Emilie Gamelin, the Providence Charism and the Sisters of Providence
The Sisters of Providence are an apostolic religious congregation, a community of persons, whose primary orientation is mission, the concrete expression of their radical commitment to Christ, to the poor and to the Church as people of God.
The self-identity of the religious congregation emerges from an awareness of the origin and continuity of its Charism and mission, the unique and charismatic grace that points to a need in the Church and the world at a particular time and place. The resulting narrative describes, supports and gives meaning to the congregation’s religious apostolic identity and mission through time.
The elements of the story of the Sisters of Providence are well known. It begins with Emilie Tavernier Gamelin, her young life in Montreal, her marriage to Mr. Gamelin, their young family and their love for and attention to people who were poor, disadvantaged and marginalized, the dramatic and tragic loss of Emilie’s husband and her children. Her sorrow in her loss and then finding strength and purpose for her life in the contemplation of Our Mother of Sorrows.
Her contemplation of Our Mother of Sorrows bore the fruit of a charismatic and evangelical intuition that led her to offer her life, her resources, her very self for the love and service of people who are poor, and marginalized.
This simple and moving narrative makes sense in the context within which Emilie Gamelin lived- a city in social, economic and political transition and upheaval. On the streets of Montreal, the widowed Emilie encountered abandoned women and children, widows and political prisoners. These were the persons who provided the context of her life and who rose up to encounter in her the grace of a particular charismatic and evangelical intuition, The people of Emilie’s time recognized this graced encounter, and they named it “Providence”.
This charismatic grace, Charism, does not exist in Emilie alone nor in her followers or in the programs or projects offered by them. Charism exists in the particular interaction of the evangelical grace in a person or persons and their encounter/connection with a particular social situation. This connection is the occasion for the foundation of a community, and it provides the unique narrative (story) which is carried by its members.
The story lives in the members of the community and through its members, the Charism encounters new socio-cultural situations. The encounters of the members in and with their reality are “explosions of grace” in different times and places. And these encounters are experienced, recognized, and they are named “Providence.”
The history of the Sisters of Providence illustrates this very well. Everywhere, the Charismatic and evangelical intuition, comes alive in multiple works for people who are poor, sick, abandoned and marginalized.
Whether the deep Providence story lives in any age other than that of Emilie Gamelin depends on whether this story can mediate redemption, can make a Providential connection with the cry of the people and the world in a particular place and time. The story will live if it can be lived in a new socio-cultural milieu without being cut off from its roots, i.e., the first and original charismatic evangelical intuition of Emilie Gamelin.
The Charismatic grace, Charism, is alive in the members of the Sisters of Providence and the Associates of Providence. Frequently returning to contemplate Our Mother of Sorrows, they find themselves enlightened, renewed and strengthened as Emilie was, to continue to offer themselves, their very lives, for the love and service of many persons who find themselves marginalized, without the means to live, the displaced and the victims of war, violence and climate change disasters.
And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah 6:8
With Emilie Gamelin, we say, “Here we are. Send us.”
Kathryn Rutan, SP