+ Today we celebrate the venerated foundress of the Ursuline
Sisters, St Angela Merici, born March 21, 1474 at Lake Garda, Italy.
Angela was a Franciscan tertiary at age 15, and at that time she received a
vision telling her she would inspire devout women in their vocation. In Crete,
during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she was struck blind. Her friends wanted
to return home, but she insisted on going on, visiting the shrines with as much
devotion and enthusiasm as if she had her sight. On the way home, while praying
before a crucifix, her sight was restored at the same place where it had been
lost.
In 1535 she gathered a group
of girl students and began what would become the Institute of Saint Ursula (to whom she had great devotion – Ursula
being a 5th century virgin martyr), founded to teach children,
beginning with religion and later expanding into secular topics. Angela died
January 24, 1540 at Brescia, Italy, her relics are in the church of Saint Afra,
in Brescia and her body is incorrupt. She was canonized May 24, 1807 by Pope
Pius VII.
Though associated strongly
with education, her patronage is against
bodily ills, illness, sickness, death of parents, and disabled, handicapped and
physically challenged people: sick people in general. Thus, through her
intercessory power she can still be an “Angel
of Mercy” to a great many people!
Our
readings today fit the feast: St Peter reminds us to love one another intensely, and show great
hospitality, giving to one another because we ourselves have been gifted with
heavenly gifts: may all our work be of service to the Lord in building up his
people, each according to his or her talent and ability; the gospel passage
reminds us that children are not just to be taught with great loving care and
devotion, but that they also have something very valuable to teach us: the
innocence, the trust, and the total abandon that we each must have in our
relationship with God our Father in heaven who has so many things to give us if
we just approach him as a true child.
And so we pray today for all
of those who bear the name Angela and who are “angelic in their demeanor”, and
for the Ursuline Sisters who still in many parts of the world, including our
own country, teach the young, and model the virtues of life as a religious
whose founder’s motto was always to do in
life what you would have wanted to do in death.
Young men and women, praise the name of
the Lord.
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