Sister Mary Angelica was a Home Child
BY VERONICA STIENBURG Lillian Blanchfield, her two sisters and her two brothers, were “rescued” from the Shaw Street Workhouse in Liverpool, England by the Catholic Children’s Protection Society of Liverpool. They crossed the Atlantic in 11 days aboard the Parisian steamship in the company of Mrs. Lacey and 60 other home children. On June 11, 1889, Mrs. Lacey delivered the children to the House of Providence in Kingston. Lillian stayed...
Poverty dolls: Silent vigil’s 18th anniversary
To mark the 18th anniversary of the Sisters of Providence's silent vigil held over noon hour on Fridays, Sisters and friends created a display of 6000 paper dolls to represent the 6000 children who live in poverty in the greater Kingston area. Acknowledgements for the many hands involved run down the side of the front panel depicted here.
But I’m Hungry
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation staff member Tara Kainer's first book of poetry was published in 2011 by Hidden Brook Press. She read this poem at the Put Food in the Budget inquiry into poverty in Ontario in September.Poverty, Mahatma Gandhi said,is the worst form of violence.Not many get that. She didn't eitheruntil tight in its grip her world shrunkto this tiny, dark box where she's crushedtogether with her two small...
‘Energy poverty’ – when it costs too much to stay warm
BY BRIDGET DOHERTY Imagine you have two children. You work full time at the store down the road. Your husband is a cook at the local restaurant. When the bill for heating and lighting your home arrives, you receive quite a shock. The utilities cost more than the rent. You have to make a tough decision. Do you heat the home or feed the family? Not heating the home may result in child services knocking on your door. Or you're a senior citizen who...
Precariat: A new word for an old and growing problem
BY JAMIE SWIFT The precariat? What's that? The funny-sounding word has recently been creeping from university seminar rooms into public discussion. Precarious work + the proletariat = the "precariat." It refers to the decline of reliable, decently-paid work and the rise of part-time, temporary jobs that pay minimum wages. Just before Christmas, veteran journalist Michael Valpy described the brave new world of work as a "fearsome cave of...
My Providence Path
Earlier this year, Providence Associate Jan Kehoe retired from the chaplaincy team at St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital, which had been founded by the Sisters of Providence. She used that opportunity to look back at her long association with the Congregation. The Sisters of Providence held a role in my life and a place in my heart since first moving to Camrose, Alberta from Manitoba in 1981. In 2000, Sister Bernadine Bokenfohr invited me to...
Blessed Émilie Gamelin and Bishop Ignace Bourget
As Associates and Sisters began the second stage of the renewal and celebration of the historical roots of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, we felt a certain excitement moving from 16c France to 19c Montreal, Canada. Associate Marie McCartney, and Sister Shirley Morris brought to light the lives of Bishop Ignace Bourget and Sister Émilie Gamelin. BY SISTER IRENE WILSON Shirley set the context for the inception of the first...
A Red Letter Day
BY VERONICA STIENBURG In these times of mass media coverage we take for granted seeing and hearing Pope Francis on television, radio and online. This access was not always the case…what if you had never heard the voice of the Pope? What would the first time you heard his voice mean to you? The pope addressed the world’s Catholics via radio for the first time on February 12, 1931, during the inaugural broadcast of Vatican Radio. Pope Pius XI...
The perfect garden plan
Cate Henderson works up the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary's annual garden planBY CATE HENDERSON Many gardeners enjoy planning their gardens over the winter time, as it means dreaming of all the beautiful flowers and delicious, perfect veggies they can grow. In the planning stage, no pests come to chew on leaves, no drought makes plants droopy, and no worries of poor pollination need apply. The perfect garden of the imagination is all there is! When a...
The business of rest
BY CATE HENDERSON The idea of rest is somewhat deceiving. We know as human beings that when we sleep we appear to others to be resting, to be immobile and still. But we also know that, in fact, our minds can be quite busy as we sleep – sometimes living a whole other life in a dreaming world of our own imagination and doing much of our best neurological processing of information. Similarly, our winter gardens appear very peaceful and still,...
Women Do Peace
Keynote speaker Erna Paris. Her address is available at ernaparis.comBY LOUISE SLOBODIAN You know about best-laid plans? After 10 years of holding great conferences, the Congregation's Healing Violence Committee had sworn off them. But then, a great synergy happened. The committee held a meeting with the International Women's Day reps in Kingston, and invited PeaceQuest to join in, and lo and behold … Women Do Peace emerged. And it was good....
3rd World Canada youth drum up support for change
Youth drum group from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (K.I.)BY BRIDGET DOHERTY Last fall, the Sisters of Providence, the Rotary Club of Cataraqui, Kingston, along with a host of organizations and caring citizens, welcomed the 3rd World Canada Tour. The tour comprised of a youth drum group from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (K.I.) and Andrée Cazabon, a young filmmaker from Montreal. During their stay in Kingston, I had the...
‘I just can’t figure out why our boys had to go through that’
BY JAMIE SWIFT Those 13 words speak volumes about the why of war. Particularly since they were uttered at a 1936 Vimy Ridge Pilgrimage by Canada’s first Silver Cross Mother. Charlotte Susan Wood was speaking to King Edward VIII as they gazed across the former killing fields subsequently planted with uncountable white crosses row on row. Mrs. Wood was a Winnipeg laundry worker whose son Percy had perished at Vimy Ridge before he turned...
Renewal and Celebration: Learning From St. Vincent de Paul
Providence Associates began a two-year formation process in September with the theme of renewal and celebration. BY SISTER IRENE WILSONThe process uses the method of Ignatian contemplation, praying to know Jesus better in order to love him more and follow him more closely. We are moving through four topics, exploring each as it is reflected in the lives of key people in the history of our congregation: St. Vincent de Paul, St. Louise de...
Keeping Contact
As part of the two-year formation process, Associate program co-directors Barbara Baker and Sister Irene Wilson have been traveling to the Associates across Canada. In late October they visited Camrose and led a process of Ignatian contemplation. An outcome of the visit was an agreement that, rather than starting from scratch, the Camrose group would use the same materials as were being used in Ontario for reflection, discussion and prayer....
Our Journey to Holyoke
House of Providence, Holyoke, Massachusetts. circa 1874-1880. Photo courtesy of the Sisters of Providence Holyoke ArchivesBY VERONICA STIENBURG In 1873, Sisters Mary Jane de Chantal and Mary Elizabeth went on a collecting tour in Massachusetts, where they visited Holyoke, a large manufacturing town. They got permission from the pastor, Fr. Harkins, to collect in his parish – and discovered that he had studied under Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s brother,...
A living wage for Kingston?
BY TARA KAINER This spring is seeing a resurgence of action to keep attention on a living wage for Kingston. It is a focus of the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation office and a whole raft of allies. In the fall, Kingston city councillor Bill Glover had tabled a motion to request a staff report on the feasibility of a living wage for Kingston. The motion also directed city staff to explore the implications of setting the living wage as...
The most celebrated environmental event worldwide
BY SISTER SHIRLEY MORRIS More than six million Canadians join one billion people in over 170 countries in staging events and projects to address local environmental issues. Nearly every school child in Canada takes part in an Earth Day activity. Environmental challenges abound as our daily actions pollute and degrade the fragile environment that humans and wildlife depend on to survive. What can we do? Earth Day provides the opportunity for...
San Martin builds a chapel but still needs medical care
BY SISTER GAYLE DESARMIA San Martin is a small town about eight kilometres from El Progreso. About 80 families live there. They are poor and very hardworking. Early every day they go to their fields to cultivate broccoli, onions, potatoes and other vegetables. It is cold when they start out and when they come back home their clothes are wet from working through the heat of the day. In this small town there are three children with different...
Planting peas in April
BY CATE HENDERSON Peas are a lovely cool-weather crop, one of the first seeds to actually be planted in the soil of the gardens, even when it is still too cold for most vegetables. One of the pea varieties is called Champion of England. What a glorious name! According to the non-profit group Heritage Seed Library (which used to be called the Henry Doubleday Research Association): “This English marrowfat pea was bred in 1843 as Fairbeards’...