Our sisters in Asia speak: What it means to be a Sister of Providence

Sister Delan Ma:

“I am fortunate to have good sisters in the community to accompany, listen and guide me. I came to the Sisters of Providence community to serve God and to serve other people. When there are difficulties or problems, after prayer and meditation, things are easy to solve. I know that this healing power comes from God’s grace. It is God who gave me courage, confidence and hope, and led me step by step fulfill the mission of God. I love my community. I feel I am wearing the right shoes walking with the Lord.”

Sister Sophia Chen:

“To be a Sister of Providence means to return God’s Providential care with love. Doing God’s will and doing what I can is life giving for me.”

Sister Theresa Lin:

“Being a Sister of Providence means bringing God’s love and hope to others through my ministry and living out our charism of Providence through my life of prayer, community living and the three vows. Seeing the needs of our society and giving needed service to the people in need, especially the disadvantaged, is life-giving to me. My current ministry in special education energizes me as I can serve the individuals and their families.”

Sister Mary He:

“The freedom in Providence: I try to live ‘here and now,’ and put ‘tomorrow’ in God’s care. Working with God in serving others and recognizing the suffering Jesus among the people I serve is life-giving to me.”

Sister Su-Hsin Huang:

“For me being a Sister of Providence means to witness and live the greatest value of life: to act justly, love mercifully and to walk humbly with God. To be able to accompany the elderly in my ministry has been most life giving for me. As a member of Sisters of Providence I strive to be God’s tool, to do God’s will.”

Sister Norene Wu:

“To be a Sister of Providence for me means to lean my total trust on God together with our Providence community to share our charism with others through our work of love, mercy, and justice. No matter what ministry, journeying with others through their joy and pain and experience of God’s presence is life giving for me.”

Sister Donna Marie Fu:

“Providence to me means God takes care of whomever, or whatever. If I put myself totally and completely in God’s Care or in His Providence, what then am I afraid of? Therefore I gave myself totally and completely to God on my very first Christmas Eve, in my very first Holy Communion. I love the Word Providence.”

Education of women and the poor was the charism in the beginning years of our Sisters of Providence. As soon as I was first professed in 1956, I was assigned to teach. I first taught in a grade school only one semester, then in colleges and universities the rest of my life nearly seventy years. I love it dearly. I love people especially youths. I never felt how old I was whenever I was in the classroom. Education to me is a worthwhile responsibility. I can teach or share the Gospel directly or indirectly, share His Providence, love, mercy and justice, and direct youths in a right or worthwhile direction in life and living regardless of any kind of belief or religion.

Sister Anna Fan:

“Being a Sister of Providence is a precious gift, a call from God. Through God’s grace, I am more authentic to who I am and closer to God. As long as the ministry is supported by our sisters, it’s life giving.”

(Originally published in the Fall 2020 issue of HOPE magazine.)