Foundation Day 2021

29/11/2021

On November 25, St. Angela Merici founded the Company of St. Ursula in Brescia, which has spread throughout the world.

As we celebrated this foundation day in the Generalate S. Angela Poggi OSU, Provincial Prioress of the Italian Province, enriched us by sharing a short reflection:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing”. (John 15:5)

Jesus compares himself to a vine and wants us to be his branches, united with him to bear fruit. He does this at the moment of farewell.  As you look at a vine, you find it hard to distinguish where the vine ends and the branches begin. They are one. And the branches carry the sap of the vine everywhere, but on their own, detached from the vine, that sap is of no use and the branches dry up and are burnt. When you see, on the other hand, vigorous and turgid shoots, you realise that you are dealing with a living vine that is producing fruit.

So it is for us: to the extent that we "abide" in his love, we are the sign of Christ's fruitful presence in the world. Yes, we too have this great gift and this responsibility: Jesus chooses to make himself visible through us, he chooses to bind the fruitfulness of his love to us, he wants his fruitfulness as a vine to be entrusted to us, the little branches.

I do not know whether our Mother Saint Angela was thinking of this passage from the Gospel when she formally founded the Company of Saint Ursula. I have no idea whether this Gospel was proclaimed at the Holy Mass of 25 November 1535 at St Afra, which she and the 28 virgins attended before going to the house of Isabetta Prato, in the room made available to them so that they could write their names on a booklet covered with white cardboard. I know, however, that Mother Angela repeatedly invites them to remain united in her Love: " Take care especially that they are united and one in will... because the more you are united, the more Jesus Christ will be in your midst... living in harmony together are a sure sign that we are walking the path right and pleasing to God”. (Tenth Legacy); " My last word to you, by which I implore you even with my blood, is that you live in harmony, united together, all of one heart and one will. " (Last Counsel)

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit”.

Our Mother Angela, her first daughters and, it seems to me, no one else would ever have imagined what would be born from the very simple gesture of planting in the small city of Brescia a new shoot taken from the True Vine ... Today we have the grace to be here from all continents to celebrate the wonders of the Holy Spirit that transcend the boundaries of space and time; we are here to celebrate the grace and the power of the prophecy of a woman who let herself be led by the Spirit, who let herself be grafted into the true Vine and decided to remain in Him.

Let us give thanks to God!