An experience of faith and gratitude

11/04/2025

Santa Ângela Community Pedro II, Brasil

In this year of Jubilee, we share with you an experience that has been happening for twenty years by the Ursuline community of Pedro II, Piauí. It is about the novena in honor of Saint Angela Merici. It was inspired by Ursuline Sister Celina Santos Paraíso (in memory), who, along with a group of families, began to spread this devotion. Initially, the picture of Saint Angela was taken to a rural community, and during the day, the novena was celebrated in the homes of several families and neighbors.

Each year, we choose a theme that relates to a topic proposed by the Brazilian Church, and each day the novena is celebrated at the home of one family from the students, teachers, neighbors, employees, or devotees of Saint Angela. The chosen family gathers other families to participate in the meeting.

This year, we chose the topic: “Saint Angela, woman of hope in caring for life." Through this topic, we reflected deeply on the aspect of Angela's spiritual motherhood and the care of a mother, who thinks of and cares for each one of her daughters, encouraging them to be joyful and full of optimism.

It fills our hearts with gratitude because, to this day, Angela continues to inspire lay people who feel touched by her testimony. Saint Angela is admired for her strong trait of spiritual motherhood towards her daughters, her forward-looking vision, her humility, and her audacity to act with faith and hope.

In this year of the jubilee of hope, we remember the 500th anniversary of the pilgrimage with Saint Angela to Rome. Pilgriming with Angela places us in the exodus of ourselves in order to be sensitive to human suffering, as well as our responsibility for integral ecology through the perspective of Laudato Si.

During the novenas, some miracles through the intercession of Saint Angela were shared. First, a mother told us about the experience she lived when she was pregnant. The doctor warned her about the high risk, so it would not be a normal pregnancy. The mother, very anxious, thought about Saint Angela’s life and asked the saint for a miracle. When the time came for the child to be born, everything was prepared for a cesarean childbirth, but to everyone's surprise, the child was born normally. The doctors were left without explanation, but the mother knew it was a miracle. The family, very happy with the successful outcome, decided to name the newborn Angela in honor of Saint Angela. Currently, Angela is our student in elementary school.

Second miracle: A lady told us that her husband had been a slave to alcohol for a long time. No advice or recommendations from friends could prevent such an addiction. The lady, very convinced, always attended the novena of Saint Angela. On January 27, 2024, she was feeling desperate and not knowing what to do, she prayed to Saint Angela. She reports that since that day of the promise, her husband has never drunk alcohol again. This year, we celebrate the novena for the third time in her home. She gathered neighbors and friends and shared with us the miracle. She was full of gratitude and made a donation of materials to the Saint Angela Foundation.

For all, we give thanks to God. Saint Angela has been attracting young people and adults to draw from the well of her spirituality in the city and in the countryside of the Pedro II region.