By Sister Michele Morek

In preparation for a panel discussion for Ursuline Associates and Sisters Day this year, the Sister panelists were invited to reflect on the questions: “After 150 years at Maple Mount, who are the Ursuline Sisters today?” and “How are we cultivating the vine entrusted to us by Saint Angela?”

Since we had not discussed this among ourselves ahead of time, we were surprised that all three of us used the same phrase – that we are a community of women religious who come together “attending holiness.”

Maybe it’s not surprising, since those words are in the first sentence of our Community Constitutions. It was surprising to me because I did not like that phrase when the Constitutions were being written in the 1980s and we were all invited to comment on the draft.

I clearly remember saying – for this I ask forgiveness – that it sounded “too pious and ‘nunny.’”  (I was young and brash and fond of my own opinion.) I have since grown up, come around, and now I like the expression!

Far from being “too nunny,” in fact it could be considered what every Christian is called to do, “attend holiness.” Or “wholeness” if you prefer – wholeness of heart and mind, spirit and body. I think Saint Angela must like it, and I am sure Saint Irenaeus would, since he said, “The glory of God is (the one who is) fully alive.”

We Sister panelists laughed ruefully over coming up with the same idea, but one of the Associates commented that it showed it was “of the Spirit.”

Perhaps it is good for each of us to ponder on how we “attend holiness/wholeness” – how would you answer that?