“The New Evangelization impels us to continue joyfully responding to the Spirit that never ceases to stimulate our communities to a deep conversion. Our call to celebrate the Gospel and to proclaim it to all our communities is at the very core of the creative ministry of the FIP. With years of Hispanic experience the Federation will continue to respond to the challenges of today’s world and will continue to serve by offering excellent faith, academic, and ministerial formation to our communities and beyond.”

-Bishop Arturo Cepeda

FIP is a non-profit organization of volunteers totally committed to leadership formation of our pastoral agents at the service of the Latino/Hispanic catholic communities in the US. Your help and support is very important to us. A big THANK YOU for your kind and generous donation to us!

“A sign of vitality in ministry to our Hispanic communities is the ever growing numbers of laity in need of learning and deepening their knowledge of one’s faith, a crystal-clear sign for us to continue offering sound and quality services throughout every ministry within the Church. This ever present need is the reason why and how many new educational services have been brought to life in every region of the country. The challenges are indeed varied and many for anybody to deal with them in isolated ways. That is why FIP [Federation of Pastoral Institutes] came into being. FIP‘s mission is to offer excellent faith formation services to our Hispanic communities en route to God.”

-Bishop Felipe J. Estevez

We Proclaim the Kingdom, Even Amid Turmoil

God's Kingdom Nov. 19 we celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Divine Providence. In the image, Mary leans over the Christ Child, who in an attitude of complete trust sleeps peacefully on her lap. The Virgin’s hands are folded in prayer while she gently supports her Son’s left hand. The whole carving suggests tenderness, abandonment, devotion and peace. Pope Paul VI, by a decree signed on Nov. 19, 1969, declared Our Lady of Divine Providence principal patroness of the island of Puerto Rico.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “Divine Providence consists of the dispositions by which God guides all His creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end” (No. 321). God has destined creation for an ultimate perfection yet to be attained. God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes care of His children’s smallest needs.

In divine providence we put our trust in a God who never promised us instant success and who frequently writes our history straight with crooked lines. Trusting in divine providence we proclaim the kingdom of God in a society where there is confusion and turmoil. We accept these imperfections while seeking to change them confident in God’s plan for all of us.

Let’s look around us and celebrate the lives of those who have modeled trust in God’s providence. I remember the founders of my religious community, Father Gillet and Sister Theresa Maxis. Theirs was by no means a passive trust in God’s providence. Loyal to God’s love, they strove to find the will of God in everyday choices. Because of their willingness to trust in the providential love of God, they were able to found the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1845.

So often, our plans may seem to be interrupted — especially when faced with our limitations and vulnerabilities. These are the times when we most need to remember God’s love us and care for us. In trust, we are invited to place ourselves on Mary’s lap recognizing that nothing finds its way into our lives by chance: “(T)he whole of our lives, down to every detail, has been mapped out in God’s divine providence and makes complete and perfect sense in God’s all-seeing eyes” (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).

Sr. Ruth Bolarte

Sister Ruth Bolarte, I.H.M., is the director of the Catholic Institute for Evangelization in Philadelphia.

go back