AUGUST 2009
VOL. XV, NO. 1
Associates & Sisters Day 2009: Celebrating the Future! By A. Karen Siciliano, OSUA
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n June 27, more than 170 Ursuline Associates and Sisters gathered at Mount Saint Joseph to close the 25th anniversary year of the Mount Saint Joseph Ursuline Associates. With this closure, the associates and sisters embarked on an exciting new adventure: celebrating the future. Together we prayed and reflected on the ingredients needed to celebrate the future in its fullness. We began with prayer focused on the melding of three communities – the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, Belleville, Ill., and Paola, Kan. – into one community. Our prayer was a celebration of Left: Associates Paul our strengths, gifts, and commonalties, and an Gray and Barbara expression of our gratitude as we move into Goldsmith of Memphis talk during Associates and the future. Soils from the various associate Sisters Day June 27. communities, our own “lands of Angela,” were Above: Mary Ann brought forward and mingled as a sign of our Schilling, of Hancock unity. Members of the three communities turned County, Ky., pins a Mount Saint Joseph Associate pin and watered the soil, and planted three sprigs on Harriet Jack, of Paola, of a vine from the birthplace of the Ursulines Kan. – Brescia, Italy. How do we celebrate the future as Ursuline Associates and Sisters? Mary-Cabrini Durkin, our featured speaker and author of “Angela Merici’s Journey of the Heart,” addressed that question by pointing out that we’re living Angela’s future. In the 16th century, Angela’s life and words encouraged all types of people to embrace their future. In the same way, Angela invites us, her daughters and sons, to celebrate our future. If we look to Angela’s relationships with God and others, we will discover in Angela a model for our own future: ever-deepening relationship with God, with one another, and service to our world. To help us know Angela better, Mary-Cabrini addressed four areas: Angela as a Throne for God, Glowing with God; Angela as a Cultivator of Relationships; Jesus and Angela: Love Flowing Outward; and Celebrating the Future. MaryCabrini’s presentation focused on the ingredients needed to nourish life both within our Ursuline circles and in the world beyond ourselves. Mary-Cabrini quoted Gabriele Cozzano’s description of Angela as “a throne for God,” a blazing furnace of God’s love. Her whole purpose for being was to embody God and manifest God to the world. In her presence people were compelled to say, “God is here.” To celebrate ‘We will discover in a future, we must seek the grace to live as a throne for God, to manifest the One who Angela a model for must be first in our hearts and our lives. We must tend the fire of our own intimacy with God, and not be shy about letting that light shine. our own future: everMary-Cabrini noted that Angela was a farmer; working in her vineyard, she learned deepening relationship to hope in a life-giving future. She cultivated relationships with people from all walks with God, with one of life. The future will not exist unless we invest ourselves for it and one another. To another, and service to celebrate the future, Mary-Cabrini encouraged us to be farmers, to cultivate as Angela did, and to treasure and celebrate the goodness within ourselves and others. our world.’ Mary-Cabrini reminded us that we are called to serve, to put God first and pour out Continued on page 2