Saint of the Day: Our Lady of Providence

The meaning of the celebration

+ The origins of this title are traced to Mary’s intervention at the wedding at Cana, when she helped set the scene for Jesus’ first public miracle.

+ The devotion originated in Italy and later spread to France and Spain. It was introduced in Puerto Rico in the early 1850s and she has been honored as the patroness of Puerto Rico since in 1969.

+ The devotion has been promoted by the Servite Fathers, as well as by the Barnabite Fathers, who commissioned a painting of the Mater Divinae Providentiae around 1580. This image is now enshrined in the Roman church San Carlo ai Catinari.

+ As the introduction for the Mass honored “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Providence” observes, “Like God, who cannot forget his people, indeed consoles them like a mother, so the Blessed Virgin has pity on us, intercedes for us, comes to the help of the Church in its needs, and fills us with consolations” (from the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary).

+ The National Shrine of Our Lady of Providence is housed in the motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods, where she is celebrated as “Queen of the Home.”

For prayer and reflection

“Can a mother forget her infant, and not have pity on the child of her womb? 1if a mother should forget, you I will never forget.”—Isaiah 49:15

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also remember Blessed Alexandre Planas Saurí. A deaf laymen and member of the “Salesian Cooperators” (lay affiliates of the Salesian Priests and Brothers), he was known as a man of deep spirituality, as well as remarkable skills as a sculptor. Because of his piety and association with the Salesians, he was martyred together the Salesian brother Blessed Eliseo García y García on November 19, 1936, in Garraf, Spain, during the anti-Catholic violence of the Spanish Civil War. The two martyrs were beatified in 2001.

Religious Life

There are several communities named in honor of Our Lady of Divine Province and the Mystery of God’s Providence.

For women

- The Sisters of Providence: www.sistersofprovidence.net

- The Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Carmel of Our Lady of Divine Providence (Lake Elmo, MN): https://cloisteredlife.com/directory/lake-elmo

- The Congregation of Divine Providence: www.cdptexas.org

- The Daughters of Divine Providence: www.daughtersofdivineprovidenceusa.org

- The Daughters of St. Mary of Providence: www.dsmpvocations.com

- The Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence: www.mcdp.org

- The Oblate Sisters of Providence: www.oblatesisters.com

- The Sisters of Divine Providence: www.cdpkentucky.org

- The Sisters of Providence of Holyoke: www.sisofprov.org

- The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: www.sistersofprovidence.org

- The Sisters of St. Francis of the Providence of God: www.osfprov.org

For men

- The Sons of Divine Providence: https://www.sonsofdivineprovidence.org/USA.html

Prayer

Lord our God,
your loving providence is always wise and unfailing;
through the prayers of the Blessed Virgin,
Mother of your Son,
remove from us all the would harm us
and grant us all that will be for our good.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(Collect for the Mass in honor of Our Lady of Providence in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.