This year’s Missioning Day Ceremony was unique in that it turned on the theme of creation, prompted by the horrendous impact of three hurricanes, two record breaking earthquakes, and rampant wild fires, and by the world-wide movement of Christian Churches’ united attention on the Season of Creation. This global observance, held at the prompting of Christian Churches and others, took place from September 1 to October 4, the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron of the environment.

Missioning Day, held at Providence Place in Holyoke, opened with a ritual focused on the cries of the earth and the poor as articulated by Pope Francis, particularly those clearly set down in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.

During the ritual, the Sisters’ and Associates’ prayers joined with those of Christian Churches, and others around the world, in voicing their common concern regarding the devastation of the environment, our planet. The program opened with the assembly singing the hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth” as four participants carried into the chapel sanctuary—from four directions—symbols of creation: a lighted candle, symbolic of fire; a filled glass pitcher, representing water; a flowering plant, for earth; and a small sculpture of a tree with blowing branches, to symbolize air.

Sister of Providence President Kathleen Popko said the ritual was “a call to prayer and action for creation.” She recalled the “wild weather” the U.S. and the Americas had “experienced over the previous month—hurri-canes, fires, and earthquakes,” pointing out that those events made it “doubly fitting” for the focus of the Missioning Day program to be on creation.  “Moreover,” said Sister Kathleen, “we join with Christians and all others who are praying for the world to wake up to the reality of climate change, and who want to take collective action to care for our home, Earth.”

The creation theme also resonated with the Congregation’s 1993 Directional Statement that urges Sisters and Associates “…to make all [their] decisions in light of their impact on women, Earth, and those who are poor.”
At the conclusion of the creation ritual, Sisters and Associates turned their attention to the Congregation’s Missioning Day ceremony. Traditionally, the observance takes place annually and is held on a Sunday close to September 27, the Church’s feast day for Saint Vincent de Paul, the Sisters’ patron. In this year’s observance, Sisters and Associates recommitted themselves to the Community’s mission and charism and welcomed two Associate Candidates—Yvonne Boudreau and Elizabeth “Liz” Walz— to full Associate status. 

In missioning the Sisters, Sister Kathleen addressed them, saying: “The witness of Christ has indeed been strong among you. Trusting in God’s Providence and knowing that you will not be without any of the gifts of the Spirit, I mission each of you present here, and all those Sisters who are not with us today, to the ministry you are engaged in at the moment.”
Associate Director Patricia St. Amand, ASP, followed by calling on Associates to renew their commitment to the Congregation. Standing together, they pledged to “…continue to deepen our awareness of the Mystery of God’s Providence both in concert with the Community and as revealed in our daily lives.” 

The service concluded with Sisters and Associates standing and facing each other across the aisle to extend their hands in blessing of one another with the prayer: “May the Providence of God be with you in all its unfolding. And, may you be the sacrament of Providence to those whose hands you hold, to our Community, our world, and the universe.”
Associates then gathered in the chapel rotunda to sign their re-commitment documents prior to rejoining the Sisters and new Associates for a light supper in the Kingston Dining Room.