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Day 2: Taking a picture with the sisters at the Mother House in Korea and Visiting the sisters at the Jeongja-dong Cathedral in Suwon Diocese.   

Welcome to Korea! The CLT arrived in Korea for the official Visitation of the Korean Province and CLB Meeting. more photos go to Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/people/Congregation-of-the-Sisters-of-Divine-Providence/61552316260348/

  September 29, 2024 Foundation Day   Dear Sisters and Associates, What comes to mind when you think of Foundation Day?  Is there an image, a certain word, maybe a phrase that comes immediately to your mind?  The phrase that comes to me as I sit ready to write this letter is: “dogged determination.”   I’m not sure how that will translate in our other languages, but that is what the Spirit sent me and so I share it with you. Mother Marie had determination.  She refused to give up or give in to pressure.  When she began the community with that first little group of women it started out well.  Bishop Ketteler and she had high hopes for this small band of women.  The foundation of our community prospered.  Mother Marie’s burning passion compelled her to keep trying, to push on despite hardships.  She and Bishop Ketteler had a vision and they continued moving forward.  Mother Marie was a woman of “dogged determination.”  She also had great faith—the kind of faith that refused to give up.    Founders are people of great tenacity, I think.  They have a dogged determination and focus to create a community – to have a dream they refuse to let go of, despite meeting resistance.  Our founders gave us a legacy – a vision, an example of steadfast faith.  Our job is to hold on to that faith, to that vision.  We must steward, guard and promote it.  They met obstacles along the way, yet they kept going.  Their prayers and efforts were not in vain!  The little band of women grew, crossed the ocean, crossed to other continents, and here we are the Congregation of the Sisters of Divine Providence, spread across Germany, the United States, Puerto Rico, Peru, Korea, and Rome.  Who could have known at the beginning, despite the hardships, despite the resistance from a particular German priest who didn’t like Mother Marie, that the little band of women would grow to 300 strong?  One thing is sure – new adventures don’t happen without people with dogged determination, without people who persevere.  God used Mother Marie and Bishop Ketteler, ordinary people, to do extraordinary things.  Now it is our turn. Let’s revisit that sense of calling and excitement when we first heard God’s voice.  Do we still have that passion?  Do we remember who God has been and is for us throughout our history? What is our focus in our particular area:  province, mission or here at the Generalate?  Are we willing to look at new adventures together with the same dogged determination of our founders?  What will it require us to let go of in order to move into a new future together?  What could we do, what might we try?  We have many examples from Scripture when God spoke to individual people like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Ruth, Naomi, Esther, Joseph and Mary.  It seems in every instance that God was making a covenant with his people, promising them a future full of hope.  God found ways to capture their attention and invited each of them to join in the journey.  God is inviting each of us, too.  In Galatians 6:9, Scripture says:  “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  Do we believe that God is working in us, in our present realities, to bring about something new?  I do!  I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future.  It’s definitely a mystery!  I do think, though, we can create our future together with God, step by step, by our trust in our God of Providence, and in one another.  It takes openness, courage, risk-taking.  We can create our future by the choices we make each day.  Our founders trusted God to lead and inspire them.  Shouldn’t we have the same dogged determination to trust God through any given situation?  Shouldn’t we keep on being faithful, living our calling, our vows, our covenants, knowing that God has plans for our future?  Let’s continue to walk the path before us with trust and that same “dogged determination” that Mother Marie and Bishop Ketteler had.  Let’s carry forth their vision and dream new dreams! Happy Foundation Day!   One with you in God’s loving Providence Sr. Barbara McMullen Congregational Leader

  With Blessings !                

SEASON OF CREATION 2024   A video :  CommunityWorks. Inc. Please Click:      https://vimeo.com/user25724315/review/333305539/7db0707c89

Creation Day: A New Liturgical Feast? The role of Catholic organizations in the process   Online and in person in Rome, in the headquarters of UISG - Piazza di Ponte Sant'Angelo, 28 Throughout this past decade, many of us have enthusiastically celebrated “Creation Day” on September 1 (also known as “Feast of Creation” or “World Day of Prayer for Creation”), which opens the larger “Season of Creation”. Inspired by the day's ancient symbolism as the commemoration of the creation of the world (in Orthodox tradition), an ecumenical process is currently underway to elevate Creation Day to become a new feast in the liturgical calendars of various churches.   more information:  https://www.uisg.org/en/meetings/126/Creation-Day-New-Liturgical-Feast/  

  Intercultural Growth Commission in-person meetings were held  from August 25 -30, 2024 in Pittsburgh. see more, go to Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552316260348      

The LCWR Assembly 2024 was held in Orlando, Florida from August 13 to 16, 024.  The theme was 'Our time is Holy: Who The Shall We Be'  and  over 900 Sisters, Brothers and priets, and guests were gathered.  All the sessions were very contained. We've invited to the various subjects to think about, such as  Radical inclusion and hospitality, lamenting and dreaming in an interim time, and Discerning our Emerging future and so on.    

Pictured by Sr. Ana Lydia       “Yes, …I want in all earnestness, with His great grace, which so visibly calls me to humility, and with His divine assistance, which is never denied us, to die to self and to grow in the love of God.” - Mother Marie de la Roche -       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpZXcXhPOo4 'Song of the Sisters Divine Providence', St. Joseph Province, Korea

    TRANSFORMATION Sister Mary Francis Fletcher The song, The Grace of Transformation, by Monica Brown, led me to reflect on what we must do to cooperate with God’s grace and move toward transformation.  The song begins: We are hoping, we are praying, for the grace of transformation. O Sacred One, O Gracious One, may our hearts embrace it now. Late in 2020, I began to read Ted Dunn’s book, Graced Crossroads: Pathways to Deep Change and Transformation.  The book’s preface began with the following quote from Neale Walsch.  “Yearning for a new way will not produce it.  Only ending the old way can do that.  You cannot hold onto the old, all the while declaring that you want something new.  The old will defy the new; the old will deny the new; the old will decry the new.  There is only one way to bring in the new.  You must make room for it.” How do we make that room?  How do we open the space, to allow the new to grow in us?  Are we willing to do so?  Monica Brown’s song, begins with hoping and praying but, surely, that is not enough.  As I sought resources for myself and for us, somewhere along the way I discovered steps in the Process of Transformation from Angel Carlton.  The process he identifies includes:  realization, release, rebound, reinvention, resurrection and response.........     .... Read the Whole, see the attachment  ....