On this day of celebration for IHM Founders Day and for the A Nun’s Life Community surpassing its fundraising goal, we give thanks for you and for the way the Spirit continues to live and move and have being in the world and in us! We welcome as our guest blogger today our dear friend and IHM Sister, Margaret Brennan.

Today we celebrate one hundred and sixty-six years of IHM life… and as we do on each Founder’s Day, we look back to many celebrations of the old story which we learned from our earliest days in the congregation … the frontier community of Monroe, the log cabin, the first women, the zealous young founder – Louis Florent Gillet whose words have given us life and continued existence – “…if I cannot find a religious community I will make one.” And so he did.

When the young Redemptorist missionary visited Baltimore from Monroe, he met Theresa Maxis Duchemin who was searching for a spiritual home in which she could pursue her calling. On November 10, 1845, Louis and Theresa along with Charlotte Martha Schaaf and Therese Renaud formed the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The story of the two founders, like those of many others, was fraught with struggle and challenge that honed and humbled their spirits in the crucibles of suffering and misunderstanding. Yet in the end, they both came to rest in the deep consolation of knowing that a work begun in poverty and obscurity had flourished and taken root.

Today we continue to stand within the charisms of these two founders at another critical juncture in religious life. The over-flowing novitiates of the pre-Vatican era are no more and have given way to another reality, the deep meaning of which has yet to be discovered and discerned.

Women religious such as Sandra Schneiders IHM and Joan Chittister, OSB, among others have written and reflected on this reality. Rather than being discouraged, they have seen in the changing landscape of religious life a new hope, a new direction, and a new understanding of a way of life that has enriched the Church in countless
ways for generations.

We are challenged today to see the working of God’s Providence in our present reality … to find meaning rather than mourning or dispair. We are challenged further to consider the possibility that what lies ahead of us is not something merely to survive but, by the grace of God, something that will truly allow us to flourish.

Providentia providebit. Providence provides. I learned the phrase from the Oblate Sisters of Providence when I first met them over 10 years ago. As I’ve gotten to know them through the years, heard their stories, worked side by side with them, and listened to how Providence is alive in their lives and congregation, my own spirituality and indeed how I see my IHM life and tradition has grown, helping me to see that Providence pervades my whole life.

I wrote recently about the Oblate Sisters of Providence on the occasion of the IHM Sisters’ Founders Day. Deerose commented on the post and had a question for the Oblate Sisters: “Does your charism have anything to do with the theology/philosophy behind the classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence?” I checked in with a couple of Oblate Sisters for their response. Sister Alice, OSP, sent me this response:

“Abandonment to Divine Providence” as described by the theologians, for example, Caussade, is truly what we are all about. Providence Spirituality is dependence upon God as Provider of all our needs, including our spiritual welfare. Whatever we have, we know that it is gift of the spirit and we must use it wisely and share it generously. As our Statement of Charism says:

The original inspiration of the Oblate Sisters of Providence is that gift of the Spirit, so evident in the life of Mother Mary Lange.

This charism enables us, with total trust in God’s Providence, to bring joy, healing and the liberating redemptive life of the suffering Jesus to the victims of poverty, racism and injustice despite contradictions, prejudice and pain.

What is your experience of Providence? How does the experience of Providence express itself in your life, your prayer, daily living?