Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He was born in the family castle in Guipúzcoa, Spain, the youngest of 13 children, and was called Iñigo. When he was old enough, he became a page, and then a soldier of Spain to fight against the French. He was hit in the leg by a cannon ball and a series of bad operations ended his military career in 1521. While he recovered, he read the lives of the saints, and decided to dedicate himself to becoming a soldier of the Catholic Faith. Soon after he experienced visions, but a year later suffered a trial of fears and scruples, driving him almost to despair. Out of this experience, he wrote his famous "Spiritual Exercises." After traveling and studying in different schools, he finished in Paris, where he received his degree at the age of 43. Many first hated Saint Ignatius because of his humble lifestyle. Despite this, he attracted several followers at the university, including Saint Francis Xavier, and soon started his order called The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. There are many members of the Society of Jesus who have been declared Blessed, and who have been canonized as Saints. He died at the age of 65.

When Ignatius underwent his remarkable conversion, he recorded the movements and reactions of his spiritual faculties in great detail, and was inspired to organize them in a way that would guide others undergoing the same profound experience of God that he had. He experienced, composed and presented the Exercises as a layman, and was ordained much later. His Exercises were not a series of pious sermons or edifying notes to be read. They were meant to put a person in direct communication with God. Undertaking the Exercises, a person becomes a self-learner by a constant striving to dispose himself to God's grace in order to attain the end for which he was created.

Ignatius and his followers knew that anyone seeking God was not meant to wait for visions, but had only to seek God in an intelligent and humble way and then with God's grace could "find God in all things." His method involved Spiritual Exercises of the mind, memory, will and imagination. Spiritual Exercises belong to the Church. They help the people find their own gifts, confirmed by prayer. They offer a way to find God working in all things and in living a contemplative life. Analogous to running and swimming for the physical improvement of the body, these exercises of the spiritual faculties enable one to find the Divine Will and to conform one's will to the Will of God.

“We must always remind ourselves that we are pilgrims until we arrive at our heavenly homeland, and we must not let our affections delay us in the roadside inns and lands through which we pass, otherwise we will forget our destination and lose interest in our final goal.” Saint Ignatius of Loyola

“All for the greater honor and glory of God."
Saint Ignatius
“All pro quantum veneratio quod palma of God.”
Sanctus Ignatius