Angela Merici has many times asked us to be aware that she is now more alive than when she lived on earth, that she sees better and holds more dear and pleasing what she sees us doing, and that now she wants and is better able to help us and do us good in every way.
Angela has left us very few writings. In addition to her Rule, she dictated, to Gabriel Cozzano, her friend and secretary, several Counsels for the women who would visit the members of her Company wherever they lived among their families, and a spiritual Testament for those women who, without being members of the Company, were to care for the younger women as good mothers would.
« Strive with all your might to remain as you are called by God and to seek and desire all the ways and means necessary to persevere and make progress to the very end. » (Rule, Prologue 10)
« For understand that now I am more alive than I was when I lived on earth, and I see better and hold more dear and pleasing the good things which I see you constantly doing, and now, even more, I want and am able to help you and do you good in every way. » (Counsels, Prologue 23-25)
Concerning the people entrusted to our care: « The more you esteem them, the more you will love them; the more you love them, the more you will care for and watch over them. And it will be impossible for you not to cherish them day and night and have them all engraved in your heart, one by one, for this is how real love acts and works.» (Counsels, Prologue 10-11)
« Be consoled; do not doubt; we want to see you in our midst in heaven, for the Lover of us all wants this, too. And who is there who could resist Him, whose light and joyful splendour of truth will surround you at the moment of death, and will deliver you from the hands of the enemy. So, persevere faithfully and joyfully in the work you have begun. And take care, take care, I say, not to lose your fervour, for every promise that I make to you will be fulfilled for you beyond measure. Now, I am going, and you, in the meantime, do what has to be done. But first I embrace you, and to you all I give the kiss of peace, begging God to bless you. In nomine Patris, et Filii, and Spiritus Sancti. Amen. » (Last Legacy, 17-28)
« Hold this for certain: that this Rule has been planted directly by His holy hand, and He will never abandon this Company as long as the world lasts. Because, if He has planted it in the first place, who is there who can uproot it? Believe it, do not doubt, have firm faith that it will be so. I know what I am saying. Blessed are those who will take very good care of it. » (Last Legacy, 6-13)
« If, according to times and circumstances, the need arises to make new rules or do something differently, do it prudently and with good advice. And always let your principal recourse be to gather at the feet of Jesus Christ, and there, all of you, with all your daughters, to offer most fervent prayers. For in this way, without doubt, Jesus Christ will be in your midst, and as a true and good master, He will enlighten and teach you what you have to do.» (Last Legacy, 2-5)
« Where there is disparity of wills, inevitably, there is discord; where there is discord, without any doubt, there is ruin; as the Saviour says: ‘Every government in discord with itself will fall into ruin.’» (Tenth Legacy, 17-18
« The more you are united, the more Jesus Christ will be in your midst as a father and good shepherd. And there will be no other sign that you are in the grace of the Lord than that you love one another and are united together, for He Himself says: ‘By this, the world will know that you are Mine, if together, you love one another.’ And, thus, loving one another and living in harmony together are a sure sign that we are walking the path right and pleasing to God. » (Tenth Legacy, 9-12)
« I beg you with all my heart, please be watchful and most vigilant, like so many caring shepherdesses, for this heavenly flock entrusted to your hands, that no weeds of discord or other scandal grow up among them […]. Be on guard, then, and take care especially that they are united and one in will. (Tenth Legacy, 1-3, 6-7)
« Know that if it were not useful and suitable that this Company have some income, God would not have begun to provide it. I warn you, however: be prudent in this matter, and be good and true mothers, and such income as you have, spend it, according as discretion and motherly love will suggest to you.. » (Ninth Legacy, 1-4)
« You must take care to have your daughters come together from time to time in the place you think best and most convenient. And, then, have them listen to a short sermon and exhortation, so that, together like this, they might also meet one another as loving sisters, and thus, talking over spiritual matters, rejoice together, and together encourage one another, which will be no small help to them. » (Eighth Legacy, 1-6)
« When you have gently counselled and warned one of your daughters three or, at most, four times about some notable fault, and you see that she does not want to obey, then leave her alone (…), because it might happen that the poor child, seeing herself thus abandoned and dismissed, would be moved to repentance. »(Fifth Legacy 1-3, 5)
« You must be eager and ardent in putting all your zeal and concern into ensuring that your daughters are adorned with every virtue and with all regal and refined manners, so that more and more they may please Jesus Christ, their Spouse. »(Fourth Legacy, 1-3)
« I do not say, however, that it will not be necessary occasionally to use reproaches and severity, at the place and time, according to the importance, condition, and need of the persons, but we must be moved solely by charity and by the sole zeal for souls. » (Third Legacy, 13-15)
« And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels, as He does also through the mouth of St. John, saying: ‘I counsel you to buy the crown which cannot wither.’ ‘I counsel you,’ he says, and not, ‘I force you.’ » (Third Legacy, 8-12)
« Please, I beg you, willingly strive to lead your daughters with love and with a mild and kindly hand, and not imperiously, not harshly, but in everything, willingly be gentle. Pay attention to Jesus Christ who says, ‘Learn from me that I am gentle and meek of heart.’ » (Third Legacy, 1-4)
« If you love these dear daughters of ours with a burning and passionate charity, it will be impossible for you not to have them all depicted individually in your memory and in your heart. »(Second Legacy, 10-11)
« For you can see that natural mothers, even if they had a thousand sons and daughters, would have them wholly fixed in their hearts, all and each one separately, because this is how real love works. » (Second Legacy, 5-6)
« Next, I beg you that you willingly hold in consideration and have engraved on your mind and heart all your dear daughters, one by one; not only their names, but also their condition, and character, and their every situation and state. This will not be difficult for you if you embrace them with an ardent charity. » (Second Legacy, 1-4)
« That is why St. Augustine also said: “Ama et fac quod vis”, that is, have love and charity, and then do what you please, as if he said clearly: charity cannot sin. »(First Legacy, 6-7)
« Because all your works and actions as governors, being thus rooted in this twofold charity, can bear nothing but good and salutary fruits. For, as our Saviour says (…) the good tree, that is, the heart and spirit imbued with charity, can do nothing but good and holy works. »(First Legacy, 4-5)
« First of all then, my most loving mothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, strive, with the help of God, to grasp and keep in yourselves such conviction and good sentiment that you are moved to this care and government solely by the sole love of God and by the sole zeal for the salvation of souls. » (First Legacy, 1-3)
« Therefore, you must make a sound and firm resolution to submit yourselves totally to His will and, with a lively and steadfast faith, to receive from Him what you have to do for love of Him. And in this (whatever may happen) to persevere with constancy to the very end. » (Testament, Prologue 22-24)
« Oh, how much you have to thank Him for this and, at the same time, pray to Him that, as He has deigned to place you at the head of so noble a flock, so He would deign also to give you such knowledge and capacity that you may be able to do work worthy of praise in His sight and put all your zeal and strength into carrying out your duty. » (Testament, Prologue 17-21)
« Now, on this point, I would like you to open the eye of your mind to consider your great grace and good fortune in that God has deigned to make you mothers of so many virgins, and confided His own spouses to your hands, and entrusted them to your government. » (Testament, Prologue 14-16)
« And among the good and necessary means that God has granted me, you are one of the most important, you, who are found worthy to be true and loving mothers of so noble a family confided to your hands that you may have for them the same care and guardianship you would have if they had been born from your own body, and even more. » (Testament, Prologue 10-13)
« Being pleased, in His infinite goodness, to use me as His instrument for this great work of His, even though, for my part, I am a most inadequate and useless servant, God has also, in His usual goodness, given and granted me such grace and gift as to be able to govern them (the members of the Company) according to His will and to provide for their needs and wants, especially those concerned with directing them and sustaining them in the life for which they have been chosen. »
(Testament, Prologue 6-9)
Angela’s guidelines for the « Matrons », those women who, while not being part of the Company, were, all the same, part of the government appointed by Angela Merici for her nascent Company. Here, then, are excerpts of Angela’s Testament left to the Matrons.
« May the eternal benediction be on you all, granted by Almighty God in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. » (Testament, Prologue 3)
My last word to you is that you live in harmony, united together, all of one heart and one will. Be bound to one another by the bond of charity, esteeming one another, helping one another, bearing with one another in Jesus Christ. (Last Counsel, 1-2)
As for you, do your duty, correcting them with love and charity if you see them fall into some fault through human frailty, and thus you will not cease to prune this vine which has been entrusted to you. And after that, leave it to God; He will do marvellous things in His own time, and when it pleases Him. (Counsels 8. 7-9)
And then, who can judge the heart and the innermost secret thoughts of any creature? And so, hold them all in your love and bear with them all equally, for it is not up to you to judge the handmaids of God; He well knows what He wants to make of them, He who can turn stones into children of heaven. (Counsels 8. 4-6)
Love your dear daughters equally; and do not prefer one more than another, because they are all creatures of God. And you do not know what He wants to make of them. For how do you know, you, that those who seem to you to be the least and lowest are not to become the most generous and most pleasing to His Majesty? (Counsels 8. 1-3)
Now I leave you; be consoled, and have a lively faith and hope. But first I want you to be blessed, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. (Last Counsel 26-27)
Not to mention the immense and inestimable grace that my Lover, or rather, ours, will grant you at the supreme moment of death, for, in times of great need, true friendship is recognized. And believe firmly that then, especially, you will recognize me to be your faithful friend. (Last Counsel 23-25)
See, then, how important is this union and concord. So, long for it, pursue it, embrace it, hold on to it with all your strength; for I tell you, living all together thus united in heart, you will be like a mighty fortress, or a tower impregnable against all adversities, and persecutions, and deceits of the devil. (Last Counsel 10-18).
And, moreover, I assure you that every grace you ask from God will infallibly be granted to you. And I shall always be in your midst, helping your prayers. Therefore, encourage them to continue courageously the task they have begun. And at the same time, rejoice, because, without doubt, what I say to you will be so. (Last Counsel 19-22)
Keep to the ancient way and custom of the Church, established and confirmed by so many Saints under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And live a new life. Pray, and get others to pray, that God not abandon His Church, but reform it as He pleases, and as He sees best for us, and more to His honour and glory. (Counsels 7. 22,24-26)
Let them set their hopes on high and not on earth. Let them have Jesus Christ for their only treasure, for there also will be love. (Counsels 5.42-43)
And so, especially for those you see disconsolate, doubtful and faint-hearted, enlarge the scope of the promises, which will not go unfulfilled. Tell them that they should long to see me not on earth, but in Heaven, where our Love is. (Counsels 5.40-41)
Also, tell them that now I am more alive than I was when they saw me in the flesh, and that now I see them and know them better, and can and want to help them more, and that I am continually among them with my Lover, or rather ours, the Lover of us all, provided they believe and do not lose heart and hope. (Counsels 5.35-39)
Also, let them hold this as most certain: that they will never be abandoned in their needs. God will provide for them wonderfully. They must not lose hope.
(Counsels 5.31-32)
Although, at times, they will have troubles or anxieties, nevertheless, this will soon pass away and be turned into gladness and joy. And, then, the suffering of this world is nothing in comparison with the blessings which are in Paradise.(Counsels 5.29-30)
And when you visit them (your dear Daughters and Sisters), . . . tell them that they should want to be united and in concord together, all being of one will, . . . that they should place their hope and love in God alone, and not in any living person. Comfort them, encourage them, and let them go forward willingly. (Counsels 5.19-23)
For if God has planted this Company, He will never abandon it, because, as Scripture says, . . . “never have I seen the just abandoned, nor his children go begging.”
(Counsels 4.8-9)
But charity, which directs everything to the honour of God and the good of souls, charity, indeed, teaches such discretion and moves the heart to be, according to place and time, now gentle and now severe, and little or much as there is need.(Counsels II, 6-7)
For you will achieve more with kindness and gentleness than with harshness and sharp rebukes, which should be reserved only for cases of necessity and, even then, at the right place and time, and according to the persons.(Counsels II, 3-5)
Be gentle and compassionate towards your dear daughters, and strive to act solely out of the sole love of God and zeal for souls when you admonish and advise them or exhort them to some good and dissuade them from some evil.(Counsels II, 1-2)
(Note : Angela was addressing the women in charge of her Company of young women.)
Have hope and firm faith in God, for He will help you in everything. Act, move, believe, strive, hope, cry out to Him with all your heart, for without doubt you will see marvellous things, if you direct everything to the praise and glory of His Majesty and the good of souls. (Counsels, Prologue 15, 17-18)
May all our words, actions and behaviour always be for the instruction and edification of those who have dealings with us, always having charity burning in our hearts. (Rule, Ch. IX, 21-22)
Deign, O most loving Lord, to forgive me my so numerous offences, and every fault that I have ever committed from the day of my holy Baptism to this hour. Deign also to forgive the sins, alas, of my father and mother, and of my relatives and friends, and of the whole world. (Rule, Ch. V, 23-24)
Strive with all your might to remain as you are called by God and to seek and desire all the ways and means necessary to persevere and make progress to the very end. (Rule, Prologue 9-10)
