Where angels did not fear to tread
Sr. Mary Cosmas (Sr. Verna Plue) serving lunch to the “angels” at the back door of Rosary Hall, Edmonton in May, 1962BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST The Sisters of Providence ran Rosary Hall in Edmonton Alberta from 1915 to 2012. Rosary Hall was a hostel for immigrant women and girls coming to the city for study or employment until the early 1960s when the mandate of Rosary Hall shifted to serve the mentally handicapped and women suffering...
Welcome Ann Boniferro
Ann Boniferro in 2015 being awarded her school board’s Contribution to Catholic Education Award from chair (trustee) Greg Speagle The Liturgy team is delighted to announce that Ann Boniferro has signed on as the Director of Liturgical Music, and Organist, filling the special organ shoes left by dear Marg Spooner who passed away this last year. Ann was the choir director and organist at The Church of the Good Thief in Portsmouth before it closed...
Remembering
The second annual memorial service was held on May 9. It was simple and moving, with lots of time to remember. The list of remembrance included staff and former staff, Associates, Sisters of all three congregations and family members of those gathered. All are welcome to attend. Thank you to the Providence Spirituality Centre team for creating such a lovely service.
An homage of vigils throughout April
In April, every school in the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board held some version of a social justice vigil – honouring the 20 years of the Friday noon vigil undertaken by the Sisters of Providence with many others from the community.These actions ranged from large-scale public vigils (see the Belleville article) to smaller acts with smaller kids. Two schools with long ties to the Sisters invited them to the Masses held in...
Library Code of Conduct issue about respect for the poor and homeless
At first glance, you wouldn't think that a library's Patron Code of Conduct would stir up justice advocates. But when Kingston Frontenac Public Library introduced their new code in February 2016, a public debate opened about how public spaces and publicly-funded organizations treat those who use their services -- even if they are homeless, live on the street, don't shower regularly or carry their possessions with them. At a meeting of the...
Reflecting on a life-changing trip to Kingston, Jamaica
Aristotle said: Educating the mind without the heart is no education at all. From May 17 to May 24th, 2015, 17 students and 5 staff from Regiopolis-Notre Dame High School in Kingston, Ontario (RND) had the education of a lifetime! Forever changed by a trip that was a year in the making and six days in Jamaica, a piece of our hearts will now belong to the people and places of Kingston Jamaica. BY MARY ELAINE CARTY, RND COORDINATOR OF...
Students share trip with Sisters
Thanks to trip organizer Mary Elaine Carty, RND's Chaplaincy Coordinator, for bringing students and teachers to speak with Sisters of Providence, Congregation of Notre Dame Sisters and Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph as part of their ongoing education process.
New organ scholarship
Madison CompeauThis year, the Sisters of Providence established a scholarship with the Kingston Centre of the Royal Canadian College of Organists: The Sisters of Providence Scholarship is given to honour all Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul who have served as liturgical musicians and organists and who have fostered others to do so in the Archdiocese of Kingston. It is intended for, but not limited to, a beginning organist who wishes...
Rita Gould, Providence Associate
Rita Gould, a Providence Associate of Camrose, Alberta, went home to God on November 20, 2015 at the age of 91. With her husband Stan, Rita raised eight children on a farm in Rosalind, Alberta, who extended to 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. After her retirement from the family farm and a move to Camrose, she joined the Associates in 2000, and made her commitment in 2003. When she was no longer able to be an active member, Rita...
Making plans to transition our seeds to another home
BY CATE HENDERSON Providence Village is a heart-felt idea that is moving forward at 1200 Princess St, the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence. We don’t know yet exactly what it will be like, but it will certainly change the look of the wide-open spaces currently occupied by the lawn, meadow and gardens of this property. Some gardens may not survive, others may need to move or be repurposed. For that reason, a transition plan for the...
An environmental tour many years in the making
BY SISTER JEANNETTE FILTHAUT This year, my dream came true when my brother and his wife decided to take their family of three children, their spouses and their eight grandchildren to Costa Rica to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. My sister-in-law’s sister, brother and I were also invited to be guests for this occasion. Even though I broke the fibula in my right ankle just before Christmas, my cast was off and I managed to travel to...
Gaining the skills to lead ourselves
Providence Associate co-director Barbara BakerBY ASSOCIATES CO-DIRECTOR BARBARA BAKER A year ago, while the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul were at Chapter, the Providence Associates gathered to talk about their future. The Sisters were looking at the decisions they had to make and the Providence Associates knew that they had to be proactive and consider their future as well. At the spring gathering, they challenged themselves to...
The ‘mission history’ of Apple Hill, Pincher Creek, San Cristobal, Edmonton, Moose Jaw…
Outdoor Mass in Batawa, Ontario. (SPSVPA 014-202.3.4-S-4)BY ARCHIVIST VERONICA STIENBURG Did you know the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul served in La Loche and Ile-a-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan? In Lancaster, Ontario? In Pincher Creek, Alberta? In Entebbe, Uganda? Over the course of their history, Sisters have served in six Canadian provinces and five countries. The Archives is currently in the process of researching and writing...
Year of Mercy: Taking a wide view of the works of mercy
BY SISTER TERRI MACKENZIE, SHCJ Reprinted from her blog EcoSpiritualityResources.com Last March Pope Francis declared an extraordinary Jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy. No question that the world needs compassion, forgiveness, and mercy! But I found myself a bit concerned: wouldn’t highlighting mercy lead to the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy — all 14 of which focus on people? Might this not reinforce a tendency to the anthropocentrism that...
A Kingston motion is paving the way towards a more equal Canada
Canada’s minister of families, children and social development, Jean-Yves Duclos, with provincial counterparts discussing policy. A Laval University economics professor, Duclos has studied basic income -- and is responsible for a Canada Poverty Reduction Strategy. Photo courtesy of HRSDC.BY JAMIE SWIFT Just before Christmas, Kingston’s city council became Canada’s first elected body to put its stamp of approval on the need for a guaranteed...
Seedy Saturday 2016 was record-breaking
Photo: Andreas FrantzeskosEvery year Seedy Saturday gets bigger but this March, it got huge. More than 600 took part in the one-day seedfest that is sponsored in part by the Sisters of Providence — and held at the perfect time, as winter is still hanging on and the hunger for spring is at its peak.
April 2016 news and volunteer opportunity
The Heirloom Seed Sanctuary is busy on Facebook and occasionally sends email updates too. Here is the latest. You can read this one here. You can sign up, here, if you want to be on the mailing list.
St. Patrick’s Day celebrations through the years
St. Patrick’s Day, 1997 . Left to Right: Sr. Mary Fitzpatrick, Sr. Mary Gertrude, Sr. May Joseph O’Brien, Sr. Anna Marie Willer, Sr. Rita Hanson, Sr. Mary Laboure, Sr. Rita Dimberline, Sr. Bernice Boyle, Sr. Rita Killeen and Sr. Margaret Mary. BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST From the Congregational Annals of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul: March 17, 1916 - St. Patrick's Day. Masses as usual. Singing. High Mass at the...
Are the seeds contemplating their future, as I am?
BY CATE HENDERSON We are coming to realize that plants do have an organ similar to our mammal brain. This organ is connected to a nervous system of sorts and capable of sending out signals that cause action in other parts of the plant. In plants, this central organ is located within the roots – underground. Of the immature parts found in a plant embryo, within a seed, the root is what emerges first, at germination. Of course, in that case we...
January, a hundred years ago
Margaret Irene Connolly (Sr. Mary Roberta) and Irene Carter (Sr. Mary Lenore) as postulants in 1916 with an unidentified novice.BY VERONICA STIENBURG, ARCHIVIST Most people start the New Year looking forward; however, let’s look back 100 years in the Congregational Annals to see what life was like at the House of Providence in Kingston in January, 1916. A new year brings fresh hope January 4 – The New Year 1916 opens – a clean page is now...