Called to bring hope and healing to those in need
“With tender compassion, we dedicate ourselves to bringing hope to those in need through our ministries of healing, attending particularly to the cry of those who are poor and oppressed. We desire to share our hope in the transforming power of love and our trust that a gracious, Provident God is at work in each of us in the ordinary events of our lives. We work with individuals and groups who resonate with this charism and who want to build a more just world community.
As women of Providence, we give witness to the Gospel values. We strive to live together simply, sharing ministry, prayer and leisure. Our shared spirituality and goals strengthen us as we undertake our mission to bring hope and healing to a hurting world.
We live the Gospel call to service with undaunted hope, trusting always in God’s unfailing Providence.”
—Mission Statement, Sisters of Providence Constitution (1981)
Prioritizing health care
As you can learn by reading our history, while some of our pioneer sisters did teach school for close to 40 of our earliest 146 years, the focus of our ministerial works from the very beginning has been directed toward providing holistic health care services to the people we serve. From our pioneer Sisters forward, an overwhelming number of our Sisters were in healthcare as nurses, hospital and nursing home administrators, working in X-ray and laboratory departments and in medical business offices.
With Vatican II’s call in the 1960s encouraging more laity involvement in the mission of the Church, we began to partner more extensively with the laity to further extend our mission to reveal the mystery of Providence in the Church. As lay leadership took hold in our facilities and programs, and our staffs became predominately lay, our Sisters discerned a number of other, varied ministries they felt the Spirit was beckoning them to pursue. These included ministries in spiritual direction, pastoral care, and direct service to poor and marginalized persons.
Our President Sister Kathleen Popko summarizes our calls to ministry with her statement, “In all we do, we continue to share our legacy, mission and values. We remain grateful for the past, resilient in the present and open to the future.”
