A Christmas Gift

A Christmas Gift

The Sisters of community in Mons, Belgium, together with their Provincial, Sister Anne-Andrée Jacob, were invited on Christmas day, 2011, by the Ursuline congregation of Our Lady of Wavre, not far from Mechelen.

 
Everything began with our celebrating the Holy Eucharist together at the Home Saint Angela, built on the grounds of the Sisters welcoming us ; we prayed there with many of their aged Sisters.

A word of welcome in Flemish, followed by another one in French preceded hymns and texts in Flemish and Latin.

The Christmas mystery united us all in deep communion.

After we two communities introduced themselves, we met for the Christmas meal, together with the pastor of the parish. The round tables helped us come to know each other, and the menu was particularly adapted for this day of rejoicing. Each one tried to know the other Sisters better, and our Flemish hosts made the friendly effort of speaking our French language.
We shared their feast-day dinner, sang Christmas carols, and related Christmas tales.

We spent part of the afternoon discovering the Sisters’ huge building which is a sort of museum in typical New Art style. Today it welcomes many visitors attracted by this heritage !
We could imagine all these halls, staircases, and rooms welcoming after the First World War not only day students, as today, but also a thousand boarders, in an atmosphere where beauty served nature et respected it.

We passed by different doors, admired stained-glass windows edged in lead and representing different plants, walls decorated with fringes of mosaics or paintings on varieties of flowers, music, or animals… dining rooms and conference rooms decorated with frescoes recalling Jean de la Fontaine’s stories, paintings representing the country side, rich and varnished wooden furniture.

Try to image a large Winter garden with coloured paintings on the walls, vaulted with stained glass, the life of Saint Ursula painted on the walls, and a corridor lined with 35 music rooms with their windows and doors decorated with stained glass windows presenting lyres and flowers.
We admired this beauty all the more knowing that some of these rooms are still being used daily and respected by today’s students.

After having lingered on these beautiful grounds and enjoyed our meeting together, we spoke the language of the heart and celebrated Vespers together in Flemish. We were sorry to leave our Sisters after sharing with them this beautiful Christmas. We all left with a gift, a practical desk calendar decorated with flowers for each day of 2012, and determined to plan a new meeting together.

A Christmas Gift