I am happy to announce and endorse the Sisters of Divine Providence, who have been named this year’s Propagation of the Faith Missionary Cooperative Program for our parish. Every year parishes throughout the world participate in the Missionary Cooperative Program. Due to the fact that Canon Law only allows the ordained to preach during Mass, and the fact that we are very limited with the amount of time we have for each Mass, because of our parking, Sr. Mary Emerita McGann, CDP, has graciously provided us with information and pictures of their beautiful missionary activity. I am providing this information this weekend so you can read all about the good these beautiful sisters are doing and be prepared to give to the Missionary Cooperative Program next week. I ask you to please be generous and support the good work these devoted sisters are doing.

God bless you and the good Sisters of Divine Providence,
Fr. André-Joseph, O.P. Pastor

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I am happy to introduce myself as a member of the American Province of the Congregation of Divine Providence of St. Jean de Bassal, France. Our Mission Development Office is located at St. Anne Convent, in Melbourne, KY. I am a native of Providence, Rhode Island. I entered in 1959 and celebrated my Golden Jubilee in the year 2010. I have taught most of my religious life and was our first American Sister of Divine Providence to be sent on mission to the Island of Madagascar. When I first arrived on the island in 1975, there were about 20 native Malagasy Sisters from our French Provinces. Today Madagascar Province of the Congregation of Divine Providence with 115 professed sisters, 15 novices, 12 postulants, and 62 aspirants. The Sisters staff many schools, dispensaries in remote villages, live and work in the leper colonies, and are very active in pastoral works. Already Malagasy Sisters of Divine Providence are being sent as missionaries to other parts of Africa.

A project very close to the hearts of the Bishops of Madagascar is called VOZAMA, “Save our Children.” In 2005 the Bishops of Antananarivo and Foamarantsoa, two major cities on the island, entrusted the direction and work of this ministry to the Congregation of Divine Providence, Madagascar.

As Director of Missionary Development, I have been involved in this project since its beginning. Today there are over 225 one room schools located in the most remote parts of the Island; in the big and small cities, there are convents missions surrounded by small brick school buildings, dispensaries, gardens planted and utilized by the families of street children, etc. This is but a candid photo but the real picture is one that shows “Life Unfolding” for these children. My Sisters find these children on the street corners, homeless, dirty, frightened, uneducated, and ignored by the busy world around them. The Sisters do not pass by the children without acknowledging their presence. They welcome them to their home, to a new life in which they will be loved, cared for, and educated. They give them a voice, a sense of dignity, food for the body and spirits, and introduce them to a God who loves and care for them.

What happens at the Mission of Providence is fulfilling the Father’s dream for the human family. The greatest tragedy for any child that receives the gift of life is the poverty of being invisible, unknown and unloved. As Sisters of Divine Providence we have a mission to give living witness to the loving Providence of God. Jesus said, Bring the little children to me, and as a Sister of Divine Providence, I say to Jesus, Please Jesus, lead the little children to us, we will love and care for them.

In the name of the children and our Madagascar Sisters of Divine Providence, I thank you for your generosity to our mission. Be assured of my prayers for you and for this appeal.