Sister Mary Yolanda Bernahola
Yolanda was friendly, energetic, practical. A simple, fair, honest woman, without deceit. She was 27 years old the first time she had to take on the responsibility of being the leader of a community. This responsibility always accompanied her. Whether it was one community or another, a formation house, or a Region … Being a mother was her mission, her gift, and her burden. It wasn’t easy. No one had prepared her for this.
At 16, Maria Nilda, her baptismal name, joined the Sister Disciples on June 29, 1961, in Cordova, where she would undertake her formative journey. Nilda immediately showed promise as a young woman and much hope was placed in her. After her novitiate, she made her first profession on March 25, 1965, in Cordova. On May 1, 1971, she made her perpetual vows in her hometown parish of Ambul (Cordova). In her request, she stated that she didn’t deserve such grace: “placing my nothingness in the All, I know that He will not let me lack His grace.”
Sister Mary Yolanda came from a deeply religious family with rooted traditions. She hailed from a land that had flourished under the influence of great saints such as the priest, Father Brochero, Mother Catalina Rodríguez, and others. They left a huge legacy in the church and society by building roads, creating job opportunities, establishing schools, dignifying people, facilitating transportation, communication, and above all, fostering encounters with God through spiritual exercises. And Yolanda remained faithful to that legacy.
For Yolanda, things were either black or white. There were no gray areas. With that passion, she listened to, loved, and spread the Gospel. But to guide the sisters in formation, she had to learn to convey values, adapt to differences, and become a teacher in the way of Jesus. And this was her great task, to conform herself to Jesus the Master and Shepherd as she led people, built homes, opened roads, and guided the mission. At the time of her passing, the sisters testified: “She was a Disciple, a mother in the community, close to people, kind, friendly. A religious figure with her clear and distinct choice of God’s primacy in her life; for the values she manifested in her daily gestures, in concrete things.”
Although she had many responsibilities, there was always a special place in her heart and she always had time for the poorest, for those who sought help, food, clothes, or medicine. She was close to the most vulnerable in the rural areas. They lived near a house that was donated to the Congregation, in Colonia Hogar, a village in the mountain ranges, about 80 km from the Divine Master community in Cordoba.
While the countryside house was being renovated and a chapel was being built, Sister Yolanda visited families, organized activities for children in the rural school, facilitated the sacraments by bringing priests (the parish was geographically very large and difficult to manage). The pastoral care of the area was a legacy she left us, and today, the sisters continue it along with a group of young people and other members of the Pauline Family.
In Argentina, we still miss her. Her death was unexpected, her passing sudden. After a meeting with the Pauline Cooperators, she accidentally fell, breaking her knee and shoulder. Then she had a sudden pulmonary embolism that killed her. Her last words as she left the house, in an ambulance, realizing the seriousness of her condition, were: “I send my greetings to all the sisters. I offer my life for all.” She felt the arrival of the Bridegroom, who would come soon to take her with Him, and she was ready, available, as she had been all her life. The Divine Master called her to eternal life on September 19, 2015.
Sister M. Yolanda leaves us the gift of her great enthusiasm, her love for Jesus that always made her active, generous, missionary, ready to dedicate herself to any task, no matter how simple, to serve others. She had a contagious joy that stemmed from her love for the Eucharist, for the Word of God, for the liturgy, for the community.