Search Results for label/Donna Stites
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The weather outside is frightful
Navigating the ice and snow has been difficult lately. It is January and getting to work some days in many states can be challenging because of the ice and snow. That reminds me of a Sisters of Providence story many do not know. I don’t recall the source of this story I read in our archives, but believe me, it is too wild for me to have imagined it. On Jan. 13, 1847, Mother Theodore received a letter that Sister...
Janice Vanderhaar: In the name of Peace and Justice
Janice Vanderhaar On this holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., it seems fitting to lift up the lives of others who continue his legacy of nonviolence and justice. Janice Vanderhaar’s passion for nonviolence and justice peacemaking took root in the wake of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement and Vatican II. As a student at Spaulding University in Louisville, Kentucky in the summer Masters in Theology program, then Sister of Providence, Janice Marie Searles, was blessed with extraordinary teachers....
No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters
Dreamcatcher Foundation co-founder Brenda Myers Powell was the guest speaker at “Slavery Still Exists,” an awareness program sponsored by the Illinois Women Religious Against Human Trafficking on Jan. 10-11. On Jan. 10-11, Illinois Women Religious Against Human Trafficking sponsored the awareness program, “Slavery Still Exists.” The “Slavery Still Exists” gathering enabled the participants to become more aware of the evil and extent of human trafficking, to hear the tragic, horrific and deeply moving story of Brenda Myers Powell, who...
‘But I won’t get any supper …’
Providence Food Pantry serves approximately 320-plus West Terre Haute Families each month. However, Sister Joseph Fillenwarth urges all who support the pantry to also support Bread for the World 2015. A few years ago, a Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) volunteer at Ryves Youth Center shared a story with me. Ryves Youth Center in Terre Haute serves an after-school meal Monday through Friday and provides a food backpack for the weekend. On this particular day, a second-grader arrived late and told...
Poetry: A tree in winter
In the wintertime of my soul barren branches stand stark clothed in heaviness of ice bestowed by winter night storm. But then comes morning lavishing warm, bright sun on my hard-stiff self revealing resplendent prisms glistening grace-fullness untold beauty hidden in the night. I bask long in this Light holding on so tenaciously, to this moment of Transfiguration. Reluctant, resistant am I to let go to allow myself to become liquid in this Light. So unaware in the releasing Life-giving...
Life lessons from Ebony
In February, my brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Becky, had to put down their beloved Chihuahua that had companioned them for 12 years. At the time, I wrote, “May we, like Ebony, leave this world a better place for our having been in it.” As I accompanied Steve and Becky in their grief and attended to some of my own, I’ve thought a lot about her legacy. What was it about her that infused so much joy into their lives...
Rwanda: Rising from the ashes
In the book, “Led by Faith: Rwanda Rising from the Ashes,” author Immaculée Ilibagiza shares her faith journey after the Rwandan genocide. “Left to Tell,” and “Led by Faith: Rwanda Rising from the Ashes,” books by Immaculée Ilibagiza, take you on a journey of immeasurable suffering and of unimaginable human resilience and reconciliation. More than 20 years ago, on April 7, 1994, the Rwandan genocide began, in which Hutus slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis in just 91 days. Prior to the genocide,...
After the Rain
Water droplet Clinging so closely To the branch Suddenly Losing your grip You plummet To the ground Of my being So thirsty For one more taste of baptismal grace...
Holy Ground
O God, I kiss this holy ground This place of promises in process This place of people seeking God And of God seeking and saving a people A place of knowing one is hungry And of being fed This place of grumbling And of silence This space of solitude And of communal struggle This place of escape and encounter It is to this holy ground You have lured me Here I am Speak to my heart. Companion me All who...
Daughters of the Forest
Did you ever know We are all on life support? Oh, I don’t mean respirators, Tubes and hospital things. I mean things like honey bees and trees, Wind and water, sun and soil, Farmers and gardeners, compost and creatures, Darkness and light. Saint Mother Theodore Sisters Basilide, St. Vincent Ferrer, Mary Xavier, St. Ligouri and Olympiade, In a most intimate way you knew These Woods, this land, Its seasonal struggles and abundant gifts. Your weary bodies knew How essential to...
Prayer for healing
Jesus, let me just touch your garment as did the woman of ancient times. O Divine Healer, please stay right here, if you will, while I hurry back with all of creation....
Compost Time
I’m throwing the unwanted scraps of my life here into the compost bin trusting that God can take what seems so useless and, amazingly, transform it into rich, dark soil so the seeds of my future may be lured into vibrant life again. (This article originally appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of HOPE magazine.)...