EL CENTRO — In recent months, the Imperial Valley has proven to be fertile ground for religious vocations.
Two women, both with ties to Our Lady of the Valley Parish in El Centro, have professed final vows as consecrated religious.
Our Lady of the Valley Parish was formed in 2022 through the merging of two El Centro parishes: Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Mary.
Sister Patricia Rodriguez, 45, was born and raised in El Centro, where she has attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
She made final vows with the Sister Servants of the Blessed Sacrament on Aug. 31 during a Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Calexico. Not long before that, she began her first year as principal of Vincent Memorial Catholic High School.
Sister Rodriguez was a teacher at Seeley Elementary School and St. Mary’s School in El Centro before entering religious life in 2014. She professed first vows on Aug. 15, 2018, at Corpus Christi Parish in Bonita, and later taught at St. Kieran School in El Cajon and Our Lady of Guadalupe Academy in Calexico.
Tess Magin, whose name in religious life is Mother Mary Cause of Our Joy, made final vows with the Servants of the Lord & the Virgin of Matará on Sept. 14 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The 31-year-old has been assigned to serve as a missionary in St. James, Minnesota.
She was born in Yuma, Arizona. In 2008, her family moved to El Centro, where she was a member of St. Mary Parish.
Mother Mary Cause of Our Joy entered religious life in 2017 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and made her first profession of vows on Nov. 1, 2018, at Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Parish in Washington, D.C.
