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Spirituality
Act, move, believe, strive, hope...

In the school of Saint Angela's Counsels
Reflections for leaders, by Caterina Dalmasso


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Kate Dalmasso presents the Counsels of Saint Angela Merici to the persons in charge of the Secular Institute of Saint Angela Merici, with sharp analysis and deep personal experience. After thinking over the value of this document in the life of the “daughters and sisters” of the holy foundress, Kate reviews the Prologue as the keynote of the whole work, outlining the spiritual profile of the women in charge (“colonnelle”, according to the language of the sixteenth century), who have been given by God the task of being “very vigilant shepherds and servants” of the “spouses of the Son of God”. For Saint Angela, government is chiefly a gift for which one must be grateful to God. It is also a hard task, but supported by the strength and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, who is always invoked with faith and humility. The persons in charge have a commitment of faithfulness and concern, flowing from their interest in their daughters, respect and motherly love, to the extent of having “them all engraved in your heart, one by one”. Madre Angela outlines the way of governing through the five verbs used as the title of this presentation: “Act, move, believe, strive, hope”. Then God will accomplish wonders through the “Mothers” of the Company.
Kate’s thinking analyzes, one by one, the nine Counsels which contain all of Saint Angela’s educational wisdom, developed in the daily experience of her relationships with many and different people, in docility to the Holy Spirit. A wonderful mosaic of suggestions to the “colonnelle” follows, so that they may help their daughters to find the greatness of God’s love for each of them and the beauty of their dignity as women called to be “true and virginal spouses of the Son of God”, to enhance their feminine genius, which expresses itself in a motherly closeness to every needy person. The “colonnelle”, called to practise a spiritual motherhood and to be examples and mirrors for their spiritual daughters, do not have to worry about their incapacities and weaknesses, as Saint Angela herself is with them and assists them in their prayers and efforts.
The last Counsel is a text that Mericians all over the world know as “the heart” of Madre Angela’s message: “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”. It is a wonderful echo of Jesus’ Testament: “Father...that they all may be one....” Dalmasso’s commentary seeks to sound the depths of the Madre’s suggestion that unity in charity is the ultimate aim of the Company, its great strength in any time and situation. Today this unity includes not only Mericians around the world but also the ones in heaven: Saint Angela is among them, praying for her daughters and blessing them “in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti”.
Eight prayers written by Kate, based upon Angela Merici’s words in the Counsels, are published on the last pages. They are wonderful invocations that persons in charge of communities can interiorize every day, in order to preserve the meaning of their identity and mission on behalf of the “sisters and daughters”.





 

| 26 febbraio 2013 | English