Our Morning Offering – 2 August – The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
EXCERPT from the ‘Our Father’ Paraphrase By St Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868) “Apostle of the Eucharist”
Our Father Who art in Heaven
In the heaven of the Eucharist …
Grant me the grace to find
all my joy in wanting You alone,
in desiring You alone
and in thinking of You alone.
Grant that by denying myself,
I may find light and life
in obeying Your good,
acceptable and perfect Will.
I will, what You will.
I will it because You will it.
I will it, as You will it.
I will it, as long as You will it.
Keep my thoughts and desires purely
from You,
for You
and in You.
In You, O Lord Jesus, have I hoped,
let me not be confounded forever.
You alone are good.
You alone are powerful.
You alone are eternal.
To You alone be honour and glory,
love and thanksgiving,
forever and ever.
Amen
And here is the full Prayer:
PRAYER OF ST PETER JULIAN EYMARD Our Father Paraphrased
Our Father Who art in Heaven
In the heaven of the Eucharist,
to You Who are seated
on the throne of grace and love,
be benediction,
and honour,
and power and glory forever and ever!
Hallowed be Your Name
first in myself,
through the spirit of Your humility,
obedience and charity.
May I, in all humility and zeal, make You known,
loved and adored by all men in the Holy Eucharist.
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Eucharistic kingdom.
Rule forever over us
for Your greater glory
through the power of Your love,
the triumph of Your virtues
and the grace of a Eucharistic vocation
in my state as a layman.
Grant me the grace of Your love
so that I may be able to effectively
extend Your Eucharistic kingdom everywhere
and realise the desire You expressed: “I have come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I but that it be kindled!”
O, that I might be the incendiaries of this heavenly fire!
Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven
Grant me the grace to find
all my joy in wanting You alone,
in desiring You alone
and in thinking of You alone.
Grant that by denying myself,
I may find light and life in obeying Your good,
acceptable and perfect Will.
I will, what You will.
I will it, because You will it.
I will it, as You will it.
I will it, as long as You will it.
Keep my thoughts and desires purely from You,
for You and in You.
Give us this day our daily bread
You are our Eucharistic Lord
and You alone will be my food and clothing,
my riches and glory,
my remedy in illness
and my protection against all evil.
You will be all things to me.
And forgive us our trespasses
Forgive me Jesus,
for I am sorry for all my sins
just as they stand in Your eyes.
As we forgive those who trespass against us
For anyone who has offended me in any way,
with my whole heart I forgive them
and desire for them the gifts of Your love.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Deliver me Jesus,
from the demon of pride,
impurity, discord and complacency.
Deliver me, from the cares and worries
of life, so that with a pure heart
and a free mind, I may joyfully spend my life
and devote all that I am
and all that I have,
in the service of You, my Eucharistic Lord.
Amen
In You, O Lord Jesus, have I hoped;
let me not be confounded forever.
You alone are good.
You alone are powerful.
You alone are eternal.
To You alone be honour and glory,
love and thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen Amen!
Saint of the Day – 2 August – St Peter Julian Eymard SSS (1811-1868) – “Apostle of the Eucharist” – (4 February 1811 at La Mure, France – 1 August 1868 at La Mure, Isère, France following a stroke). He was Canonised on 9 December 1962 by Pope John XXIII. Priest, Religious, Founder of two religious institutes, Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers and Brothers and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. Attributes – Eucharist, Monstrance, Eucharistic Adoration, Eucharistic Congress, Cope Humeral Veil Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.
He once described himself as “a little like Jacob, always on a journey,” always seeking. But, in truth, it was there from the beginning―the great love and the driving passion of his life: Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
One day, young Peter Julian Eymard [pronounced A-mard], just five years of age, wandered off from the family home. His sister and half-sister searched frantically for the boy and finally located him in the parish church, standing on a stool close to the tabernacle of the high altar. In response to their anxious questioning, he answered simply, “I am here listening to Jesus.”
The Early Years – 1811-1839
Like all of us, Peter Julian Eymard was conditioned by his familial and cultural background as well as by the social and political milieu of his time.
Life in France during the first half of the nineteenth century was difficult. Years earlier, the French Revolution had radically altered the political, social and religious landscape of the country. As a teenager, Eymard would experience the Industrial Revolution which swept across Europe. As a young man, he witnessed the dawning of the Age of Romanticism in art, music, and literature.
Peter Julian’s road to the priesthood, as well as his life as a priest, was shadowed by the cross. An intransigent anti-clericalism marked French society and his father, having seen several sons die, did not want his only surviving son to become a priest. His first attempt to pursue the priesthood ended in serious illness. Following his father’s death, he tried once again and on July 20, 1834, at age 23, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Grenoble.
The church of Eymard’s day was greatly affected by Jansenism, a religious movement which focused on the gravity of human sinfulness and a corresponding belief in the unworthiness of human motivation and activity. Thus, in his seminary years and first years of ministry, Father Peter Julian Eymard was influenced by a predominantly reparation spirituality. He would struggle his whole life to seek that inner perfection that would enable him to offer the gift of his entire self.
Perhaps it was the intensification of this spiritual struggle along with his lifelong devotion to Mary that led him to enter religious life. On August 20, 1839, Father Eymard professed vows as a member of the Society of Mary (the Marists).
The Marist Years – 1839-1856
Throughout his life, Peter Julian had an intense devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. He knew about the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette and enjoyed traveling to various Marian shrines. It was Father Eymard’s apostolic work for the Society of Mary that would put him in contact with the various currents of eucharistic piety that were flowing through the French church and elsewhere in Europe.
Despite persistent health issues, Peter Julian was an amazingly energetic and hardworking priest and religious. Naturally drawn to contemplation, the demands of his ministry, especially his preaching schedule and the various administrative duties assigned to him, made it impossible for him to live a purely contemplative life. He was an outstanding organiser of lay societies, a zealous educator, a well-prepared preacher and something of a prophetic figure in his Marist community and even to his superiors.
Father Eymard was especially effective at preaching eucharistic devotions, very popular at the time. It was on one such occasion, on Corpus Christi, May 25, 1845, that he had a powerful experience that would change the course of his life. While carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession at Saint Paul’s Church in Lyons, he felt an intense attraction to Christ in the Eucharist and resolved to“bring all the world to the knowledge and love of our Lord; to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ eucharistic.”
This grace would gradually consume his life and his energies over the next several years. When responsibility for writing a rule for the new Third Order of Mary was entrusted to him by Father Jean Claude Colin, the Marist founder, Peter Julian asked permission to write a eucharistic rule. Father Colin answered that this was not the charism of the Society of Mary. Nevertheless, the idea for such a rule had already been written in the mind and heart of Father Eymard, and, in 1856, he made the painful decision to leave the Marists in the hope of a founding a religious congregation dedicated to the Eucharist.
The Years of Founding – 1856-1868
Founding the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament was not an easy task. Faithfully following the Holy Spirit’s inspiration brought Father Eymard relational conflicts, situations of personal embarrassment, financial troubles and physical exhaustion. The first hurdle was getting approval for the new eucharistic institute.
The work of preparation for First Communion, especially among adults, was the aspect of Eymard’s vision that interested Archbishop Marie Dominique Auguste Sibour of Paris when the two met and the priest shared his project. Eucharistic communities and organisations were springing up throughout France―many of them emphasising only prayer and reparation―but Archbishop Sibour rightly perceived that Eymard’s intuition into the Eucharist was not limited merely to adoration but to reaching out to those who were estranged from the church and evangelising them. He gave approval on May 13, 1856.
Father Eymard immediately directed his ministry to the young workers, the “rag pickers” and the other barely employable men who made up a large segment of the labour force of Paris. No sooner did he attract a few men to join him than he had to close the house and move to another location. This happened twice within the span of a few years. At times, the Eymardian communities were so poor that a neighbouring convent of sisters fed the priests and brothers. Not being able to provide food and shelter did not help Father Eymard attract vocations!
“Gift of Self”
As early as 1845―and perhaps owing to the grace of his experience at Saint Paul’s in Lyons on Corpus Christi―Father Eymard began to move away from a spirituality of reparation to a spirituality which emphasised the love of Christ. In 1865, just three years prior to his death, he made a long retreat in Rome. During this retreat, he was struck by the overwhelming realisation of Christ’s love for him, a love which he felt was taking over his entire life. In response, he wished to make the “gift of self:” of his will, his personality and his affections, to God and to Christ in the Eucharist.
In 1858, together with Marguerite Guillot, he founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative congregation for women. He is quoted as saying, “You take communion to become holy, not because you already are.”
Eymard was a friend and contemporary of Saints Peter Chanel, Marcellin Champagnat, and Blessed Basil Moreau.
He died at the age of fifty-seven in La Mure on 1 August 1868, of complications from a stroke.
He was declared venerable in 1908, beatified by Pope Pius XI on 12 July 1925 and canonised by Pope John XXIII on 9 December 1962. St Pope John Paul II named Eymard “Apostle of the Eucharist.”
St Eusebius of Vercelli (Optional Memorial)
St Peter Julian Eymund (Optional Memorial)
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Our Lady of the Angels: The image of Our Lady of the Angels is only about 10 cms high and is carved in a simple fashion on dark stone. She has a round, sweet face, slanted eyes and a delicate mouth. Her colouring is leaden, with scattered golden sparkles. She carries the Christ Child on her left arm. Only the faces of Mary and the Child are visible; the rest is covered by a cloak that is gathered in pleats. The statuette is displayed in a large gold monstrance that surrounds it and enlarges its appearance. While searching for firewood on 2 August 1635, the feast of the Holy Angels, a poor mestizo woman named Juana Pereira discovered this small image of the Virgin sitting beside the footpath near Cartago, Costa Rica. Juana took it home with her but it soon disappeared only to be re-discovered at the same place beside the same path. The statue repeated this behaviour five more times – taken to homes and then the parish church – and returning on its own to the site where Juana found it. The locals finally took this to mean that Our Lady wanted a shrine built there, and so it was.
The shrine soon became a point of pilgrimage, especially for the poor and outcast. The image was solemnly crowned in 1926. In 1935 Pope Pius XI declared the shrine of the Queen of Angels a basilica. The stone on which the statue was originally sitting is in the basilica and is being slowly worn away by the touch of the hands of the pilgrims. A spring of water appeared from beneath the stone and its waters carried away to heal the sick.
Patronage – Costa Rica, diocese of Getafe, Spain.
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St Auspicius of Apt
St Betharius of Chartres
St Centolla of Burgos
St Etheldritha of Croyland
Bl Frederic Campisani
Bl Giustino Maria Russolillo
Bl Gundekar of Eichstätt
Bl Joanna of Aza
Bl John of Rieti
St Maximus of Padua
St Pedro de Osma
St Plegmund
St Rutilius
St Serenus of Marseille
St Sidwell
St Pope Stephen I
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Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Ceferino Jimenez Malla
Bl Felipe de Jesús Munárriz Azcona
Bl Fernando Olmedo Reguera
Francesc Company Torrelles
Francisca Pons Sarda
Bl Francisco Calvo Burillo
Francisco Manzano Cruz
Bl Francisco Tomás Serer
José Peris Ramos
Bl Juan Díaz Nosti
Bl Leoncio Pérez Nebreda
Bl Leoncio Pérez Ramos
Martí Anglés Oliveras
Bl Miguel Amaro Rodríguez
Thought for the Day – 1 August – The Feast of St Peter Faber S.J.
Annuncio vobis gaudium magnum! On 13 November 2013 Pope Francis announced the canonisation of Pierre Favre, SJ, aka Peter Faber (1506-46). For many Catholics the response was probably, “Who?”
For most Jesuits, though, the response was probably, “Finally!” For Pierre Favre has been a Blessed since…1872. Francis has announced this as an “equivalent canonization,” as Pope Benedict XVI had done with the canonization of St Hildegard of Bingen. In these cases the devotion to the saint is already well established.
In the Pope’s recent interview in America, he singled out for praise the man often called the “Second Jesuit.” The Pope was asked the reason for his devotion to this “First Companion” of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. “[Pierre Favre’s] dialogue with all,” said the pope, “even the most remote and even with his opponents; his simple piety, a certain naïveté perhaps, his being available straightaway, his careful interior discernment, the fact that he was a man capable of great and strong decisions but also capable of being so gentle and loving.” Favre spent a great deal of his Jesuit life working with Protestants during the explosive time of the Reformation; and, as the pope intimated, he always did so with great openness and charity–during a time when they were called “heretics.”
One of my favorite quotes from Pierre–no, my favorite–is: “Take care, take care, never to close your heart to anyone.”
Favre was said by St. Ignatius to be the man best suited to direct others in the Spiritual Exercises–quite an accolade from the author of the Exercises. But, surprisingly, Favre’s story is not nearly as well known as those of his two famous college roommates, Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. (When I once asked an elderly Jesuit why Favre was still a Blessed and not a saint, he said, “Even in heaven he is humble! He doesn’t want to place himself on par with Ignatius and Xavier.”) Many Jesuits are devoted to this humble spiritual master: the new Jesuit residence at Boston College for men in formation is named after him–though they may have to sandblast the “Blessed” on the stone sign in front of the house. But he still languishes in relative obscurity. Or will for another month. Indeed, that so many writers can’t even agree on a standard way of referring to the man–you will see, variously, the original French “Pierre Favre,” the somewhat modified Anglo-French “Peter Favre,” and the totally Anglicized “Peter Faber”–is an indication of the lack of attention given him. That of course changes with the canonisation.
For Favre, a man troubled all his life by a “scrupulous” conscience, that is, an excessive self-criticism, Ignatius was a literal godsend. “He gave me an understanding of my conscience,” wrote Favre. Ultimately, Ignatius led Peter through the Spiritual Exercises, something that dramatically altered Favre’s worldview.
This happened despite some very different backgrounds. And here is one area where Ignatius and his friends highlight an insight on relationships: friends need not be cut from the same cloth. The friend with whom you the least in common may be the most helpful for your personal growth. Ignatius and Peter had, until they met, led radically different lives. Peter came to Paris at age 19 after what his biographer called his “humble birth,” having spent his youth in the fields as a shepherd. Imbued with a simple piety toward Mary, the saints, relics, processions, and shrines and also angels, Peter clung to the simple faith of his childhood. Ignatius, on the other hand, had spent many years as a courtier and some of them as a soldier, undergone a dramatic conversion, subjected himself to extreme penances, wandered to Rome and the Holy Land in pursuit of his goal of following God’s will.
One friend had seen little of the world; the other much. One had always found religion a source of solace; the other had proceeded to God along a tortuous path.
Ultimately, Ignatius helped Peter to arrive at some important decisions through the freedom offered in the Spiritual Exercises. Peter’s indecision before this moment sounds refreshingly modern, much like the frustrating indecision of any college student today. He wrote about it in his journals:
“Before that–I mean before having settled on the course of my life through the help given to me by God through Inigo–I was always very unsure of myself and blown about by many winds: sometimes wishing to be married, sometimes a doctor, sometimes a lawyer, sometimes a professor of theology, sometimes a cleric without a degree–at times wishing me to be a monk.”
In time, Peter decided to join Ignatius on his new path, whose ultimate destination was still unclear. Peter, sometimes called the “Second Jesuit,” was enthusiastic about the risky venture from the start. “In the end,” he writes, “we became one in desire and will and one in a firm resolve to take up the life we lead today….”His friend changed his life. Later, Ignatius would say that Favre was the most skilled of all the Jesuits in giving the Spiritual Exercises. From The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything.
So dear humble St Peter, we ask of you to pray that we too may become humble in the service of our Lord. Please pray for us!
Quote/s of the Day – 1 August – Memorials of St Alphonsus Liquori and of St Peter Faber S.J.
“Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, ‘Ask, and you shall receive,’ but He has revealed to His servants, that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace.”
“Your God is ever beside you – indeed, He is even within you.”
“St Augustine and St Thomas define mortal sin to be a turning away from God: that is, the turning of one’s back upon God, leaving the Creator for the sake of the creature. What punishment would that subject deserve who, while his king was giving him a command, contemptuously turned his back upon him to go and transgress his orders? This is what the sinner does; and this is punished in hell with the pain of loss, that is, the loss of God, a punishment richly deserved by him who in this life turns his back upon his sovereign good.”
“Let us thank God for having called us to His holy faith. It is a great gift and the number of those, who thank God for it is small.”
St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
“Seek grace in the smallest things and you will find also grace, to accomplish, to believe in and to hope for the greatest things.”
May the Lord…make you overflow with love for one another and for all.1 Thessalonians 3:12
REFLECTION – “The means for attaining perfect love is to accomplish frequent acts of love.
Fire is kindled by the wood that we cast into it and love is enkindled by acts of love.”….St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Loving Father, grant me the grace to strive after perfect love. Help me to bring forth frequent acts of love, to all and sundry, to each of my neighbours, so that I may grow in this greatest of virtues. St Alphonsus Liguori pray for us, amen.
Morning Prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church Doctor zelantissimus (Most Zealous Doctor)
My most sweet Lord,
I offer and consecrate to You this morning
all that I am and have:
my senses,
my thoughts,
my affections,
my desires,
my pleasures,
my inclinations,
my liberty.
In a word,
I place my whole body and soul in Your hands. Amen
Saint of the Day – 2 August – St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori C.Ss.R. – Doctor of the Church-Bishop, Confessor, Founder, Spiritual Writer, Composer, Musician, Artist, Poet, Lawyer, Scholastic Philosopher and Theologian. Born on 27 September 1696 at Marianelli near Naples, Italy and died on 1 August 1787 at Nocera, Italy of natural causes. He was Canonised on 26 May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1871. He founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists). In 1762 he was appointed Bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti. Patronages – against arthritis, against scrupulosity, of Confessors (given on 26 February 1950 by Pope Pius XII), final perseverance, moral theologians, moralists (1950 by Pope Pius XII), scrupulous people, vocations, Diocese of Acerra, Italy, Diocese of Agrigento, Italy,l Pagani, Italy, Sant’Agata de’ Goti, Italy. Attributes – chaplet, praying with a monstrance in his hands, pen, quill, crucifix, writing, bishop with his chin on his chest (due to his arthritis).
St Alphonsus learned to ride and fence but was never a good shot because of poor eyesight. Myopia and chronic asthma precluded a military career so his father had him educated for the legal profession. He was taught by tutors before entering the University of Naples, where he graduated with doctorates in civil and canon law at 16. He remarked later that he was so small at the time that he was almost buried in his doctor’s gown and that all the spectators laughed. When he was 18, like many other nobles, he joined the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy with whom he assisted in the care of the sick at the hospital for “incurables”.
He became a successful lawyer. He was thinking of leaving the profession and wrote to someone, “My friend, our profession is too full of difficulties and dangers; we lead an unhappy life and run risk of dying an unhappy death”. At 27, after having lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practicing law, he made a firm resolution to leave the profession of law. Moreover, he heard an interior voice saying: “Leave the world, and give yourself to me.”
In 1723, he decided to offer himself as a novice to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri with the intention of becoming a priest. His father opposed the plan but after two months (and with his Oratorian confessor’s permission), he and his father compromised: he would study for the priesthood but not as an Oratorian and live at home. He was ordained on 21 December 1726, at 30. He lived his first years as a priest with the homeless and the marginalised youth of Naples. He became very popular because of his plain and simple preaching. He said: “I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand”. He founded the Evening Chapels, which were managed by the young people themselves. The chapels were centres of prayer and piety, preaching, community, social activities and education. At the time of his death, there were 72, with over 10,000 active participants. His sermons were very effective at converting those who had been alienated from their faith.
Liguori suffered from scruples much of his adult life and felt guilty about the most minor issues relating to sin. Moreover, the saint viewed scruples as a blessing at times and wrote: “Scruples are useful in the beginning of conversion…. they cleanse the soul and at the same time make it careful”.
In 1729, Alphonsus left his family home and took up residence in the Chinese Institute in Naples. It was there that he began his missionary experience in the interior regions of the Kingdom of Naples, where he found people who were much poorer and more abandoned than any of the street children in Naples. In 1731, while he was ministering to earthquake victims in the town of Foggia, Alphonsus claimed to have had a vision of the Virgin Mother in the appearance of a young girl of 13 or 14, wearing a white veil.
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (The Rdemptorists) – On 9 November 1732, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, when Sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa told him that it had been revealed to her that he was the one that God had chosen to found the congregation. He founded the congregation with the charism of preaching popular missions in the city and the countryside. Its goal was to teach and preach in the slums of cities and other poor places. They also fought Jansenism, a heresy that supported a very strict morality: “the penitents should be treated as souls to be saved rather than as criminals to be punished”. He is said never to have refused absolution to a penitent.
A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. In 1732, while he was staying at the Convent of the Consolation, one of his order’s houses in the small city of Deliceto in the province of Foggia in Southeastern Italy, Liguori wrote the Italian carol “Tu scendi dalle stelle” (“From Starry Skies Descending”) in the musical style of a pastorale. The version with Italian lyrics was based on his original song written in Neapolitan, which began Quanno nascette Ninno (When the child was born). As it was traditionally associated with the zampogna, or large-format Italian bagpipe, it became known as Canzone d’i zampognari the (“Carol of the Bagpipers”).
Bishop Alphonsus was consecrated Bishop of Sant’Agata dei Goti in 1762. He tried to refuse the appointment by using his age and infirmities as arguments against his consecration. He wrote sermons, books and articles to encourage devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. He first addressed ecclesiastical abuses in the diocese, reformed the seminary and spiritually rehabilitated the clergy and faithful. He suspended those priests who celebrated Mass in less than 15 minutes and sold his carriage and episcopal ring to give the money to the poor. In the last years of his life, he suffered a painful sickness and a bitter persecution from his fellow priests, who dismissed him from the Congregation that he had founded.
Death In 1775, he was allowed to retire from his office and went to live in the Redemptorist community in Pagani, Italy, where he died.
Veneration and legacy He was beatified on 15 September 1816 by Pope Pius VII and canonized on 26 May 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.
In 1949, the Redemptorists founded the Alphonsian Academy for the advanced study of Catholic moral theology. He was named the patron of confessors and moral theologians by Pope Pius XII on 26 April 1950, who subsequently wrote of him in the encyclical Haurietis aquas.
Moral theology Alphonsus’ greatest contribution to the Church was in the area of moral theology. His masterpiece was The Moral Theology (1748), which was approved by the Pope himself and was born of Alphonsus’ pastoral experience, his ability to respond to the practical questions posed by the faithful and his contact with their everyday problems. He opposed sterile legalism and strict rigoururism. According to him, those were paths closed to the Gospel because “such rigour has never been taught nor practiced by the Church”. His system of moral theology is noted for its prudence, avoiding both laxism and excessive rigour. Since its publication it has remained in Latin, often in 10 volumes or in the combined 4-volume version of Gaudé. It saw only recently its first publication in translation, in an English translation made by Ryan Grant and published in 2017 by Mediatrix Press. The English translation of the work is projected to be around 5 volumes.
Mariology His Mariology, though mainly pastoral in nature, rediscovered, integrated and defended that of St Augustine of Hippo, St Ambrose of Milan and other fathers; it represented an intellectual defence of Mariology in the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment, against the rationalism to which his often flaming Marian enthusiasm contrasted:
The Glories of Mary Marian Devotion Prayers to the Divine Mother Spiritual Songs The True Spouse of Jesus Christ
Other works Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection The Way of Salvation and of Perfection The Way of the Cross, Preparation for Death, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ The Holy Eucharist Victories of the Martyrs
Feast of Saint Peter in Chains: The feast was originally kept in Rome, Italy to commemorate the dedication of the Church of Saint Peter on the Esquiline Hill built by Eudoxia Licinia in 442 and rebuilt by Adrian I in the 8th century. When the chains which Saint Peter had worn in prison and from which he was freed by angelic intervention, Acts 12:1-19, were later venerated there, the feast received its present name. The date when these chains were brought from Jerusalem is disputed; some claim they were brought in 116 by travellers sent in search of them by Saint Balbina and her father Saint Quirinus, while others think Saint Eudoxia brought them in 439. Pope Saint Leo the Great united them to the chains with which Saint Peter had been fettered in the Mamertine Prison, forming a chain about two yards long which is preserved in a bronze safe and guarded by a special confraternity.
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Bl Aleksy Sobaszek
St Alexander of Perga
St Almedha
St Arcadius
St Attius of Perga
St Benado Vo Van Due
St Buono
St Brogan
St Charity
St Ðaminh Nguyen Van Hanh
St Ethelwold of Winchester
St Exuperius of Bayeux
St Faith
St Faustus
St Felix of Gerona
St Friard
Bl Gerhard Hirschfelder
St Hope
St Jonatus
St Justin of Paris
St Kenneth of Wales
St Leontius of Perga
Bl Maria Imelda of the Eucharistic Jesus
Bl Maria Stella of the Most Blessed Sacrament
St Maur
St Nemesius of Lisieux
Bl Orlando of Vallombrosa
St Peregrinus of Modena
St Peter Faber
St Rioch
Bl Rudolph
St Secundel
St Secundus of Palestrina
St Sophia
St Verus of Vienne
Saints Faith, Hope and Charity: The daughters of Saint Sophia. While still children, they were tortured and martyred for their faith in the persecutions of Hadrian. They were scourged, thrown into a fire and then beheaded.
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Holy Maccabees: Jewish dynasty which began with the rebellion of Mathathias and his five sons against the Syrian king, Antiochus IV (168 BC) and ruled the fortunes of Israel until the advent of Herod the Great. Syrian attempts to force Greek paganism on the Jews, the profanation of the Temple at Jerusalem, and the massacre which followed, brought the nation to arms under Mathathias, a priest of the sons of Joarib. At the death of Mathathias, Judas Machabeus, his third son, drove the Syrians and Hellenists out of Jerusalem, rededicated the Temple, and began an offensive and defensive alliance with the Romans. Before the treaty was concluded, however, Judas, with 800 men, risked battle at Laisa with an overwhelming army of Syrians under Bacchides, and was slain. He was succeeded in command by his youngest brother, Jonathan (161 BC). Jonathan defeated Bacchides, revenged the death of his brother, and made peace with Alexander who had usurped the throne of Demetrius, the successor to Antiochus. A period of peace followed in which Jonathan ruled as high priest in Jerusalem, but Tryphon, who was plotting for the throne of Asia, treacherously captured him at ptolemais and later put him to death. The captaincy of the armies of Israel then fell to Simon, the second son of Mathathias. Under him the land of Juda flourished exceedingly. He obtained the complete independence of the country and a grateful people bestowed upon him the hereditary kingship of the nation. His rule marked five years of uninterrupted peace. He was treacherously slain by his son-in-law, Ptolemy, about the year 135 BC After Simon the race of the Machabees quickly degenerated. In 63 BC the Romans thought it necessary to interfere in the fratricidal war between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. With this interference and the advent of Herod the Great the scepter passed forever from the land of Juda. The story of the Machabees is written in the two books of the Old Testament which bear that name.
Martyrs of Nowogrodek – 11 beati: A group of eleven Holy Family of Nazareth nuns who were murdered by Nazis in exchange for the release of 120 condemned citizens of Nowogrodek, Belarus.
• Adela Mardosewicz
• Anna Kukolowicz
• Eleonora Aniela Józwik
• Eugenia Mackiewicz
• Helena Cierpka
• Jadwiga Karolina Zak
• Józefa Chrobot
• Julia Rapiej
• Leokadia Matuszewska
• Paulina Borowik
• Weronika Narmontowicz
They were murdered on 1 August 1943 by the Gestapo in Novogrudok, Hrodzyenskaya voblasts’, Belarus and
Beatified on 5 March 2000 by St Pope John Paul.
Martyrs of Philadelphia – 6 saints: A group of six Christians martyred. No information about them has survived but the names – Aquila, Cyril, Domitian, Menander, Peter and Rufus. They were martyred on an unknown date in Philadelphia (modern Alasehir, Turkey).
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Benito Iñiguez de Heredia Alzola
Bl Francesc de Paula Soteras Culla
Bl Joan Bonavida Dellá
Bl José de Miguel Arahal
Bl Justino Alarcón Vera
Sebastià Tarragó Cabré
Vicente Montserrat Millán
Nicholas de la Torre Merino
Here is a delightful poem for your prayerful contemplation as you remember and celebrate the life of Iñigo López de Loyola.
Ignatius boy-soldier hoodlum courtier day-old dreamer smashed up good in war convalescent convert cannonball Christian crippled companion with a knack for re-routing attacks
lend us your gift for woundedness that turns a shot around then takes its aim at holiness
think of all the saints you could socialise if only you hobbled now into Syria and taught the fallen your techniques
we’ve got sufficient lead and bloodshed to gild the whole world with your inside-out-going alchemy.
Greg Kennedy, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic, in his third year of Theological Studies at Regis College, Toronto.
Image | Ignatius at Manresa by Montserrat Gudiol (1991). The painting is at Manresa.
Thought for the Day – 31 July – The Memorial of St Ignatius
Ignatius was a true mystic. He centered his spiritual life on the essential foundations of Christianity—the Trinity, Christ, the Eucharist. His spirituality is expressed in the Jesuit motto, Ad majorem Dei gloriam—“for the greater glory of God.” In his concept, obedience was to be the prominent virtue, to assure the effectiveness and mobility of his men. All activity was to be guided by a true love of the Church and unconditional obedience to the Holy Father, for which reason all professed members took a fourth vow to go wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of souls.
Luther nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg in 1517. Seventeen years later, Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society that was to play so prominent a part in the Catholic Reformation. He was an implacable foe of Protestantism. Yet the seeds of ecumenism may be found in his words: “Great care must be taken to show forth orthodox truth in such a way that if any heretics happen to be present they may have an example of charity and Christian moderation. No hard words should be used nor any sort of contempt for their errors be shown.” ( Fr Don Miller, OFM)
“Be generous to the poor orphans and those in need. The man to whom our Lord has been liberal ought not to be stingy. We shall one day find in Heaven as much rest and joy as we ourselves have dispensed in this life.”
“If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.”
“If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Saviour used to finish His sacrifice. All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ…..If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He certainly intends to make you a saint.”
My brothers, I implore you by God’s mercy, to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart………Romans 12:1
REFLECTION – “We must speak to God as a friend speaks to his friend, servant to his master; now asking some favour, now acknowledging our faults and communicating to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires and in all things seeking His counsel.”…St Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
PRAYER – Almighty God, grant that the example of Your saints may spur us on to perfection, so that we who are celebrating the feast of St Ignatius, may follow him step by step in his way of life to reach You in heaven. St Ignatius, pray for us, amen.
Eternal Lord of All By St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
Eternal Lord of all things, I come before Thine Infinite Goodness and before Thy glorious Mother and all Saints of the heavenly court, to make my offering, with Thy help and favour, it is my wish, desire and determination, provided that it would be for Thy greater service and praise, to imitate Thee in suffering injury, insults and poverty, actual as well as spiritual, should Thine most Holy Majesty choose to receive me, in such a way of life. Amen
Saint of the Day – 31 July – St Ignatius Loyola sj (1491-1556) Spanish: Ignacio de Loyola; c 23 October 1491 at Loyola, Guipuzcoa, Spain as Inigo Lopez de Loyola – 31 July 1556 at Rome, Italy of fever) was a Spanish Basque Priest, Mystic Founder and Theologian, who founded the religious order called the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became its first Superior General. Ignatius was beatified in 1609 and Canonised on 12 March 1622 by Pope Gregory XV. Patronages – soldiers,The Society of Jesus, Retreats (proclaimed on 25 July 1922 by Pope Pius XI), Spiritual Exercises (by Pope Pius XI), Basque country, Diocese of Bilbao, Spain, military ordinariate of the Philippines, álava, Spain, Bizkaia, Spain, Gipuzkoa, Spain, Guipuscoa, Spain, Guipúzcoa, Spain, Vizcaya, Spain. Attributes – apparition of Our Lord, book, chasuble, Holy Communion.
The Early Years
Iñigo Lopez de Oñaz y Loyola, whom we know as St. Ignatius, was born in the Castle Loyola, in the Basque country of northeastern Spain, in 1491, during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Iñigo was the youngest of 13 children, raised in a family culture of high Catholic piety but lax morals. He experienced the contradictions between the ideals of church and crown and the realities of his own family. His father had several children by another woman and his grandfather’s lawless behaviour led to the top two floors of the Loyola castle being demolished by order of the crown. Iñigo hardly knew his mother, Marina Saenz de Licona y Balda Maria; she died when he was a child. His father, Don Beltrán Yañez de Oñaz y Loyola, died when he was 16. One of his brothers went on the second voyage of Columbus and another died in battle also far away. Iñigo was raised to be a courtier and diplomat in service to the crown, having received a chivalric yet academically sparse education typical of his class. He spent some time as a page at court. Winning personal glory was his passion. He was a fancy dresser, an expert dancer, a womanizer, sensitive to insult and a rough punkish swordsman who used his privileged status to escape prosecution for violent crimes committed with his priest brother at carnival time.
The Soldier
In the spring of 1521, a very large French army attacked the fortress town of Pamplona. A tiny band of Spanish soldiers trying to defend the town were ready to surrender; all of them except Iñigo de Loyola. He would hold off the French single-handedly. But a French cannonball shattered his leg and put an end to his stand. The French admired the courage of the man. They carried him on a litter back home to his castle of Loyola. His leg was not the only thing that had been shattered. His image of himself as a handsome, dashing courtier – everything that he had ever lived for – was shattered, too. The broken leg was not properly set. The bone protruded in a way that would show through the tight hose that a courtier wore, “so much as to be something ugly.” Iñigo insisted on having the leg re-broken and re-set; there was, of course, no anesthetic. In the end one leg was still shorter than the other; Iñigo limped the rest of his life. To pass the time while he recovered, he asked for the kind of books he enjoyed reading: romances of chivalry. But the only reading available in the house was an illustrated Life of Christ and a book of saints’ legends. He spent hours dreaming. He dreamed of the exploits he would do in service to his king and in honour of the royal lady he was in love with. But he would also dream about the exploits he could do to imitate St. Francis of Assisi and St Dominic in fidelity to his heavenly Lord. Gradually, he began to reflect on these experiences; he noticed what was going on within. Both kinds of daydreams engaged him completely but after the romantic chivalry dreaming was over, he felt empty and dissatisfied, whereas after the spiritual dreaming ended, he still felt a deep peace, a quiet happiness. “[H]e did not consider nor did he stop to examine this difference until one day his eyes were partially opened and he began to wonder at this difference and to reflect upon it. From experience he knew that some thoughts left him sad while others made him happy and little by little he came to perceive the different spirits that were moving him…” Here we see the beginning of his powers of discernment, of decision making. He realised God was leading him by his feelings, drawing him toward an entirely new way of life.
The Pilgrim
As soon as Iñigo had healed enough to walk, he began a journey to Jerusalem so that he could “kiss the earth where our Lord had walked.” He traveled through the town of Montserrat, Spain where he gave away his fine clothes to a poor man. Then, in an all-night vigil before the Black Madonna in the church of the Benedictine abbey there, he hung up his sword and dagger. Effectively, his old life was over and his new life had begun. Barcelona was the port from which to embark on a passage to Rome and then to the Holy Land. Not wanting to see his old friends, who might be in conflict with his new values, he went instead to the nearby town of Manresa with the intention of staying there a few days. But those “few days” turned into ten months.
The “Pilgrim,” as he referred to himself in his autobiography, asked for lodging at a hospital for the poor located outside the town’s walls. In exchange for his bed, he did chores around the hospital; and he begged for his food in the town. As we see him here, he spent much of his time in a cave, in prayer with God-praying as much as seven hours a day. He was blessed with powerful insights into himself and about who God was for him. Still, for extended periods, he experienced doubts, anxieties, scruples, severe depression; he even contemplated suicide to end his psychic pain. He recorded his experiences in a notebook and would soon find his jottings helpful in guiding others. These notes which he continued to revise and expand over time as he listened to people became his Spiritual Exercises. Eventually, they were published and then reprinted again and again and translated into many languages as they spread around the world. An example of a spiritual exercise might be to reflect on the ways you have been loved, or on what your personal gifts are and how you use them and for whom, or to imagine yourself present in one of the gospel scenes-for example, Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. Today, nearly 500 years later, Jesuits and other priests and sisters and brothers, and an ever larger number of professional men and women use these Spiritual Exercises to guide others toward spiritual transformation, to a deeper relationship with God.
Visiting the Holy Land
The Pilgrim did manage to beg passage on a ship to the Holy Land. But instead of being able to fulfill his great dream to remain there for the rest of his life, trying to convert the so-called “infidel,” he was told by church authorities to return to Europe after only a few weeks. They had enough trouble there without him and his conversion scheme. Another dream of Iñigo shattered. When it came time for him to set sail and head back to the western Mediterranean, he ran back to the Mount of Olives to see which way the “footprint of Jesus” was facing. Pious legend had it that the mark in a certain rock there was left by Jesus as he ascended into heaven. Now what may interest us here is not the historical credibility of the legend but rather what this action of the Pilgrim tells us about his own inner life, his imaginative life. He was in the habit of entering imaginatively into all the various gospel stories and scenes, and, in this way, he made them very concrete and real and immediate to himself. He wanted to be in an intimate relationship with Jesus and every detail about Jesus was precious to him.
A Non-traditional Student
Although Iñigo was unable to preach and serve God in the Holy Land as he had hoped, he was still determined to meet this goal in some fashion. He decided that he needed to get an education in order to “help souls.” He returned to Barcelona and attended a free public grammar school to prepare himself for entrance into a university. This meant that beginning at the age of 33 and for two years, he was studying Latin grammar and other basics with classmates who were 8 to 14 years old. He may have felt some discomfort at the age difference but it was at this time that he had the “most beloved” teacher in his entire academic career-Master Jeronimo Ardevol.
Ignatius in Prison
After this initial schooling in Barcelona, Iñigo moved to Spanish university towns-first Alcala, near Madrid and then Salamanca in the north. In both places, he spent nearly as much time engaging people in conversation about spiritual matters as he did studying and attending lectures. Such conversations got him into trouble with the Spanish Inquisition and he was put in prison three times for interrogation. The charge was always the same: that he dared to speak of theological matters when he did not have a theology degree. Further, he was not ordained. In the end, he was always exonerated, but he decided to avoid further harassment by the Inquisition. He left his homeland and headed north to the premier university of sixteenth-century Europe.
Higher Education in Paris
At the age of 38, the Pilgrim attended the College Ste. Barbe of the University of Paris, considered the heart of the French Renaissance. He knew little French and he was not very fluent or correct in Latin. Still he made progress, little by little. In those days, students rose at 4:00 a.m.; classes-lectures-began at 5:00 am. There were also classes for several hours in the later afternoon. The university curriculum-in the Parisian style-was much more orderly than he was used to in Spain. There was progression; there were prerequisites. As a result, he started all over again with grammar, language and the humanities and only then moved on to the sciences, philosophy and theology. The present-day notion of levels or classes–freshman, sophomore, junior, senior– is a Jesuit legacy to education based on the experience with this Parisian style of learning. Eventually, he earned a master’s degree. The name on his diploma was not Iñigo, but “Ignatius,” which he adopted in Paris and used for the rest of his life. (It is speculated that he named himself after a saint he admired – Ignatius of Antioch.) When he applied for doctoral studies, he was turned down as too old; he was 44, and too ill, from stomach ailments that he attributed to the extreme penances he practiced during his time in Manresa.
The First Companions
While at the University of Paris, Ignatius roomed with Peter Faber, a young man from Savoy in the south of France, and Francis Xavier, a nobleman from the eastern end of the Basque country.
Gradually a whole circle of “Friends in the Lord,” as they called themselves, formed around Ignatius. What bonded them closely together was the fact that one after another they were led through the Spiritual Exercises. Most were guided by Ignatius himself. In a deep sense, they all became “companions of Jesus” and companions of one another. Ignatius also shared with them his dream of going on mission to the Holy Land; yet this time he was a bit wiser and more practical. If the Holy Land dream fell through, they would go to Rome and put themselves at the disposition of the pope. The pope, as universal pastor, should know where the greatest needs were. They waited in Venice a whole year for a ship to take them to the Holy Land. As Providence would have it, just that one year because of war between Venice and the Turks, no ship sailed. So they went to Rome, and there they entered into an extended period of communal discernmen. They were about to be sent all over Europe and all over the world. Spread out like that, how would they secure the bond among them? Their decision was to form themselves into a religious order. They called it the Company (meaning the companionship) or Society of Jesus. Outsiders disparagingly nicknamed them the “Jesuits” but the name caught-on and eventually was used by all alike. “On the morning of the 15th of August, 1534, in the chapel of church of Saint Peter, at Montmartre, Loyola and his six companions, of whom only one was a priest, met and took upon themselves the solemn vows of their lifelong work.” Later, they were joined by Saint Francis Borgia, a member of the House of Borgia, who was the main aide of Emperor Charles V, and other nobles. Ignatius obtained a master’s degree from the University of Paris at the age of forty-three. In later life he was often called “Master Ignatius” because of this.
The Founder
The Society of Jesus was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 and thus became an official Catholic religious order. Ignatius was elected their first leader. He declined after the first vote. He felt unworthy for the position because of the vanity and licentiousness of his earlier life and because he felt that others were more theologically knowledgeable. After much discernment, he accepted the position and served until his death sixteen years later.
As the Superior General, he sent companions all over Europe and around the world. He called them to “hurry to any part of the world where…the needs of the neighbor should summon them.” And he counseled them to serve “without hard words or contempt for people’s errors.” In addition to writing the Constitutions of the fledgling order, with the help of his assistant Juan Polanco, he wrote nearly 7,000 letters. He wrote to high and low in church and state and to women as well as men. But most of these letters were to his Jesuit companions, thus forming a vast communication network of friendship, love, and care. When companions were sent on various missions by the pope, Ignatius remained in Rome, consolidating the new venture but still finding time to found homes for orphans, catechumens, and penitents. He founded the Roman College, intended to be the model of all other colleges of the Society.
Ignatius was a true mystic. He centered his spiritual life on the essential foundations of Christianity—the Trinity, Christ, the Eucharist. His spirituality is expressed in the Jesuit motto, Ad majorem Dei gloriam—“for the greater glory of God.” In his concept, obedience was to be the prominent virtue, to assure the effectiveness and mobility of his men. All activity was to be guided by a true love of the Church and unconditional obedience to the Holy Father, for which reason all professed members took a fourth vow to go wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of souls.
At the time of his death, there were 1,000 Jesuits, a good number of them involved in the 35 schools that had been founded. Twenty-five years later the number of schools rose to 144, and another 35 years after that, it approached 400. In contrast to the ambitions of his early days, the fundamental philosophy of the mature Ignatius was that we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created – to praise, reverence, and serve God through serving other human beings.
He prayed:
Teach us, good Lord, to serve You as you deserve; to give, and not to count the cost, to fight, and not to heed the wounds, to toil, and not to seek for rest, to labour, and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing Your will.
Our Lady of Consolation: Starting in the 2nd century, Catholics venerated Mary as Our Lady of Consolation, one of her earliest titles of honour. The title of Our Lady of Consolation, or Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted, comes from the Latin Consolatrix Afflictorum. The origin of this invocation is derived from the Augustinian monks who propagated this particular devotion. In 1436 the Confraternity of the Holy Cincture of Our Lady of Consolation was founded in Bologna, Italy. It was based on an Augustinian tradition which hold that Saint Monica in the fourth century, was distraught with anxiety for her wayward son, Augustine and that Mary gave her a sash which the Virgin wore, with the assurance that whoever wore this belt would receive her special consolation and protection. Along with Augustine and Monica, Our Lady of Consolation is one of the three patrons of the Augustinians. The “Augustinian Rosary” is sometimes called the “Corona (or Crown) of Our Mother of Consolation”.
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St Calimerius of Milan
Bl Cecilia Schelingov
Bl Everard Hanse
St Fabius of Caesarea
St Firmus of Tagaste
St Germanus of Auxerre
St Giustino de Jacobis
StHelen of Skofde
Bl Jean-François Jarrige de La Morelie de Breuil
Bl John Colombini
St Marcel Denis
St Neot
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Matyrs of Syria – 350 saints: 350 monks massacred by heretics for their adherence to orthodox Christianity and the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. 517 in Syria.
Martyrs of Synnada:
Democritus
Dionysius the Martyr
Secundus
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: Thousands of people were murdered in the anti-Catholic persecutions of the Spanish Civil War from 1934 to 1939.
• Blessed Ciriaco Olarte Pérez de Mendiguren
• Blessed Dionisio Vicente Ramos
• Blessed Francisco Remón Játiva
• Blessed Miguel Goñi Ariz
• Blessed Miguel Francisco González-Díez González-Núñez
Agapito Alcalde Garrido
Ciriaco Olarte Pérez de Mendiguren
Dionisio Vicente Ramos
Francisco Remón Játiva
Jaume Buch Canals
Maria Roqueta Serra
Miguel Goñi Ariz
Miguel Francisco González-Díez González-Núñez
Prudencio Gueréquiz y Guezuraga
Segundo de Santa Teresa
Teresa Subirà Sanjaume
Bl Vicenta Achurra Gogenola
Francisca Pons Sardá
Thought for the Day – 30 July – The Memorial of St Peter Chrysologus “Golden Words”
In addition to his zeal in the exercise of his office, Peter Chrysologus was distinguished by a fierce loyalty to the Church, not only in its teaching but in its authority as well. He looked upon learning not as a mere opportunity but as an obligation for all, both as a development of God-given faculties and as a solid support for the worship of God……Next to virtue, learning, in his view, was the greatest improvement to the human mind and the support of true religion. Ignorance is not a virtue, nor is anti-intellectualism. Knowledge is neither more nor less a source of pride than physical, administrative, or financial prowess. ( Fr Don Miller, OFM)
Keep in mind that we cannot practice anything at all if we do not study it – we cannot “be” a Catholic if we do not study our faith!
Quote/s of the Day – 30 July – Memorial of St Peter Chrysologus
“He (Christ) really made His body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, He continues to live. In such a victim death receives its ransom but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is actually a birth and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven.”
“He is The Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh, molded in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulchre, placed in the Churches and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies Heavenly Food to the faithful.”
“For he who touches the Body of Christ unworthily, receives his damnation.”
“Anyone who wishes to frolic with the devil cannot rejoice with Christ.”
“The poor stretch out the hand but God receives what is offered.”
“Now that we are reborn,… in the likeness of our Lord and have indeed been adopted by God as his children, let us put on the complete image of our Creator so as to be wholly like Him, not in the glory that He alone possesses but in innocence, simplicity, gentleness, patience, humility, mercy, harmony, those qualities in which He chose to become and to be, one with us.”
St Peter Chrysologus (400-450) Doctor of the Church
On the way of duty I walk, along the paths of justice, granting wealth to those who love me…..Proverbs 8:20-21
REFLECTION – “Mary’s grace has given glory to heaven; a God to earth and faith to the nations.Sh has conferred death on vices, order on life and a rule on morals.”….St Peter Chrysologus (c400-450) Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, grant me the grace to have Mary as my constant intercessor. In all difficulties let me call on her aid, for she is Your beloved Daughter. St Peter, you who so loved our Holy Mother, pray that we too may love her with total abandon and trust. Amen
Saint of the Day – 30 July – St Peter Chrysologus “Golden Worded” “Doctor of Homilies” – Doctor of the Church – Bishop, Confessor, Teacher, Writer and Doctor of the Church. People knew St Peter Chrysologus, the Doctor of Homilies, for his very simple and short but inspired sermons, for he was afraid of fatiguing the attention of his hearers. He was born c 400 at Imola, Italy and died 2 December 450 at Imola, Italy. Patronage – against fever and against mad dogs. His piety and zeal won universal admiration. After hearing oratory of his first homily as bishop, Roman Empress Galla Placidia supposedly gave him the surname Chrysologus, meaning “golden-worded.” He fought paganism and the Monophysite heresy, enforced reforms and built several churches and ornate altars in his see. 176 of his sermons have survived; it is the strength of these beautiful explanations of the Incarnation, the Creed, the place of Mary and John the Baptist in the great plan of salvation, etc., that led to his being proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII.
Peter was born in Imola, where Cornelius, bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Imola, baptised him, educated him and ordained him a deacon. He was made an archdeacon through the influence of Emperor Valentinian III. Pope Sixtus III appointed Peter as Bishop of Ravenna circa 433, apparently rejecting the candidate whom the people of the city of Ravenna elected. At that time Ravenna was the capital of the West.
The traditional account, as recorded in the Roman Breviary, is that Sixtus had a vision of Pope Saint Peter the Apostle and Saint Apollinaris of Ravenna, the first bishop of that see, who showed Peter, a young man, the next Bishop of Ravenna. When a group from Ravenna arrived, including Cornelius and his archdeacon Peter from Imola, Sixtus recognised Peter as the young man in his vision and consecrated him as a bishop.
In his extant homilies, Bishop Peter explained Biblical texts briefly and concisely. He also condemned Arianism and Monophysitism as heresies and explained the Apostles’ Creed, the mystery of the Incarnation and other topics in simple and clear language. He dedicated a series of homilies to Saint John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Peter advocated daily reception of Eucharist. He urged his listeners to confide in the forgiveness offered through Christ. His surviving works attest to the Church’s traditional beliefs about Mary’s perpetual virginity, the penitential value of Lent, Christ’s Eucharistic presence and the primacy of St. Peter and his successors. He shared the confidence of Saint Pope Leo I the Great (440-461), another doctor of the Church.
A synod held in Constantinople in 448 condemned Eutyches for Monophysitism; Eutyches then appealed to Peter Chrysologus but failed in his endeavour to win the support of the Bishop. The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon (451) preserves the text of letter of Saint Peter Chrysologus in response to Eutyches; Peter admonishes Eutyches to accept the ruling of the synod and to give obedience to the Bishop of Rome as the successor of Saint Peter.
Archbishop Felix of Ravenna in the early eighth century collected and preserved 176 of his homilies. Various authors edited and translated these works into numerous languages.
St Peter died circa or after 450 during a visit to Imola, the town of his birth. Older reference books say he died on 2 December but a more recent interpretation of the ninth-century “Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis” indicated that he died on 31 July.
When in 1729 he was declared a Doctor of the Church, his feast day, not already included in the Tridentine Calendar, was inserted in the General Roman Calendar for celebration on 4 December. In 1969 his feast was moved to 30 July, as close as possible to the day of his death, 31 July, the feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
A contemporary portrait of Saint Peter Chrysologus, found in the mosaics of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna, depicts him among the members of the eastern and western imperial family, showing his extraordinary influence.
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St Peter Chrysologus (Optional Memorial) “Golden Words” – https://vimeo.com/197619716
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St Abdon
Bl Antonio di San Pietro
Bl Edward Powell
St Ermengyth
St Hatebrand
St Julitta of Caesarea
St Leopold Bogdan Mandic
Bl Manés de Guzmán
St María Natividad Venegas de La Torre
Bl Richard Featherstone
St Rufinus of Assisi
St Senen
St Tatwine of Canterbury
St Terenzio of Imola
Bl Thomas Abel
St Ursus of Auxerre
Bl Vicenta Chavez-Orozco
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Martyrs of Castelseras: Three Dominicans, two of them priests, one a novice, who were martyred together in the Spanish Civil War for refusing to renounce Christianity.
• Joaquín Prats Baltueña
• José María Muro-Sanmiguel
• Zosimo Izquierdo Gil
They were shot on 30 July 1936 at a farm house outside Castelserás, Teruel, Spain and Beatified on 11 March 2001 by Pope John Paul II.
Martyrs of Tebourba – 3 saints: Three girls martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian. We know little else about them but the names – Donatilla, Maxima and Secunda. 304 at Tebourba in North Africa.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: Thousands of people were murdered in the anti-Catholic persecutions of the Spanish Civil War from 1934 to 1939. Today’s list includes the following:
The Martyred Hospitallers of Spain and
Bl Alejandro Arraya Caballero
Alejandro González Blanco
Bernabé Núñez Alonso
Bl Eugenio García Tribaldos
Francesc Salla Saltó
Bl Guillermo Álvarez Quemada
Bl Jaume Puig Mirosa
Bl Juan Lanz Palanca
Bl Luis Aguirre Bilbao
Bl Luis Herrero Arnillas
Bl Miguel Solas del Val
Bl Pablo Díaz de Zárate y Ortiz de Zárate
Rafael Martí Fugueras
Ramón Palos Gascón
Bl Ricardo Pla Espí
Bl Sebastià Llorens Telarroja
Sergio Cid Pazo
Thought for the Day – 29 July – Memorial of St Martha
Martha’s great glory is her simple and strong statement of faith in Jesus after her brother’s death. “Jesus told her, ‘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?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord. . I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world’ (John 11:25-27). ”
Scripture commentators point out that in writing his account of the raising of Lazarus, Saint John intends that we should see Martha’s words to Mary before Lazarus was raised as a summons that every Christian must obey. In her saying “The teacher is here and is asking for you,” Jesus is calling every one of us to resurrection—now in baptismal faith, forever in sharing His victory over death. And all of us, as well as these three friends, are in our own unique way called to special friendship with Him….(Fr Don Miller OFM)
Quote of the Day – 29 July – Memorial of St Martha
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” – Luke 10:42
“Our Lord’s words teach us that though we labour among the many distractions of this world, we should have but one goal. For we are but travelers on a journey without as yet a fixed abode; we are on our way, not yet in our native land; we are in a state of longing, not yet of enjoyment. But let us continue on our way and continue without sloth or respite, so that we may ultimately arrive at our destination.”
St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor (Sermo 103, 1-2, 6: PL 38, 613, 615)
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her”…..Luke 10:41-42.
REFLECTION – “Without daily prayer lived with fidelity, our acts are empty, they lose their profound soul and are reduced to being mere activism which in the end leaves us dissatisfied. There is a beautiful invocation of the Christian tradition to be recited before any other activity which says : “Inspire our actions, Lord and accompany them with Your help, so that our every word and action may always begin and end in you”. Every step in our life, every action, of the Church too, must be taken before God, in the light of his word.”…….Pope Benedict XVI (General Audience – Saint Peter’s Square,Wednesday, 25 April 2012.)
PRAYER – Almighty ever-living God, Your Son graciously came as a guest to the home of St Martha. By her prayers give us grace to serve Christ faithfully in our brethren and bring us to Your home in heaven. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord, in union with the Holy Spirit, amen.
Saint of the Day – 29 July – St Martha (1st century), Virgin Martyr – sister of St Lazarus and St Mary of Bethany. Friend of Jesus, and hostess to him in her house. May have been part of an early mission to France. Died – c.80 of natural causes. Patronages – butlers• Congregation of Martha and Mary (founded in 1979)• cooks (proclaimed on 1 July 1963 by Pope Paul VI)• dieticians • domestic servants• homemakers • hotel-keepers• housemaids• housewives• innkeepers (proclaimed on 1 July 1963 by Pope Paul VI) • laundry workers • maids• manservants • servants• servers• single laywomen• travellers• Villajoyosa, Spain (chosen after a flash flood saved the village from Moorish invaders on her feast day in 1538).
One of the most precious things in life is to have a home where you can go at any time and find people who accept, love, and understand you. Jesus found such a home in Bethany, at the house of a woman named Martha. She welcomed Him and served Him and they developed a special bond of friendship. One of these visits has ever remained dear to Christian memory. On that occasion Martha, busily serving the Master, asked Him to persuade Mary to help her. Without in any way reproaching Martha, Jesus explained to her that certain souls, called by God, should choose a better part still — the primary duty of listening to Him and contemplating Him.
Martha lived with her sister Mary. Like many other pairs of sisters, these two women were different in personality. Martha was energetic and outspoken, while Mary was quiet and reflective. Jesus loved both of them and appreciated the gifts that each one had.
The Gospel of Luke records that once, when Jesus was visiting, Martha prepared the meal while Mary sat talking to their visitor. Martha complained that Jesus should tell Mary to help her. Jesus said that because Martha was worrying so much about the work, she did not have time to enjoy being with Him and listening to His words.
Another time recorded in John’s Gospel, the sisters sent a message to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, was ill. They knew Jesus would come and cure him; they trusted in His loving care for them. When Jesus finally came, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. As soon as she heard that Jesus was nearby, Martha, a woman of action, went out to meet Him, while Mary stayed in the house. In her grief, Martha told Jesus honestly what she had expected from Him. Jesus asked her to believe that He was the resurrection and that He had power to give eternal life to all who believe in Him. Without really understanding this mystery, Martha trusted Jesus totally and said, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world” (John 11:27). That day Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, showing that He has power over life and death and power to give eternal life.
The home Jesus found in Bethany was not only in the house but in the faithful heart of a woman named Martha.
St Martha (Memorial)
Chirsk-Pskov Icon of the Mother of God
Holy Mary of the Miracles
—
St Antony
St Beatrix of Rome
Bl Beatrix of Valfleury
St Callinicus of Paphlagonia
Bl Charles-Antoine-Nicolas Ancel
St Faustinus of Rome
St Faustinus of Spello
St Felix of Rome
St John Baptist Luo Tingyin
St John the Soldier
Bl José Calasanz Marqués
St Joseph Zhang
St Kilian of Inishcaltra
St Lek Sirdani
Bl Luis Bertran
St Lupus of Troyes
Bl Mancius of the Cross
St Martha Wang
St Olaf II
St Olaus of Sweden
St Paulus Chen Changpin
Bl Petrus of Saint Mary
St Pjetër Çuni
St Prosper of Orleans
St Rufo of Rome
St Seraphina
St Serapia of Syria
St Simplicius of Rome
St Sulian
Bl Pope Urban II
St William of Saint Brieuc
—
Four Anonymous Martyrs
Martyrs of Calanda – 8 beati: A group of Dominican priests and friars who were martyred over the course of a day in the same town by the same group of anti-Christian forces in the Spanish Civil War.
• Antonio Manuel López Couceiro
• Felicísimo Díez González
• Gumersindo Soto Barros
• Lamberto María de Navascués de Juan
• Lucio Martínez Mancebo
• Matías Manuel Albert Ginés
• Saturio Rey Robles
• Tirso Manrique Melero
They were martyred on 29 July 1936 in Calanda, Teruel, Spain and Beatified on 11 March 2001 by St Pope John Paul II.
Martyrs of Lleida – 12 beati: Carmelites of the Ancient Observance novices, friars and priests who were all martyred together in the Spanish Civil War.
• Àngel Prat Hostench
• Eliseo Maneus Besalduch
• Gabriel Escoto Ruiz
• Ginés Garre Egea
• Joan Maria Puigmitjà Rubió
• Joan Prat Colldecarrera
• Josep Solé Rovira
• Lluis Fontdecava Quiroga
• Manuel Serrano Buj
• Miquel Soler Sala
• Pere Dorca Coromina
• Pere Ferrer Marín
They were martyred on 29 July 1936 in Clot dels Aubens, Cervera, Lleida, Spain and Beatified on 28 October 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: Thousands of people were murdered in the anti-Catholic persecutions of the Spanish Civil War from 1934 to 1939.
Bl Bartolomé Rodríguez Soria
Joseph-Louis Marcou Pecalvel
Bl Juan Bautista Egozcuezábal Aldaz
Martyrs of Rome – 23 saints
Eugene
Flora the Martyr
Lucilla
Theodore
“From early in her life, Sister Alphonsa experienced great suffering. With the passing of the years, the heavenly Father gave her an ever fuller share in the Passion of His beloved Son. We recall how she experienced not only physical pain of great intensity but also the spiritual suffering of being misunderstood and misjudged by others. But she constantly accepted all her sufferings with serenity and trust in God, being firmly convinced that they would purify her motives, help her to overcome all selfishness and unite her more closely with her beloved divine Spouse. She wrote to her spiritual director: “Dear Father, as my good Lord Jesus loves me so very much, I sincerely desire to remain on this sick bed and suffer not only this but anything else besides, even to the end of the world. I feel now that God has intended my life to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering” (20 November 1944). She came to love suffering because she loved the suffering Christ. She learned to love the Cross through her love of the crucified Lord.
…Every one who has been baptised into Christ has discovered a pearl of “great value” and a “treasure” worth all that one has in life . For all the baptised share in the very life of the Blessed Trinity and are called to be “light” and “salt” for the world .”…St Pope John Paul at the Beatification of St Alphonsa, 8 February 1986.
Let us be that “light” and that “salt”!
St Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!
“Jesus Christ is very little known by those who claim to be His friends. We observe them seeking in Him, not His sorrows but their own consolation.”
“The road is narrow. He who wishes to travel it more easily, must cast off all things and use the cross as his cane. In other words, he must be truly resolved. to suffer willingly for the love of God in all things.”
“I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” ….Colossians1:24
REFLECTION – “I have given myself up completely to Jesus. Let Him please Himself in His dealings with me. My only desire in this world is to suffer for love of God and to rejoice in doing it” …St Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception (Memorial today 28 July)
PRAYER – Lord God, as You offer us each year the joy of the feast of St Alphonsa, grant that as we celebrate her memory, we may imitate her in holiness and courage. St Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us, amen.
Saint of the Day – 28 July – St Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception – Religious Franciscan Nun – born as Anna Muttathupadathu (19 August 1910 at Kudamalloor, Kerala, India – 28 July 1946 at Bharananganam, India, of natural causes). Her remains are buried in the chapel connected with the cemetery of Saint Mary’s church, Bharananganam, India, which has become an important place of pilgrimage. She was Canonised on Sunday 12 October 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI. She is the first canonised saint of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church of the Saint Thomas Christian community. Patronages – against bodily ills, against the death of parents of sick people.
Blessed ALPHONSA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION was born in Kudamalur, the Arpookara region, in the diocese of Changanacherry, India, on the 19th of August 1910, of the ancient and noble family of Muttathupadathu.
From her birth, the life of the Blessed was marked by the cross, which would be progressively revealed to her as the royal way to conform herself to Christ. Her mother, Maria Puthukari, gave birth to her prematurely, in her eight month of pregnancy, as a result of a fright she received when, during the sleep, a snake wrapped itself around her waist. Eight days later, the 28 of August, the child was baptised according to the Syro-Malabar rite by the Fr Joseph Chackalayil and she received the name Annakutty, a diminutive of Anne. She was the last of five children. Her mother died three months later. Annakutty passed her early infancy in the home of her grandparents in Elumparambil. There she lived a particularly happy time because of her human and Christian formation, during which the first seeds of a vocation flowered. Her grand-mother, a pious and charitable woman, communicated the joy of the faith, love for prayer and a surge of charity towards the poor to her. At five years of age the child already knew how to lead, with a totally childish enthusiasm, the evening prayer of the family gathered, in accordance with the Syro-Malabar custom, in the “prayer room”.
Annakutty received the Eucharistic bread for the first time on the 11 of November 1917. She used to say to her friends: “Do you know why I am so particularly happy today? It is because I have Jesus in my heart!“. In a letter to her spiritual father, on the 30 of November 1943, she confided the following: “Already from the age of seven I was no longer mine. I was totally dedicated to my divine Spouse. Your reverence knows it well“.
In the same year of 1917 she began to attend the elementary school of Thonnankuzhy, where she also established a sincere friendship with the Hindu children. When the first school cycle ended in 1920, the time had come to transfer to Muttuchira, to the house of her aunt Anna Murickal, to whom her mother, before she died, had entrusted her as her adoptive mother. Her aunt was a severe and demanding woman, at times despotic and violent in demanding obedience from Annakutty in her every minimal disposition or desire. Assiduous in her religious practice, she accompanied her niece but did not share the young girl’s friendship with the Carmelites of the close-by Monastery or her long periods of prayer at the foot of the altar. She was, in fact, determined to procure an advantageous marriage for Annakutty, obstructing the clear signs of her religious vocation.
The virtue of the Blessed was manifested in accepting this severe and rigid education as a path of humility and patience for the love of Christ and tenaciously resisted the reiterated attempts at engagement to which the aunt tried to oblige her. Annakutty, in order to get out from under a commitment to marriage, reached the point of voluntarily causing herself a grave burn by putting her foot into a heap of burning embers. “My marriage was arranged when I was thirteen years old. What had I to do to avoid it? I prayed all that night… then an idea came tome. If my body were a little disfigured no one would want me! … O, how I suffered! I offered all for my great intention.“
The proposal to defile her singular beauty did not fully succeed in freeing her from the attentions of suitors. During the following years the Blessed had to defend her vocation, even during the year of probation when an attempt to give her in marriage, with the complicity of the Mistress of Formation herself, was made. “O, the vocation which I received! A gift of my good God!…. God saw the pain of my soul in those days. God distanced the difficulties and established me in this religious state.“
It was Fr James Muricken, her confessor, who directed her towards Franciscan spirituality and put her in contact with the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists. Annakutty entered their college in Bharananganam in the diocese of Palai, to attend seventh class, as an intern student, on the 24th of May 1927. The following year, on the 2nd of August 1928, Annakutty began her postulancy, taking the name of Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception in honour of St. Alphonsus Liguori, whose feast it was that day. She was clothed in the religious habit on the 19th of May 1930, during the first pastoral visit made to Bharananganam by the Bishop, Msgr. James Kalacherry.
The period 1930-1935 was characterised by grave illness and moral suffering. She could teach the children in the school at Vakakkad only during the scholastic year 1932. Then, because of her weakness, she carried out the duties of assistant-teacher and catechist in the parish. She was engaged also as secretary, especially to write official letters because of her beautiful script.
The canonical novitiate was introduced into the Congregation of the Franciscan Clarists in 1934. Though wishing to enter immediately, the Blessed was only admitted on the 12th of August 1935 because of her ill health. About one week after the beginning of her novitiate, she had a haemorrhage from the nose and eyes and a profound organic wasting and purulent wounds on her legs. The illness deteriorated, to such a point that the worst was feared.
Heaven came to the rescue of the holy novice. During a novena to The Servant of God Fr Kuriakose Elia Chavara – a Carmelite who today is a Blessed—she was miraculously and instantaneously cured.
Having restarted her novitiate, she wrote the following proposals in her spiritual diary: “I do not wish to act or speak according to my inclinations. Every time I fail, I will do penance… I want to be careful never to reject anyone. I will only speak sweet words to others. I want to control my eyes with rigour. I will ask pardon of the Lord for every little failure and I will atone for it through penance. No matter what my sufferings may be, I will never complain and if I have to undergo any humiliation, I will seek refuge in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.“
The 12th of August 1936, the feast of St Clare, the day of her perpetual profession, was a day of inexpressible spiritual joy. She had realised her desire, guarded for a long time in her heart and confided to her sister Elizabeth when she was only 12 years old: “Jesus is my only Spouse and none other.“
Jesus, however, wished to lead His spouse to perfection through a life of suffering. “I made my perpetual profession on the 12th of August 1936 and came here to Bharanganam on the following 14th. From that time, it seems, I was entrusted with a part of the cross of Christ. There are abundant occasions of suffering… I have a great desire to suffer with joy. It seems that my Spouse wishes to fulfil this desire.“
Painful illnesses followed each other: typhoid fever, double pneumonia, and, the most serious of all, a dramatic nervous shock, the result of a fright on seeing a thief during the night of the 18th of October 1940. Her state of psychic incapacity lasted for about a year, during which she was unable to read or write.
In every situation, Sister Alphonsa always maintained a great reservation and charitable attitude towards the Sisters, silently undergoing her sufferings. In 1945 she had a violent outbreak of illness. A tumour, which had spread throughout her organs, transformed her final year of life into a continuous agony. Gastroenteritis and liver problems caused violent convulsions and vomiting up to forty times a day: “I feel that the Lord has destined me to be an oblation, a sacrifice of suffering… I consider a day in which I have not suffered as a day lost to me.“
With this attitude of a victim for the love of the Lord, happy until the final moment and with a smile of innocence always on her lips, Sister Alphonsa quietly and joyfully brought her earthly journey to a close in the convent of the Franciscan Clarists at Bharananganam at 12.30 on the 28th July 1946, leaving behind the memory of a Sister full of love and a saint.
Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception Muttathupadathu was proclaimed Blessed by Pope John Paul II in Kottayam, India on 8 February 1986.
“With today’s Canonisation, the Church in India presents its first Saint to the veneration of the faithful of the whole world. Faithful from every part of the world have come together in a single act of thanksgiving to God in her name and in a sign of the great oriental and western traditions, Roman and Malabar, which Sr Alphonsa lived and harmonised in her saintly life. ” (At the Canonisation Ceremony – Pope Benedict XVI-12 October 2008).
At the age of 38, the Pilgrim attended the College Ste. Barbe of the University of Paris, considered the heart of the French Renaissance. He knew little French and he was not very fluent or correct in Latin. Still he made progress, little by little. In those days, students rose at 4:00 a.m.; classes-lectures-began at 5:00 am. There were also classes for several hours in the later afternoon. The university curriculum-in the Parisian style-was much more orderly than he was used to in Spain. There was progression; there were prerequisites. As a result, he started all over again with grammar, language and the humanities and only then moved on to the sciences, philosophy and theology. The present-day notion of levels or classes–freshman, sophomore, junior, senior– is a Jesuit legacy to education based on the experience with this Parisian style of learning.
Gradually a whole circle of “Friends in the Lord,” as they called themselves, formed around Ignatius. What bonded them closely together was the fact that one after another they were led through the Spiritual Exercises. Most were guided by Ignatius himself. In a deep sense, they all became “companions of Jesus” and companions of one another.
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