Homily: January 27 - St. Angela Merici - Working for the spread of the Gospel

Angela Merici was born on March 21, 1474.  Out of love for Jesus, she consecrated herself to him before she was ten years old and persuaded her sister to do the same—promising never to marry and to live a life of prayer and service.  Around the age of 10 her parents and sister died suddenly, and so she moved to a nearby town to live with her uncle.

One day, during harvest-time, Angela was out in the field, alone, when she had a vision of heaven.  She saw angels and young women coming toward her singing and surrounded by light.  One of the young girls was Angela’s sister who had died, and she told Angela that God wanted her to establish a company of consecrated women. 

With her great love of the Lord, she was saddened by the ignorance of the children in her native Italy, especially their lack of religious training.  She took it upon herself to give regular instruction to the young neighborhood girls.  She was joined by women with similar ideals.

It wasn’t until the age of 61 that she, and 28 young women formed the Order of Ursulines, which became the first teaching order of the Church.   Members continued to live at home, wore no special habit, and took no formal vows, though the early rule prescribed the practices of virginity, poverty, and obedience. 

Angela died on January 27, 1540.  Her Congregation was dedicated to re-christianizing family life through solid Christian education, especially for young girls who were the future Christian wives and mothers.  The Company of St. Ursula spread throughout Italy and France and eventually through all of Europe.  They were the very first Catholic nuns to land in the new world. 

Before Cleveland was even a diocese, Father Amadeus Rappe, who would become the first bishop of Cleveland was chaplain to the Ursulines at Boulogne-sur-Mer in France.  In 1847, when he became the first Bishop of Cleveland, it was among his top priorities to establish schools.    He invited the Ursulines from Boulogne-sur-Mer to begin a foundation in Cleveland and to start the Catholic school system in north eastern Ohio. 

T

hough the Ursuline’s never served her at St. Angela Merici Parish, the very fact that we have Catholic schools here at all, is traced back to our parish patroness.

St. Angela knew the importance of passing on the faith, taking serious serious efforts in the lives of children to instill in them faith in Jesus Christ.  When she saw the ignorance of the children, she didn’t just wring her hands or complain, she was a woman of action whose efforts changed the Church history.  Instructing the ignorant is an act of love.

The Popes of the last 50 years have taught the importance of working for evangelization, of spreading the Gospel in a culture which is increasingly resistant.  But there are those who are hungry for the truth.  When I visit the school, I am encouraged by our young people who are so hungry for the truth, and appreciative when the truth is explained to them clearly, they want to know what it means to be Catholic, they want to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

May we all benefit from the prayers and examples of our patron Saint, for the work of the spread of the Gospel, for the glory of god and salvation of souls.