Red leaves on a frosty tree

Stories about

Community Living

Community: a place for sharing, love, acceptance, support. A place to be challenged, to be strengthened. For Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, living in community and being part of a larger spiritual community are integral to life. Are you seeking community? Become a Sister of Providence. Or join the larger community as a Providence Associate.

Baptism by horseback

“I call it my first horseback ride,” Sister Marceline Mattingly (82 years a Sister of Providence) said of her adventurous journey to baptism. Marceline went on to describe the scene that day — 99 years ago this very week. The only way to cross the creek to get to the church was via a plank bridge that could only hold a horse with one rider. It was decided that her grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Hall, would be the one to take her across the creek on horseback to be baptized at St. Peter’s Church in Waverly, Kentucky. The plot thickens as grandfather Benjamin balances a baby on horseback and encounters name confusion on the other side of the creek...

Cards and Christmas carols

So Advent has arrived. There is a lovely Advent wreath in the chapel and another in the church. To my surprise, the novices don't know "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." The prominent Advent song here seems to be "O Come, Divine Messiah," which they sing quite slowly. I taught the novices "Stay Awake, Be Ready," a children's Advent song that includes some clapping. I invite you to look it up and make a joyful noise.

Sisters Lucy and Mary Fran cook up a good time

“We prepare about 30 pounds of meat. The pulled pork sandwiches are complemented by a great horseradish coleslaw which Sister Lucy takes pride in making.”

Sisters Lucy Nolan and Mary Fran Keusal lovingly feed the volunteers and shoppers at the annual Providence Family Services rummage sale, held this year Oct. 4-5 in Chicago. They share their experience and even their recipe here.

Clothed in simplicity

Standing here at this used clothing exchange rack, it all suddenly makes sense. THIS is how it happened. A group of sisters in the United States in the 1960s looks down at what they are wearing and ask, why are we wearing this? Oh, yeah, it’s because we’ve been passing these clothes around for years and years and years.

A reflection on simplicity and sharing that never goes out of fashion.

String pulled on the Ginkgo tree this week

My favorite tree – and I have hundreds to choose from here at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods – is the huge Ginkgo tree in front of Corbe House, where I live.

The tree is huge! Sister Rose Ann Eaton and I just went out to measure the circumference of the trunk – 205 inches! While engaged in this pursuit, Rose told me a story she had heard from Sister Marceline Mattingly now in her nineties. Marceline remembers when the Ginkgo tree had only a single trunk. A storm broke the tree down near its base. As the tree regrew, it developed the multiple trunks very evident today. The tree’s shaggy bark, many trunks melding into one another and the sheer width of the branches lend distinctiveness, character and interest to “my” tree.