“Providence Associates are women and men (at least 18 years of age) of diverse faith traditions who seek a formal relationship with the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. They may have known the sisters for a long time or have just recently heard about the sisters. Associates are drawn to this relationship with the Sisters of Providence for many reasons, but primarily, they wish to deepen their spiritual life and they see themselves as being called to respond to the Providence vision through their own particular way of life.”
Spring is always beautiful on the motherhouse grounds! (If slideshow is not visible, it can also be viewed here.)
Eight women attended the Come and See weekend April 8-10 at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, to learn more about life as a Sister of Providence. The women spent time in personal and group prayer, reflection and discussion, and also had personal time with a companion sister. The participants, joined by other sisters and women in initial formation/temporary profession, gave an afternoon of service. The women split into two groups: one went to the Church of the Immaculate Conception to clean pews and the second, in collaboration with White Violet Center for Eco-Justice, a ministry of the Sisters of Providence, planted two dogwood trees near the beginning of the Nature Trail in the Cosmic Walk area on an unseasonably hot day. Both groups finished about the same time.
I had the privilege of photographing the group several times during the weekend. As I heard the thoughtful questions and then the encouraging answers from the sisters, I was reminded that we all are called to a vocation. I am a Providence Associate and just attended a weekend retreat for Associates and Candidate-Associates. As I, too, learn more about the SPs, their charism and their inward conviction to live out their mission of performing works of love, mercy and justice, I become more comfortable in my own chosen vocation: as a married woman who works for a non-profit organization of women religious who truly believes in Providence. That, indeed, “we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose,” Romans 8:28. I pray that these women have peace and joy as they continue on their journey of discernment. In some ways, that journey is a life-long process.
The application process to become a Providence Associate is now open, so Pat Ruck and Jeannie Smith, two associates from California, decided it was time to hold an information session with interested persons in the Coachella Valley. On Saturday, April 2, three Sisters of Providence opened their home for an informal get-together and lunch. Pat and Jeannie shared with participants what being a Providence Associate means to them, and several Sisters of Providence added to the discussion.
Today, Sunday, April 3, the Providence Associate retreat came to close with the celebration of Mass. The “Deepening the Providence Story” retreat began on Friday evening and included prayers, time for meditation, presentations, reflection, discussions and little bit of Butler Bulldogs basketball!
On Saturday, April 2, the second day of the Providence Associates spring retreat, Deepening the Providence Story, General Officer Sister Marie McCarthy presented “Providence and the Reflective Life.” Sister Marie (pictured at right) shared with participants that the late Sister Mary Alice Zander, first director of Providence Associates, had asked her last January to be one of the presenters during the retreat.
Providence Associates Debbie Dillow, Connie Schnapf and Marilyn Webb (left to right) chat prior to the opening of the retreat for Providence Associates and Candidate-Associates. “Deepening the Providence Story” is the theme of this spring’s annual retreat.
Yes, Saint Mother Theodore was an incredible woman, but it took every sister to help make the Sisters of Providence a reality. “The Eighth American Saint” describes Mother Theodore’s gratitude for two special women — Sister Olympiade Boyer and Sister Francis Xavier Le Fer (Irma): “One bright fact stood out for Mother Theodore: all her sisters stood loyally by her and gave her courage. She thought with special gratitude of Sister Olympiade, for whom no labor, no matter how menial, was too much, who took care of the academy laundry and the mending as well, who was baker for some forty people, who cared for the stock, acted as infirmarian and who, best of all, was always as cheerful as she was efficient.
“It was Sister Francis who was perhaps Mother Theodore’s greatest comfort and joy. The very opposite of Sister Olympiade, Sister Francis was never able to do any hard work, but her humility and her love of God were a constant inspiration to her superior as well as to the novices whom she trained. At Ruillé, Mother Mary [Lecor] had said Sister Francis was ‘good only to love God,’ but it was this love which gave her value to her congregation. As time went on she lost much of her early timidity — no doubt because of her constant work among novices and postulants. Her English was still faulty, but even so she made an excellent teacher, one who taught by example as well as by words. More and more she was put in charge of the convent when Mother Theodore was ill or away on a trip. Of herself she wrote to one of the sisters at Ruillé, ‘I am a little less disorderly in my affairs, a little more proper in my appearance — but my cap is still always a little crooked.’
“ … Mother Theodore called her the saint in the house, the angel of virtue whose example animated her, ‘I am in the chapel near her, distracted with temporalities and business, and see her there, lost in God,’ she said, ‘and I come away strong again to meet life.’” (page 141)
To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.
Although Saint Mother Theodore had her reservations about the remoteness of the location of Congregation, “The Eighth American Saint” illustrates how this fear was soon quelled. “It did not take Mother Theodore very long to realize that despite its inaccessibility her school was going to prosper. She was beginning to learn, in fact, that nearly everything was inaccessible in that part of the country and that remoteness did not daunt people in the least; that even Saint Mary-of-the-Woods was not too isolated.
“It was also true that the little school was very simple, its furnishings were restricted to necessities, its lighting and heating very primitive; but the pupils were girls of pioneer stock and were used to privations. They did not expect anything better. Even the clothing and supplies they were asked to bring were simple — six summer and three winter dresses, a few towels and napkins, ‘a fine and a coarse comb and a small drinking cup.’
“The simplicity of the life did not trouble their parents either; what they wanted for their daughters was an education in the basics and in the graceful arts, and these they expected the sisters to supply. They evidently felt the sisters did, for the academy was soon going so well that Mother Theodore hoped to open a day school the following year. Already more Catholics were coming to the settlement, and obviously they were the poor for whom a free school would be needed.” (pages 112-113)
To learn more about Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, click here.
“The Eighth American Saint” describes Saint Mother Theodore’s devotions, especially her devotion to Our Lady: “She [Saint Mother Theodore] had other devotions — to the Holy Spirit, to Our Lady, to the Holy Infancy, and she loved the tradition of guardian angels. This last she had brought with her from Ruillé, where the religious carried out the lovely custom of saluting the guardian angel of whomever they met. It was a devotion, she said, excellent for religious teachers, because their own duties to children were in so many ways like those of the guardian angels.
“St. Anne, too, she loved dearly, and the great Teresa; but the deepest and most tender of her devotions was to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for there she saw best exemplified the providence of God — their own title, their own aim.
“Almost from the time the sisters came to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Mother Theodore had established a devotion to Our Lady. ‘We began the month of Mary as solemnly as possible.’ She wrote in her journal in May, 1841, and it was a devotion that was to spread from their convent to Terre Haute and to other towns. Later the sodality of the Children of Mary was founded at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods. This organization was the first of its kind in Indiana.” (pages 99-100)
To learn more about the spirituality of the Sisters of Providence, click here.
“The Eighth American Saint” describes what joy spring and letters from France brought to the nascent Congregation: “Spring came at last, their first spring in their new home. It was heralded by a long, hoarse whistle from the banks of the river, for the ice had broken and this was the signal that announced that navigation on the Wabash had begun again. The air grew balmy; trees were green with early leaf. At the convent doors, wild flowers bloomed, and in the forest farmers were tapping the maple trees for sap. The sisters from France saw for the first time the beauty of Indiana in April, with plum and hawthorn blossoms making the air sweet and the bright plumage of birds everywhere.
“At Saint Mary’s, they rejoiced in the variety the season brought, for the winter had been a time of monotony. Their greatest excitement had been the arrival of letters from France, and these were read again and again. These letters brought about an odd custom, carried out in a spirit of sacrifice but a source of difficulty to later historians of the sisters’ early days: when they wanted a certain favor very much, they burned some of these treasured letters as an offering to God of their dearest possessions.
“Fortunately many of these letters survived. Letters from Mother Mary [Lecor], from the bishop of Le Mans, from the curé of Soulaines, were nearly all preserved.” (pages 91-92)
To learn more about the Sisters of Providence Archives, click here.
