CDP Stories
Sister Barbara Lynn Hyzak: "Best Medicine" is Compassion
In the midst of all the technological and
medical advances, perhaps the most effective "medicine" health care
professionals can offer their patients is compassion and
understanding. Over the years, my desire to heal and comfort the whole person
has been a constant in an otherwise life of continuous change and transition,
professionally and personally. I have traveled sometimes
with ease and sometimes with a bit of turmoil this "path of providence"
with its challenges, its fears, its blessings. In all of this I am a Sister
of Divine Providence willing to risk "opening the door" to new opportunities.
With each n
ew
assignment or place of ministry, I've actually experienced many transitions.
I have served as a medical surgical nurse and director of nurses. I was staff
nurse in the women's surgical unit of a large urban hospital and was director
at our CDP sponsored Stella Maris Clinic and later Providence Home and Family
Services. I have served as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in a small rural clinic,
in a larger primary care clinic, and presently in a medical clinic and a nursing
home. My duties of each day provide opportunities to help others transition
into whatever life brings at the time.
I have enjoyed the benefits of my life as a nurse for over 30 years. I have never regretted that decision made very early in my life as a Sister of Divine Providence. I am forever energized each time I walk through a doorway to a patient's room, to someone who needs to know that a Provident God cares and that I care. I remain conscious that I am "a sacrament of God's providence" (CDP Constitution, # 11).
Sister Bernie Galvin: "Sister
Warrior" for the homeless
Sister Bernie Galvin, CDP is a conscientious objector to homelessness and
known as the "Sister Warrior" in San Fra
ncisco.
She became a Sister of Divine Providence over 50 years ago and began her ministry
teaching and later became a Principal in schools in Texas, Louisiana, and
Oklahoma. In the 70s, she began a long-term commitment to social justice issues,
particularly as they relate to working people and to poor and homeless people.
It was in a little plantation town in South Louisiana that the social / political
/ economic / religious injustices relating to sugar cane workers drew her
to a change in ministry from teaching to community and labor organizing. Sister
Bernie followed a renewed calling to stand up for people whom society had
disregarded.
"My membership in the religious community of the Sisters of Divine
Providence has been a cherished, sacred, and radical part of my life. . .
My religious Congregation has made a commitment to stand in solidarity with
the poor and with those whom society would exclude. One example of this lived-out
commitment is the fact that our CDP community has subsidized my ministry with
Religious Witness with Homeless People since 1993. The Sisters of Divine Providence
offer this as a gift to the homeless people of San Francisco. For this, I
am deeply indebted to my religious family." 
"I never feel alone in my ministry with homeless people out here in San Francisco. I am always aware that this is 'our' ministry, the ministry of the Sisters of Divine Providence carried out through one individual; I just happen to be the fortunate individual. I have loved every minute of this work ever since. . . well, almost every minute."
In 1993, she founded Religious Witness with Homeless People, a grassroots interfaith policy advocacy coalition in the San Francisco Bay area whose mission is to promote the human rights and dignity of homeless people, to advocate for just social policies, and to nonviolently resist unjust policies which discriminate against poor people.
In 1999, she initiated Religious Leaders' National Call for Action on Housing, a project of Religious Witness, which collaborates with Housing America to influence the increase of the Federal Housing budget for low-income housing across the nation.
Sister Bernie currently serves as director of Religious Witness for Homeless People and as organizer and coordinator of Religious Leaders' National Call for Action on Housing.
Sister Deborah Fuchs: Certified
Nurse Midwife
Being a midwife and being a Sister of Divine Providence have always gone hand
in hand in my life. My ministry in health care has taken me to various areas
in Texas during the past thirty-four years.
Being a midwife has given me an opportunity to live out our CDP mission more
fully. Midwives tend to be more spiritual people who believe in the awesomeness
of God. We midwives usually work with indigent women, with the needy in society.
We believe in empowering the people with whom we work. We are a community
of women who work for a common cause. We tend to work on the cutting edge
and always push for more. We believe in the value of what we do and will even
put our lives on the line for it. These values are what we Sisters of Divine
Providence have in common with midwives. 
Our CDP Constitution is the guide for our lives in mission and ministry. No matter how we turn and twist the kaleidoscope, no matter how diverse the beautiful expressions of our life in ministry are, our mission and our spirit are one. This passage from our Constitution speaks loudly to me:
"Our life in community nourishes and sends us out for service and for community with others. It reaches far beyond the bounds of our houses and even of the Congregation, for in community well lived we help the world to experience the goodness of providence. We believe that when we love one another, when we challenge and encourage one another, we become witnesses and instruments of God¹s renewing love."