2021: It has been a roller coaster

Two words can summarize this year: roller coaster.

This up-and-down did not deter us though! With creativity and technology, our Community ministries redesigned delivery of programs through hybrid alternatives using Zoom and livestream and even reinvented Earth Day as an interactive Earth Month.

Amidst it all, we have continued business as (un)usual, virtually meeting for the 2021 Annual Meeting and safely gathering at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods for the 40th General Chapter. We educated about systemic racism, rallied against federal executions of those on death row and called for changes in policy that would impose a tax on drilling for oil and end blocking asylum for refugees. We elected a new leadership team that will guide us with the anti-racism justice focus for the next several years.

We grew! Sister Joni Luna professed her final vows. Sister Jessica Vitente professed her first vows. And Leslie Dao entered the postulancy. In addition, 18 lay persons committed as Providence Associates and another 28 began the relationship journey.

Although this December may feel like we were free-falling on the downward plunge of a roller coaster ride due to threats emerging from the omicron variant, Mother Theodore’s words comfort us: “… our hope is in the providence of God, which has protected us until the present, and which will provide, somehow, for our future needs.”

For our 2021 year-in-review, spend some time looking through photo albums of the good works we accomplished, media releases about the news we announced and position statements we shared with the world. And as we welcome 2022, may our Provident God bless and keep you and your loved ones healthy and safe in the new year!