her the desire to bring God’s love to farmers, laborers, peasants and their families, in a word, to the poor people in the rural areas.
She understood that social problems would be solved if the Gospel is concretely lived. Inspired by her involvement, other Sisters from different congregations joined her and they constituted the “Rural Missionaries.”
As the work increased, the need for more laborers in the rural vineyard became evident. Atty. Montemayor himself expressed the dream that one day there would be a congregation of religious women who would dedicate their apostolate to farmers and would work for the application of the social doctrine of the Church.
Sr. Deolindis saw in this a sign that God was calling her to found an Institute of religious women who would live the ideal of love and unity in their communities and bring this life among the people in the rural areas, particularly in the poor barrios (villages), and make them feel the compassion of the Church. On the Feast of the Nativity of our Lady, September 8, 1971, she founded the Workers of Christ the Worker (WCW).
Sr. Deolindis remained a Missionary Sister Servant of the Holy Spirit while the first community of WCW Sisters started their religious life together in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. The Motherhouse was later established in Linmasangan, Binalonan, Pangasinan.
In 1976, the Holy See approved her transfer to the Workers of Christ the Worker, to facilitate her function as Foundress and Superior General of the Congregation. In 1985, the WCW Sisters opened a Mission Station in Bacarra, Ilocos Norte and later went to Libya, Switzerland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Italy. Last October, a community of three sisters have started their ministry in Egypt.
Sometime around 1980, Mother Deolindis felt the inspiration to found a male counterpart of the WCW Sisters. Their motto Desiderio Desideravi is taken from Luke 22:15 – “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Aspirants came to become WCW Missionary Priests, but in 1989 she decided to dissolve the foundation, seeing that the direction taken by the brothers was no longer according to the initial inspiration. In 2002, the community was revived with the return of Fr. Aaron Acorda Bamba and four other brothers, and the Opifices Christi (Workers of Christ) was born.
In 2009, Mother Deolindis founded the Servi Contemplativi Christi (Contemplative Servants of Christ), contemplative sisters of her religious family, with the help of Sr. Josanne Luza Bautista, a Sister Servant of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.
On September 16, 2019, a few days before her 92nd birthday, Mother Deolindis ended her long earthly sojourn that was full of surprises. She was at the Motherhouse where she spent the last years of her life. We buried my piano teacher on September 23, 2019, now the foundress of three religious institutions. The funeral Mass was presided over by the Most Rev. Jacinto Jose, Bishop of Urdaneta, where the religious congregation took its first steps.
Most Rev. Socrates Villegas, Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, and Most Rev. Ricardo Baccay, Bishop of Alaminos, concelebrated. Representatives of the groups that played a significant role in her life were present: the Focolare Movement, the Missionary Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit, the Federation of Free Farmers, as well as her three religious communities with her family and friends.
As I paid her my last respects, I could not help but think of what a Christian is, not a perfect person, but one who loves selflessly, without counting the cost, because she has only one person to follow, God, and only one thing to accomplish, his will. It would be insufficient to say that I am grateful to Sr. Deolindis. For me, she was the door to life. It was through her that I met the ecclesial family (the Focolare) where God has always wanted me to walk my life with Him.
