Sister Cecilia Hervas, Pianist and Pastoral Minister, Religious of the Assumption.

I was born in Iloilo City, Philippines. At the early age of two, I learned to play the piano and my family was convinced I was on my way to becoming a great pianist. My parents delighted in showing me off to guests who were amazed I could identify any note my mother played on the piano while I was blindfolded. I come from a people gifted with ‘two jewels:’ music and the faith. My earliest experience of God was the time I received my first Bible from my uncle-priest. I was around eight. I felt an indescribable sense of awe as I held in my hands the Word of God.

My childhood years were mostly happy. It was “the best of times…the worst of times.” World War II brought home to us – 6 children and our parents – the tentativeness of life. We lived the Exodus as we escaped from the enemy by cover of night or sought the safety of air raid shelters to the sound of exploding artillery. We survived. It was then I learned to pray.

It was after the war years that I was introduced to the Assumption. Entering the gates of the school for the first time opened a new world. It was like learning a new language: about God, about becoming ‘simple and straightforward,’ about the value of sacrifice, silence, prayer, friendship, concern for the poor. I felt, too, that the Sisters knew me and I mattered to them. Each day ended with all of us receiving God’s blessing at  Benediction. The hymns we sang spoke of my deeper longings. And day after day, my eyes fell on the words above the entrance to the chapel: “The Master is here and calls you.”

In the years that followed, I finished my undergraduate degree in music at St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and went on to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY for graduate studies. During one spring break, I thought of looking up a former teacher then newly assigned in Philadelphia. On that visit, a Sister asked, rather unexpectedly, “Cecilia, have you ever thought of a religious vocation?” I don’t remember what I answered but, yes, my early religious longings were awakened. It was a moment of grace. And I felt it was ‘then or never.’ After receiving my Master’s degree and the Performer’s Certificate award from Eastman , I chose to stay and join the Assumption Sisters in Ravenhill.

My family, in far-away Philippines, was devastated. My father had died years earlier. My mother was shocked and deeply hurt. To her I was as good as dead.

After my novitiate, I went back to the Philippines, with some trepidation. I was assigned to the classroom where I learned to teach by teaching! Nothing prepared me for it. My Superior, at one time, remarked, “You don’t have much discipline in the classroom but you have a good influence on the students.” I didn’t know what to make of that observation!

I loved my Sisters and enjoyed the students – outside of class. I was happy, for the most part, doing what I did but something ‘nagged’ inside me: the thought of my mother. The story of our reconciliation would require a volume. Suffice it to say that grace triumphed. Forgiveness healed the rift and something within was released.

It was at a retreat, after I came back to the United States, when the realization dawned on me that my music and my religious vocation were ONE! And as if on cue, I got invited to give concerts in Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Beverly Hills, Virginia, the Assumption in Paris, Manila, Denmark. A classmate from Eastman wrote, “I am happy to know you are playing again. Your sound is too beautiful to silence.” Today when I play before people, I am aware I am touching the human thirst for beauty. Music has power to move the heart where words sometimes fail.

I have spent many summers working with Assumption College students in the fields of San Ildefonso, Mexico, among the Otomi Indians. At the present, I journey with people searching for God and the meaning of their lives through spiritual direction and the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults).

My story is far from finished. Living one’s vocation is a decision that needs to be renewed each day in community with my Sisters, with its joys and agony. “Following Jesus – and with Mary – we learn compassion, sharing, with respect, the joys and sufferings of those around us. We witness in this practical way to God’s love for all people.” (From the "Assumption Rule of Life.”)   

Founding Congregations: Sisters of Divine Providence; Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, Houston; Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament; Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio; and Dominican Sisters of Houston.