Sister Fidelis has been a Hospital Chief Pharmacist in India, and a community worker among fishermen in Manila. She was in mission in Latin America for 19 years, and was greatly influenced by her ministry as a pastoral worker in Brazil. The desire grew in her to not only be with the poor, but to live like them as much as she could.

For the past 16 years, Sister Fidelis has been involved with the Balikatan Multipurpose Cooperative of the Blind, in an area north of Manila. She says, “Before, they were homeless, hungry, jobless, direction-less people, as though imprisoned in darkness. Now, they are an organized people whose common unity is service, sharing, co-responsibility rather than competition and profit.”

A few years ago, Sister Fidelis decided to live with the community of the blind in Bagong Nayon, Antipolo. She feels this was an important step in her own journey toward personal and communal wholeness. She aspires to become a contemplative in the marketplace, and sees her relationship within the community as one of mutual help and enrichment.

“I long deep within to continue to be at the service of the struggling poor at this stage in my life,” Sister Fidelis shares. “I have reached the stage in life when my being craves for a deeper communion with God, and at the same time, to become a quiet presence among God’s people.”

“If we listen to the reflections of the blind about the healing charism, they articulate it so beautifully. Healing goes beyond tending to the physical ailments of the sick. It is ensuring life for all. Healing as they have experienced it is a movement from their darkness to light, from death to life.”