By Sister Agnes Coveney

In reflecting on two important days in January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Saint Angela Merici’s feast day, the word community comes to mind. Now here is something to ponder and pray over—the word “community.” We use it for the circles we’re in; such as the Ursuline community, the Ursuline Associate Community, the civic community, and so on.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. often spoke of the Beloved Community. The Beloved Community wasn’t free from human conflicts, but Dr. King believed that conflicts could be settled with peaceful methods and that people committed to nonviolence could cooperate with their opponents.

St. Angela encouraged her community, the Company of St. Ursula, to “Be bound to one another by the bond of charity, treating each other with respect, helping one another, bearing with one another in Christ Jesus.”

In the time spanning the January 15 holiday for the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and the January 27 Feast of St. Angela, take some time to reflect on how you can bring peace, nonviolence, cooperation, respect, assistance and patience to the circles and communities to which you belong.