Spread your wings! Rethinking female consecrated life

30/03/2023

News

"We hurt ourselves by thinking we have all the answers. We need questions that are uncomfortable for us: and oftentimes we are afraid of these questions." - Ianire Angulo Ordorika

On March 23rd, over 100 people participated in an online presentation of the book “Spread your wings: rethinking female consecrated life” written by Ianire Angulo Ordorika - a member of Slaves of the Holy Eucharist and of the Mother of God. Since 2014 she has been a professor of Sacred Scripture in the Faculty of Theology at the Loyola Andalucía University in Granada, the city where she lives.

The meeting was a joint initiative of UISG and the PPC Editorial – publisher of the book.

The author entered a dialogue with two other women: sr. Jolanta Kafka – former UISG President and theologian Patricia Osorno, and by answering their reflective questions, she unfolded the meaning of the title and the purpose and ideas standing behind the book.

Ianire describes her book: “The title of the book is an invitation to spread our wings. I have the feeling that there is something that has not just come out, to unfold within consecrated life, in the human and believing dimension.” She adds: “Our vocation is to empower and bring out something precious. We ended up thinking, especially within the female consecrated life, that our mission is mostly about tasks. But there is so much more to this vocation.”

As Carmen Picó, the coordinator of PPC Editorial’s “Sofia” Collection, noted, the presentation of the book took place during the time of Lent – a time of reflection, change and possibilities. In this spirit, in her book, Ianire encourages us to look at the situations of crisis as an opportunity. “We cannot focus only on the possible danger of the crisis.”, she says.

She reflected on the struggles of the leaders in religious life: “We have a narrative of how perfect our leaders should be and the ideal is hard to reach – in consequence, they themselves can fall into perversion through difficulty and vulnerability. It is better to recognize our limitations because this opens us up to a joint discernment. Vulnerability is a wonderful thing. The fragile helps the fragile.”

If you would like to discover more about the book and other publications with a PPC Editorial’s collection “Sofia”, please click here

Watch the recording of the webinar:

17/05/2023

Sr. Frances Nosbisch

Thank you for this conversation. Is this book available in English?

04/04/2023

Shochil

Muchas gracias por la oportunidad de escuchar estas reflexiones e invitaciones a vivir nuestra vida consagrada desde nuestra verdad más profunda como mujeres consagradas, desde la libertad que anhelamos y la creatividad que se convierte en luz para todas. Gracias.