Angela – Woman of Peace
Indigestion – nightmares – quarrels – bitterness. Stress and division afflict me and most of our country.
“What happens on November 9?” No matter who wins the presidency or which way the Senate tilts, we need reconciliation!
We Christians look to Jesus, the One who prayed for his killers: “Father, forgive them.”
We Americans take inspiration from Abraham Lincoln’s commitment to “bind up the nation’s wounds” with dignity and justice, not vengeance.
As an Ursuline I see Angela Merici as a model for peace-making. Read more »
Filed under: Spirituality |Together
Being together – “insieme” – is what St. Angela Merici recommended so strongly to her daughters that one directive to the Company’s leaders uses the word four times:
“Take care to have your daughters come together from time to time in the place you think best and most convenient… so that, together like this, they might also meet each other as loving sisters, and thus, talking over spiritual matters, rejoice together, and together encourage one another, which will be no small help to them” (8th Legacy).
In Maine last weekend we experienced the wisdom of these words. The annual gathering of our small Group (five USA members from five states) is not our only way of being together. In between these events, we stay connected by Skype, phone, email, visits, Facebook, and national and international Ursuline gatherings that we attend in pairs or threesomes. Read more »
Filed under: Community, Spirituality |My Heart Is Wrenched
“My heart is wrenched,” St. Angela said. My heart – our hearts – are wrenched.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
Lord, hear my voice! (Psalm 130)
How many cities, how many lives before these…?
Minneapolis – Lord, have mercy!
Baton Rouge – Christ, have mercy!
Dallas – Lord, have mercy!
Nice – Christ, have mercy!
Ankara – Lord, have mercy!
By the time this blog gets posted, what further hatreds will have erupted into murderous violence?
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
The Lamp Is Burning
Someone was missing from the Sanctuary of St. Angela last week in Brescia. And there was something new.
This was my first visit since the death of Maria Teresa Pezzotti. The long-time leader of St. Angela’s Daughters in Brescia had died last December. As we often rediscover a death through an empty space, my expectation of Maria Teresa in the pew behind me fluttered momentarily, then plunged into reality.
Maria Teresa Pezzotti explains the lamp’s symbolism to a young Sicilian member of the Company before its installation.
The something new was her last project, a highly symbolic lamp. The idea had originated with two elders in the Brescian Company: to represent before St. Angela’s casket her myriad daughters from 1535 till today.
Filed under: Community |Small, Smaller, Smallest!
Congo & USA: 7405 miles distant and a mere heartbeat apart.
2007: Kathleen, Marie-Bernadette, Pascaline, Regine in St. Peter’s Square, Rome
“Small world” seems almost trite in this cyber-era. Still, some connections shake us into seeing how closely bound we all are, riding through space together on our small globe.
Our thread is love.
Filed under: Community |Our Own Mercy Street
Did PBS have a tip-off from the Vatican about the Jubilee Year of Mercy when its TV series “Mercy Street” went into production for this year?
Merciful, merciless… they’re all here, in these “inspired-by-history” episodes set in a Civil War hospital in Alexandria, Virginia.
My ears pricked up whenever the characters claimed mercy as their motive: for anesthesia during an amputation or for arms-smuggling to supposedly end the war faster. There’s plenty of opportunity for merciful forgiveness but not much practice of it.
We can all ask ourselves how we take those opportunities: To whom am I merciless? Maybe to myself?
Filed under: Spirituality |Welcome To a Conversation!
Do you enjoy the insights of others who take the Gospel seriously? We’ll share ours and invite yours.
Are you pondering contemporary reality? Maybe our consecrated life in the world will offer a fresh perspective.
Are you seeking a wise guide for your own spiritual life? That might be Angela Merici. Through the centuries many women and men have benefitted from her counsel, not only her daughters.
You can participate through commenting below, including suggesting future topics.
Whether you come as an occasional visitor, a regular reader, or a partner in conversation, we hope you’ll enjoy your time here. Look for new posts about once a month and for comments and exchanges in between.
Filed under: Community |