This week, my wonderfully NON-Polish sister-in-law will travel to a Polish deli near her home outside of Chicago in search of kielbasa. She has chosen this deli because her daughter’s…
Read moreAs we begin this third week of Advent, we are mindful of the “holy ones” who model for us by their lives, how we, too, might “be with” those around…
Read moreA number of years ago, when she was well into her nineties, Sister Mary Evangelista Herber (RIP) told me that she had decided to learn to wait. Her life involved…
Read morePicture this: A Sister of Providence hovered over a desk in her writing room. A candle swaying delicately through currents of air as the sister works intently on her project. Sound familiar? Saint…
Read moreMother Theodore used to tell that when she saw the place they were coming to (Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana), her strength failed her, and it was with difficulty she was able…
Read moreLetter from Saint Mother Theodore to Sister Gabriella in Fort Wayne, Ind. Jan. 3, 1853 “My dear Sister: “I have received with true pleasure your good and affectionate wishes. The…
Read moreThis article is reprinted from the fall 2011 issue of HOPE. “You just get up and go and keep living. … It’s the best thing to do!” “There’s only one…
Read moreSister Betty Hopf’s new book is only a little larger than the palm of a hand. It’s about as thick as a fast-food hamburger. It retails for $4.95. It can…
Read morePortions of a letter to Sister Gabriella of Fort Wayne, Ind. (Sister Gabriella O’Neill was Mother Theodore’s first postulant of 1841. She was born in 1804 and died in 1875.…
Read moreThis article is reprinted from the fall 2010 issue of HOPE. We can guess that some long-time Catholics, feeling great fondness in their hearts for the women religious who have…
Read moreThis article is reprinted from the fall 2009 issue of HOPE. Editor’s note: In the previous article, “The new cosmology: an evolving universe,” Sister Jeanne Knoerle provides an overview of…
Read moreThis article is reprinted from the fall 2009 issue of HOPE. How do you picture God? Pray to God? Understand God? Most of us move from childhood to adulthood thinking…
Read more“The God of Providence carries the entire mystery of the divine, ever trustworthy, never failing. The God of Providence offers all the possibilities for ourselves and the world, including both what God wants to happen and what God is willing to let happen because God honors the gift of human freedom. The choices are ours — truly free, but ever grounded in the grace of God, the Holy Mystery of Providence, about which there is ever more to be discovered.” – Sister Ruth Eileen Dwyer