ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS JULY 31, St. Neot,

ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS JULY 31
St. Neot, Hermit, and relative of King Alfred the Great. A monk of Glastonbury, England, he was ordained before he departed to become a hermit in Cornwall. Tradition states that King Alfred visited him for his counsel.

SAINT OF THE DAY JULY 31, ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, PRIEST, FOUNDER OF THE JESUITS, ST. JUSTIN DE JACOBIS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION, BISHOP OF ABISSINIA

ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, PRIEST, FOUNDER OF THE JESUITS

Pride shattered

            Iñigo López de Loyola thirsted for fame and glory. The boy, born in 1491 into the lesser nobility in Spain’s Basque country, learned sword-fighting and all things military. As he grew, he danced, got into fights, toyed with women, and dreamed of imitating Spain’s knight-hero, El Cid. It seemed as if his dream was being realized for a time: the man Iñigo was esteemed as a courageous soldier.

            But in 1521, at Pamplona, a French cannonball shattered his leg. The leg was set poorly and was healing crooked. The soldier, concerned with his looks and prowess, begged the doctor to break it again. It was a long convalescence. Iñigo begged for chivalric romances to read to while away the time. There were no such books in his family’s castle, however, so he was brought books he had no desire to read: a life of Jesus and lives of the saints. Boredom got the better of him, however, and at last he opened these volumes. It was like opening the covers onto a new world.

            Iñigo began to imagine the life of Christ as he prayed, picturing the scenes. He began to think that people like St. Francis were braver than the bravest soldiers he knew. He still dreamed of knightly glory, but noticed that these dreams left him with a bitter aftertaste. Thoughts of the Lord or of the saints’ sacrifices, on the other hand, were hard but left him with an abiding peace. He was being taught, he realized later: it was his first introduction to the discernment of spirits.

A new kind of knight

            When he could walk, Iñigo wanted set out on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But first he stopped at a monastery, where the well-dressed nobleman exchanged his clothes with a beggar. He brought his sword to the shrine of the Virgin of Montserrat and laid it before her, keeping vigil all night, as men do before they are knighted. For Iñigo the soldier had begun to understand: he would be a different kind of knight, serving a different Lady, a different Lord.

He lived in nearby Manresa for a year in great poverty, praying and doing penance. He had to come to terms with his past life and come to know the new King who had called him. While there, his “education” continued. He had moments of great consolation, when prayer was sweet, and moments of terrible desolation. At times, he was driven to near despair. Slowly, he began to see a pattern: the thoughts that remained and brought peace, even if they were hard, were from God. Those that glittered but were ephemeral, or that brought on later disconsolation, were not. His notes became the basis for a degree of insight into the spiritual life that has few parallels in the Church, and provided the foundation for his Spiritual Exercises.

There were gifts: one day, he had a kind of vision of the Trinity so beautiful that it left him in tears. The beauty of that vision remained with him all his life. It was part of his “curriculum” as he learned to see God in all things.

Brothers

Iñigo, who began to go by the name of Ignatius, did make it to the Holy Land, but he soon returned to Europe. He started preaching. This was not looked upon kindly by the Inquisition, which interrogated him but at last set him free. He set off for Paris to study. At the university there, he found roommates: another Basque, Francis Xavier, and the Frenchman, Peter Faber. On August 15, 1534, Ignatius, his roommates, and four others took vows. If they could not go to the Holy Land, they promised to place themselves at the service of the Pope in an obedience that was simply an expression of love. Five years later, that small group of friends adopted the name, “the Society of Jesus.” The Jesuits were born.

Now a priest, Ignatius became the Jesuit’s first Father General, until his death on July 31, 1556. He sent his companions on mission, some to faraway lands. Wherever they went, they carried with them what Iñigo had learned at Manresa: man was created, not to seek glory, but to love, serve and praise. To give glory, or to live “for the greater glory of God.”

ST. JUSTIN DE JACOBIS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE MISSION, BISHOP OF ABISSINIA

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,54-58) "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house."

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#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,54-58) "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house." http://ow.ly/oU3o50AHcdn

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,47-53) "When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age."

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#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,47-53) "When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age." http://ow.ly/oDP050AHc85

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (John 11,19-27) "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

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#Gospel of the Day (John 11,19-27) "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" http://ow.ly/Z9q350AHbXv

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,36-43) "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom."

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#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,36-43) "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom." http://ow.ly/guDS50AHbTr

#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,31-35) "It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"

#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,31-35) "It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'" http://ow.ly/wKNB50AHbOz

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,44-52) “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

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#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,44-52) “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (Matthew 20,20-28) "Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave."

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#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 20,20-28)

"Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave."

Vatican News @VaticanNews #Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,18-23) "The seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."

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#Gospel of the Day (Matthew 13,18-23) "The seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."