Quotations from reflections given at General Chapter 2016

“We come home to breathe in the peace and natural beauty around us and to be reminded of our promise to live in solidarity with Earth. We come home to be nourished by the words of Saint Mother Theodore and to be inspired by her deep faith and courage. We come together as we have today to have important and courageous conversations about justice issues and to speak to what is stirring in our hearts and where our Provident God may be calling us next.”

—Providence Associate Sue Weber

“We are called like Jesus to reach out to all people. … We need to challenge our society and ourselves and ask the question: Who are the despised of today? Is it the illegal immigrants or our gay, lesbian and transgender brothers and sisters? Is it the Muslims? Is it our own sisters and/or family members whose views are different than ours? None of us is perfect. We need each other to be more whole. Amazingly God transforms us and enables us to be a people who can experience and share Christ’s mercy within a hurting world.”

—Sister Jane Iannaccone

“Fear and insecurity await us like the chains that immobilize our hearts, our hands, and our feet. When we let our unnecessary worries overwhelm us, we lose our gaze on God and we sink into despair. Yet, let us remember to trust in God. No matter what will happen, God will come to our rescue. We have all the angels around us.”

—Sister Norene Wu

“How will we in the days and years ahead act together to put out the flames of today’s fires on Earth? Fires of continuous wars. Fires of hate crimes against our LGBTQ sisters and brothers. Fires of economic inequality especially for women. Fires of racism. And the list goes on.”

—Sister Kathleen Desautels

“What if we begin to put aside all the divisions in our hearts and our words? Our labels:   Conservative-Liberal; Democrat-Republican; Gay-Straight; Christian-Muslim; Rich-Poor. What if instead we see from that new lens: the lens of the Gospel values demanded right now. Not the least of which are Love—Justice—Mercy.”

—Sister Ann Sullivan

“We will wash one another’s feet. We will probably need to perform this cleansing of one another more than once. Yet we have promised one another we will.”

—Sister Denise Wilkinson