Sister María Luisa Güereña, CSC
(Sister María Dominga)
September 13, 1928 – July 22, 2020
Sister María Luísa Güereña was born on September 13, 1928, in Los Angeles, California. She was the second oldest and first daughter of José María Güereña, a blacksmith, and Magdalena Gomez, homemaker. Her older brother José, younger brother Ignåcio, and sister Mercedes (Mercy) all preceded Sister in death. Surviving siblings are Carmen, Maggie, Vicénte, María Ester and Luís, all of California.
After she graduated from Catholic Girls’ High School in 1946 Sister María entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross from St. Cecilia’s Parish, Los Angeles. At the end of her postulancy María received the habit and the name Sister María Dominga. After Vatican II Sister returned to her baptismal name. She made her initial profession of vows in February 1949. Sister received her B.A. from Saint Mary of the Wasatch College, Salt Lake City, in 1959.
Sister’s 59 years of full-time ministry took her to elementary schools, hospitals, parishes, (and even an orphanage in Utah), in California, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, Indiana, and abroad in Brazil. After many years of serving the Church and the Community so generously, Sister retired from active ministry in 2008 to live at St. Catherine by the Sea Convent, Ventura, California, for a ministry of prayer and where she volunteered in chaplaincy in local hospitals, particularly in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), utilizing both her experience and her bilingual skills.
After a three-months-long illness, Sister María Luísa died at Mary Health of the Sick Convalescent and Nursing Hospital, Newbury Park, California, on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, feast of St. Mary Magdalen, which happened also to be the birthday of Sister’s mother Magdalena. Sister will be cremated at Joseph P. Reardon Funeral Home in Ventura and buried at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard in the Sisters of the Holy Cross plot.