Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Oblate Sister of Providence Constance Fenwick spends part of her afternoons tutoring students, including Noelle, a third-grader from a nearby Baltimore City school, May 5, at the religious community's motherhouse in Arbutus. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

For 44 years, Oblate Sister of Providence opens worlds through reading


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Catholic Review Filed Under: Consecrated Life, Feature, Local News, News, Schools, Vocations

In a quiet classroom at Our Lady of Mount Providence Convent, Sister Constance Fenwick has spent 44 years doing something schools too often cannot: giving every student her complete, undivided attention.

From her post at the Mount Providence Reading and Math Center in Arbutus, the Oblate Sister of Providence works one-on-one with students of all ages and abilities, patiently coaxing reluctant learners and celebrating small victories that add up to transformed lives. The relationships she builds run deep – sometimes unexpectedly so.

She recalled a young boy who once asked why a bell rang each afternoon. When she explained it signaled a moment of prayer, he asked if they could recite the Our Father together, just as his father had taught him. They have prayed together at 5 p.m. ever since.

“He said, ‘Sister, it is time to pray but I don’t hear a bell,’” the 78-year-old religious sister said. “I don’t know what inner clock he had but that was so precious.”

That kind of connection is at the heart of what the center offers.

“They can’t get away from me and I can’t get away, you know?” Sister Constance said, with a laugh. “All they need to do is come ready to learn.”

Each student is individually tested and observed before the first session, allowing Sister Constance to design a tailored learning plan. She supplies everything: pencils, paper, materials. When motivation flags, she finds a way back.

“Some days you just don’t feel like doing, but I get them back on the track,” she said. “So that means I have to keep energized. God keeps me moving. Once I get them on track, you can just keep right on rolling.”

The ability to work so closely with a student is “a remarkable thing” that not every school can offer, she said – and it is a practice the Oblate Sisters of Providence take seriously. Founded by Mother Mary Lange, the order’s primary mission is to teach and care for African American children, a calling Sister Constance carries with both discipline and joy.

Though she loves reading, she confesses that math captured her heart first. She introduced it at the center during her second year. There are, she acknowledges with a laugh, limits to her curriculum.

“Calculus and all that, forget it,” Sister Constance said.

Michele Gilliam of Baltimore knows the center’s impact firsthand. Her own children benefited from the program years ago, so when her granddaughter began to struggle, she didn’t hesitate.

“The one-on-one, you know, it’s good,” Gilliam said. “In math, my granddaughter was so behind. She did much better and she was happy.”

The gains extended beyond numbers. Her granddaughter’s reading comprehension improved noticeably – enough that her classroom teachers took note.

“I went to talk to the teachers and they said, whatever I’m doing, it’s working for her,” Gilliam said. “It’s a big impact.”

Sister Constance grew up the 10th of 12 children in St. Mary’s County. She had originally set her sights on nursing, but quickly discovered the profession wasn’t for her – too much gore, she said. What drew her toward religious life was something harder to name and impossible to ignore.

“I like what I saw the sisters teaching and the children learning and the children happy about knowing things,” she said, who joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence in September 1965. “You know, learning what they did not know and it was like a whole world opened up to them.”

That image – a world opening up – still drives her. It makes the alternative all the more painful to contemplate. It is “very sad,” she said, to know that students today are graduating unable to read.

“It won’t be from our quarter, not at all,” Sister Constance said. “Those who have that problem will pass the word on. I noticed that these parents pass it on to the other parents. ‘Try Sister Constance. Try the Mount Providence Reading and Math Center.’”

The center’s reach has narrowed over the years. At its peak, 55 students were enrolled. Today, eight remain – and Sister Constance is the sole teacher. The Oblate Sisters themselves have dwindled from 300 to between 50 and 60, with 33 living in the motherhouse, a handful on missions in Baltimore and others serving in Costa Rica and Miami. Those at the motherhouse are occupied with other ministries and are not always available for evening sessions with children.

Sister Constance is not ready to slow down. But she is candid about what the center needs: more women to become religious sisters to carry forward Mother Mary Lange’s original vision. Mother Lange taught Black children in Maryland during an era when Black education faced severe legal and social restrictions in slave states such as Maryland.

“This was founded by Mother Mary Lange who always wanted for us to reach out, always to the poor, and she always wanted that reading,” Sister Constance said. “If they could read, they could do anything. So that’s why we’re trying to keep this.”

She remains hopeful, drawing on a lifetime of watching people learn to believe in themselves. “We’re going to gain some more sisters and move forward with this,” Sister Constance said. “Everything turns in a cycle, you know. I think you realize that and eventually you don’t have any and next thing you know, you start flourishing and I’m waiting for that time we start flourishing again.”

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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