


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.

My question to Jean Brown, our administrative assistant: “If you had to write a reflection on Palm Sunday, what would you write?” Her instant response: “I’d start with the palms.” My response to her: “ Why palms?” Jean’s reply set…

Depart from our lives, deadening spirit of winter.
Response: Go, winter, go!
Be gone, all ice, sleet, and cold in our personal lives: snide remarks, judgmental statements, cruel jokes, nasty gossip, untruthful comments, fear, anger, jealousy.
Response: Go, winter, go!
Be gone, times of loneliness and harshness.
Response: Go, winter, go!

Tracey Horan on life as a postulant

Sister Anji Fan reflects on her discernment

A few days ago, Leticia, one of Sister Loretta’s students here at Providence in the Desert, said to Sister Loretta, “When I’m rich, I want to have a car like yours.”

'Leave this world a better place for our having been in it'

Sister Paula Damiano shares her experience with relics and how they became more meaningful to her.
The Sisters of Providence suggest 10 ways for you to participate in the Year of Consecrated Life, named by Pope Francis, beginning Nov. 30, 2014 to Feb. 2, 2016.

There are many things from which we can fast — irreverence, exploitation, and control, for example. I heard some options several years ago that bear repeating: We can choose to fast from having the last word, or fast from holding on to a past hurt or memory. We can fast from always being right so that we can hear and hold sacred the truth of another.

The days have gently slipped by, and I have only a few more weeks with my loving sisters in this small village on this beautiful island of Sri Lanka.
We walked, climbed, and gazed, almost always in the hot sun. To enter into the area around any of the shrines, one had to remove shoes and hat, which meant that one was even more vulnerable to the blazing sun and the hot paving stones and sand that surrounded the shrines. At the end of each day, we were exhausted but grateful for its gifts.

In the wintertime of my soul
barren branches stand stark
clothed in heaviness of ice
bestowed by winter night storm.

Recently, a Sisters of Providence communications staff member unearthed a “Sisters of Providence Etiquette” booklet in our archives and proudly brought her find to my desk. Dated 1968, the booklet gives detailed instructions on how a Sister of Providence should look, sound and act in a variety of situations, from car rides to meal times to classrooms and even Superiors’ offices.