of the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville make public vows and live in accordance with our constitutions.

Sisters Annalita Fox and Agnes Coveney

are women and men who share in the mission, spirit and prayer of the congregation and continue to live out their Christian vocations in various settings.

Associate Anne Sullivan, right, works with Ursuline Sisters to provide respite care in South Carolina to people like "Cookie."

A Weekly Reflection: At The Feet of Jesus Christ

By Sister Martha Buser

Angela Merici in her writings, urged her followers always to find their first refuge at the feet of Jesus Christ. During the Louisville Ursulines Community retreat in the summer of 2007, Father Michael Crosby, O.F.M.Cap., the retreat director, suggested that Angela did not necessarily mean at the foot of the Cross. He reflected on the stance of Mary of Bethany, at the feet of Jesus as he taught her as a disciple.I have consequently sought out the Biblical women who are found at the feet of Jesus and with Angela have reflected on what can be learned. During the next several weeks, these reflections will appear on the Ursuline website.

Week 5 - John 20:11-18

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ”Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned to him and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold onto me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ’I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; she told them that he had said these things to her.

Here we have another disciple named Mary, this one from Magdala; Jesus had cast out demons from her. Mary leaves us many things to ponder. She was rapt in her grief and was not even impressed by angels. In her grief she thought she could carry Jesus’ body. When Jesus called her by name she recognized him and only then. When Jesus gave her a mission she left him and went to carry it out.

Our strong feelings often blind us to our surroundings and we become unaware, as Mary did, that there are angels around us. In Angela’s prayer she asked that no distraction or strong feeling keep her from the joy of the presence of God. How easy it is to be carried away by our feelings. How often do I pray to keep God’s love for me uppermost in my heart?

Many times when we are grieved we think we can do more than we really can. Angela depended very much on her friends when she was in need. One of her great desires was to visit the Holy Land but when she did, she was blind. She relied on her friends to take her to the holy places which she saw only with the eyes of faith. How easily do I rely on others when I am in need or how often do I insist on doing everything myself?

Mary recognized Jesus when he called her name. She was deeply attuned to his promptings and knew his voice in her heart. Angela urged her followers to be attentive to the movements of the Spirit to be heard in their hearts daily. What a challenge – to be aware of how the Spirit moves in my life. How do I practice this?

Finally, Jesus gave Mary a mission. Jesus gave Angela a mission also – to be a lover. At baptism, we were given a mission – to make the love of God visible in our world. How do I fulfill this mission?

This is the final reflection on the Biblical women at the feet of Jesus Christ. The next set of reflections will examine how Angela’s devotion to the Passion of Christ and her spirit of penance have remained strong through the years of Ursuline spirituality

-------------------

Week 4 - John 12:2-8

There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard and anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Mary appears again as a disciple. Here she serves Jesus, whom she loves, with an extravagance that surprised everyone. Her action shows her zeal for the reign of God – nothing is held back in service of God’s love. It seems telling that Judas objected to her extravagance not because he loved the poor, but because of his own agenda. His service of others was for himself not for the love of God.

Angela never gave her followers an apostolate. She gave them a way of life that was meant to lead them to freedom to love all and to do whatever they did out of love for their Lover, the Lover of all. The way of life she gave them taught them to be contemplatives although Angela never used that word in any of her writings. But she showed her followers how to pay attention, to notice their motives, the needs of others, the way God loved them. Angela called her followers to be lovers.

What kind of lover am I? To be a lover is to be passionate, zealous for the welfare of the beloved, devoted and faithful. How am I a lover of God and others?

-------------------

Week 3 - Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a village, where a woman named Martha welcome him into her home. She had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted about many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not me taken away from her.”

Mary’s position at the feet of Jesus was that of a disciple. She was listening to him and learning from him. This way of learning was the way of disciples. Women did not become disciples, a role generally reserved for men. Jesus had many women among his disciples; his love for his Father’s reign called all people to be disciples so that the reality of the Reign of God could be preached to all. No one was to be excluded. Mary choice to sit at Jesus’ feet showed her willingness to leave all for the sake of the Reign of God.

Angela chose to follow Jesus also. Her choice to live a consecrated virginal life in the world for the sake of the reign of God was not an easy choice but she made it out of love for her Lover. This choice led her to be open to all sorts of people – the poor, the wealthy, men and women, the ill, the frightened. She gave to them all her love and spirit of joy and hope. No wonder people sought her out and followed her.

How does my choice to follow Jesus impact my service of others? How do I spread hope and joy simply by the way I am with other?

-------------------

Week 2 - Luke 7:36-50

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating at the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him – that she is a sinner.” Turning toward the woman, Jesus said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown such great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.”

Luke’s account of the sinful woman at the feet of Jesus holds rich treasures for us. We learn that our sins can be a means for us to love and to serve when we are sorry and have been forgiven. Somehow, knowledge of our sinfulness and confidence that we have been forgiven by the One who loves us gives us freedom and courage to show our love in ways we would not expect.

Angela talks about her own sinfulness in a real way. She was aware of her weaknesses, her capacity for sin, the temptations she had. She was even more aware of God’s love for her. She could then say that God was her Lover and always add, or the Lover of us all.

The response of the woman who had been a sinner makes us a little uncomfortable. We think perhaps that we would be embarrassed to have someone make such a public display of repentance. While we find no evidence that Angela ever made a public demonstration of her repentance, she did speak to others about reconciliation and she was known as one who brought together those who were separated from society. In her own way Angela was very daring.

How aware of my own sins am I? What does that awareness do to me? How does it free me to love others? How does the knowledge of my own sinfulness make me more accepting of the weaknesses of others? What attitude toward others do I bring to my service of them?

-------------------

Week 1 - Matthew 15:21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was cured instantly.

The Canaanite woman was seeking the cure of her daughter. She would not be put off by Jesus’ rebuff nor would she cease calling after him, much to the chagrin of his disciples.

Jesus praised her for her faith, a faith that did not come from the Hebrew tradition based on Abraham. Where did her faith come from? Perhaps it arose from her need and from her conviction that ultimately, however one names God, God is good and cares about us. Perhaps she had heard of Jesus and of how he cured others and cared for all sorts of people, especially the most unlikely.

The woman seems to have had the two most fundamental graces necessary for a relationship with God: she knew her own unworthiness and she somehow knew that God loved her anyway. Her love for her daughter drove her to act out of those graces.

Angela loved others with a passion born of her love for God. In her prayer she says she would gladly take the place of those in darkness, if she could, so that they would know the love of God.

Angela knew her unworthiness and she also knew God’s love for her. The knowledge of these truths fired her love for others so that she served them in any way she could.

How aware am I of my own unworthiness before God and yet of his absolute love for me? How do I live out of that realization? How passionate am I in my prayer and in my love for others?

Sister Martha Buser has been with the Ursuline Sisters of
Louisville for nearly 60 years. She is also the author of
"Also in Your Midst: Reflections on the Spirituality of St. Angela Merici"

"I assure you that every request you make of God will most certainly be granted, and I myself shall be in your
midst futhering your prayers...Be consoled and keep your faith and hope alive..."