


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.

Check out this photo album from the ceremony this past Saturday, Nov. 14, where we welcomed 26 new Providence Associates of the Sisters of Providence.

Their ministries were filled with humble activities. They rolled up their sleeves, and they dedicated their lives to the people whom others overlooked. Of all the hospitals and schools and ministries they founded, their writings and influence are focused on people, not institutions.

It’s probably not surprising that a former teacher finds it hard to quit teaching. Like many Sisters of Providence, Sister Patricia Geis has continued teaching as an English language tutor long after she could have called it quits in the working world.

We are used to thinking of saints in the past tense. It seems incredible that saints might walk among us today, but they do. What do they do that the rest of us don’t? Not much, really. Sainthood is less a way of doing than a way of being. As Mother Theodore said, “Let us never forget that if we wish to die like the Saints, we must live like them. "

Through the years, I have seen that the Sisters of Providence are keenly oriented toward both translating the virtues of heaven and toward the pursuit of justice itself. In seeing this, I have sought to join them — and so it is here and now that our paths converge.

So, I ask myself, why would I want to retire when there are still so many possibilities of God’s Providence yet to enjoy just beyond the next horizon? It’s a no-brainer – I will just keep on listening to God’s invitations and saying “yes!”

'Teaching is in my blood'

Sister Dina Bato, a woman in formation with the Sisters of Providence, shares what Foundation Day means to her. In Sister Dina's words, “Mother Theodore brought all of who she was into this mission. That’s what we’re called to do.”

The seeds we plant today will be our sustenance and seeds for tomorrow.

One candidate said her 27-year-old daughter had come to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. She said she saw her daughter “became complete” here. So now she is coming as a Providence Associate candidate seeking to feel complete herself.

Sisters Arrianne Whittaker, Mary Mundy offer perspective of Nuns on the Bus stops
Sister Tracey reflects on the experience of running in the dark and what it teaches her about community: "As silly as I knew my fear of the dark was...the knowledge of other bouncing lights was so hopeful to me in those pre-dawn moments."