Feast of St Ursula: pilgrimages past and present.

Plaque of St Ursula
standing and trying to protect her companions

Today is the feast of St Ursula, whose name and patronage St Angela Merici chose for her Company.  St Ursula was a  medieval saint who together with her companions was slaughtered on her way back from a pilgrimage to Rome.  For more about her life visit the Ursuline website.  Each month on the Ursuline website there is a reflection, this month the reflection is on St Ursula 

In 1524, St Angela  went on a long pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  It was not usual for women to travel alone, but Angela was prepared to risk all the dangers to visit and pray at the holy places where Jesus had lived and died. Her pilgrimage as you can read on the life of St Angela included some unexpected challenges, including a period of blindness.  However, on her return, Angela was soon to go on pilgrimage to Rome, here she was able to 'pray for God's help and encouragement to take the next step which she knew, in her heart of hearts, she was being asked to take. For more on Angela's life.

Taking time out of our everyday lives gives each of us an opportunity to review our lives. Going on pilgrimage or making a retreat are ways to help us on our journey.  I am fortunate to have that opportunity. There will be a short break during this time when I ask for your prayers.  I will return with news of my pilgrimage on the Feast of St Angela, January 27th 2014.  Until then I leave you with words of encouragement from St Angela Merici.

Handing on the Torch

News from the Chapter, Jesus passed on his message through the use of parables that many educators will recognise as a valuable teaching tool.  St Angela in her Last Legacy reminds us how Jesus Christ will enlighten us ... 

5. For in this way, without doubt, Jesus Christ will be in your midst, and as a true and good master, he will enlighten and teach you what you have to do. Last Legacy

and it is the Lord's message that those involved in education seek to pass on.  On 27th September Sr. Ellen Mary Mylod presented "Handing on the Torch" the report prepared by the International Committee on Ursuline Education. 

Report of the International Education Committee
Handing on the Torch

Hymn to the Holy Spirit

 

Spirit of God, on the waste and the darkness

hov'ring in power as creation began,

drawing forth beauty from clay and from chaos,

breathing God's life in the nostrils of man,

 

Come and sow life in the waste of our being,

pray in us, form us as sons in the Son,

Open our hearts to yourself, mighty Spirit,

bear us to life in the Three who are One. 

 

I think Angela would like this hymn to the Holy Spirit from Stanbrook Abbey with its focus on the creation of life out of chaos and darkness. Angela lived in a time which she described as "perilous and pestilential" and yet from that chaos she brought forth new life by being open to the action of the Holy Spirit in her heart.

 

Links between St Angela and St Paul

 

Paul's letter to the Ephesians, the second reading for today's feast of the Ascension ,reminds me of aspects of Angela and her teaching. Paul prays may God

 

" give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed..".

 

God certainly gave Angela this gift. Her contemporaries speak of the many people of all walks of life who came to consult her on every kind of problem including the interpretation of Scripture.

 

Paul continues:

 " May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit.."

 

Angela writes in a similar vein.Shortly before her death she instructs the local leaders:-

 

"Tell them that they should long to see me not on earth, but in heaven, where our love is. Let them set their hopes on high and not on earth.Let them have Jesus Christ for their only treasure, for there also will be love,which is to be sought not in this world, but above, in the high heaven at the right hand of the Father. "

Angela and Hope

 

Easter is a time when we rejoice in Christ's victory, a time for renewing hope. The late Basil Hume wrote:

 

"Christian hope makes us have confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph,and in his goodness and love,which nothing  can shake." 

 

He might have been quoting St Angela who had great confidence in God's goodness.She tells us in Chp X of her Rule to place

 

" all our love and delight .......

in God alone and in his gentle and ineffable Providence alone."

Rejoice Jesus is Risen

 

In today's second reading Paul tells us

 

" Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is , sitting at God's right hand."

 

Angela quotes this passage in her Fifth Counsel, a counsel which is full of guidance and encouragement. Interestingly the reference to the passage from Colossians follows on her invitation:-

 

"Let them have

JESUS CHRIST

for their only treasure,

for there also will be

LOVE." 

Growth

"Growth comes through the decisions we make, the challenges we face, the people we meet, the risks we take, the setbacks we experience, the opportunities we take.How we grow depends on how we receive  what comes to us" 

Sr Stanislaus Kennedy

May God give you many opportunities today to experience his love, the love we read about in today's parable of the Prodigal son.

Benedict XVI and Freedom

"One of the greatest challenges facing us today is how to speak convincingly of

 the wisdom and liberating power of God's word 

to a world which all too often sees the Gospel 

as a constriction of human freedom,

 instead of the 

truth which liberates our minds and enlightens our efforts

 to live wisely and well,

 both as individuals and as members of society."

Homily at Westminster Cathedral

Focus

In this year of Faith we could take inspiration from Abraham, who has been called "Our Father in Faith". Pope Benedict XVI wrote of him: 

"His whole life points forward, 

it is a dynamic of walking along the path of what is to come."

St Angela also had this pilgrim spirit. She went on several pilgrimages but her real pilgrimage was of the heart. She searched in prayer, while  being aware of the signs of her time, for God's plan for her, her vocation.

Angela Pilgrim

We too can prayerfully read from the book of our lives to discover God's loving dream for us.

Feast of the Presentation

On 2nd February 1997 Pope John Paul wrote about this feast.

" It is my wish that this experience be extended to the whole Church, so that the celebration of the World Day for Consecrated Life may gather consecrated persons together with other faithful in order to sing with the Virgin Mary the marvels which  the Lord accomplishes in so many of his sons and daughters, and to manifest to all that being a "people consecrated to himself" is the condition of all those who are redeemed by Christ."

Lover and the Beloved

"God is the Lover and the Beloved. 

By responding to his love we share in his passion for humankind." 

These words of Andreas Andreopoulos occur in his book on the "Transfiguration of Christ". They echo sentiments dear to the heart of St Angela who calls Jesus:

"my Lover,or rather ours,the Lover of us all."

And in the prayer, given in her Rule, Angela shows her deep concern for the salvation of the world. She prays:

"Lord, in place of those poor creatures who do not know you, and do not care to be partakers  in your most sacred Passion,my hear breaks,and willingly ( if I could) I would shed my own blood to open the blind eyes of their minds."

Prayer to St Ursula

At a recent meeting of our English Province we were given a prayer  to St Ursula which had been composed by one of our sisters.I would like to share it with you.

Dear St Ursula

Unite us,

Renew us,

Shine on us.

Urge us away from comfort,

Lead us into the Deep

And to a fresh surrender to Jesus.

Courage to be True

"To know what you prefer,

 instead of humbly saying amen

 to what the world tells you

 you ought to prefer,

is to keep your soul alive."

Angela would certainly say amen to these words of Robert Louis Stevenson. She had the courage to go against the expectations of her day, that a woman should be married or enter a convent, by founding "The Company of St Ursula".This provided the space where a woman, who so wished, could be consecrated for life to Christ yet remain in her secular position and employment. Angela refers to the Old Testament character Judith, as an example of the courage needed to withstand contemporary opposition to this new way of life for women.

General Chapters

 

St Angela encourages us to visit each other regularly and to rejoice together.The sisters of the North West Cluster meet  about every month. Our last meeting was a special one that occurs only once every six years: the Local Chapter. At it we evaluate how we have tried to live the message that came out of our last General Chapter.The message was: