Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (14: 25-33) in which Jesus turns to a large crowd and says, “if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person can not be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Afterwards Fr Paul shares a little about the life of St Ignatius of Loyola whose feast we celebrate today.

Fr Paul says St. Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian who founded the religious order known as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540. His life and teachings have had a profound impact on the Catholic Church.

Ignatius was born in 1491 in Loyola, Spain. As a young man, he was a soldier and lived a worldly life. However, after being seriously wounded in battle, he underwent a spiritual conversion and dedicated his life to serving God. During his convalescence, he read the lives of the saints, which inspired him to embark on a life of prayer and service.

Ignatius began his spiritual journey by making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat and then spending time in the town of Manresa, where he experienced a profound spiritual awakening and wrote his famous work, the “Spiritual Exercises. These exercises became the foundation of his approach to spiritual formation and discernment.

In 1534, Ignatius and a group of companions took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and formed the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. The Jesuits were dedicated to serving the Pope and spreading the Catholic faith through education, preaching, and missionary work.

Ignatius was a strong disciplinarian and believed in the importance of discipline as an educational force. However, he also emphasized the importance of love and conformity of souls, as exemplified by the life of St. Francis Xavier, one of his early companions.

Ignatius spent the later years of his life in partial retirement, as his health began to fail. He continued to govern the Society of Jesus. Ignatius was beatified in 1609 and canonized in 1622.

The Spiritual Exercises developed by Ignatius have been widely praised and used by the Catholic Church as a powerful tool for spiritual growth and discernment. Popes throughout history have commended the Ignatian method as a “most wise and universal code of laws for the direction of souls in the way of salvation and perfection.”

In summary, St. Ignatius of Loyola was a pivotal figure in the Catholic Church, whose life and teachings continue to inspire and guide the faithful to this day.

So today, Fr Paul invites us to ask ‘St Ignatius of Loyola…Pray for us’