2025 Reflection for Foundation Day

Note: The following reflection was given by General Superior Sister Dawn Tomaszewski during the October 22, 2025, Foundation Day.

“Remember that this union, this charity, this love was also founded here 185 years ago today.“

On October 22, 1855, the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Mother Theodore Guerin is said to have passed a significant portion of the day in her room. She had been ill much of that summer and fall. This was, in fact, the last Foundation Day that she would spend with her sisters before her death in May of 1856.

The entry in her diary for that day noted that she had signed the contract to have the brick burned for the chapel in honor of the Blessed Virgin: “… Today, 15 years ago, she brought us to our woods and has ever since protected us. What joy to erect a monument to her!”  

All These Years Later

Here we are 170 years later, worshipping in the chapel she dreamed of. It is a joy to have such a place, certainly because of its beauty, and it is being made even more beautiful with a refinished floor. It is also a joy because over these years this church has been a gathering place and a source of spiritual nourishment for so many Sisters of Providence, college staff and students; now Providence Associates, residents and staff from Providence Health Care, our neighbors at St. Mary’s Senior Living and Maryvale, other friends and neighbors and many pilgrims during this jubilee year.

The church, however, was not the only thing on Mother Theodore’s mind on her fifteenth foundation day in this country. Please indulge me as I share a bit of her summary of those 15 years.

These are words found on the inside cover of one of her ledgers, actually a book of financial accounts. “Yes, my dear daughters, hope in God, and you will not be confounded. See what he has already done for you. Fifteen years ago, today, October 22, 1840, six sisters arrived in this forest, at that time so savage; they were strangers to the country, to the manners and the customs, to the ways of Americans; they did not know one word of English. Now we are a community composed of 60; here at Saint Mary’s, we are 18 sisters wearing the religious habit, and 20 postulants ardently desiring to be clothed in it.

“More than 1,200 children receive religious instruction in our 12 houses of education, which already bear abundant fruit. What good is being done by the sisters of Saint Mary’s. What good remains for them to do…”

‘True Community’

Mother Theodore goes on to acknowledge the charity of the Thralls family, details the other places where houses have been bought and schools established — they have even paid off the debt on “our beautiful motherhouse.”

What she writes next, however, is less about the externals of their lives in the forest and more about the interior disposition needed to create true community. She writes:

“This, a thing essential to a religious community, has remained intact in ours. I mean the union … a tender charity has constantly existed among us; you have shown it, this holy charity, this union of hearts, especially in our days of trials. … There is the secret of our strength, the firm foundation of our prosperity, the source of our success.”

Then she asks, “Do you always want to succeed?”

And, of course, she answers her own question, “Continue to love one another.”

I hear echoes of the reading just proclaimed from the Letter to the Philippians:

Complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves. Let each of you look out not for your own interests, But for the interests of others.  

Charity and Love Founded

On a day like today, it seems essential to remember that this union, this charity, this love was also founded here 185 years ago today. Mother Theodore recognizes that their union and charity were tested and not found wanting, especially amid the trials they endured. But I think there were many what I will call “everyday moments” that sealed their union, expressed their charity, and showed their love.

One of those moments for me was the description of the “vessel rolling around like a nut.” It occurred on August 17, 1840, several weeks into their ocean travels to America. The rolling of the sea was so great that they had to take their mattresses off their beds in their little cabin and spread them on the floor.  She writes:

“In our cabin, there might have been seen dishes rolling from one side of the room to go and give a noisy embrace to jars of preserves on the other. The Sisters, too, might have been seen falling down as if their legs had been cut off at one stroke. Our dear plump Sister Liguori fell against me with all her weight. I thought I was killed. … Four times we lighted the candle, but it could not be kept in place. Never did we laugh so heartily as that evening.“

It is not precisely the same circumstance, but as I read this, I thought of the summer days when the staff at Providence Health Care drag out the slip ‘n slides into the PHC courtyard and send our sisters and other residents flying down a watery slope in inner tubes, screaming and laughing all the way.

Never did we laugh so heartily …

Tenderness

Another episode that reminds me of the tender charity that existed among them is found in Mother Theodore’s letter, written in 1846 from Edinburg, Indiana. She was trying to reach Madison because Sister Mary Liguori was very ill. The visit, in and of itself, was a tender charity, given the difficulty of travel.

I am very aware of the many ways and the many days that people in this church have shared the gift of their presence with those who are ill or in need of comfort.

Mother Theodore had missed the steamboat to Madison, so she had to spend the night in Edinburg. She used the opportunity to write these words to her dear daughters at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: “I suppose John has told you how to pen up the hogs; they would not now find food enough in the fields and would get thin. If you have not sufficient flour, empty the sacks and send the remainder of the wheat to the mill, sooner rather than later, for you know how long they keep us waiting. I suppose the oxen will be able to travel in a few days. All who have not put on their heavy underwear must do so at once.”

And even a word for good Father Corbe —

“I pray Sister Olympiade to be so kind as to see that our good Father Corbe has all his winter clothes in good condition, especially if he goes to Vincennes.“

I wonder what our Mother Theodore would say about our good Father Terry and his array of decorative socks.

She closes that letter by saying:

“I do not have to get down deep in my heart before finding the tender love that fills it for you all.“

I could go on with these everyday snipets of love in action. For example, Mother Theodore’s instructions to one of the superiors of that day:

“When a duty is badly done, a utensil left out of place, and so forth, put the thing in its place yourself and tell the guilty person later about it. If you reprove, do it with sweetness, with a mere sign, and so on.”

And of course, I must repeat her signature advice to the young teachers she was trying to prepare: “Love the children first, then teach them.”

On a day like today, it is essential to remember that this union, this charity, this love was also founded here 185 years ago today.

Jesus said it this way:

“So that they may all be one, as you are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.” I to we to one. God has placed this law within us, written it upon our hearts.

On a day like today, it is essential to remember that this union, this charity, this love was also founded here 185 years ago today. May that legacy begun 185 years ago continue to be a hallmark of this community of faith.

So, with our foundresses: Saint Mother Theodore, Sisters Basilide, Mary Liguori, Mary Xavier, Olympiade, and St. Vincent Ferrer, I pray: “Grant, oh my God, that all who dwell in this house, may love thee much, may love one another and may never forget why they came here.”

Amen.