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    The Women of Providence in Collaboration (WPC) held its annual Spring board meeting in Melbourne, KY at the motherhouse for the Sisters of Divine Providence there. The Board met beginning March 25(Tue),  through 27(Thur). The purpose of this meeting is to review the work of WPC's groups, approve a budget, and plan for the coming year. Leaders of other Providence groups make up the composition of the board.     the Chapel of the Sisters of Divine Providence in Melbourne, KY. 

      Irish Blessings   May all God's blessings descend upon you. May peace be within you, may your heart be strong. May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam. May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us. Amen  

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/  

Ash Wednesday Talk image: https://pixabay.com/ko/   Sr. Barbara McMullen   “Henri Nouwen once described Lent as the season during which winter and spring struggle with each other for dominance.”  It feels right to think of Lent in this way because we see how the darkness of winter and the coming of more light give way to springtime.  Lent, which actually means springtime, begins today with Ash Wednesday.  We are blessed with ashes to remind us that now is the time to return to God and to renew our desire for closer communion with our God.  Lent is the time to let God into the ashes of our lives so that we can be transformed. It is a time of re-focusing our spiritual lives so that we may draw closer to the One who continually loves us with an overwhelming, undeserving, reckless love.   Let your heart be open to this boundless love and see where God takes you this Lent.    Watch a video,  go to https://youtube.com/shorts/QPvRVksreeU

Congratulations, Sr. Jeanne Morris! She's honored as a Distinguished Faculty Award recipient at St. Catherine of Siena School's Gala & Auction 2025 on March 1, 2025.

Pope Francis has said ..."about consecrated life, including that it is a way of following Jesus and that it involves being a prophet."........ As we celebrated the day of Consecrated Life, we remember and pray for the all the religious Sisters and Brothers in the world!      

            The Prophets had a Choice. So do we! Sister Barbara McMullen   The theme chosen for this year’s “Global Connections” is: “faithful to the mission and charism” which comes from our Chapter 2022 Directional Statement.  When I read the title above it made me remember something another “prophet in her day” said to me many, many years ago.  Her name was Sister Clementia Kemper.  She was a Sister of Divine Providence who emigrated from Germany to the United States and ended up spending her life in the St. Louis Province.  She lived in the Novitiate, where I, as an only novice, also lived.  Sister Clementia and I often had long afternoon conversations about my growing into religious life.  I remember vividly one of those conversations.  She told me: “If you develop a strong friendship with Jesus in your young religious life, you will never be lonely when you grow old as a Sister.”  The second thing she said, as I remember it, was about being “faithful to the mission of the Community and never giving up.  It’s always a choice we make each day.  Do that, even when it’s difficult, and you will be happy.”  Talk about being a prophet, (and I think a saint too!)  I’ve pondered those words often across the years of my religious life…and thanked her!   ............................. To read the full article, please, see the attachment .....................    

January, 2025 Dear Sisters, The Jubilee Year of 2025 began on the vigil of the Lord’s Nativity, December 24, 2024 in Rome and in local dioceses on Holy Family Sunday.  I write to you because a Jubilee Year in the life of the Church is a significant moment.  The theme for this Jubilee Year is:  Pilgrims of Hope.  Pope Francis often writes about Hope and I think his message in choosing this theme is to ask each of us to be messengers of hope to the world.  As we all know, our world is in need of peace and an end to conflicts.  It is a world in need of healing from hatred, racism, and divisions of all kinds.  It is to this very world that we, as Providence People, can be the pilgrims of hope that Pope Francis calls us to be.  Brene Brown, an author I like, names hope as a cognitive process, not a feeling.  She writes that “hope is forged when our goals, pathways, and agency are tested and when change is actually possible.”  According to her “hope is a function of struggle—we develop hope not during the easy or comfortable times, but through adversity and discomfort.”  Nowhere does God say we won’t struggle.  But when we face struggles in our life, we need to dig deep down and trust that God is in the struggle and will not abandon us.  Somehow I think Pope Francis knows all about this struggle and is asking us, as pilgrims of hope, to stay in the struggle, to be in the present moment, to be grounded in God.  That is the call for all of us in this world so in need of hope and joy.  I write also about our gift of consecrated life which is evolving in an ever-changing world.  I believe that our vows can be and are a very real sign to people today of the ability to live a life that is counter-cultural and prophetic in many ways.  It is like a pilgrimage, growing in freedom, open to the unexpected along the journey, and filled with love for Jesus.  It is a pilgrimage of service, and though we may often feel like it is small and insignificant, our witness speaks to others of faithfulness, compassion and joy.   This deep abiding joy comes from God and is a characteristic trait of our vocation.  So you have to ask yourself from time to time:  Am I witnessing joy in my life?  Do I believe and act as a Beloved of God?  Am I daily giving my full-hearted YES to what God asks of me, individually and in community?  Though we don’t know for certain what the future of religious life will look like, what we do know about is the present moment and the gift of joy given each of us as God’s Beloved.  When we made our vows, we put our life journey into God’s hands and each present moment connects us to the next one with our core and essence.  I hope in this Jubilee Year that all of us will examine our commitment to God, asking the Spirit to help us embrace our consecrated life, our vows, and the present moment which often holds surprises we could never have imagined.  I wish you a Jubilee Year filled with joy, deep abiding joy that lasts and gives rise to HOPE—an energy that releases light, love and joy into our world. In loving Providence, Sr. Barbara Congregational Leader

  The Jubilee Prayer Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.   May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.   May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever. Amen More information: https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en.html