‘Yes, Jesus, I will follow you’
CHARLOTTE — When she took her vows 34 years ago, Dominican Sister Zenaida (“Zeny”) Mofada never imagined she would serve the Church living halfway around the world from her home in the Philippines.
Sister Zeny felt the tug of a religious vocation when she was 13, a freshman in high school in Surallah, South Cotabato. Her religious education teacher inspired her to ask life’s big questions: Who am I? What is my purpose in life?
“He helped me understand that life is from God and what is important is our journey with (and back to) God,” she recalls. He helped her understand what he called the three paths to God – the priesthood, religious life or single life.
“He said if we choose the path of religious life, it is just like taking a plane, and you will reach your destination (back to God) shortly and efficiently. He said in religious life you have all the means you need to be holy. Your life is characterized by prayer, the daily Eucharist, and all of your hours are with Jesus or with God.
“I was convinced with that! I wanted to be in the religious life because I want to go back to God faster. I want to have that direct contact with God, to do what He wills.”
She privately consecrated herself to God at that moment, and she began attending Mass more often, visiting a chapel for prayer every day, and cultivating a devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
“I took all of those opportunities to be with Jesus. With that private consecration and with God’s grace, that love for the vocation to religious life was sustained.”
Sister Zeny went on to college, earning a degree in education from Notre Dame of Marbel University in Cotabato City. But still, religious life was calling her.
“During my time in college, God helped me discern what He wanted of me. I had a profound experience of Jesus’ presence one night while on a retreat, a vision of Jesus extending His hands, and He said, ‘Come, my child, follow me.’
“I found myself, when I was awakened, on my knees next to my bed. I said, ‘Yes, Jesus, I will follow you.’”
After graduation from college, she decided to join the Dominican order. She entered the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine Siena, headquartered in Quezon City, Philippines, and made her profession of vows in 1988.
In 2015, her congregation sent her as a foreign missionary – traveling to the United States to serve as the religious education director at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte.
“I was very happy to be sent here in 2015 to be part of the foreign mission in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Sister Zeny says.
In 2020, she started assisting with the faith formation work at St. Mark Parish, and last year she became the pastoral associate for catechesis.
Guiding religious education teachers, students and their families through virtual classes and isolation during the pandemic has been a big part of her leadership focus. For Sister Zeny, meeting the challenges head on has been just one more way she can serve God.
“Serving here at St. Mark has been another great experience for me to live (our community’s motto) to serve with compassion for truth and compassion for humanity, loving God and loving my neighbor through the Church, in my ministry.”
The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine Siena have ministered in the Diocese of Charlotte for 27 years, serving as faith formation educators.
Sister Zeny believes that her order’s presence – their smiles, their prayers and work as teachers, even the habits they wear – encourage people in their own faith journey and show everyone how joyful it is to serve God no matter what one’s situation in life. The answers to life’s big questions, she believes, all point back to God.
In October, she will wrap up her “foreign missionary” assignment here and return to the Philippines to continue her ministry of serving God and His people.
Says Sister Zeny, “I am thankful to God for the gift of my vocation and for the grace of sustaining me 34 years.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
It is incredible how time goes by so fast, and how God arranges everything according to His Will in order to carry out His plans.
At the age of 18, I entered the House Formation of the Missionaries of Christ and studied and served with them for 10 years. The moment came when God made me see in various circumstances that my path was more for the diocesan life, and although I applied to a diocese in Mexico and was accepted, for mysterious reasons God had another plan for my life.
Seminary formation was very expensive so, not wanting to burden my parents with these costs, I decided to come to the United States to work for a few months to raise the money I needed to finish my theology degree and be ordained.
I had cousins in Gastonia, and they kindly offered me their house and even a job to help me.
I arrived with all the spirit in the world, knowing what my plan was and with the idea of saving as much money as possible to be able to return to the seminary.
I remember going to St. Michael Church in Gastonia for Mass. The Hispanic community was still very small at that time. The Mass was celebrated by Father John Allen, who at that time was in charge of vocations for the Diocese of Charlotte. I had been invited to be a lector at that Mass, and to my surprise at the end of the Mass a young man came to tell me that Father Allen wanted to talk to me.
When I introduced myself to him, the first thing he asked me was if I had ever thought of becoming a priest. When I confirmed that I was in my last year of theology and that I would soon be returning to my studies in Mexico, Father Allen almost jumped with joy! He was very enthusiastic and told me that the Charlotte diocese needed Spanish-speaking priests. He wanted to introduce me immediately to then Bishop William Curlin and to Father Fidel Melo, who ministered to the diocese’s Hispanic community. Those who know Father Allen know that he is spontaneous and quick-acting, and when he sets his mind to something, it happens, no matter how crazy it might at first seem to others. On Tuesday of that same week, I was taken to meet with Bishop Curlin.
They explained to me the great need for priests in the Charlotte diocese, and I remember reminding Father Allen at that moment that my plan was to return to Mexico.
Later that evening, I called my mother to tell her what was going on. With her characteristic wisdom and calmness, she told me: “Son, it is not by chance that you are there. You have to see God’s plan, not yours.”
To be honest, at that time I did not feel any attraction to staying in the diocese, and yet I felt my conscience telling me: “Listen to your mother.”
And so I entered the seminary here in the United States. It was a bit difficult, as I was only given a three-month English course before starting theology classes. It was also a dramatic time, as it was the year of the September 11 attacks on New York City and I was in Pennsylvania at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.
In the seminary, thanks be to God, some of the professors spoke Italian and Spanish, so I was able to take my exams. To my surprise, I finished my studies with summa cum laude honors.
I was soon ordained by Bishop Curlin, but everything felt like it was happening so fast that I don’t really remember many details of my ordination.
I was sent to Sacred Heart Parish in Salisbury and had the good fortune to share three years with Father John Putnam, who was a great mentor in my early days of ministry and whom I love, admire and respect very much as a person.
In the same year I was ordained, Bishop Peter Jugis was also consecrated and installed as our bishop. The following year, he invited me to be a part of the Eucharistic Congress committee, then to be part of the diocese’s Presbyteral Council and the vocations committee. I have been serving these committees with great pleasure ever since.
At Sacred Heart Parish, I had very good experiences, and the truth is that whenever I go back there, I feel at home.
From there I was sent to St. Aloysius Parish in Hickory, where I served for three years.
I always remember the words of my seminary rector, later ordained as Bishop Michael Burbidge: “Julio, you have an advantage in your favor for your priesthood that you can always use.” I asked him what that was, and he told me, ”You are going to be loved by everyone.”
I carry those words in my heart and, thanks be to God, I have always seen Him in the parishes and ministries where I serve. Sometimes people nickname me the “angry father” because of my serious-looking face, but I get along well with the faithful I have been privileged to serve.
After Hickory I was transferred to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Lenoir. The first two years were a little stressful for me as I adjusted to being a pastor for the first time. But then came the awakening of the whole community and it became a parish that felt like family: joyful, committed 100 percent to the Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, spiritual retreats, formation, and a lot of unity. Thanks be to God, two priestly vocations flourished during that time, and those priests serve today in our diocese.
After that, in agreement with Bishop Peter Jugis, I became part of the Diocesan Hispanic Ministry Team. I have been growing in this ministry and I am really passionate about it.
My goal in the Hispanic ministry is to achieve the same reaction as in my former Lenoir parish: a people prostrated at the feet of the Blessed Sacrament, a team of well-formed catechists and pastoral leaders who know how to explain the faith and help in evangelization. I envision a diocesan family united by the bond of love; a diocese that produces many priestly and religious vocations because we have many young people in the Hispanic community; a diocese inclusive of different cultures, but called by the same God even with the difference of languages and cultural customs; and a Church in which we look not so much at differences, but at the richness of the Catholic culture that makes us go beyond ourselves to embrace the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ and truly unite us in Christ our Lord.
I thank God for every moment of my priestly vocation. If I were to be born again and asked what I want to do with my life, I would certainly ask to be a priest, because the riches of grace that God bestows, especially in deep intimacy with Him, are truly incredible. I entrust myself to your prayers.
Father Julio C. Dominguez is the diocese’s Episcopal Vicar for Hispanic Ministry.