A Word of Welcome

Dear Sisters and Friends,

Hello ! Welcome to the website of the Ursulines of the Roman Union.

On one side of the globe, we are in midsummer, in other regions, it is winter or the rainy season ...

At this moment, we are preparing for an upcoming event:
The « Enlarged General Council » (EGC): A meeting of the General Council and the Sisters Provincial (please see : Who we are>Our Leadership : http://www.ursulines-ur.org/our-leadership)

This time we have chosen Africa as the place of our meeting. The theme of the meeting is:
Ursulines in the service of reconciliation, justice and peace.
"You are the salt of the earth ... You are the light of the world" (Mt 5, 13.14)

The goals of the meeting are :

1. To grow in awareness of the Church – Family of God in Africa

2. To renew our commitment to the Word of God and to our call to go beyond our borders and, with Saint Angela, to be signs of reconciliation and hope

The first part of this experience is « IMMERSION »: Participants will visit a group of Ursuline nuns in Africa, to experience the life of the Sisters right in the place that they are, how they live the charism of Saint Angela, how they live their mission, how they experience the realities of life around them, ...
Then, all of us will meet in South Africa, from October 20 to 26.

A feature of the EGC is that we do not limit ourselves to participation by only Ursulines of the Roman Union, but other Ursulines, daughters of the great family of Saint Angela Merici, will also be visited, and six of them will come as regional representatives to attend the meeting in South Africa. (See: About Us> Our Extended Family : http://www.ursulines-ur.org/the-merician-family )
On this site you can already get a taste of the meeting: See http://www.ursulines-ur.org/africa-egc
You will also get more information about this important event in this section as and when it happens ....

We ask your prayers for our safe journeys and meetings in Africa.

Mother Cecilia Wang, OSU

(Click on the shield above to learn more Ursuline history.)

Ordinary Time

The liturgies of most Sundays of the year – apart from the great seasons celebrating Easter and Christmas – constitute an on-going three year cycle. The fact that these Sundays are called "Ordinary Sundays" can be misleading. In the Church's liturgy, every Sunday is a celebration of the Lord's Resurrection, and the meaning and hope his Paschal Mystery brings to everything that constitutes our life in this time of pilgrimage. So-called ordinary time is anything but ordinary because every day, every moment in our lives is a succession of stages on our journey, each of which constitutes the fulfillment of God’s plan for each of us. As the author of Deuteronomy wrote thousands of years ago, “The Word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.”

The liturgies of each of the years of the three year cycle are shaped by a progressive reading of one of the synoptic gospels. This year ("C"), we read from Luke's gospel. Careful attention to the gospel readings as Luke's gospel unfolds will bring an understanding of what the story of Jesus as a whole meant to the first Christians who shared Luke's faith. We shall also come to appreciate the inspiring themes that are dear to Luke: the joy of believing, for instance; the Spirit's presence in our lives; the challenge of Jesus' call to a life of poverty; the place of women in the awareness of Jesus. The readings from the Hebrew scriptures are chosen to complement the theme of each Sunday's gospel, and the readings from the apostolic letters constitute an independent cycle.

Many of the ideas in the weekly scripture reflections on this website can also be found in John Thornhill’s site, www.theemmausseries.com.

475th Jubilee Celebration

CLICK HERE for important new Jubilee information

Why is this Jubilee Celebration so Important?

To understand why we are celebrating the 475th anniversary of the foundation of the Ursulines (as the Company of Saint Ursula), it is necessary to return to 1535, the foundation year, to see the context out of which Saint Angela was coming...more...

Today with Saint Angela

Charity directs everything to the honour of God and the good of souls.

2nd Counsel/6

Saint Angela. Painting. Generalate.

Scripture of the week

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

August 29

Sirach 3: 17-29

Psalm 68

Hebrews 12: 18-24

Luke 14: 1, 7-14

In Psalm 116 we hear the words “What return can I make to the Lord for all the good done for me?” The answer is: I can’t. I cannot ever repay God for all the blessings bestowed on me – so why should I conduct my life in such a way as to expect repayment from someone else? The deep lesson of today’s scripture readings is that the value system of this world is completely overturned by the coming of the reign of God. In essence, God’s ways are revolutionary – and this has always been the burden of Jesus’s teaching. The people in authority recognized Jesus’s radical stance and had every reason for fear. The master becomes the servant; the proud are humbled; the poor receive countless blessings; God pours out his blessings on eveyone without a shred of exclusivity; there is no more counting of who owes what to whom – there is no more judgment on the basis of “tit for tat.” We are invited by Jesus today to look beyond whatever conventions present barriers to our acceptance of all people, regardless of economic or social status.

Our visual meditation is “The Poor Invited to the Feast,” by the Jesus Mafa community, 1973.

See: www.jesusmafa.com and www.SocialTheology.com.

more...