Last Updated on July 27, 2022 by Brad
When I share with someone that I’m a Providence Associate, the natural question arises: What does that mean?
It means that I have joined the Sisters of Providence community in a very real and concrete way. Now, you might be saying to yourself, “but you’re obviously not a nun!” Definitely not!! So in order to understand this better, we need to look at some details.
Let’s begin with the name: Providence Associate is intended to clearly identify that I am associated with the Sisters of Providence (SP). In more general terms, Catholics who may be in-the-know about these things will recognize me as a tertiary of the Congregation or that I belong to their “Third Order”.
In simplest terms, a tertiary is anyone who has not taken the formal vows of the religious order but is still a member. There are different names that more specifically identify each tertiary group, such as Benedictine Oblates, Lay Dominicans, Secular Franciscans, etc. We have many commonalities among us as tertiaries, but there are also distinct differences based on the order/community/congregation (I’ll use those words interchangeably for now) that one belongs to, and more importantly, there are things shared in common between the tertiary and their order, along with some differences.
The Rev. Francis Hoffman, JCD, has written a nice summary here of what being a tertiary is, and there are some good Q-and-A’s on the Providence Associates website that are more specific. I’ll outline the highlights from both articles below. Most of what I share here is either specific to the Sisters of Providence community or a more general overview; other groups will have their own specific nuances for each of these things.
Regular members of religious orders are single men or women who make vows to live a certain life (monks or nuns, usually living in groups, vowed to chastity, poverty, and obedience). Tertiaries can be male or female, married or single, and live wherever they choose; they have regular jobs like anyone else.
Per the first article linked above, tertiaries may have distinctive clothing or symbol to set them apart from the “regular person in the pew” and possibly an abbreviation after their names. The SPs are not required to wear a full habit anymore; they have replaced that with a small white cross specific to SPs. They will write their names as Sister Mary Smith, SP. (Sister is commonly abbreviated as “S.” or “Sr.”.) Providence Associates have a cross based on the SP cross that we usually wear for official functions, but we aren’t required. We may sign our names as (Mr./Ms./Dr.) John Doe, PA.
We do not take vows, per se. Instead, tertiaries make promises or commitments – these may or may not be similar to vows, but they are certainly by definition not as binding. In our case as PAs, they also have to be renewed from time to time; we do not have perpetual vows like the SPs are all eventually required to make.
Members of religious orders are divided into different houses or sub-communities. In SP history, sisters living in a particular geographic area formed a Province. As PAs, we form Circles that may or may not have anything to do with geography. (They originally were based on where you lived, but with technology and Zoom meetings becoming common, anyone can join almost any Circle).
So what do we do? Well, if you’re like some of my friends who are Benedictine Oblates, they have a specifically defined “personal rule” to follow that is more or less the same for everyone. PAs create, as part of their individual commitments, a written statement of what our “rule” will look like for us individually (in keeping with the way SPs determine their missions and ministries).
This commitment statement is usually drafted after a substantial discernment period (one or more months), in consultation with another member of the community who can guide you, and then it is submitted to the general officers for approval prior to your (re)commitment ceremony. The areas of consideration for writing your commitment statement are how you will make Intentional Prayer a routine, how you will maintain a Relationship with the Congregation, and how you will live out the Mission & Charism, though these are not the only areas your statement can address.
As an Associate, I have made the commitment to become part of the Congregation, to share the charism and spirituality of the Congregation, and to both give and benefit from the mutual support the Congregation provides. Following the way of life of the Sisters, this means I determine the specifics of what that looks like in everyday reality, and I’ll share more of those specifics in another post.