Helping people, helping groups: companion ministries
Sister Kay Taylor (right), Provincial of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, presents Providence Sister Jeannette Filthaut with a pewter carving of the creation story as a gift for facilitating their 2014 Provincial Chapter.BY SISTER JEANNETTE FILTHAUT Spiritual direction and process facilitation might seem like strange bedfellows, yet I have found them each to be enriching and collaborative. As a spiritual director I am called to listen...
It’s time for basic income guarantee
BY JAMIE SWIFT The world’s richest man is a chubby sort of chap by the name of Slim. If he spent his money at the rate of a million dollars a day, it would take Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim 220 years to spend his $80-billion fortune. In January, an Oxfam report revealed that the world’s 85 top billionaires had the same wealth as the poorest half of the world’s people. The international charity also pointed out that at least a million women have...
Climate change in Ontario?
Bridget Doherty takes a little rest during the People's Climate Change March in New York City in October.BY BRIDGET DOHERTY As part of a regular update to the Sisters of Service, who co-fund the Integrity of Creation position of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation team, Bridget Doherty gives an update on the work of energy poverty: I have some exciting news! You may remember from previous reports that I'm on the Low-Income Energy...
A whole new take on local, when it comes to food
BY TARA KAINER From Toronto to Vancouver, Chicago to California, Seoul, South Korea to Havana, Cuba and points in between, Jennifer Cockrall-King explores the future of food in Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution (Prometheus Books, 2012). Speaking to an appreciative crowd at Writers' Fest in Kingston this fall, the Edmonton-based writer used glorious photographs to demonstrate how food can be found growing in cities...
Shining a light in St. Mary’s Hospital, Camrose
Original chapel, St. Mary’s Hospital, Camrose, Alberta ca. 1925. Photo: 203.2.1-92, Archives, Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul.BY VERONICA STIENBURG Ninety years ago, Sister Mary Angel Guardian Mangan supervised the building of St. Mary’s Hospital in Camrose, Alberta. The hospital opened in October 1924 and was staffed by eight Sisters. While, according to the annals, the Sisters’ days were “spent opening boxes, unpacking furniture,...
Serving the very poor
BY SISTER GAYLE DESARMIA This year the Providence Associates in Peru have undertaken an important ministry to the very poor in their area. After evaluating their own ministries and the needs present in the area of Carabayllo, they have decided to focus their ministry this year in Fray Martin de Porres. Fray Martin de Porres is a remote and very needy village further up in the mountains than El Progreso, where the Sisters of Providence live....
A Winter Adventure
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST From the Congregational Annals of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul: On the 15th [of January 1879] Sr. M. Edward [arrived] accompanied by her sister Miss B. McKinley who had been visiting in Holyoke. They preferred coming by way of Cape Vincent and were obliged to make the journey from Watertown to the Cape in a sleigh. The snow lay in such great quantities that the driver was unable to keep the...
Behind the peace pole: truth
BY SISTER PAULINE LALLY In the midst of global tragedies and conflicts, we, Sisters of Providence, erected a simple white peace pole in front of the entrance to our Motherhouse this summer. It has black lettering. And there it stands in simple juxtaposition to the sufferings of the world. The pole reads May Peace Prevail on Earth in four different languages. French is for our origins in France and Montreal. The Spanish is for our missions in...
Christmas Prayer Cards From the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul Archives
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVISTHandwritten on the verso: “To dear Sr. M. Ruth with best wishes for a happy, holy Christmas and New Year, from Sr. M. Scholastica. 1941.”
Standing in vigil at Kingston’s City Hall
Vigil keeper Lynda Dowdle, in red, is surrounded by four Sisters of Providence at an August vigil. From left, Ellen Murray, SP; Lynda Dowdle; Una Byrne, SP; sitting, Peggy Flanagan, SP; and Catherine Cannon, SP.BY UNA BYRNE, SP For 19 years, the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul have held a vigil in front of City Hall in Kingston on Fridays between 12:15 and 12:45. Many others have joined that vigil over the years, as regular...
Prayers for Peace During World Wars
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST As this month of remembrance closes, let’s look back through the congregational annals of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul and acknowledge the congregation’s many prayers for peace during both World Wars. March 21, 1915 - The day of Public Reparation to God, in atonement for sin ordered by His Holiness Pope Benedict to be observed throughout America…The object of devotion is that God in His Mercy...
Thanksgiving Means
Thanksgiving dinner at Cassidy Street Group Home in Kingston, 1973. From centre left to Right: Sister M. Bernadette, Sister Diane McNamara and Sister Muriel Gallagher.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Visiting friends and family…1905, October 26 – The holiday Thanksgiving brings many of the Sisters friends to the city. The house resembles a busy bee hive for a few hours in the afternoon. A holiday…1920, October 18 – Thanksgiving, holiday for...
Sisters look to future plans
Sr. Sandra Shannon, being shown plans for the new St. Mary’s hospital. The current hospital is on land owned by the Sisters of Providence. Photo courtesy Providence Care.For the congregation that has ministered in health care, education and social work, and spent years advocating for society’s most vulnerable members, the coming years will carry new challenges. The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul have led lives of compassionate...
Sr. Mary Mathews’ Science Class
BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul taught at St. Michael’s High School in Belleville from 1930 to 1960. The congregation served the community in Belleville through various ministries from 1900 to 2013. Sr. Mary Matthew entered the Sisters of Providence at age 16 in 1911. She completed high school at Maryvale Abbey in Glen Nevis. After graduating from Ontario Teachers’ College in Ottawa, she taught...
Look to the seed – a spirits-up ecology story
BY CATE HENDERSON Those of you who were in attendance at the spring equinox celebration may remember our meditation on the seed – that through kindness alone plants grow from one seed to produce many, many seeds. There is no selfish reason for this, and economists and financial planners would be appalled to see so much energy expended on seeds which are then freely given – many are eaten by humans, animals, insects, fungi etc, with no immediate...
Telling a different story about war
Richard Jack. The Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to 25 May 1915. CWM 19710261-0161. Beaverbrook Collection of War Art. copyright Canadian War MuseumBY JAMIE SWIFT Two oil paintings. Two artists who painted battlefield scenes. Two dramatically different ways of telling a story. In 1915, the English artist Richard Jack received a commission to paint a recent battle in Belgium. His immense canvas, The Second Battle of Ypres, showed heroic...
Sister Sheila Langton: CHAC lifetime achievement award
Sr. Sheila Langton receives the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from Daniel Lussier, Chair of the Governing CouncilBY LOUISE SLOBODIAN “At the heart of all her efforts there is a central vision: to serve the needs of the most vulnerable.”That’s how Sr. Sheila Langton was described as she was bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada (CHAC). At a ceremony April 30, Sr....
30 years of Changing Together
From left: Speaker Elexis Schloss, executive director Sonia Bitar and temporary board chair, Sr. Diane BrennenBY SISTER DIANE BRENNEN On Friday, May 30, Changing Together – the Centre for Immigrant Women in Edmonton, Alberta – celebrated its 30th anniversary with a dinner and silent auction. Thirty years ago a small group of immigrant women who were studying at the University of Alberta decided to meet together in order to provide each other...
For the child taken, for the parent left behind
Sister Mary Clare Stack OSU, Sister Jeannette Filthaut SP and Dr. Bob McKeon walking in the closing march of Truth and Reconciliation on a very cold March 30th day in EdmontonBY SISTER JEANNETTE FILTHAUT Listen to your heart * Listen to the Creator * As leaders, as women, we have to be strong to stand alone and we have to move forward * Go beyond the evil dark energy * Put your children close to your heart * If you don't have an elder adopt one...
Biodegradable caskets as spiritual practice
BY SISTER SHIRLEY MORRIS Going Green has become a passion for many people. However, the hardest time to adopt environmentally friendly practices has been at the end of life itself. Death is as sacred as life, and we need to transform how we die. A funeral becomes a rite of passage. Diarmuid O’Murchu speaks of death as a transformative reconnection with the great energy fields of God’s creation. For some people, who are looking to limit their...