Lenten Letter

March, 2025

Dear Sisters and Associates,

I’ve often heard it said that the season of Lent is a season of the heart because it asks us to check our pulse, to review what needs to be healed, and to see what quickens our heart to reclaim our identity as God’s beloved.  Lent is that time of a six-week preparation that allows us to peer into the heart of our own humanity.  There we can examine our life, its sorrows and sinfulness, its experiences of Jesus present to us in forgiveness and healing, and ultimately it is a time to bring us from the desert to joy.  It is a time to stir our imaginations, to think about how we are living, how we can become freer to love as Jesus loves. 

“St. Benedict of Nursia admonished those who wished to follow in the footsteps of Christ to be vigilant, always—to listen with the ear of one’s heart.”  (Barbara Ann Mullen, CSJ).  I would like all of us across the Congregation to read the article accom-panying this letter.  It is entitled: You ARE Mission: Listening with the Ear of One’s Heart by Barbara Ann Mullen, CSJ.

I was especially touched by that phrase: “listen with the ears of one’s heart.”  In our Congregation, through our Constitutions Commission’s work, we have been asked to do just that!  In participating in the National Meetings and the International Meetings, those Sisters have listened with the ear of their hearts, shared their thoughts with one another about the various elements of new governance structures, and opened themselves to the unknown future with trusting hearts. 

Many Sisters wonder why it is necessary to look at new governance structures.  It is not just about our demographics.  It is about mission.  All of us, no matter our age, are called to be mission, to respond each day to God’s call in our lives as Providence people.  That call changes with each day’s changing realities.  Our congregation’s realities have changed too.  Religious life is evolving.  There are new challenges on the horizon that require us as vowed religious and covenanted Associates to live with a certain amount of risk.  There is no set or clear path.  We are on a journey together, through our engagement with one another, to create something new for the sake of Christ’s mission.  New structures will allow us to continue serving God’s people and to be witnesses to a world in need of love.  I ask this question of all of us:  Are we on fire with mission?  Do we have enough passion for mission, to be a compelling presence of love in a world wounded by hate?   Are we willing to take the journey forward together – to let go of what needs to be let go of, to discern together what needs to be in place for mission to continue, to truly listen with the ear of the heart? 

I believe this Lent is an invitation to heed the words of Pope Francis: “We are in a change of era.  Let our lives not be a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts – but be alive, be unsettled, enlivened.  Recognize the shift in consciousness that the Gospel asks of us.  Our search has a face that is not rigid, it has a body that moves and grows, it has a soft flesh – it is called Jesus Christ.”   Do not be afraid—listen with the ears of your heart. 

Blessings to each of you,

Sr. Barbara McMullen, Congregational Leader

*** Reading material “You ARE Mission: Listening with the Ear of One’s Heart', please see attached.

image: https://pixabay.com/ko/