Angela
- A Woman for Ireland
As
we begin this millennium the prophetic words
of Angela : “Understand that now I am more
alive than I was when I lived on earth”
are so relevant to us today in Ireland.
Angela, a very real woman in a very real
world, challenges us today just as she did
in her old time. May we see our world here
in Ireland through the eyes and spirit of
Angela to whom we owe our call. Angela was
convinced of the power of women to make
a difference in the world, to make the living
Lord present through their witness by their
own lives and in their life-world..[Top]
Angela
- Woman of the Land
In many ways Angela Merici
is a light, an inspiration for Ireland for
the 21st Century. Angela, a farmer’s daughter
experienced as she grew up the beauty of
God’s creation and her family’s dependence
on Him for everything they had in life.
Angela
was born into a farming family in the country
of Italy. She would have known the daily
routine of work in the fields, and the changing
seasons. From this life came the images
she uses in her writings: sowing, seeds,
planting, trees and vines.
So
too for the people of Ireland, farming has
been the traditional occupation for generations.
People have lived by the rhythm of the seasons
and celebrated in traditional Celtic ways:
Bealtaine, La le Brid, etc. As daughters
of Angela we are today to sow the seed.
Maybe not seeds into the soil but seeds
of faith in the hearts and minds of people
among whom we live and minister by our witness
to God and to the Gospel message.
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Angela
- Woman of Pilgrimage
Angela
was a true pilgrim visiting many holy places
and shrines in her lifetime. She was seeing
and searching to discover God's will for
her life. She visited Mantua, Varallo, Rome,
and the Holy Land seeing each journey as
a journey of faith during which she would
encounter many different people and situations,
yet trusting in God that all would be well.
Ireland
is a land of pilgrimage from the Celtic
pilgrimage around the sites of St. Kevin
in Glendalough to the uphill climb of Crough
Patrick from the penitential journey of
Lough Derg and the crossing to Our Lady’s
Island. Irish people have journeyed as pilgrims
in faith down through the centuries and
continue to do so.
Today
we are invited to journey with God and Angela
-–to walk the pilgrim pathways of our land
– to meet, to greet, to pray and to stay
a while in an atmosphere of praying and
sharing with others, walking together in
companionship. It is on these journeys we
might just encounter the unexpected as the
two disciples did on the road to Emmaus.
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“Then
their eyes were opened, and they recognised
Him in the breaking of bread”.
Angela
- Woman called by name
Names
and their origin and history have a significant
place in Ireland and the lives of the people.
Angela
expressed her relationship to God through
the names she used in addressing God – Beloved;
Faithful One; Eternal Father. In her writings
she refers to herself as Mother, unworthy
servant, and she names her followers – Daughters,
Loved Ones, Sisters, Mothers.
In
a significant gesture at the founding of
the Company of St. Ursula each one simply
signed her name in the Book of the Company.
Belonging
by name is important in Irish culture and
each year many thousands of people return
to Ireland to trace their heritage, to research
their family tree, to walk in the footsteps
of their ancestors. It is a way of acknowledging
their own history, their own belonging and
‘longing to be’.
As
followers of Angela, daughters, sisters,
mothers, we each responded to the same call
from God as he spoke our name and invited
us ‘to come – to follow'. ’As God said to
Jeremiah “I called to you my child to be
my sign”. And in Isaiah “I have called you
by name, you are mine”. [Top]
Angela
- Woman for family Life
Angela
believed very much in the centrality of
family life and the home even though she
was orphaned at a young age. Her extended
family, uncles, cousins and their friends
welcomed her. All welcomed her into their
lives and their homes to live amongst them.
When
founding her company she was to change the
course of Religious Life for women by inviting
her daughters to remain living at home –
in the heart of the family.
Angela
saw the family as the first Christian Community
each of us encounters and she invited her
daughters to continue living the Gospel
values within the family home. In Ireland
the family has always been the rock of the
community, of society, Generations of families
have shared the same dwelling or built new
houses on family land to remain connected
to that hearth of love.
As
Angela’s daughters today we often witness
the breakdown of family life within our
own families, within the communities, in
which we live and minister.
So
we are called to continue to witness and
minister alongside families experiencing
difficulties and to provide help and support
in whatever way we are able, offering always
an example of living Gospel witness – our
own community life lived in harmony and
love. [Top]
Angela
- A Woman for Women
In
Angela’s day women were considered inferior
to men and were often discriminated against.
They were often made to feel worthless and
incompetent. Even today despite moves towards
equality, women still has to strive for
their rights. We are called, as daughters
of Angela to continue to challenge society
and the Church in its attitude to women.
Angela,
in founding the company went against the
attitude of Church and society of her day
and she calls us to continue this striving
as women of Ireland.
Angela’s
basic attitude was one of love and equality
- where every member had a voice to be heard
and ears to listen to one another. Angela
encouraged the growth to full potential
of every member of her company. She desired
the good of every individual.
Celibate
consecration for the purpose of a deep personal
love relationship with God is at the heart
of Angela’s charism. From this relationship
with Christ she spread the message of His
love to those with whom she lived and worked.
There are many problems in the Church today
and Ireland needs many Angelas to bring
Christ’s message of love to all that are
seeking Him. [Top]
Angela
- A Woman of Peace and Reconciliation
In
the world of Angela there was much war and
conflict – between individuals, families
and nations. Angela saw at first hand the
pain and suffering. She sought to bring
peace and compassion to these situations
and to reconcile people. She invites her
daughters to unity and harmony saying: “Long
for it, search for it, embrace it and hold
on to it with all your strength”. Today
as we pray and seek for ways to bring an
end to conflict in Northern Ireland we feel
at one with Angela who in her time was known
to be a reconciler and spreader of peace.
But first we must as sisters be reconciled
to each other, living in harmony, bound
together by love before we can go out and
invite others to peace.
Angela
uses the word ‘insieme’ – togetherness -
and it comes right from the heart. She beckons
us on this pilgrim journey of peace and
reconciliation within ourselves, with other
people, with God and with all of creation.
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Angela
- Woman who came to Water
Angela
as a child, would have experienced going
to the well to collect water for daily use
by the family. Wells are prominent in Ireland
too, and many women and children of our
country in the past would have experienced
the daily walk to the village well.
Wells
are also meeting places – just as in the
Old Testament and in the Gospel of John
– the famous story the Samaritan woman meeting
Jesus and coming to an awakening of belief
within herself. Angela, coming from Lake
Garda would have known too the serenity
of the lakeside- we too have many lakes
where we can sit at the shore and find peace
and serenity.
Coming
from Brescia, Angela would have known the
beauty of fountains and it is this image
she uses when talking to her daughters ‘be
like a Piazza’. She invited them to come
to the open space around the fountain, to
take rest and to find refreshment.
Today
we are invited ‘to come to the water’ and
Ireland, being a place of many holy wells
and many lakes, offers great opportunities
for quiet and peace – places to find refreshment.
She invites us to become like a Piazza for
others in the midst of everyday life – to
be always ready to create a space for others
to come, to stay a while, to be heard, and
to go freely. It is in these sacred spaces
that we find our inner spring.
“Those
who drink of the water that I shall give
them will never be thirsty: for the water
that I shall give will become in them a
spring of water”. [Top]
Angela
- Woman of the Trinity
Angela
opens and closes her writings asking the
blessing of the Triune God – Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. As women of Ireland we
know only too well the meaning of this as
we wear the shamrock to celebrate the feast
of our patron Saint, Patrick, we are reminded
of the Trinity. It was this small green
plant that Patrick used to illustrate the
mystery of the Trinity – the Triune God.
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Angela
- Woman of Celebration and Joy
Angela’s
spirituality finds its source in the Gospels
and the Eucharist. She gathers others to
join her at prayer “always let your principal
resource be to take refuge at the feet of
Jesus”. Angela called together her daughters
‘to give joy and encouragement to each other’
to celebrate life together and to share
all that is good.
The
people of Ireland have always said ‘the
craic is mighty’. It is people coming together
in a spirit of joy and celebration that
brings about this mighty craic for which
Ireland has become famous throughout the
world.
As
daughters of Angela we are called to come
together to bring alive this spirit of joy
in our communities, in our societies, in
our places of ministry and in our congregation.
We are to come ‘with eager and willing hearts
to lead a new life’.
Angela
- Woman of Prayer and Contemplation
It
was Angela’s contemplative spirit that filled
her with complete confidence and trust in
God. She invites us to have ‘have Jesus
as our one and only treasure’. Her prayer
arose from the depths of her being. She
never told her daughters how to pray, she
just gave her own prayers as examples to
follow.
In
Ireland the prayers of women have been at
the heart of families and communities for
generations. And it is this spirit of prayer
and contemplation we are asked to keep alive
today.
To
continually come and place ourselves ‘at
the feet of Jesus Christ’ in love and unity
and to invite others to share in our life
and prayer. [Top]
Angela
- Woman of Celebration and Joy
Angela’s
spirituality finds its source in the Gospels
and the Eucharist. She gathers others to
join her at prayer “always let your principal
resource be to take refuge at the feet of
Jesus”. Angela called together her daughters
‘to give joy and encouragement to each other’
to celebrate life together and to share
all that is good.
The
people of Ireland have always said ‘the
craic is mighty’. It is people coming together
in a spirit of joy and celebration that
brings about this mighty craic for which
Ireland has become famous throughout the
world.
As
daughters of Angela we are called to come
together to bring alive this spirit of joy
in our communities, in our societies, in
our places of ministry and in our congregation.
We are to come ‘with eager and willing hearts
to lead a new life’. [Top]
Angela
- Woman of her time yet open to change
Angela
was a woman of her time seeing what was
best in herself and what was best in each
person she encountered. She lived openly
and longingly responded to whatever need
and whomever she met along life’s highway.
She
invited her daughters to live in this same
way. Today we are called to be women of
Ireland of the year 2003, reading and responding
to the needs of our ever changing and challenging
world.
Angela
was a wise woman when she wrote “ If with
times with due recourse and reflection anything
needs to be changed then do so with providence
and good judgement”. [Top]
Angela
invites us to be open to change
To live openly and lovingly
Wherever life may lead us
To allow each other to move freely
To respond to whatever and
Whoever we encounter
With the most loving response.
