Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and her new world

At the end of Mother Theodore Guerin’s first journal, she writes about her new mission:

“It is astonishing that this remote solitude has been chosen for a novitiate and especially for an academy. All appearances are against it. I have given my opinion frankly to the Bishop, to Father Buteux, and, in fine, to all who have any interest in the success of our work. All have given reasons that are not entirely satisfactory; yet I dare not disregard them. The spirit of this country is so different from ours that one ought to be acquainted with it before condemning those who know more about it than we do; so I await the issue before passing judgment in a positive manner.”

To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and sabots

Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions were used to wearing wooden shoes or sabots when working outside. She writes about missing her sabots:

“Just now we are suffering from the want of sabots. It seems to me that if I only had the tools I could make a pair for each one of us. We shall not be able to go outside without sinking deep in the mud, except when it freezes.”

To learn more about sabots, click here.

Reflecting on becoming a Providence Associate

During this Holy Week, you might want to take some time to reflect on seeking a deeper understanding and awareness of how Providence works in your life. Perhaps becoming a Providence Associate might help you in this quest.

If you are interested in becoming a Providence Associate, please click here.

To learn more about Providence Associates, click here.

Week six Lenten reflection

Sister Joan Coultas, CDP, writes in her Lenten reflection, “While the God of Providence does not intervene in stopping natural disasters, the pulse of a Savior beats throughout the universe, especially during hard times. As Providence people, we then are called to bring order out of chaos.”

To read her entire reflection, click here.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and the church

After receiving the Blessed Sacrament upon her arrival at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Mother Theodore Guerin examined the church a little more closely. This is what she writes about it:

“No tabernacle, no altar, for can the name of altar be given to three planks forming a table forty inches long, supported by two stakes driven into the ground? — that is all, for there are no altar cards, no stand for the missal, in fine, nothing but what I have mentioned. A cotton cloth is spread over these planks; there is a small altar stone; and now you have the whole altar. Except at the time of Mass, the pyx, the chalice, and the rest are covered with a dark blue calico which seems to have been used as a bedspread by the good country people.”

To view some of the early sacred vessels used by the Congregation, click here.

Picture of the Week: March 26

Sister Jenny Howard, vocation director, shares a quote from Saint Mother Theodore Guerin with attendees at the Los Angeles Religious Ed Congress March 18-21 in Anaheim, Calif. Thirty-eight thousand attendees were predicated and the Sisters of Providence had a well-visited booth at the event.

Click here for other events that you can find the Sisters of Providence.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and the Blessed Sacrament

Once Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions were safely on land at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., the sisters wanted to visit the Blessed Sacrament. The following is what Mother Theodore writes about this experience:

“We had agreed among ourselves that our first visit would be made to the Blessed Sacrament, and that we would not speak to anyone before having satisfied this longing of our hearts. The priest preceded us and we followed in silence to the church. The Church! I send you the picture!! Yes, dear friends, that is the dwelling of the God of the Universe, in comparison with which the stables wherein you shelter your cattle are palaces!”

To learn more about where the first Mass at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods was offered, click here.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and fear

The short journey from Terre Haute to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind., took forever as Mother Theodore and her sister-companions were forced to wait several hours for a ferry to cross the Wabash River. Once across the Wabash, Mother Theodore and her traveling companions faced a dangerous stagecoach ride. Mother Theodore writes:

“I may say, however, that I was not at all alarmed. When one has nothing more to lose, the heart is inaccessible to fear. The water poured in on us. We thought we were surely gone this time; but the driver without losing his American coolness managed the horses so dexterously as to set the carriage up again.”

To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and Terre Haute

Arriving in Terre Haute, Ind., the afternoon of Oct. 21, 1840, Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions spent the night in the city. She writes about Terre Haute:

“Like all American cities it [Terre Haute] is laid out on a large scale; in some places the houses are a gunshot from each other. We passed the night there in a hotel, and the next day heard Mass in a small Catholic church [St. Joseph’s] which has just been built. It is quite good for this country.”

To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and smoking

Traveling by stagecoach from Vincennes to Terre Haute, Ind., was another arduous and dangerous leg of Mother Theodore Guerin’s journey to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. Rain made matters even worse. When the stagecoach overturned and the driver was unable to upright the vehicle, assistance was sought from a man who lived in nearby cabin. Mother Theodore and her sister-companions stayed with the woman of the house as the men turned their attention to the stagecoach. Mother Theodore writes:

“The man of the house was so kind as to go and help our driver, and we were left to groan at our ease and to warm ourselves in this narrow abode. The woman, about sixty years of age, asked us who we were. As we could not answer except in French, she continued quietly smoking her pipe. (Smoking seems customary among the women in this part of the country; even young girls smoke; this seems very strange.)”

To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.

Have a listen! Our Lady of Providence

We've been recording some Sisters of Providence here at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods singing hymns as a gift for some sisters in other parts of the world. I thought I'd share this little gem, "Our Lady of Providence," with music by Sister Cecelia Clare Bocard (RIP).

(If the player below doesn't work, you can find the song on this page about Our Lady of Providence, too.)

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and Vincennes

Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions stayed with the Sisters of Charity while in Vincennes, Ind. She writes about Vincennes:

“At Vincennes, especially, one might think she was in Noah’s ark. The confused noise is deafening. The two pianos that the Sisters [of Charity] have for twelve pupils, and which are going from the beginning of the day to tend, add to the confusion. … Well, such is the village of Vincennes.”

To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.

Week five Lenten reflection

At the Last Supper, Sister Ellen Rufft, CDP, writes that Jesus forever changed the model of Lord and servants between himself and the disciples to one of friends. Sister Ellen’s hope for the Church is much the same.

She writes: “It is understandable, therefore, that women religious pray for the time when similar efforts to imitate Jesus’ paradigm of communion will characterize the actions of the hierarchy of our Church.”

To read her entire reflection, click here.

Picture of the Week: March 19

Sister Edwardine McNulty chats with Emma Campbell, a Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College freshman who stops by regularly. For more information about opportunities like this, visit the Sisters of Providence Volunteer Services page.

Women’s History Month: Mother Theodore and corduroy roads

Mother Theodore Guerin and her sister-companions traveled by stagecoach from Evansville to Vincennes, Ind. She writes about this uncomfortable trip:

“ … we entered a thick forest where we saw the most singular kind of road that could be imagined. It was formed of logs, of trees that had been felled to clear the way and then were brought together as though to form a raft [corduroy]. Where some of these logs had become rotten, there were large holes. The coach jolted so terribly as to cause large bumps on one’s head. This day, indeed, we danced without a fiddle all afternoon.”

To learn more about travel in the 1840s, click here.