Letter for the Feast of St Angela
25/01/2021
Letter by Sr Susan Flood osu - Prioress General for the Feast of St Angela.
Rome, 20 January 2021
My dear Sisters,
This letter comes with special greetings as we approach the Feast of St Angela. While we are always conscious of her presence in our midst, we recognize this in a special way each year on 27th January. At this time we have a heightened awareness of our many sisters gathering, either in reality or virtually, in small and larger groups across the globe for prayer and community celebrations.
The ways in which we celebrate will be very different from one community and province to another. Yet they will express and strengthen our ‘kinship’, the special gift that we share because we are daughters of St Angela.
In many ways, our times have many things in common with the times in which Angela lived. In recent weeks I have been reminded of her words in the 7th Counsel : In these perilous and pestilential times … We know that women and men of Brescia went to Angela for personal support, for advice and wisdom. Today we continue to be confronted by danger and disease, by political unrest and division, and by the anxieties and uncertainties that grow from these experiences. I wonder what words of wisdom Angela would have for us this year, 2021?
I love this particular image of Angela. It is a small copy of the larger sculpture which is found in the garden of Brescia House school in Johannesburg.
You will find a photo of the original life-size statue on the website of the Southern African Province (https://ursulinesouthernafrica.jimdofree.com/). At the moment, this small one accompanies us in the General Council meeting room.
Perhaps this image will encourage all of us to hear again Angela’s invitation to sit with her for some moments. Let us thank her for the spirit which, together, we have inherited from her. Let us share with her our cares and concerns, for ourselves, for our sisters, and for our world. Let her encourage us to be open to and generous in our response to each other person we encounter in our daily lives. Let her boost our efforts to move out beyond the boundaries by which we find ourselves restricted. And let us listen deeply to the wisdom she offers. The word she speaks to you will be different from the word she shares with me. However, I have no doubt that for each of us, there will be echoes of her deep faith, her buoyant hope, her personal care and respect. And I know that she will point each one of us to Jesus – you will have no other recourse than shelter at the feet of Jesus Christ.
With my love for each one,
Sue Flood osu