Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 07-31-14, M, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

July 31, 2014

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Rise up, be off to the potter’s house;
there I will give you my message.
I went down to the potter’s house and there he was,
working at the wheel.
Whenever the object of clay which he was making
turned out badly in his hand,
he tried again,
making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Can I not do to you, house of Israel,
as this potter has done? says the LORD.
Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter,
so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6ab

R. (5a) Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Put not your trust in princes,
in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.
When his spirit departs he returns to his earth;
on that day his plans perish.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God.
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Gospel Mt 13:47-53

Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Memorial
July 31st

(1491-1556, Canonized 1622)

Founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, engraving, French (1844) copy of 17th century portrait. (Private collection.)

Ad Majoriem Dei Gloriam
To the greater glory of God

Ignatius was born in the Basque region of Spain in 1491, the youngest of thirteen children. He was brought up in the household of Juan Velásquez de Cuellar, treasurer to Ferdinand and Isabella, and served as his patron's page. He was said to be affected and extravangant about his hair and dress, consumed with the desire of winning glory, and sometimes involved in intrigues.

In 1517 a change for the better began; Velásquez died and Ignatius joined the Spanish army. The turning-point of his life came in 1521 when he was injured in battle. While the French were besieging the citadel of Pampeluna, a cannon ball, passing between Ignatius's legs, tore open the left calf, and broke the right shin . The garrison surrendered, but Ignatius was well treated by the French and carried on a litter to Loyola, where his leg had to be rebroken and reset, and afterwards a protruding end of the bone was sawn off, and the limb, having been shortened by clumsy setting, was stretched out by weights. All these pains were undergone without complaint. But the aftermath was so severe he nearly died. On the eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29), the crisis was passed, and he began to recover.

Until then, Ignatius had shown only the ordinary virtues of the Spanish officer. His dangers and sufferings had doubtless done much to purge his soul, but there was no idea yet of remodelling his life on any higher ideals. During the weary hours of convalescence, he asked for the romances of chilvary, his favorite reading. As there were none in the castle, and instead they brought him the lives of Christ and of the saints, and he read them in the same quasi-competitive spirit with which he read the achievements of knights and warriors.

"Suppose I were to rival this saint in fasting, that one in endurance, that other in pilgrimages." He would then wander off into thoughts of chivalry, and service to fair ladies, especially to unknown lady of high rank. But he soon realized that the worldly omantic daydreams left him dissatisfied, while the heavenly ones grew clearer and dearer.

One night as he lay awake, pondering those new lights, his autobiography says, he "saw clearly the image of Our Lady with the Holy Child Jesus, at whose sight for a notable time he felt a surpassing sweetness, which eventually left him with such a loathing for his past sins, and especially for those of the flesh, that every unclean imagination seemed blotted out from his soul, and never again was there the least consent to any carnal thought"

His conversion was now complete. He set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and dedicated himself at the monastery of Montserrat. He stopped for a time at Manresa, where he wrote in his journal, and there he became aware of "interior things, like humility, charity, patience and discretion." He began to write the "Spiritual Exercises", a guide for a month of prayer. He resumed the pilgrimage in early 1523, and arrived in Jerusalem in September. However, he was not permitted to stay there, so he returned to Barcelona, where he began to preach on the streets, and to study Latin. He encountered difficulties with the Inquisition, so he went to study at the University of Paris.

He met Francis Xavier in Paris. Ignatius, Francis and five other students, began to do the Spiritual Exercises. Together the men took private vows at a small chapel atop Montmartre on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, August 15, 1534.

After an unsuccessful attempt to go to Jerusalem as missionaries, the men, calling themselves the Compania de Jesus (Society of Jesus) went to Rome and put themselves at the disposal of the Pope. Their rule of common life was approved by Pope Paul II September 27, 1540, and Ignatius, as superior of the new religious order, governed, recruited, and wrote many letters. He completed writing the Jesuit Constitutions in 1551. Soon the Society was established in Spain, Portugal, France, the Low Countries, and Germany. Jesuit missionaries were sent to Africa, India and North and South America.

Ignatius died of a fever on July 31, 1556. There were at least one thousand Jesuits at the time of their founder's death.

Ignatius is buried in the Church of the Gésu in Rome, at the center of Jesuit instutions of education and formation to this day. The establishment of Jesuit schools and universities was a key effort of the Counter-reformation, and Jesuit missions were established throughout the world. He was canonized, along with Francis Xavier, in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.

The motto of the Society of Jesus is Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam - To the Greater Glory of God.

(Principal source - Catholic Encyclopedia - 1913 edition)

***

Collect:

O God, who raised up Saint Ignatius of Loyola in your Church
to further the greater glory of your name,
grant that by his help we may imitate him
in fighting the good fight on earth
and merit to receive with him a crown in heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. +Amen.

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31 - 11:1

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Gospel Reading: Luke 14: 25-33

Now great multitudes accompanied Him; and He turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an emissary and asks terms of peace. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

***

The First Principle and Foundation

The goal of our life is to live with God forever.
God who loves us, gave us life.
Our own response of love allows God's life to flow into
us without limit.

All the things in this world are gifts of God,
presented to us so that we can know God more easily
and make a return of love more readily.

As a result, we appreciate and use all of these gifts of God
insofar as they help us develop as loving persons.
But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives,
they displace God
and so hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance
before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice
and are not bound by some obligation.
We should not fix our desires on health or sickness,
wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or short one.
For everything has the potential of calling forth in us
a deeper response to our life in God.

Our only desire and our one choice should be this:
I want and I choose what better
leads to the deepening of God's life in me.

--St. Ignatius, from the beginning of the Spiritual Exercises

***

Take, Lord, and Receive

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory,
my understanding, and my entire will.
All I have and call my own.
Whatever I have or hold, you have given me.
I return it all to you and surrender it wholly
to be governed by your will.
Give me only your love and your grace
and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

--St. Ignatius, from the end of the Spiritual Exercises

***

Prayer of Saint Ignatius Loyola

Teach us, Good Lord,
To Serve Thee as Thou deservest;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To labor and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

Interactive Saints for Kids

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Feast Day: July 31
Born: 1491 :: Died: 1556

This famous saint who started the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was born in Guipuzcoa in Spain as Inigo Lopez de Loyola. He was from a rich Spanish family and was one of twelve children. As a boy, he was sent to be a page at the royal court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. There he wished someday to become a great soldier and marry a beautiful lady.

In the battle of Pamplona, he did, indeed, win honor for his courage but, a wound in the leg from a cannon ball forced him to spend months in bed at Loyola Castle. Ignatius asked for some books to read. He preferred stories of knights, but only life stories of Jesus and the saints were available.

Having nothing else to do, he read them. A little by little, the books began attracting him. His life began to change. He said to himself: "These were men and women like me, so why can't I do what they have done?" All the glory he had wanted before seemed worthless now. He began to imitate the saints in their prayers, penances and good works.

When he was fully recovered, Ignatius hung his sword before the altar of the Virgin Mary and put on simple robes and began to live a simple life. He then traveled Europe and went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land before he settled in Rome.

St. Ignatius had to suffer many temptations and much shame. Before he could begin his great work of starting the Society of Jesus, he had to go back to school. He had to study Latin grammar. The rest of the students were little boys and Ignatius was thirty-three years old. Yet Ignatius was ready to bear the shame and went to the class because he knew he would need this knowledge to help him in his work for Jesus.

He received the boys' jeers and taunts with patience and good humor. He used his time trying to teach and encourage people to pray. He was even put in jail for a while because of this! But that was not going to stop Ignatius. "The whole city does not contain as many chains as I desire to wear for love of Jesus," he said.

Ignatius was forty-three years old when he graduated from the University of Paris. After this, with six other students, he took his religious vows and became a priest. Ignatius and his friends, including Blessed Peter Faber and Saint Francis Xavier promised to work for God in whatever way the Holy Father thought best. In 1540 their order was officially recognized by the pope.

Before Ignatius died, there were one thousand members of the Society of Jesus or "Jesuits." They were doing much good work teaching and preaching. He died in Rome, on July 31, 1556.

The Jesuits today have over five hundred universities and colleges; thirty thousand members; and teach over twenty thousand students each year. Reflection: Let us pray today in the words of St. Ignatius Loyola: "Give me only your love and your grace. With this I am rich enough, and I have no more to ask."

Day 230 - What does the Fourth Commandment require of us? // What place does the family have in God's plan of creation?

To whom does the Fourth Commandment refer, and what does it require of us?

The Fourth Commandment refers in the first place to one's physical parents, but also to the people to whom we owe our life, our well-being, our security, and our faith.

What we owe in the first place to our parentsnamely love, gratitude, and respectshould also govern our relations to people who guide us and are there for us. There are many people who represent for us a God-given, natural, and good authority: foster or step-parents, older relatives and ancestors, educators, teachers, employers, superiors. In the spirit of the Fourth Commandment we should do them justice. In the broadest sense, this commandment applies even to our duties as citizens to the State.

What place does the family have in God's plan of creation?

A man and a woman who are married to each other form, together with their children, a family. God wills that the love of the spouses, if possible, should produce children. These children, who are entrusted to the protection and care of their parents, have the same dignity as their parents.

God himself, in the depths of the Trinity, is communion. In the human sphere, the family is the primordial image of communion. The family is the unique school of living in relationships. Nowhere do children grow up as well as in an intact family, in which they experience heartfelt affection, mutual respect, and responsibility for one another. Finally, faith grows in the family, too; the family is, the Church tells us, a miniature church, a "domestic church", the radiance of which should invite others into this fellowship of faith, charity, and hope.(YOUCAT questions 367-368)

Dig Deeper: CCC section (2196-2206) and other references here.

Part 3: Life in Christ (1691 - 2557)

Section 2: The Ten Commandments (2052 - 2557)

Chapter 2: You Shall Love Your Neighbor as Yourself (2196 - 2557)

Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you."¹ ⇡

2822
(all)

2196

In response to the question about the first of the commandments, Jesus says: "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."²

The apostle St. Paul reminds us of this: "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."³

Jn 13:34.

Mk 12:29-31; cf. Deut 6:4-5; Lev 19:18; Mt 22:34-40; Lk 10:25-28.

Rom 13:8-10.

Article 4: The Fourth Commandment (2197 - 2257)

Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you."¹ ⇡

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.⁴

He was obedient to them.⁵

The Lord Jesus himself recalled the force of this "commandment of God."⁶ The Apostle teaches: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother,' (This is the first commandment with a promise.) 'that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth."'⁷ ⇡

1897
(all)

2197

The fourth commandment opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows us the order of charity. God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents to whom we owe life and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honor and respect all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.

Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16.

Lk 2:51.

Mk 7:8-13.

Eph 6:1-3; cf. Deut 5:16.

2419
(all)

2198

This commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled. It introduces the subsequent commandments which are concerned with particular respect for life, marriage, earthly goods, and speech. It constitutes one of the foundations of the social doctrine of the Church.

2199

The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it.

This commandment includes and presupposes the duties of parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern, all who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.

2304
(all)

2200

Observing the fourth commandment brings its reward: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you."⁸ Respecting this commandment provides, along with spiritual fruits, temporal fruits of peace and prosperity. Conversely, failure to observe it brings great harm to communities and to individuals.

Ex 20:12; Deut 5:16.

I. THE FAMILY IN GOD'S PLAN ⇡

The nature of the family ⇡

1625
(all)

2201

The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.

1882
(all)

2202

A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize it. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.

369
(all)

2203

In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.

The Christian family ⇡

1655-1658
533
(all)

2204

"The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church."⁹ It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.¹⁰

FC 21; cf. LG 11.

10.

Cf. Eph 5:21-6:4; Col 3:18-21; 1 Pet 3:1-7.

1702
(all)

2205

The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.

2206

The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interests, arising above all from the members' respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in the children's upbringing."¹¹

11.

GS 52 § 1.

Daily Readings for:July 31, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who raised up Saint Ignatius of Loyola in your Church to further the greater glory of your name, grant that by his help we may imitate him in fighting the good fight on earth and merit to receive with him a crown in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Apricot, Orange, Cranberry Bread

ACTIVITIES

o The Child and His Teacher

PRAYERS

o Litany In Honor of St. Ignatius of Loyola

o Prayer of Surrender

o Prayer for Generosity

o Anima Christi

o Novena In Honor of Saint John Marie Vianney

o Prayer to St. Ignatius for Those Making the Spiritual Exercises

LIBRARY

o St Ignatius of Loyola and the Development of the Society of Jesus | Pasquale Puca

· Ordinary Time: July 31st

· Memorial of St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest

Old Calendar: St. Ignatius of Loyola, confessor

In the year 1521 a cannon ball fractured the left leg of Captain Ignatius Loyola, the future founder of the Jesuits. While he was convalescing, Ignatius read about Christ and His saints and thus turned wholly to God. He then undertook to equip himself for Christ's service by acquiring a good classical and theological education. The members of the Society of Jesus became the shock troops of the Church in the battle against the spread of Protestantism in Europe, as well as one of the greatest foreign mission organizations that the world has known. Ignatius died on July 31, 1556.

See Catholic Culture's special section on St. Ignatius.

St. Ignatius
Ignatius, by nation a Spaniard, was born of a noble family at Loyola, in Cantabria. At first he attended the court of the Catholic king, and later on embraced a military career. Having been wounded at the siege of Pampeluna, he chanced in his illness to read some pious books, which kindled in his soul a wonderful eagerness to follow in the footsteps of Christ and the saints. He went to Montserrat, and hung up his arms before the altar of the Blessed Virgin; he then watched the whole night in prayer, and thus entered upon his knighthood in the army of Christ. Next he retired to Manresa, dressed as he was in sackcloth, for he had a short time before given his costly garments to a beggar. Here he stayed for a year, and during that time he lived on bread and water, given to him in alms; he fasted every day except Sunday, subdued his flesh with a sharp chain and a hair-shirt, slept on the ground, and scourged himself with iron disciplines. God favored and refreshed him with such wonderful spiritual lights, that afterwards he was wont to say that even if the Sacred Scriptures did not exist, he would be ready to die for the faith, on account of those revelations alone which the Lord had made to him at Manresa. It was at this time that he, a man without education, composed that admirable book of the Spiritual Exercises.

However, in order to make himself more fit for gaining souls, he determined to procure the advantages of education, and began by studying grammar among children. Meanwhile he relaxed nothing of his zeal for the salvation of others, and it is marvelous what sufferings and insults he patiently endured in every place, undergoing the hardest trials, even imprisonment and beatings almost to death. But he ever desired to suffer far more for the glory of his Lord. At Paris he was joined by nine companions from that University, men of different nations, who had taken their degrees in Arts and Theology; and there at Montmartre he laid the first foundations of the order, which he was later on to institute at Rome. He added to the three usual vows a fourth concerning missions, thus binding it closely to the Apostolic See. Paul III first welcomed and approved the Society, as did later other Pontiffs and the Council of Trent. Ignatius sent St. Francis Xavier to preach the Gospel in the Indies, and dispersed others of his children to spread the Christian faith in other parts of the world, thus declaring war against paganism, superstition, and heresy. This war he carried on with such success that it has always been the universal opinion, confirmed by the word of pontiffs, that God raised up Ignatius and the Society founded by him to oppose Luther and the heretics of his time, as formerly he had raised up other holy men to oppose other heretics.

He made the restoration of piety among Catholics his first care. He increased the beauty of the sacred buildings, the giving of catechetical instructions, the frequency of sermons and of the sacraments. He everywhere opened schools for the education of youth in piety and letters. He founded at Rome the German College, refuges for women of evil life, and for young girls who were in danger, houses for orphans and catechumens of both sexes, and many other pious works. He devoted himself unweariedly to gaining souls to God. Once he was heard saying that if he were given his choice he would rather live uncertain of attaining the Beatific Vision, and in the meanwhile devote himself to the service of God and the salvation of his neighbor, than die at once certain of eternal glory. His power over the demons was wonderful. St. Philip Neri and others saw his countenance shining with heavenly light. At length in the sixty-fifth year of his age he passed to the embrace of his Lord, whose greater glory he had ever preached and ever sought in all things. He was celebrated for miracles and for his great services to the Church, and Gregory XV enrolled him amongst the saints; while Pius XI, in response to the prayers of the episcopate, declared him heavenly patron of all Spiritual Exercises.

Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

Patron: Basque country; Jesuit Order; Jesuits; retreats; soldiers; Spiritual Exercises (by Pope Pius XI).

Symbols: Book; chausible; Holy Communion; a rayed IHC or IHS; heart with crown of thorns; sword and lance upon an altar; book with words Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam.

Things to Do:

Learn more about St. Ignatius and the Jesuit Order and/or read this biography by John Farrow, St. Ignatius of Loyola.
If you have never done so, consider making the Spiritual Exercises. You can find it online here or you may purchase a copy from Catholic First.
The Jesuits at Georgetown have a collection of St. Ignatius' Letters and Instructions to his fellow Jesuits. Much of his spiritual teaching is found in his letters and is considered an important source of Jesuit spirituality. If you are interested in reading them click here.
St. Ignatius founded his Society to give the greatest possible service to the Church and to the Pope. In addition to vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, Jesuits take a special vow of loyalty to the Pope. Today would be a good time to say a prayer for Pope Francis.
In the Spiritual Exercise, St. Ignatius strongly recommends making a daily examination of conscience. If this is not part of your schedule today would be a good time to start.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Matthew 13:47-53

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. (Jeremiah 18:6)

In the popular children’s story “The Polar Express,” a number of children board a train bound for the North Pole on Christmas Eve. During the journey, unexpected and menacing events unfold that challenge each of them to grow in unique ways. By the time they return home early on Christmas morning, each child has grown in a different virtue of the conductor’s choosing.

Today’s first reading points to a similar trajectory in our own lives. Each of us is on a journey of faith, and along the way we all have the opportunity to be changed, molded, formed, by the Lord. Just as the potter shapes the clay into something beautiful, God longs to shape us into vessels that reveal his glory and love. If we let him, he can make up all that is lacking in our lives. He can help us grow in virtue and put away sin. Just like pottery that is hand turned, each of us is a unique creation. Each of us reveals God’s handiwork in a new and different way.

Part of the challenge is recognizing that we need God’s hand in our lives. Whether he is just beginning to mold us or we have been with him for some time, we all have our imperfections and weak spots. But that’s no problem for our Father. He never gives up on us—not even if he has to turn us back into a lump of clay so that he can start over again!

Don’t you find it very encouraging to know that God hasn’t given up on you? Even if it feels as if you’ve taken far too many turns on the potter’s wheel, know this: your heavenly Father is committed to making you into the strongest, the most beautiful, the most useful vessel possible. Know this as well: it’s hard to see, as you’re spinning around on that wheel, just how beautiful you have already become. You may not see it, but God does. And so do many of the people in your life!

“Father, I am so grateful that you love me so much! Keep shaping and forming me, so that I can reflect your glory to the world.”

Jeremiah 18:1-6; Psalm 146:1-6

Vultus Christi

Nothing of what I see escapes the reach of My mercy

Thursday, 31 July 2014 11:21

Every priest of Mine
is in passage from this world to the Father.
Know this and let it direct the course of your life.

Those who are My own, those whom I leave in the world,
those whom I love
and to whom I give the uttermost proof of My Love,
are My priests.
It is into their hands that I entrust
the mysteries of My Body and Blood for the life of the world.

Never doubt of My love for you, My priests.
You hold the proof, the testimony of My love for you in your hands each day:
My very Self given to you, given for you and given by your hands to My Bride, the Church.
You who hold Me in your hands, how can you doubt of My love for you?

Let Me wash you, and wash you frequently,
that you may live in My companionship and grow in the gift of My Divine Friendship.
Come to Me that I may wash you in the Blood and in the Water that ever flow from My open Heart.
Come to the inexhaustible torrent that gushes from My Side.
Come, and other souls will follow you there.

I wait to purify My priests, to heal their wounds,
and to wash away every trace of uncleanness from their souls.
He who remains in the torrent that ever flows from My Heart will be pure as I am pure,
for such is the power of My Precious Blood.

My Precious Blood is offered to My Father and given to souls
for their refreshment and for their life in the mystery of the Eucharist.
It is applied most efficaciously to souls in all the sacraments,
but in Eucharistic adoration the soul remains plunged, as it were, in My Blood.
The effects of this, though ordinarily invisible, are lasting and they are deep.
Seek to remain immersed in the inexhaustible torrent of My Blood
when you approach My Open Heart in the Sacrament of My Love.

I know who are the men I have chosen.
Do you think that there are things hidden from My eyes?
Do you think that there are things I do not see?
I know My priests. I know them through and through.
As deep and searching is My knowledge of them, so too is My Merciful Love.
I see all things, and nothing of what I see escapes the reach of My mercy,
save that which is deliberately withdrawn and wilfully hidden from Me.
Even that I see, and in seeing it, I grieve,
because the desire of My Heart is to extend My mercy to every weakness,
to take away every shame, to wash clean every soul defiled by sin.
Submit to My all-seeing grace, and present to My mercy all that I see in you.

Believe Me when I tell you this:
the man who welcomes one whom I send — My priest — welcomes Me;
and the man who welcomes Me, welcomes him who sent Me.
Let this be your rule: always present yourself as My priest.
Always and everywhere be My priest.
Thus will you carry My presence and that of My Father and our blessing,
that is, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the sweet fragrance of our charity, wheresoever you go.

The priest is the sacrament of My presence.
I do not want this sacrament of Mine to be concealed.
Display your priesthood.
Let your first and only identification be with Me
— and I will bless you in all your goings and comings.
The world needs now more than ever the visible presence of My priests.
The world must know that I have not abandoned My little flock,
nor have I forsaken those who trust in My love.

Be My priest in all circumstances
and I will fill your heart to overflowing with the sweetness of My own Sacred Heart.
It is the fragrance of this sweetness that will draw souls to Me
through you who are but the vessel containing it,
the vessel by means of which I desire to spread it in every place.
My priests do well to honour the poverty and discipline of the ecclesiastical dress.
It is at once a protection for them and a sign of hope given to the world.
Enough vanity. Enough extravagance.
Be instead pure mirrors of My Holy Face in the world.

(From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest)

Regnum Christi

Powerful Net

U. S. A. | SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

July 31, 2014, Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, priest

Matthew 13: 47-53

Jesus said to his disciples: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. "Do you understand all these things?" They answered, "Yes." And he replied, "Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old." When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in your power. I know that you are the Lord of all history. I trust that you are guiding my life. Thank you for showing me that you will triumph. Thank you for the triumph you have already achieved in my heart and in the hearts of so many people. I want to allow you to have total control over my life.

Petition: Lord, help me to have confidence in the triumph of your Kingdom.

1. Nothing Escapes the Kingdom: Christ is reminding us that all souls and all human history are encompassed in the vision of the Father. Both the good and the bad will be brought before him. He is able to see what good and evil has been done. His power extends over all the failures and successes of human history. I should live with a confidence that God sees the good I do and will make my efforts to spread his love bear eternal fruit.

2. Evil Does Not Have the Last Word: I should live with the confidence that evil does not have the last word. The mercy of God has imposed a limit on evil and the Lord will come one day to take away the power of evil. I should use my short time on earth – which I should use today – to sow all the good I can, aware that this is what will stand steady at the coming of the eternal kingdom. I should not be so impressed by evil that it paralyzes me from doing good.

3. Already Home: The Eucharist is an anticipation of God’s triumph. There we learn to trust that God holds the strings of human history. There his “net of love” brings his children together to feed and strengthen them. When I participate in the Mass my confidence in the Lord’s providence should grow. I should strive to bring others to the Eucharist as well, so they can experience the peace and happiness of anticipating heaven here on earth.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I know you are all powerful. I believe that your Kingdom will triumph. I believe that you will come to judge the living and the dead. Help me to do all I can to bring others into your Kingdom so they can experience the joy that comes from knowing you and from living ready for the coming of your Kingdom.

Resolution: I will invite someone who is struggling in their faith or who has fallen away from the sacraments to join me this Sunday at Mass.

Homily of the Day

July 31, 2014

“Who do the crowds say that I am?” (Lk 9:18) Jesus asked a general question to his disciples to solicit impressions of the faceless crowd about him based on his works and deeds. And his disciples gave their responses that put him among the ranks of personalities in the prophetic tradition: “John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.” (Lk 9:19)

“But who do you say that I am?” (Lk. 9:20) Jesus asked the question again but this time a personalizing one. He gave faces to the addressees of his question by turning to his disciples. “Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’”(Lk 9:20) Peter’s response is a profession of faith on the divine identity of Jesus. He is the Son of God who lived among them. God revealed Himself personally through the Son who called his disciples as friends. Jesus’ offer of relationship was so irresistible that they abandoned their former lives to follow him. Jesus gave them new names to seal their belongingness in him. They encountered him who is Love himself. It is only through such encounter that Peter gave witness from the depths of his heart; “The Messiah of God.” (Lk. 9: 20)
But who do you say that I am? It is the same question that Jesus asks us today. It calls not for an academic answer but a profession of the identity of Jesus grounded on a lived-experience of our faith in God through His Son in the Holy Spirit. Our profession of the divinity of Christ, “the Messiah of God” (Lk. 9: 20a), will bring us back to our experiences of God’s personal love and mercy in our lives. Our profession of faith in Jesus, the Christ, is a celebration of our relationship with Love himself. It is a memory of gratitude in our hearts for God’s initiative to call us into his friendship.

But who do you say that I am? A corollary to this question is “Who am I?” As we profess Jesus as the Christ, we also embrace ourselves as sinners. We are sinners seeking for the merciful love of God and struggling to remain in the faithfulness of God’s love. As we grapple with this existential question, we are confronted with our deepest hunger lurking in our hearts – the personal love of God.

Our hunger for God becomes palpably real whenever we are under our life’s “limit situation.” It is an experience of losing hold of things that give us our sense of security. Instead, it plunges us into an abyss of fears and anxieties. A “limit situation” makes us reach out for the hand of God; and God reaches out His hand to us. Even before we find Him in our seeking, He has already found us.
Today, we allow ourselves to be lost in the presence of God and be found by Him in His great mercy and love.

One Bread, One Body

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St. Ignatius of Loyola

Jeremiah 18:1-6
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Psalm 146:1-6

Matthew 13:47-53
Similar Reflections

UNDERSTANDABLE?

"Have you understood all this?" —Matthew 13:51

Jesus asked His apostles if they had understood "all this." They answered "Yes," possibly assuming that Jesus was referring to the last parable or series of parables He had taught (Mt 13:51). Jesus, however, was probably referring to much more, for He next spoke of those learned in His kingdom as having a "storeroom" of knowledge (Mt 13:52).

Actually, the apostles did not understand "all this" (see Jn 16:29). "On the contrary, their minds were completely closed to the meaning" of many events in Jesus' life (Mk 6:52). So exasperated was Jesus with His followers that He questioned them: "Are your minds completely blinded? Have you eyes but no sight? Ears but no hearing?...Do you still not understand?" (Mk 8:17-18, 21) During the Last Supper, the apostles felt they did understand what Jesus was saying (Jn 16:29-30). However, Jesus immediately questioned this (Jn 16:31). A few hours later, the apostles proved that they really did not understand Jesus when they abandoned Him upon His arrest (Mk 14:50).

Do you understand Jesus? Will you at least admit your lack of understanding? This is the necessary first step toward understanding. On Judgment Day, will the Lord say to you: "This is not an understanding people; therefore their Maker shall not spare them, nor shall He Who formed them have mercy on them" (Is 27:11)? Or will He say: "Blest are your eyes because they see and blest are your ears because they hear" (Mt 13:16)? "Have you understood all this?" (Mt 13:51)

Prayer: Father, may I understand what You mean by "understanding."

Promise: "Rise up, be off to the potter's house; there I will give you My message." —Jer 18:2

Praise: St. Ignatius, once a tough soldier trained in physical strength and warfare, had a deep conversion and became a priest. He is the patron of spiritual exercises and retreats.

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Meditation: Matthew 13:47-53

Marriage=One Man and One Woman 'Til Death Do Us Part

One Bread, One Body

UNDERSTANDABLE?