She saw with the eyes of the soul...
In 1524, on May 26th, the feast of Corpus Christi, St Angela Merici set out from Venice on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Earnestly desiring to follow in the footsteps of Christ, she set out with her companions, Antonio Romano and her cousin Bartolomeo Biancosi. Mysteriously stricken with blindness on the way, Angela had to be led by the hand to the holy sites. Nonetheless, as she later confided to Agostino Gallo, while prayerfully passing from place to place, “she saw them with the eyes of her soul, just as if she had seen them with her bodily eyes.”
Five centuries later, we celebrate that unseeing journey in which Angela’s earliest vision begins unfolding into mission. Still present among us, Angela gathers us together at the feet of Christ, that he may teach us what is to be done for love of him. With her, we are invited to revisit in faith the holy places of the Gospel to open the eyes of our soul to the mystery of Christ among us – especially in his sacred Passion.
Companions on the journey, may St Angela take us by the hand and lead us, for we, too, walk by faith, not by sight…