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      Trinity Sunday, 2025 Dear Sisters and Associates, Trinity Sunday is the great feast of relationship.  Our God, triune in nature, is all about community, about collaboration, about presence.  Our community also calls this Providence Sunday, a day we recognize that our God is radically personal and present, providing for us, inviting us into this communion of love among the Father, the Son and the Spirit.  Often when we think of Trinity we think of Mystery, and mystery is not fully or totally understood.  I’m not a theologian and I don’t pretend to be one or able to explain the Trinity.  But what I do know is our God is with us.  We belong to God.  We’re connected to God at the very core and essence of our being.  We live our lives as Providence people; we learn and grow together, we trust that Providence leads us in good times and challenging times.  In moments of grace when we truly sense God, as well as those times when we don’t, God is still there.  God accompanies us and wants to be in this deep relationship with us.  How do we maintain that relationship in our lives?  I think it takes listening—a special kind of listening—a listening with our heart to hear the tenderness of God speaking to us.  When we do this deep listening, it changes us, transforms us, invites us to have a tenderness not only toward our own community or family, but toward all our brothers and sisters, thus creating a circle of love and relationship in our world.  Our mission, as co-creators with God, is to bring God’s love and grace to the world—to make the face of Providence more visible.  Practically speaking, what might that mean?  Because God is relationship, is Love, the Trinity demands of us to be available to others, to be a loving and life-giving gift to them.  Trinity asks us to stand alongside people in their pain, to cry with them in their grief, to rejoice with them when they have good news, to stand up against oppressive systems that dehumanize people.  Our Triune God invites us to shine the light of justice on those who misuse power, to those who tell lies and falsehoods, to speak up for those whose voices are silenced.  Why?  Because we are made in the image of this Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and this model of “relationship” is about community and communion, about collaboration and presence.  On this Trinity Sunday, may we ask ourselves:  What can I do for others so that our world is permeated with compassion, mutuality, joy and peace?  In the ways that we are community for each other, how will we live into God’s providence together?  May our Triune God accompany us on this journey! Sr. Barbara McMullen, Congregational Leader

image: pixabay.com     +. Come, Holy Spirit,  Breathe new life into your people.Show us the true meaning of the gospel,  and enkindle our hearts with a love that will transform our lives.Grant us the unity for which Jesus prayed - now and forever.  Amen.  from 'People's Comanion to the Breviary'

Planned for May 18-31, 2025, the Congregation's international program "Interculturality: A Gift to the World," kicked off on May 18 at the Korean Provincial Education Hall. We pray that the 20 participants from Germany, the United States, Peru, and South Korea will have a restorative time of expanded understanding and experience of interculturalism among us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJro6nUYdV4 For more updates, please visit the Generalate's Facebook page... go to: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552316260348

photo from Vatican news May 8, 2025   Dear Sisters and Associates, I greet you from Rome, where I have been blessed to be at the time of an election of a new Pope!  We had just finished the Liturgy at the end of the UISG Conference when news came that there was white smoke from the Vatican!   I was supposed to meet Sisters Yessica Amaro Cáceres, Cecilia Sungjoo Hong, and Maria Youngmi Kim to go to dinner.  We all went instead to the Vatican.  Because Sister Yessica knew some people and because I was walking with my cane after my foot troubles earlier this year, we were able to get into the front of St. Peter’s Square and they even gave me a chair!  I literally had a “front row seat.” When the balcony doors opened for our new Pope, I was so shocked, surprised, and very happy that for the first time in Catholic history we have an American Pope.  It was so moving to see him standing there and all the people cheering.  He seemed to be very moved himself.   When I heard the name he chose, Leo XIV, I was again moved to tears.  The legacy of Leo XIII, as we know, is such a part of our dear founder’s life and times.  So significant that he chose this name!  He too sees the importance of reading the “signs of the times.”  To be focused on the social issues of the day and to be justice minded, as were his predecessors, Leo XIII and Francis, speaks to us, as daughters of Ketteler.  The new Pope calls us to be bridges of love and encounter, to be open to receive everyone, and to be a synodal church.   We, Sisters of Divine Providence and our Associates around the globe, congratulate Pope Leo XIV and promise our prayers for him.  As Bishop Ketteler’s daughters we resonate with his values and continue to look for ways to be a moral voice for justice wherever we are, wherever we serve.  May we all, Sisters and Associates of Divine Providence, be joined as one in this historic moment in our church.    I send these greetings with love, Sister Barbara

photo from Vatican news   A Prayer for the Pope Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to your shepherd a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care, may he, as successor to the Apostle Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your Church into a sacrament of unity, love and peace for all the world. Amen.

photo, Vatican News   Prayer for the Election of a New Pope O God, eternal shepherd,who govern your flock with unfailing care,grant in your boundless fatherly lovea pastor for your Churchwho will please you by his holinessand to us show watchful care.Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,God, for ever and ever. Amen. (prayer from USccb.org)  

    The 23rd Plenary Assembly of the UISG opened today in Rome at the Ergife Palace Hotel, with the participation of over 900 Superiors General from around the world. The event is taking place at a crucial moment for the Church, marked by the recent passing of Pope Francis and the anticipation of a new Pontiff, which makes the chosen theme even more significant: “Consecrated Life: Hope that Transforms.” Sr. Mary Barron, President of the UISG, inaugurated the proceedings by urging women religious to be “pilgrims of hope” in a wounded and fragmented world. She recalled the pillars of Pope Francis’ pontificate, such as personal encounter with Christ, synodality, authority as service, and vulnerability as a path to renewal ... To read more, Go to:  https://plenary2025.uisg.org/en/the-23rd-assembly-of-the-uisg-consecrated-life-a-hope-that-transforms/   photo by UISG    

  Happy Feast of St. Joseph, patron of the Korean Province of St. Joseph the Worker, and our prayers for the Korean Province and its members!

  photo from Genesis Spiritual Life & Conference Center   LCWR Region 1 Spring Meeting was held at Genesis Spiritual Life & Conference Center in April 29 - 30, 2025, and the member of the region have discussed and shared their thoughts about 'Justice Ministry Now and Into 'the Future' and Disverning Our Emerging Future' in depth.  

                              Global Connections Volume 9, Issue 2   Journey with Hope Sister Kim Maria Youngmi   Pope Francis has chosen “Pilgrims of Hope” as the motto of the Jubilee with the following explanation:  “the forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope.”  It led me to reflect on what we have been doing for the future of our congregation.  We, the members of the Sisters of Divine Providence, I believe, have always struggled to figure out how to fulfill God’s mission entrusted to us, in accordance with the needs of the times, while paying attention to the reality of the congregation and still making every effort to understand what Providence is telling us through our wisdom, knowledge, insight and concerns. I often feel more frustrated or disappointed than hopeful, whenever I see the socio-political reality around me, or unprecedented natural disaster, or various shocking accidents and inhumane incidents.  And I have a lot on my mind to figure out how we could move towards the direction where our Provident God is beckoning or how we could find ways to actualize Providence in this dire reality.  In a very rapidly-changing world where there are a lot of options and ways, it is not easy to recognize what God wants us to choose.  It takes time to make decisions about where to go with any hope.  It is even harder to have the courage to take risks personally.   ...........................  To read the whole, please see the attachment .....................