From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Providence of God:   
      
   God is the unchanging conductor as well as the unchanged creator   
   of all things that change. When he adds, abolishes, curtails,   
   increases, or diminishes the rites   
   of any age, he is ordering all events according to his providence.   
   This will hold good until the beauty of the completed course of   
   time-whose parts are the   
   dispensations suitable to each different period-shall have played   
   itself out, like the great   
   melody of some ineffable composer.   
   --Augustine - Letter 138, 1   
      
   Prayer   
   Instruct me, Lord, and command what you will.    
   But first heal me and open my ears   
   that I may hear your words.   
   —Soliloquies 1, 1: Augustine   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   January 27th - St. Angela Merici   
   (1474-1540)   
      
   In our times, many orders of sisters have engaged in teaching. Before   
   1535, however, there was no religious order engaged in educational   
   work. Nuns there were aplenty; but their role was seen as   
   contemplative – cloistered away from the world and even from any   
   active apostolate.   
      
   St. Angela Merici was responsible for changing all that, by organizing   
   the Ursuline Sisters in 1535 for the education of women. Even in   
   colonial times this order crossed the Atlantic. St. Marie of the   
   Incarnation brought it to Quebec, Canada, in 1639. Another French   
   group set up a convent in New Orleans in 1727 – the first convent of   
   nuns in the present U.S.A. It was Ursulines who established the first   
   Catholic women’s college in New York State: the College of New   
   Rochelle (1904). Thus we owe to St. Angela the whole tradition of   
   educational orders that has been so important to the American Church.   
      
   And who was this pioneer teaching sister?   
      
   Angela Merici was a native of Desenzano in sub-Alpine Italy. The   
   Merici parents trained her and her sister and brother in Christian   
   living. Unfortunately, both parents died when Angela was only ten, so   
   she and her sister were raised by an uncle who lived at Salo.   
      
   At thirteen, Angela had a great emotional crisis. Her sister died   
   suddenly without the last sacraments, and Angela worried greatly about   
   the girl’s salvation. Finally, however, she was reassured in a vision   
   – the first of many she would receive – that her sister had been   
   saved. In her relief and gratitude, Angela now determined to dedicate   
   her life to God’s service. She joined the Third Order of Franciscans   
   and started to live a life of great austerity, in keeping with the old   
   tradition of the saints.   
      
   Her uncle died when she was 22, so she returned to Desenzano. Here she   
   became aware that many of the children were not receiving proper   
   instruction in religion (as is so true in our own generation!). She   
   gathered a few other women teachers and set up a school for girls.   
   Under her capable direction, the group became successful and   
   progressive teachers. Soon she was asked to open another school at   
   Brescia. By now, she was not only training youngsters, but inspiring a   
   number of prominent men and women of that worldly era to lead more   
   Christian lives.   
      
   Angela’s own devotional life continued to develop. She was much given,   
   for instance, to pilgrimages – that ancient and symbolic Catholic   
   practice. She even made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land – a long, hard   
   trip in those days. Furthermore, she became blind at Crete while en   
   route. She spent all her time in Palestine without sight, but she was   
   cured of her blindness on the return trip at the same place where she   
   had lost it, on the island of Crete.   
      
   Then in 1525, since it was a Holy Year of Jubilee, Angela went as a   
   pilgrim to Rome to gain the great jubilee indulgence. When she had an   
   audience with the Pope Clement VII, he tried to persuade her to stay   
   at Rome and head a congregation of nursing sisters. But she was still   
   convinced of her calling to education work. In fact, years before, she   
   had experienced a vision in which she saw a group of young women   
   ascending to heaven on a ladder of light. A voice had then said: “Take   
   heed, Angela; before you die you will found at Brescia a company of   
   maidens similar to those you have just seen. “   
      
   It was April 1533 that she made this prophecy come true. She chose a   
   group of her companions for this work, and on November 25, 1535, they   
   officially became the first Ursulines. Because they had to be an   
   active order, they originally had no cloister, no special habit, no   
   convents (they lived at home), and no formal vows; just a rule of   
   poverty, chastity and obedience. In other words, they were organized   
   much like today’s “secular institutes.”   
      
   After Angela’s death, their rule was somewhat altered. But she had   
   brought into being one of the most innovative and effective   
   organizations of the Catholic Reformation. While the Protestant   
   reformers were destroying the Catholic faith of many adult Christians,   
   Angela and her imitators were already raising in firm and knowing   
   faith the girls that would mother the next generation of Catholics.   
      
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Readings   
   Disorder in society is the result of disorder in the family.   
      
   "If any person, because of his state in life, cannot do without wealth   
   and position, let him at least keep his heart empty of the love of   
   them.".   
      
   We must give alms. Charity wins souls and draws them to virtue.   
   --Saint Angela Merici   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct   
   aright I will show the salvation of God." [Psalm 50:23]   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Mary and Joseph Prayer:   
      
   O Jesus, Lamb of God, may the prayers of Mary and   
   Joseph help us to stay close to you all the days of our lives,   
   growing ever deeper in our understanding and   
   appreciation of what you have done and will continue to do   
   for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.   
   Amen.    
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)