The vocation of the Ursuline Sisters of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus unites them in a special way to the mystery of the Agony of Christ, who, sent by the Father, so loved his brothers and sisters that he suffered death for them upon the cross, so that all who share in his death and resurrection might attain the fullness of life. Attentive to Christ’s words, «I thirst», sisters respond to the love of God’s Heart by surrendering themselves to Him wholeheartedly and without reserve so that He may extend in and through them His mission of salvation. They desire to live ever more fully for Christ and his Body, the Church. They devote all their efforts to the spread of the Kingdom of God on earth. (from the Constitutions of the Congregation, p. 3-4)
The linchpin upholding the experience of the mystery of the Heart of Jesus is love, the desire to answer with love to His love; the desire to lay down our lives, without exceptions and conditions; the desire to follow Christ among His disciples; the mystery of bearing the agony of Jesus to save our brothers and sisters.
Our Mother Foundress reads the Christ’s agony and His "sitio" ("I thirst"), cried out from the cross as a plea so that as many people as possible could use the graces “merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered Himself on the cross as a living victim” and nowadays this plea does not fall silent. Moreover, we may still hear it loudly in the ordinary and the needy of our times as well as in the lonely and the lost, in the victims of war, in enslavement and violence. That is why, the request of our Mother Foundress "My children let the sacred fire of love for souls glimmer unceasingly in your hearts" (from the Testament) remains topical at present.
The contemplation of the Heart of Jesus rushes us to answer with faith, love and a total gift of ourselves, so that Christ could extend in and through us His mission of salvation in the world. We try more and more to become His instruments in the acts of evangelism; to let Christ to use us in a way and place where He needs it.
