Providence Associates
Get a feel for who the Providence Associate community is and find inspiration in these stories. Reflections, poetry, articles and more by and about Providence Associates. Are you being called to walk with the Sisters of Providence as a Providence Associate?
What’s your gift?
So what is your gift? What can you lay down beside the manger? What would you give if you could give anything in the world?
A Providence Advent Calendar
The Providence Advent calendar here begins with the first Sunday of Advent and uses quotes of Sisters of Providence (SP) and Providence Associates (PA) found on the SP website and in other PA and SP materials. May it help you enter into this season with reflections and actions for each day of Advent! You might want to keep an Advent journal to capture your reflections.
In the moment
This holiday season let’s look around us. Let’s open our hearts and look deeply into our world, into its heartbreak. Let’s look into the eyes of our loved ones and let them know we love them.
Becoming a Providence Associate
“Every step of the process from orientation to meeting my companions to the year of study has affirmed that Providence, though unexpected and unbidden, is alive and well and welcome in my life. The Sisters of Providence are an amazing order of women religious. I have found camaraderie, companionship, compassion, laughter and wisdom in each one I have met. I want to be like them when I grow up.” Beth Weis, Chicago, Illinois. 26 new Providence Associates of the Sisters of Providence made first commitments last Saturday. They share some of that journey here in their own words.
New Providence Associates!
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.
Providence Associate first commitment 2015
Twenty-six women and men made their first commitments as Providence Associates of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in a ceremony in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods on Nov. 14, 2015. In this photo album from the day, the newest Providence Associates participate in the ceremony with the companion sisters or associates who have companioned them over the past year.
Much to learn from two women religious founders
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.
My friends, the saints
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. "
Translating the virtues of heaven
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.
Reinventing ourselves as Sisters of Providence
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!”
What brings you here? What are you searching for?
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.
Bridging transition and loss
Sister Joseph Ellen Keitzer serves in pastoral ministry for St. Angela Parish in Chicago — a Catholic Church that was closed 10 years ago.
No, Sister Joseph Ellen hasn’t taken leave of her senses! Her role, as she describes it, is “gathering the lost sheep.”
