“Have faith and trust in Divine Providence; whatever happens, happens, we have God and with God we have everything”.     Mother Bernarda Morin, 1921.

 This post comes from a pre-novice with the Sisters of Providence from the Emilie Gamelin group.  I thought it had some good words to reflect upon during this pandemic time.   Fabiola Reyes, SP wrote this reflection and it seems good for all of us.    

“On Friday, June 19 of this year, at 11:00 a.m., we were invited to participate in a Zoom meeting (online videoconference) across the entire Congregation.  The objective of this meeting was to have an opportunity for the Sisters to connect with each other in an attitude of communion and interdependence and to dialogue about the reality that currently afflicts all of us.

For me it was a moment of recollection and empathy for the suffering we are experiencing. After seeing and hearing how Sisters of Providence from all over the world are helping people who are afflicted with COVID-19 to carry this cross, I realized how this fundamental value is being fulfilled from their isolation. The Sisters have been invited to give the best of themselves through prayer, perhaps with the pain of not being able to go out into the streets, just as our foundress would have done, because the very act of going out would be putting the other Sisters in her community at risk. The need for personal care became even more important, to respond faithfully with respect and care for the others.

 Through the testimonies, it became evident that as a Congregation we are not exempt from pain. On the contrary, we have had to shoulder the sufferings of our families and of hundreds of people who have accompanied us throughout the year with their apostolate and who have suffered the loss of a loved one. Learning how to reveal that it is God who saves us in suffering and not from suffering, is a challenge in these times.

I discovered that the call to serve is strengthened in situations like these. Embracing these moments with love and offering them for the people we love, makes everything more bearable. The Sisters, from their communities, are fulfilling a fundamental role in our society; they are with their prayers giving oxygen to the heart of many people who are dying from this same lack of oxygen. I am sure that with our prayers we travel to each heart, to help people die in peace, with a last breath of gratitude for life.

Now, I am invited to live in harmony with the people I love. Many times, in life’s ups and downs, we tend to go so fast that we do not stop to see how we make others feel with our own attitudes. It is important to forgive ourselves from the heart, to find ourselves and realize that the only way to reach God is through love.

This meeting invited me to continue to commit myself to my vocation. Vocation that arose from the knowledge of being loved by this God, who respects every step we take. Even though this pandemic has seemed to turn the world upside down, it has made us reflect our own vulnerability and  on the fact that we are not immortal and that we need to make changes in our lives. It is of utmost importance that we inhabit our loneliness and occupy the spaces of isolation in order to strengthen our relationship with the one who called us first, God Providence.

Posted by Barbara McMullen, CDP