Today, as we celebrate the memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Shane Hyland, Leader of School Evangelisation at St Joseph’s Regional College, reads from the Gospel of Matthew (6: 19-23) in which Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment, he answers saying, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself’.

Shane asks, can we imagine a world in which everybody followed these two commands that Jesus gives us? Where every word, every action and every thought is filtered through the commandment to love God and love neighbour. There are so many different philosophies on how to live a good life, but Jesus sums it up in two short sentences – Love of God and love of neighbour.

St Aloysius spent his life loving God; he renounced his nobility and joined the seminary. He taught the catechism to the poorest, tended the sick and dying and, at the age of 23, died of the plague. This Saint loved God and his neighbour to the point of giving up his life just a Jesus gave up his life for us.

So, on the memorial of this holy saint, Shane invites us to ask St Aloysius to pray for us.