Merician Leadership - Counsels

Recently I was asked to respond to what I considered was unique to St Angela Merici's leadership. The question prompted me to look at her writings afresh from this particular perspective and to focus especially on her Counsels. As I read and re-read the Counsels, the challenge of leadership in the Merician perspective appeared equally relevant for today as it did in the sixteenth century. Central to Angela's approach to leadership is the centrality of charity and the model of Jesus Christ, in particular, Phil.2:6-11.

Typical of St Angela, the Prologue to this section of her writings begins with a greeting invoking the Holy Spirit and akin to the Pauline Letters:
"Sister Angela, unworthy servant of Jesus Christ, to her beloved daughters and sisters, the leaders of the Company of Saint Ursula. May the strength and true consolation of the Holy Spirit be in you all, so that you can sustain and carry out vigorously and faithfully the charge laid upon you." (Counsels, Prologue, vv.1-4)
Then Angela immediately proceeds to put leadership in perspective: at the centre of it, it is the members of the Company who are the ones to be esteemed. Counter to popular perception of leadership being a position commanding respect and the "esteem" of others, Angela turns this on its head. Right from the start in her prologue she is quite explicit that the ones to be esteemed are those for whom the leaders have responsibility. It is the leaders who must esteem the members of the Company:
"for 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 to have them all engraved in your heart, one by one, for this is how real love acts and works." (Counsels, Prologue, vv.10-11)
Esteem begets respect and ultimately love, the true director of authentic leadership. And in a leadership of love for the good of the members, leadership is not a system administrator for the good of the organisation, rather it is attending to case by case need - "one by one, for this is how real love acts and works". For if each member is encouraged to be and do her best, the Company itself will be at its best. Angela never needs to say this. In contemporary education, there is much emphasis on differentiated learning, particularly to meet the needs of gifted and talented students - "one by one". Angela may be outlining a model of leadership, but her model of leadership became a model of pedagogy for the first teaching order of nuns that developed from the original Company of St Ursula.

And to drive home the point that it is the members, not the leaders, who stand at the centre of the Company, Angela moves in Chapter One to line leadership up with the model of Jesus, especially that of Phil.2:6-11. She tells the leaders to not consider themselves worthy of being leaders, but rather to regard themselves as ministers and servants, having more need to serve others than others have of being served by them (Counsels 1:2-3). They are to learn from our Lord who, while he was on earth was as a servant, obedient unto death (Counsels 1:6, cf. Phil.2: 7-8). And she recalls the words of the Gospel in which Jesus says: I have been among you not as the one who is served, but as the one who serves." Leadership is not about delighting in one's own reputation (Counsels 1: 12), not an occasion for gaining "human cudos", not something that will look good on one's Curriculum Vitae. Leadership is about humble service, a ministry of service to others. Any reward is the blessing of God, not human accolades.

So with leadership directed by love, other centred, learnt from Jesus as a ministry of humble and obedient service, and reliant on the strength of the Holy Spirit, how does it operate? Angela next turns her attention to the manner of interaction between the leaders and the members of the Company. The leaders are always to be gentle and compassionate towards the members of the Company - "Siate piazzevole et homane" (Counsels 2:1). Piazzavole: so often translated as gentleness but is a word that does not really translate well. It is one of Angela's favourite words. Be gentle, be "like a piazza" with all the connotations of warmth, welcome, inclusivity, security, aliveness ... that an Italian piazza might evoke. For, she says: "you will achieve more with kindness and gentleness (charezze et piazzevolezze)than with harsh and sharp rebukes. (Counsels 2:3) In her practical wisdom she acknowledges that some situations may occasionally require a firmer approach, but charity directs when this is required and the presumption in her writings is that such occasions would be infrequent.

Never losing sight of Jesus Christ being the model of leadership, Angela next turns her attention to how the leaders themselves interact with others in positions of authority. They themselves are to be obedient. But here Angela notes that to be obedient is a just thing (cosa giusta). No one is exempt from obedience. And here it is worth recalling Angela's chapter on Obedience in her Rule for the Company of St Ursula. She encourages obedience as being a great light, not a blind submission which is so often the perception of religious obedience. How is this? She exhorts the members to be obedient to everyone: parents, civil authorities, church leaders, etc. BUT above all to be obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit constantly to be heard in one's own heart. One never surrenders ultimate responsibility for her own actions. Obedience is not a blind untilligent response to the will of another. Rather it is a careful listening and discernment to the voice of the Holy Spirit through attention to the desires of others in order not to be blinded by the stubborness of one's own will. In this way, obedience is enlightening. And a just thing for all to be engaged in, leaders themselves especially. Returning to her Counsels, we see what ultimate obedience to the Holy Spirit might mean in action. There maybe occasions where one actually needs to contradict their own leaders. Here again Angela invokes charity has the director: such contradiction is to be undertaken again with respect and discretion (Counsels 3:6) and if leaders are eccentric, they are to borne with in patience (Counsels 3:8). The "organisational culture" that Angela's model encouraged, was one of preserving the honour of each one, everyone being esteemed and respected. Her final line in this section is that the leaders must act "always with discernment and maturity of judgment" (Counsels 3:15).

With an understanding of what leadership is and the mode of engagement between leaders and those they lead firmly established, what are some of the objectives of leadership? First of all a ministry of service requires the leaders to provide for their members. To do this they must know them, know their needs. Angela Counsels: "You will be careful and vigilant to know and understand the behaviour of your daughters, and to be aware of their spiritual and temporal needs" (Counsels 4:1) Their responsibility to do this is such that, if they cannot provide for the Company members themselves they must request assistance from the Lady Governors, and if they are slow to provide, then the leaders are to become insistent, and "even be importunate and troublsome" (Counsels 4:5). Leadership is a ministry of service. What if this fails? As always, Angela returns to scripture and trust in providence. Frequently in her writings Angela encourages the members of the Company to do their best, and God will do the rest. We may at peace when we have done our best.

Next, leadership cannot stop at merely providing for material or spiritual needs that are lacking. Leadership also needs to encourage and foster what is already in place. In her Fifth Counsel Angela tells the leaders to visit their daughters, as they have time and opportunity, but especially on feast days, to encourage them and comfort them (Counsel 5:1-2). "As they have time and opportunity": Angela is not burdensome with prescriptions. In a sense this is Angela's "piazzevolezze" in action. She sets the ideal but trusts one's maturity and judegment as to how ideals might be reasonably achieved. One cannot do more than her best. So far, the attention has been "one by one" - attending the needs of each one, encouraging each one. But each one is a member of a Company. They are companions, and so leadership is also at the service of the group. It begins with the individual but reaches to the common need. Angela begins to signal the service to the group in this chapter. It is a service of fostering unity. But the manner of service is still one of compassion (Counsels 5:12) leading to concord and charity. They are to "seek to spread peace and concord where they are ... and want to be united in concord together, all being of one will...honouring Jesus Christ" (Counsels 5:16, 20-21). All this is to be done in a humble and gentle (piazzevole) way (Counsels 5:17). The model being encouraged here reminds us of the early Christians in Acts 4:32 or Philippians 2:1-5 and 4:1-4. Finally, having encouraged the efforts of each one and the efforts of the Company members collectively to strive for unity and concord, the leaders are to encourage them "not to lose hope" (Counsels 5:32); they are to remind them that Angela, even after her death will be with them (Counsels 5:38)that they should "have Jesus Christ for their only treasure, for there also will be love" (Counsels 5:43).

Having introduced the role of leadership within the group per se, Angela returns to focus on the leaders themselves. Just as she addressed in Chapter Three how the leaders themselves were to respect authority, here she puts to the leaders that they will model for their daughters everything that they encourage in them. The Company members are see in them a model - "se specchien in voi". They are to be a "mirror" to their daughters. (Counsels 6:1-8) Much could, and has, been written on these images of mirror and model within the spiritual writings of the period, especially in the writings of St Bonaventure, a Franciscan and influential Francisan in the Salo region where Angela became a Francisan tertiary in her youth. There is more to be explored in these images.

And what of the world outside the Company. Here again the leaders are to be pro-active in so far as they defend and protect the members of the Company from influences that discourage the way of life undertaken. It is in this chapter we gain some insight into Angela's perception of the cultural milieu of her time, a Renaissance milieu, pre-Council of Trent milieu. She was deeply aware of the wide variety of opinions and behaviours that abounded. How did she advise to chart a course through this? She had after all set up a Company of women to live a consecrated life deliberately in the midst of this. Therefore, addressing this milieu was integral to the purpose of the Company. Otherwise, why place a Company in the midst of such a milieu, just to defend and protect them from it? Angela is realistic. The members of the Company are not enclosed in monasteries and isolated from all the milieu of the day. The members of the Company will encounter all of these influences in their daily life. The leaders for their part are to be on their guard, "tactfully" preventing the members from listening to heretics (Counsels 7:15). What attitude should the leaders adopt towards such possible heretics? Typical of Angela, their attitude should be one of charity. It is not their role to judge - presumably the members of the Company may not have had the theological expertise to fairly assess the broad spectrum of opinions of the day. So in charity, these possible heretics were to be considered good (Counsels 7:19) but to be left alone in prudence for the leaders' and members' own good (Counsels 7: 18-20). For Angela, the path through this age and in this society was for a group to follow what was certain rather than uncertain. What was certain for Angela was the path of the Gospel, the ancient way ("l'antiqua strata) and custom of the Church established by saints under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Counsels7:22). What was certain was that directed by the Holy Spirit. And so she said to her Company: "Live a new life" (Counsels 7:22), a life that is "fresh", a renewed life. Her vision was one of reform by way of example, an example of faithfulness to the certain way, that is, the way directed by charity, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And so she says: "Pray, and get others to pray, that God not abandon his Church, but reform it as he pleases...For in these perilous and petilential times, you fill find no other recourese than to take refuge at the feet of Jesus Christ. Because if he directs and teaches you, you will be well taught...Therefore humble yourselves under his powerful hand...and you will be enlightened." (Counsels 7:23-29).

Finally, Angela returns to the beginning focussing on the attitude to the members of the Company in the Eight Counsel and the goal of unity for the Company in her Final Counsel. If in the beginning, the members were to be esteemed, respected and loved, here Angela develops an attitude of humility towards the members of the Company. Each one is to be loved equally, no one preferred more than the other. Why? Because they all creatures of God and no one knows what God wishes for each one. (Counsels 8:1-2). No one can judge the innermost thoughts of any person. Therefore each is to be held in love and borne with equally.

The Last Counsel's summation is focussed solely on Harmony. Good leadership will "lead" to this:
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 each other, helping each other, bearing with each other in Jesus Christ. For if you strive to be like this, without any doubt, the Lord will be in your midst......
See then how important is this union and concord. So long for it, pursue it, embrace it, hold onto 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......
But now I leave you; be consoled, and have a lively (viva) faith and hope. But first I want you to be blessed, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen." (Final Counsel vv.1-3, 10-15, 26-27).