Search Results for label/Sister Denise Wilkinson
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Journals and Letters week 13: Relationships
...some puzzling, some of the true blue kind. Sister Mary Cecelia Bailly Sister Mary Cecelia Bailly Right off the bat, we learn that Sister Mary Cecelia’s father, Joseph Bailly, established the profitable business enterprise, the American Fur Trading Company. Her mother, Marie Le Fèvre, was an Ottawa princess who purchased her freedom from her tribe. Talk about a “back story!” As for Eleanor Bailly herself? “She cast her lot with the one-year-old Community of St. Mary of the Woods.” What...
Allowing for God’s presence: Sisters of Providence hospital chaplains
Presence – in relationship Presence – in prayer Presence – in listening Each of our four sisters ministering as hospital chaplains sums up her ministry in one word — presence. Each of these four sisters names one essential skill for a hospital chaplain — listening. Sister Laura Parker Sister Laura Parker, SP, works at Holy Cross Hospital. She describes it as a “safety net hospital in a troubled area of Chicago.” Patients know domestic abuse, drug abuse, gang violence and...
You can help bring a happy ending to restore St. Joseph’s Lake
...spot would make a nice recreation spot for your sisters. You should work on it.” Work on it Sister Jean did. Sisters and friends chose a site at the lake and worked and worked and worked to create a place for sisters to picnic, swim, canoe, camp. Enjoyment and refreshment were the goals. Check out this article to get the details of the hard work, fun, and collaboration with friends that carried on during this time. The middle The middle...
Journals and Letters week 17: Mother Theodore’s own words
[Today we are discussing “Journals and Letters” Third Journal of Travel: page 146 to page 160 mid-page. Join us in reading a portion of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin‘s writings every week in the coming year.] The sisters (almost) missed the boat (ship). Oftentimes during their perilous ocean crossing they probably wished they had. Reading these pages from the Third Journal of Travel immersed me (not a good choice of word given the events described) in Mother Theodore’s consistent response to...
Keep it simple, Silly: A Lenten prayer
Compassionate God, Don’t let me overcomplicate Lent. Help me to Keep It Simple, Silly (KISS). KISS Kind – one act of kindness each day of Lent. Identity – once a day for forty days say, “God loves me as I am.” Smile – once a day for forty days, smile at someone. Silly – once a day for forty days remember: kindness, believing I am loved by God and smiling keeps my Lenten journey simple, Silly. Amen...
Journals and Letters week 21: The cross awaits
...Mother Theodore’s words to her sisters were painfully accurate. “Let us take courage, my very dear Sisters, the Cross, it is true, awaits us at every turn, but it is the way to heaven.” The cross did await Mother Theodore and her sisters “at every turn.” The conflict with the bishop took many more twists and turns before the Rule was approved and the land deeded over. Yet she persisted. Oh — the shopping list! She asks Father Martin, the...
Journals and Letters week 25: Making fair progress
...Fort Wayne, Madison — to name only a few. Put on your heavy underwear We once again encounter Mother Theodore’s practicality. She’s very clear with Father Kundek on the financial arrangement for the sisters ministering in the Jasper grade school. Writing to the sisters at Saint Mary’s, she asks Sister Olympiade to “send a boy on horseback” to pick up butter; reminds the sisters to pen up the hogs and to send the empty flour sacks to the mill “sooner...
Journals and Letters week 29: Letters to a beloved companion
...dear” sister. That love demonstrated itself in Mother Theodore’s words of caution, gentle criticism and frank admonishments — always accompanied by words of affection and encouragement. Basilide must have led with her heart more than her head — a blessing and a burden. Missing Sister’s gifts After Basilide left Saint Mary’s for Madison, Mother Theodore assured her how much the sisters and Father Corbe missed her. “Every day they bring up to me such things as this: … ‘if Sister...
Take a deep breath: spiritual direction during pandemic
...a deep breath — to recognize where God’s light is shining through their lives. God’s light Spiritual director Sister Marsha Speth has been meeting with some of her directees remotely during the past year. What do the words spiritual direction mean to you? Spiritual Director Sister Marsha Speth, SP, defines the process “as focused conversation with another exploring the action of God in a person’s life.” The use of the word “direction” is misleading. The “director” doesn’t tell another what...
Reflecting on National Day of Prayer
True confession: Until asked to write this blog, I knew almost nothing about our country’s National Day of Prayer. The day is celebrated annually on the first Thursday of May. Google filled in some blanks for me. Trite as it may be, I’m going to use the “did you know?” technique to share some of what I learned. I’ll also ask some questions the facts evoked in me. Did you know? In 1768, the city of Boston declared a day...
Journals and Letters week 33: Reasons Mother Theodore may have felt overwhelmed and crabby
...donated to buy building material to buying provisions for the sisters and students at Saint Mary’s worrying over the Community’s ability to effectively care for boy orphans but accepting them in spite of her worry deciding not to establish a mission in Louisiana warning Sister Marie Therese that if she does not overcome her “propensity to anger,” Mother Theodore “will no longer look upon [her] as my daughter” encouraging Sister Maria to be firm; to stop being “like a weathercock...
Journals and Letters week 37: Good for nothing but to love God
...VIII and its relationship to the “Journals and Letters.” If interested, I leave it to your own rabbit hole experience.] Sister St. Francis Xavier Sister St. Francis Xavier Le Fer Sister St. Francis Xavier Le Fer has long been of keen interest to me. Although she had volunteered immediately to go to Indiana, she was denied that opportunity more than once. Mother Mary, then general superior of the Sisters of Providence of Ruille, believed her to be in such poor...