light through trees

Blog

Welcome to our blog. Here, we will share with you stories of our lives as Sisters of Providence. We invite Providence Associates to write in this space also. We hope you find these posts enjoyable and inspirational.

Healing difficult relationships through writing

“I’ve used writing to work through difficult situations since I was a child, but had gotten away from this in recent years,” Frost said. “I needed a way to express all of the conflicting thoughts and emotions that go along with caring for someone you love, but who views you as the cause of her unhappiness. I read the description of Liza and Norbert’s workshop and immediately knew it was what I needed.”

Let us put on love

I read somewhere that when Venus — the morning star — first appears, the atmosphere breaks its light into many different colors, like a rainbow. The glory of God is like that —it embraces all of the beautiful rainbow colors of humanity and creation, and we, as God’s people, as lovers of Jesus, celebrate this rainbow of light.

We have to be brave and we have to be vigilant, and shine this Christ-light into the darkness and share our hope with each other and all who fear or despair.

So let us speak, or write, or pray, or feed, or heal, or teach, or visit, or protest, or protect, or report, or show up, or stand up, or stand with, or go to jail, or sing, or serve, or help, or love on, or walk alongside.

Hospitality: making it real

Call it another world, call it heaven, call it cosmic beyond-ness; maybe it’s that for which I’m pining. Truly no place on Earth could satiate this longing. But here’s the crux – I believe that, through acts of hospitality, we actually co-create moments of heaven on Earth by way of intimate connection with others. To me, the practice of hospitality is sharing space and consciousness with friends and strangers. There I can land and experience my truest Self through right relationship, and, in those moments, I feel completely at home in the universe.

Seeking inner peace to create a more peaceful world: a young sister reflects

In seeking greater unity, we started on our own doorsteps. We were all women religious who wear common clothing similar to those around us. But women religious come in all clothing types. There has been a historical division between those who chose to remain in their habits and those who chose to shed their habits following the Second Vatican Council. Similarly, approaches to authority and the vow of obedience differ greatly, and often line up with differences in dress. Conversation throughout the weekend focused on bridging those historical divisions and developing strategy that allows for true collaboration.

Teaching, healing and loving as a Sister of Providence

My teaching experience took me to different schools in different cities and towns where I met and fell in love with more children. Teaching double grades and constantly working on meeting the individual needs continued to challenge me.

Then it came time for me to dust the chalk off my hands, put myself confidently in the hands of Providence and change the focus of my “mission.” I became a hospital chaplain. Like teaching, I loved this work