From Wreath II, she arrives just in time to remind us that despite what our critics may think, the Church has supported the education of girls and women for centuries. Our little program is another aspect of this as we are trying to help you and your daughters to ‘grow holier, one virtue at a time.’
St. Angela is the honored foundress of the Ursulines, the first of the teaching orders as she realized – in the 1540’s! – that educating young girls would make them better wives, mothers and future religious.
She herself was a well-educated woman and even now you can read her writings as a source of inspiration: https://www.istitutosecolareangelamerici.org/the-writings/?lang=en
Consider just a few of her quotes:
“You will accomplish more by kind words and a courteous manner than by anger or sharp rebuke, which should never be used except in necessity.”
and
“Consider that the devil does not sleep but seeks our ruin in a thousand ways.”
I don’t know if she was the first, but she clearly laid out that we are constantly battling three enemies – “the world, the flesh and the devil, roaring and encircling us with so many tricks and so much cunning, beyond recounting, to find out in what way they can devour us.”
These words are not meant to frighten us but rather remind us that life is a battle, and losses are to be expected but St. Angela also reminds us not to be discouraged….
be may accomplish this even with great glory
and our joy shall be our victory.”
She is quick to tell us, “that we shall pass this brief life so consolingly that all our sorrow will be transformed into happiness.”
I know it doesn’t often feel that way. Every day seems open to another sorrow, another battle, another fight we will lose. It can seem the world, the flesh and the devil are so much stronger than our resolve and our efforts and even God Himself, but that is never, never, never true.
We are not fighting alone and in due time, “….we shall find that the thorny, steep, and stony path shall become flowering….for the angels and celestial choirs will be with us constantly, since we participate in their angelic life…”
