Our Lady in the Life of St. Ignatius Loyola

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 21 July 2012)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

From the perspective of the Church’s mission to faithfully proclaim the mystery of its Lord until its final manifestation in full light, the Year of Faith, commencing in October this year, is a command to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world. (Benedict XVI, 2011, Porta Fidei, #6)  It is no wonder then, that during the Year, we are invited to particular devotion to Mary, model of the Church. For, as shown by Fr. Jean Longère, President of the French Society of Marian Studies (Lourdes Magazine, Special Edition 2009, p129), the call for reconciliation with God and conversion of hearts is the “golden thread” linking Marian apparitions together. She was seen weeping for sinful humanity. Today, I would like to share on Mary in the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.

Ignatius Loyola, born in 1491 in Azpeitia, northwest of Spain, was from a noble Christian family. He was christened Inigo. During his youth, against his faith, he gave himself over to worldly vanities, especially in gambling, women, and fighting. For want of glory, as courtier in the army of King Ferdinand of Spain, he stubbornly defended the town of Pamplona from the French army. On the 20th of May 1521, a French cannonball smashed into both his legs; both Inigo and Pamplona fell. The French nursed him and brought him back to his father’s castle in Loyola. Hoping to perfect his impaired leg, the proud soldier had it re-broken and reset twice. The ordeal almost killed him. Nevertheless, he was left with one leg shorter than the other. 

While convalescing, a romantic novel that he requested could not be found. Instead, he was given the only books available, Life of Christ and Lives of the Saints. This period of reading and deep reflexion brought about his conversion. He decided to outdo the “knights of God”, as he called the saints, in the service of Christ. Our Lady confirmed him in his decision. A vision of her and the Holy Child Jesus stirred hatred for his past life of the flesh, and seemed to erase all his memories of them thereafter. Thus, at thirty, in 1521, Inigo passed from a worldly life to a completely Christian life.

He left home to go to the Holy Land. On the way of a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, he stopped and spent a night in vigil before Our Lady of Aranzazu, promising to live in chastity. At Montserrat, he made a Confession, donned beggar’s clothes, surrendered his sword and dagger at Our Lady’s altar and kept vigil over them all night. The next morning, on the feast of the Annunciation 1522, he left towards Barcelona, but ended up retiring in a cave outside nearby Manresa. Here, by the banks of the river Cardoner, he received heavenly insights and went on to compose the Spiritual Exercises which helped countless people.

Ignatius was evidently devoted to Our Lady. When he returned to Azpeitia in 1535 to recuperate from sickness, he often prayed at the Convent of Our Lady of Olatz. After his ordination in 1537, he delayed saying Mass, to prepare himself and “to beg Our Lady that she might desire to place him with her Son.” (de Guibert, 1964, p37) In November 1537, while praying in a chapel at La Storta before entering Rome, Ignatius had a vision of God the Father commending him to Jesus. He clearly saw that the Father was placing him with His Son, as he had confidently asked Mary to obtain for him. This greatly assured him and transformed his soul. It was uniquely important both to his life and the Society of Jesus, for it was God who granted them, in Fr. de Guibert, a Jesuit’s words, “…a life of service to God with Christ, through Christ, in Christ, and as Christ.”

Ignatius said his first Mass at Christmas 1538 in the church of St. Mary Major, Rome. The Society of Jesus has for its patroness Madonna Della Strada, Our Lady of the Way, whose intercession was claimed to have protected Ignatius during battle as a soldier. The Blessed Virgin Mary is also known as the Queen of the Society of Jesus, obscure yet ever present and helpful. Thus we see the quiet but decisive role of Mary in the life of Ignatius Loyola, the worldly soldier turned soldier of Christ.

Let us then trust in Mary’s intercession, as we pray for conversion for ourselves and for others, in preparing to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth come October.

References:

Benedict XVI. (11 October 2011). Porta Fidei.

Lourdes Magazine, Special Edition. (2009).

de Guibert, J. (1964). The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice – A Historical Study. USA: The Institute of Jesuit Sources

Year of Faith

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 7 July 2012)

•     Faith “is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us”. With the Apostolic Letter, Porta fidei, Pope Benedict XVI declared a Year of Faith. This year will begin on 11 October 2012, and will conclude on 24 November 2013, the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.

•     Pope Benedict speaks of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of “the encounter with Christ“.

•     The beginning of the Year of Faith coincides with the anniversaries of two great events which have marked the life of the Church: the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, called by Blessed Pope John XXIII (11 October 1962), and the twentieth of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, given to the Church by Blessed Pope John Paul II (11 October 1992).

•     “I know him in whom I have believed”. These words of Paul to Timothy help us to understand that faith is “first of all a personal adherence of man to God. (2 Tm 1:12). It is also a free assent to the whole truth revealed by God.” Faith, which is a personal trust in the Lord and the faith which we profess in the Creed are inseparable; they focus on each other and require each other. A profound bond exists between the lived faith and its contents. The faith of the Witnesses and Confessors is also the faith of the Apostles and Doctors of the Church.

•     This year will be a special occasion for the faithful to understand more profoundly that the foundation of Christian faith is “the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Founded on the encounter with the Risen Christ, “Faith is a gift to rediscover, to cultivate and to bear witness to” because the Lord “grants each of us to live the beauty and joy of being Christians.”

•     The Second Vatican Council noted in Lumen gentium: "Devoutly meditating on Mary and contemplating her in the light of the Word made man, the Church reverently penetrates more deeply into the great mystery of the Incarnation” and... “looks to Mary” for “… She not only contemplates the wondrous gift of her fullness of grace, but strives to imitate the perfection which in her is the fruit of her full compliance with Christ's command: "You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48).” (Lumen gentium #65; Pope John Paul II, 1997)

•     For the community of believers, in the great prayer of the Magnificat, Mary represents “the authentic holiness that is achieved in union with Christ…the perfect harmony with the person of Her Son and by her total dedication to the redeeming work He accomplished.” (Pope John Paul II, 1997)

•     Christ’s redeeming work was accomplished at Calvary, witnessed by Mary at the foot of the cross. Though Mary's Heart was pierced, it was sustained by three pillars: unshakeable faithfulness to Her mission, unfailing hope for humanity, and profound sacrificial love for God. She showed us that Her Heart, being immaculate and never touched by either darkness or sin, could not be touched by evil in the darkest and most painful hour of the Passion and death of Her Son. (Buck, 2010; Mother Adela, n.d.)

•     Mary’s faith, hope and love for humanity has sustained humanity’s faith, hope and love in God’s salvation in spite of man’s sinfulness. And yet, Mary’s call to humanity in different continents throughout the centuries to follow a different path and a different world than the tragic, materialistic, de-Christianised, sinful society, which is so close to all of our lives today, remains unheeded by too many. It is a call that has gone unheeded again and again. Our Lady is seen as weeping, weeping for the world*…and pierced to the Heart.

•     In the image of Her Immaculate Heart pierced by a sword, we see the heart of the Blessed Virgin stabbed for all of those who have lived – and died – by the sword, and by sin. Jesus said, “Put your sword back, for all who have lived by the sword, die by the sword.” (Mt 26:52)

•     During this Year, the faithful are invited to turn with particular devotion to Mary, model of the Church. Despite the sins of her members, the Church is first and foremost the community of those who are called to holiness and to strive each day to achieve it. In this arduous path to perfection, Mary who “shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of faith, hope and love” succours and encourages us to live as she lived, in obedience to God’s will…so that we may rediscover the journey of faith…and shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of “the encounter with Christ“. (Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, 2012; Pope John Paul II, 1997)

N.b.: * [Summary of History of Our Lady of Akita]

In 1973, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave Sister Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa in Akita, Japan, three Messages through a statue of Mary. Bathed in a brilliant light, the statue became alive and spoke with a voice of indescribable beauty. Her Guardian Angel also appeared and taught her to pray.

The wooden statue, about 3 feet high, had been carved by an artist on the request of the Sisters of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Eucharist, founded by the local Bishop, Most Rev. John Shojiro Ito, of the Diocese of Niigata. This statue, from which the voice came, wept 101 times over a course of several years, from January 4, 1975, to September 15, 1981, the Feast of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows. It also perspired abundantly, and the perspiration sent out a sweet perfume. Its right palm bled from a wound that had the form of a cross.

References:

•     Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. (6 January 2012.) Pastoral Recommendations for the Year of Faith. Retrieved from http://www.annusfidei.va/content/novaevangelizatio/en/annus-fidei/indicazioni-pastorali-per-l-anno-della-fede.html

•     Pope John Paul II. (10 September 1997). Mary: Model of Faith, Hope, and Charity in L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, p. 11.

•     Mother Adela. (n.d.) Mary, Model  of Faith, Hope and Charity for the Third Millennium. Retrieved from http://www.piercedhearts.org/mother_adela/mary_faith_hope_charity.htm

•     Buck, R. (5 March 2010). Marian Apparitions, the Bible and the Modern World – Donal Anthony Foley (Review). Retrieved from http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2010/03/book-review-marian-apparitions-the-bible-and-the-modern-world-donal-anthony-foley/

Recommended reading:

1. Finley, Mitch. (1997). Surprising Mary. Meditation and Prayers on the Mother of Jesus. Mineola, New York: Resurrection Press. ISBN 1-878718-37-1.

2. Gambero, Luigi. Mary and the Fathers of the Church. The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought. Translated: Thomas Buffer. (1997). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-0-89870-686-4.

3. Hahn, Scott Walker. (2001). Hail Holy Queen. The Mother of God in the Word of God. Darton Longman Todd. ISBN 9780 2325 24321.

4. The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. (2005). Mary grace and Hope in Christ. Harrisburg, London: Morehouse. ISBN 0-8192-8132-8

5. Buono, Anthony. (2008). The Greatest Marian Titles – their History, Meaning and Usage. The Philippines: St. Pauls. ISBN 978-971-004-004-9.