By Sr Maureen Coyne

When I was a teenager, having a conversation with an Ursuline sister about the extraordinary possibility of having a religious vocation - or so it seemed at the time - she asked me whether I wanted to join a contemplative community. "Oh no, " I replied shocked at the thought, "I want to be part of something much bigger than that! Anyway I could not cope with all that prayer".

Now over 40 years on as an Ursuline, I realise how grateful I am constantly that I do belong to an international group which spreads over the world and yet can be known right here at home. The internet has was made possible that which I have always believed: that I can have contact and real friendship with people alt over the world, even if they are far away for a considerable part of my life I have indeed been very fortunate in my Ursuline life. When we were students in community, at least one third of the sisters were from the Caribbean or South Africa and occasionally other countries as well. Maybe we did not make sufficiently conscious effort to understand another culture but a great deal was passed by a kind of osmosis and we made friends for life.

In later years, probably because I had studied and taught French, I was called on to translate at various international meetings. Although at times that could be a challenging task, nonetheless the rewards were rich and long-lasting. I simply love being part of an international gathering, where unity in spirit lived within diversity of cultures. To a lesser degree in our Province we are all able to enjoy some experience of this Ursuline tapestry through the many visitors who come to our country. Some gifted Sisters have over the past decade set up summer language schools here or themselves have travelled to places as far as Indonesia and Ethiopia to give much needed English tuition to sisters there.

My own experience deepened greatly when I was asked to join the small international community which has been working in Cameroon since 1984. I lived and worked in N'Gaoundere with about six other Ursulines from 1991-1995. Together we represented 5 nationalities; our main language was French, although several of us were English- speaking. We learnt, with some difficulty, to live, work and pray together; all this was also of course in an African context, which was new and foreign to all of us. Then eleven years after the first Sisters arrived, the first Cameroonian asked to join us. Today after her years of formation in Senegal, she is a full member of the community, significantly rooting the group in the national culture Soon we hope other local young women now in formation, will be coming back to the mission in N'Gaoundere.

What is it then that binds Ursulines together across the stretches of distance, language and culture? Our Foundress, St. Angela herself was a great pilgrim, and travelled on remarkable journeys for a woman other time. Yet her own world was inevitably small by our standards. I do not imagine that it ever crossed her mind that her daughters would ever travel as far as they can be found today. Angela desired that her followers to be one in mind and heart and in her writings she insisted on this unity among the first members other Company. Such has been her legacy that it has lasted throughout the four and a half centuries of our history.

When Ursulines played their part in the missionary development of the Church, their constant concern was always to hold the unity of their new community and to keep firm the links with their sisters at home. For Sister Mary of the Incarnation, in first generation Quebec of the seventeenth century, this meant writing over 12,000 letters back to France, many of which were doubtless lost at sea. In our own days Ursuline e-mails are certainly flying round the internet with news, encouragement and contacts among sisters. We have a shared vision, a shared mission, a shared heritage or family story, above all sharing in our consecration to Jesus "our one and only treasure " as Angela called him, that is the foundation of what unites us, and what makes it so exciting to belong. Our world today is caught between the tension between fragmentation and a desire to unite in ever growing blocks for commerce, expansion and domination. As a group of women committed to the mission of transforming this world, we find our strength and confidence within our own unity even as it is expressed in such diversity of culture and custom.

A friend of mine who had done his National Service in the R.A.F. once said to me "It must be a bit like that in the Ursulines; you take your mug and irons with you, you turn up at the base and then you are at home anywhere in the world.". We do not necessarily pack our crockery and cutlery when we visit other Provinces, but, despite the difference of culture, language and practices we are able to feel the bonds of belonging, in any of our Ursuline communities.