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The links above will take you to more stories of how to live a life of Providence as lived by the Sisters and Associates of Divine Providence.
Art:
The Annunciation, Luke 1:28-38
Sister Ethel Marie Corne, CDP, 1967
Stories of Our Call
Called to Providence
Abandonment to Divine Providence means living with God in the depths
of our hearts, attentive to God's constant presence in the interior calls
of grace and the external happenings of life. It is our trusting response
to God, who leads us to live in justice, peace, freedom, and love within ourselves
and with all of creation.
(CDP Constitution, #12)
Women of Providence in Collaboration: Vocation/Formation/Leadership
By Sister Anita Brenek
We Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio, Texas, belong to an organization called Women of Providence in Collaboration (WPC). This organization is composed of twelve congregations of women religious from across the US and Canada who share in the charism of Providence. The mission of the WPC is “to share and promote the evolving theology and spirituality of Providence.” Each spring, the WPC hosts a gathering for the Sisters in the ministries of vocation promotion, initial formation and our leadership liaisons to these ministries. The primary goal of this particular group within the WPC is to foster the Providence spirituality in the women entering our congregations.
The WPC Vocation/Formation/Leadership (V/F/L) gathered March 18-21, 2010, in Montreal, Canada. Sisters Elsa Garcia, Gloria Ann Fiedler, and Rosalie Karstedt and I were able to attend this gathering, along with MCDP Sisters Esther Guerrero and Sylvia Garcia.
The theme of the gathering was, “Providence as Good News to the Poor.” The guest speaker invited to address this topic was Rev. John Walsh, a pastor in Montreal who is active in promoting ecumenical and humanitarian causes. A major focus of Father Walsh’s presentation was one that I thought affirmed what the Providence congregations already experience – that Providence calls us to be hope in the midst of darkness.
Father Walsh used the image of a clown – “a clown smiles in the face of death.” He emphasized that we need to help people face the crises in our world today. Settling for a piety that presumes safety and protection from suffering can lead to loss of faith when the inevitable hardships come. Fostering a Church of action can lead to sustenance even in the midst of difficulty.
Another image Father Walsh used was the turtle – the turtle needs to stick out its neck in order to move ahead. One can risk if one trusts in Providence. Such risks include sacrifice. “If we religious don’t make sacrifices, the word will be lost from our vocabulary,” Father Walsh said. What is a community or what are individuals willing to sacrifice to allow the new to emerge?
We Women of Providence spent time talking about these familiar and challenging concepts and how we help promote these in the women with whom we work in vocation and formation ministry. The most challenging and inspiring, we agreed, was for ourselves to continue growing in our willingness to trust – trust enough to risk, sacrifice, and be about the action that leads to the Reign of God.
The second part of the V/F/L gathering was for the vocation, formation, and leadership liaisons each meeting in our own groups. I was in the group of formation ministers. We discussed and shared ideas around how we work within our inter-congregational formation programs and how we connect with our international formation programs. We all agreed that both carry challenges along with the benefits. I appreciated the support as well as the ideas from the other formation ministers. We also prepared for an “initial formation gathering,” to continue helping our newer members grow in their connections and collaboration with other religious.
The vocation ministers had lively discussions around a study by the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate, and the use of technology in their work. They wish to make sets of video clips: one set with newer members, to be used in vocation promotion; the other set with young people with their thirst for God, to be shared with the Sisters within the WPC congregations.
The leadership group shared their concerns and ideas for connecting with Providence Sisters in Central and South America and perhaps out of this relationship, a Spanish “Women of Providence in Collaboration” could be established. They also shared concerns about buildings and properties, as well as initiatives to support viability and ministry focus.
We all returned to our congregations, appreciative of this opportunity with other Women of Providence. The support as well as the generation of fresh ideas were helpful for each of us as we continue in our ministry for our congregations and the Church.
How is coming to help in a Mission Pilgrimage a call to Providence?
Opportunity to Practice the Virtue of Charity
By Deb Burns
Associate of Divine Providence
Fort Wayne, IN
As an Associate of Divine Providence, I have learned to recognize how every aspect of my life is overshadowed by Gods Divine love. I believe we need to always be ready to share that with others whenever given the opportunity. God has placed this mission trip before me and has provided the financial support to travel there in the form of a gift. His purpose is something I have not yet seen. But through providence, I know everything God has us encounter helps us grow, learn and prepare us for what lies in our future.
I have learned to let God guide me through the Charism of His Providence. I have gazed upon the opportunities placed in front of me, and the people I meet as no accident. I know and trust that this pilgrimage is an opportunity to share of myself and grow stronger in Gods providential plan for me. I know God has something in mind for my life and I follow each step, as it is presents itself to me. I am also given the opportunity to share this experience with my daughter and introduce her to the providence Charism. This is indeed a blessing.
In closing I abandon myself to God in His infinite wisdom for He knows all I need in my life and all that I am able to give back to Him.
How is coming to help in a Mission Pilgrimage a call to Providence?
Extend your reach
By Mike Gibson
Associate of Divine Providence
Fort Wayne, IN
I became involved in Young Adult Ministry largely through the help and guidance of a Sister of Divine Providence, Sister Gloria Ann Fiedler and later the volunteer work turned into a full-time position as a Campus/Young Adult Minister for the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend in Indiana. Before Sister Gloria moved back to Texas to where the Lord was calling her, she shared with me that through prayer and discernment the Lord was telling her to “extend her reach”. I was amazingly surprised recently when my boss told me that she was praying about our ministry when she said that the Lord was telling her to “extend her reach”. The same wording used in two different contexts by two different people at two different times used two weeks before my Mission Pilgrimage trip to San Antonio struck me as Providence. God was also asking me to extend my reach. Interestingly, He already arranged the details to help me do what he was asking me through the Mission Pilgrimage to San Antonio sponsored by the Sisters of Divine Providence.
What does it mean to extend your reach? It means having one’s arms outstretched and open to what the Heavenly Father is asking and has in store; embracing a circumstance or a person, willingly equal to both give and receive the embrace, and abandoning oneself to the plans and purposes of Divine Providence as they unfold before you. The Mission Pilgrimage to me is a very unique calling of God to various people. It is a way to fine tune the virtues of simplicity, poverty, charity and abandonment that is at the heart of the calling of Providence. As one who attended the last Mission Pilgrimage, I can say that it was an amazing vehicle to nourish one’s mind, body and spirit. The memories and the fruits of that special trip are still with me today. How great is our God that he not only extends His arms out to us in a profoundly personal way, but allows us to extend our arms out to others through His grace so that we can experience being channels of the heavenly Father’s Providence and love to others?
Sister Denise Billeaud, CDP
San Antonio, Texas
If
we have truly given our lives over to God to use as his Providence chooses,
then we have made the gift and are free to grow in trust and love; we are
free to let him direct all the events of our lives; we are free to be used
by him for service to our brothers and sisters.
However, as we all know, the gift is never given “once and for all;” only Jesus gives that way, perfectly. We learn to give more and more truly, more and more fully, more and more trustingly.
Ever since the initial gift in my profession of vows, Providence has led, guided, directed my every move. God is faithful always “once and for all;” it is I who must learn gradually, yet even in my gradual learning, God’s faithfulness is clear: it is he who teaches me to confirm my initial gift, living more and more truly, more and more fully, more and more trustingly. My part is to trust and to know that he is faithful and leads me unfailingly to himself.
Jean Eiserle, CDP Associate
Fort Wayne, Indiana
As
people of Providential living, growing daily in charitable action will more
easily assist us in developing the other remaining virtues of poverty, simplicity
and abandonment to Providence; charity is the foundation upon which all other
virtues are built.
Blessed John Moye beautifully depicts charity by declaring, "Charity runs, flies; nothing stops it. It is ingenious; when it finds obstacles on one side, it turns to the other. It makes itself all things to all people and agrees with everything; it suffers everything."
To me, there is no greater summary about charity – one of the four virtues that those of us who are part of the Congregation of Divine Providence community display in our daily lives. At this point in time, charity is probably the most significant virtue to me, as I am preparing for a lifetime journey with my future husband, Ben.
Because Ben lives 1400 miles away from me, we have indeed endured many challenges and obstacles; we have suffered long work days trying to financially prepare for our sacramental union and also to get everything in place for the wedding day and for our life thereafter. It's a lot of work, but charity is the virtue that quietly soothes us every day when we connect in communication. Charity is what enables us to so easily forgive each other when we are tired and cranky due to physical and mental exhaustion. It is the virtue that most specifically and clearly allows us to grow both individually and as a couple.
Ultimately charity is unconditional love; it is greater than all other types of love, because its source and reservoir is Love Incarnate. If God is love, then perfect love -- charity, is nothing less than God himself. It's love in action, completion, a total giving of self to another.
Sister Gloria
Ann Fiedler
God's Call: How do you show God's love?
“I
love working with young adults. I am present to and with them in parishes,
homes, restaurants and party rooms. I am available to them during retreats,
days of reflection, spiritual pilgrimages, mission trips, World Youth Day
events, camping trips, picnics, cookouts, holiday parties and many other spiritual,
communal and service events. I have traveled with them in cars, vans, busses,
trains and airplanes.”
But that’s not the only way Sister Gloria Ann stays in touch. She is also present to the young people she encounters in campus ministry, and with the CDP young adult Associates, with help from the electronic media. In between personal visits and group gatherings, the Internet has offered another way for them to share how their relationship with God is going, “God bless you for spreading the freedom of TRUSTING GOD in all things to those of us who are enslaved by worries and anxieties. This is definitely a refreshing message in our society and for our generation," Jeannie Eiserle, recently wrote in an e-mail to Sister Gloria Ann.
Sister Gloria Ann’s message to the young is wrapped in love and the belief that the young people she meets are gifted, talented and so very capable of loving and responding when they are given the opportunity to serve. “I believe I can best be a sign of Providence to them by concretely showing that I love and care about them. I consider it a privilege to be present with them as they journey the pilgrimage of life. I consider young adults a very special gift and blessing to me and to the Church. I thank our Provident God for them.”
