{"id":7976,"date":"2004-02-07T08:13:48","date_gmt":"2004-02-07T08:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/02\/little_sisters_of_the_poor_2.html"},"modified":"2004-02-07T08:13:48","modified_gmt":"2004-02-07T08:13:48","slug":"little_sisters_of_the_poor_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/02\/little_sisters_of_the_poor_2.html","title":{"rendered":"Little Sisters of the Poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working with the elderly in LA<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThe worldwide order of 3,100 sisters in 32 countries was founded in France in 1839 and will celebrate its centennial anniversary in Southern California next year. This year, the order is commemorating its 25th year in San Pedro, where 10 sisters run a home for about 100 elderly residents.<\/p>\n

Many marvel at the order’s survival \u2014 their bookkeepers most of all. <\/p>\n

The Little Sisters deliberately depend on what they call “divine providence.” The order’s founder, Jeanne Jugan, instructed the sisters not to build an endowment, in contrast with the strategy of many other nonprofit organizations. Instead, the sisters say, they live from day to day, putting full faith in St. Joseph, their patron saint, and their motto: “If God is with us, it will be accomplished.”<\/p>\n

At the San Pedro home, for instance, the nuns’ superior, Mother Marguerite, was unruffled when she learned Tuesday that she had to meet a payroll of $80,000 for the lay employees by Friday, even though she had only $21,000 in the bank. “Wait until the mail comes in,” she told the staff.<\/p>\n

They did \u2014 and that afternoon they received a check for $50,000 from the Burbank-based Fritz B. Burns Foundation and a note from another donor promising enough money to make the payroll. <\/p>\n

That was only a minor miracle compared with the whopping $12-million contract to build the order’s San Francisco home that Mother Marguerite signed in 1979 \u2014 with no money in the bank. The contractor, she said, asked her where the sisters planned to get the money.<\/p>\n

“From St. Joseph,” she calmly replied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working with the elderly in LA The worldwide order of 3,100 sisters in 32 countries was founded in France in 1839 and will celebrate its centennial anniversary in Southern California next year. This year, the order is commemorating its 25th year in San Pedro, where 10 sisters run a home for about 100 elderly residents.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nLittle Sisters of the Poor - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/02\/little_sisters_of_the_poor_2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little Sisters of the Poor - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Working with the elderly in LA The worldwide order of 3,100 sisters in 32 countries was founded in France in 1839 and will celebrate its centennial anniversary in Southern California next year. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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