OSP IHM Gatherings
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The Oblate Sisters of Providence and the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Monroe, Immaculata, and Scranton, gathered virtually July 9-11, 2021, for the 175th anniversary of IHM founding. Some of the events of the weekend included an updated video of a conversation between Mother Mary Lange and Mother Theresa Maxis, and input from our presenter, Dr. Jeannine Hill Fletcher, who teaches theology and issues of diversity at Fordham University in New York. Jeannine led us in consideration of our national, congregational, and Church roots of racial injustice. During the weekend there was time for reflection and small group discussion as we looked at our history and what we, the four congregations, can do together to promote racial justice. There were opportunities for "zoom socials” with friends, and the opportunity for a pilgrimage to prayer spaces of each of the congregations. On Sunday a celebratory liturgy was livestreamed from Monroe, where Joseph Cardinal Tobin, CSsR, celebrated the liturgy. |
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"The Next Chapter" conversation between Mary Lange and Theresa Maxis: https://video.ibm.com/recorded/131283347
View video of OSP IHM gatherings and retreats: https://animoto.com/play/fy10pHA4a1hNAEI1iUJ0Xw
The Oblate Sisters of Providence and the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Monroe, Immaculata, and Scranton, gathered in Scranton July 12-15, 2015.
In July 2005, “we gathered to celebrate a moment of renewed courage, of risk acknowledged and accepted, of hope unchecked, of faith unfolding in our lives, and in witness to the healing that can take place in both our corporate and personal lives” (Virginia Pfau, IHM). “Each congregation operates out of a huge reservoir of grace. The opportunity to drink from someone else’s font at the same time that they drink from ours is so enriching and life-giving” (Jane Snyder, IHM). The spirit of this gathering sent a “message of creative hope, born in the crucible of shared foundational sufferings, and kept alive in the desire and the willingness to identify the tensions, to break down the barriers and stereotypes, to restore right relationships, and to maintain the dialogue of charity. Although our congregations represent a wide spectrum of diversity, they also represent and teach the possibility of peace and reconciliation - not only for and among themselves - but also for the purpose of making the redeeming love of Jesus Christ more visible in the Church and in the world” (Patricia Dailey, IHM).
The Oblate/IHM Logo shows a heart, central to the image, joining the congregations represented by four stars and the abbreviations of the congregation names. The "many stories" woven around "one heart" result in a "deep encounter to which we have been called resulting from the providential moment in Monroe in 1995" (Annette Beecham, OSP) that brought the congregations together after 150 years.
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