Reflective Moments with Angela – Cherish your “togetherness”

(Image by Kev, from Pixabay)

By Sister Michele Morek

My bedroom window faces east, high above the countryside, and I enjoy praying in my room. In late September, my prayer hour was interrupted – or rather enhanced – by a tornado of little birds that swirled around our building for an afternoon. Like “little cigars with swept-back wings,” the Chimney Swifts gathered here for a stop (probably a mosquito supper break – each Swift eats a third of its body weight in insects each day) on their migration to the Amazon basin in South America. At each stop, the local Swifts will join the group heading south. The Swifts have tiny feet and don’t roost well in trees, preferring to cling to chimneys or other buildings, which is why we were honored with their presence that day.

The experience of being caught up in their group reminded me of a word we Ursuline Sisters and Associates inherited from our founder, Saint Angela: insieme. Together! For the Swifts, as for us, our perilous journey is safer with our groups; that was underlined for me as I watched a group of the little birds “mobbing” a hawk that was too interested in them.

There’s an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

The collective power of my Ursuline community has been for me a lifetime source of inspiration, challenge, and support.

What have your “togetherness” groups been for you?

“My last word which I say to you and which I urge upon you to the last drop of my blood, is that you remain in harmony, united together, all of one heart and one will. Be bound one to the other by the bond of charity, respecting each other, helping each other, and bearing with each other in Jesus Christ.”

 Saint Angela Merici – Last Counsel