The Company of St. Ursula In the United States

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Tending the Vine – Light on the Path

Light makes all the difference!

When we were small, the nightlight transformed our bedroom furniture from dangerous beasts into familiar friends. Darkness still has the power to frighten us, especially if we walk an unfamiliar path alone.

But we don't have to walk alone!
        We can walk with the one who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Light."
        Look to him! Walk with him!
        Your path will be transformed!

A WISDOM-TEACHER

ANGELA MERICI knew insecurity, fear, losing her parents and a sister at a young age, the possibility of homelessness, and all this in a time of war and cultural upheaval. She knew the struggle of young women making their own way in society, often without support, and the struggle of young people to keep fidelity to God in a time when opposite values held sway and the Church itself was often divided.

She knew first-hand the struggle for light in the darkness outside and the darkness within.

Angela turned toward God. She clung to that relationship and walked with Jesus Christ. That was how she came through the darkness to experience God's light in her life. The light brimmed over into joy. As Angela did, so we can do. She says:

"Our every pain and sadness will turn into joy and gladness, and thorny and rocky roads we will find flower-strewn for us, paved with finest gold."
- Rule of the Company of St. Ursula, Ch. 6 "On Prayer"

We are on a transformative journey, and we are to be transformed on this path. Angela's language is the language of Jesus and what he will do with hardship, suffering, and the cross when it comes to us too. He will light up that darkness and transform it.

REFLECTING and DOING

1) Can you see the path along which you've already come and the way you have been transformed? MAKE TIME FOR GRATITUDE.

2) Ask God's light on your path, now. Where is it needed?

3) PRAY ABOUT THE OBSTACLES that need to be transformed.
- What is in need of God's light?
- What needs transformation?

4) Remember the very first day the sun shone after a particularly long winter spell, many rains, maybe even a flood warning or a flood, or the levees broke. Remember what it was like when THE LIGHT APPEARED FOR THE FIRST TIME out of that long darkness!

SCRIPTURE PATHS

EASTER IS THE TRIUMPH OF LIGHT OVER DARKNESS!

    Yes, "The Light shines in the darkness" (John 1:4).

    No, "The darkness has not overcome it" (1John 2:10, Isaiah 58:10).

    JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (cf. John 8:12, John 9:5, 1John 1:5ff).

PRAYER

Let us join Angela in her prayer:

"My Lord, light up the darkness of my heart, and give me the grace to die rather than offend your divine Majesty at all today.

Keep my affections and my senses safe so that they may not lead me astray, neither to the right nor to the left,
nor turn me away from your brilliant face which soothes every afflicted heart. ...

I lament the fact that I have been so late to begin serving your divine Majesty, ...
and every adversity has been harsh for me because of my little love for you.

My Lord, my only life and hope, ...
Receive my every thought, word and deed,
finally, everything of mine, interior as well as exterior,
all of which I offer before the feet of your divine Majesty.
And I pray that you deign to receive them, although they be unworthy. Amen."

- Rule of the Company of St. Ursula, Chapter 6, "On Prayer"