In 1491, Ignatius of Loyola was born into a noble Basque family in Spain. In his youth he was a courtier, a swaggering “caballero,” and a soldier in the service of the Spanish king, Ferdinand.
While he was defending the fortress at Pamplona in 1521, his leg was shattered by a cannonball. During a prolonged convalescence, Ignatius sought diversion in the books available in the library of his family castle: the lives of Christ and the saints. These readings led Ignatius to experience an interior transformation that changed his whole life. A new desire to serve Jesus replaced his former hopes of knightly glory, and he eventually decided to study for the priesthood.
The once-proud courtier left Loyola and set out as a pilgrim to the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat. There, as a statue at the center of The University of Scranton campus depicts, he spent all night in vigil and offered his knight’s sword to Our Lady. Exchanging his rich garments for those of a beggar, he spent the next few months living in a cave in nearby Manresa. Testing himself through mortification and prayer, he reflected deeply on the life and teachings of Jesus. He kept careful notes of his experiences in prayer, notes that formed the basis of the Spiritual Exercises. This book, revised and adjusted throughout his life, was used by Ignatius to lead others to an experience of God by meditation on the life of Jesus.
While a student in Paris, the 38-year-old Ignatius drew together a small group of friends who gathered in extended prayer and meditation according to his Spiritual Exercises. His closest colleagues were Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, 23 year-old students and roommates. Over the next few years, they were joined by others who ultimately made vows of poverty and chastity on August 15, 1534, in a chapel near Paris.
The spring of 1539 found Ignatius and his companions in Rome where they engaged in serious discussions about how they might work together to serve God in the Church by helping souls. What emerged was a formula for their future. On September 27, 1540, Pope Paul III approved this formula and the Society of Jesus was born.
In 1556, Ignatius, who called himself “the pilgrim,” ended his journey to God. He died peacefully in the early morning of July 31.
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity! For so it is that a man who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This, too, is vanity and great injustice; for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun? What of all his laborious days, his cares of office, his restless nights? This, too, is vanity.
Writings
(Year C). I call it consolation when some interior movement in the soul is caused, through which the soul comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord; and when it can in consequence love no created thing on the face of the earth in itself, but in the Creator of them all. Likewise, when it sheds tears that move to love of its Lord, whether out of sorrow for one’s sins, or for the Passion of Christ our Lord, or because of other things directly connected with His service and praise. Finally, I call consolation every increase of hope, faith and charity, and all interior joy which calls and attracts to heavenly things and to the salvation of one’s soul, quieting it and giving it peace in its Creator and Lord. I call desolation all the contrary such as darkness of soul, disturbance in it, movement to things low and earthly, the unquiet of different agitations and temptations, moving to want of confidence, without hope, without love, when one finds oneself all lazy, tepid, sad, and as if separated from his Creator and Lord. Because, as consolation is contrary to desolation, in the same way the thoughts which come from consolation are contrary to the thoughts which come from desolation. In time of desolation never to make a change; but to be firm and constant in the resolutions and determination in which one was the day preceding such desolation, or in the determination in which he was in the preceding consolation. Because, as in consolation it is rather the good spirit who guides and counsels us, so in desolation it is the bad, with whose counsels we cannot take a course to decide rightly. Although in desolation we ought not to change our first resolutions, it is very helpful intensely to change ourselves against the same desolation, as by insisting more on prayer, meditation, on much examination, and by giving ourselves more scope in some suitable way of doing penance. Let him who is in desolation consider how the Lord has left him in trial in his natural powers, in order to resist the different agitations and temptations of the enemy; since he can with the Divine help, which always remains to him, though he does not clearly perceive it: because the Lord has taken from him his great fervor, great love and intense grace, leaving him, however, grace enough for eternal salvation. (Rules for Discernment)
Musical Selection
Take and receive, O Lord, my liberty, Take all my will, my mind, my memory, All things I hold and all I own are Thine, Thine was the gift, to Thee I all resign, Do Thou direct and govern all and sway, Do what Thou wilt, command, and I obey, Only Thy grace, Thy love on me bestow, These make me rich, all else will I forego. Do Thou direct and govern all and sway, Do what Thou wilt, command, and I obey, Only Thy grace, Thy love on me bestow, These make me rich, all else will I forego.
Collect
Almighty Father, whose will it is that your Son should reign over all things, and who gave to the Church a mighty warrior in Ignatius of Loyola tofight in the name of Jesus: increase our faith so that we may trust in the power of Jesus to save us, for he, our Lord and our Redeemer, lives and reigns with you, in the unity or the Holy Spirit, God, now and for ever. Amen.(English Missal)
