Saint Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491 in the Basque country of Spain, writes Father Kyle Shinseki SJ, pictured, pastor of Saint Mary Student Parish in Ann Arbor, upon the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits. Father Kyle continues:
As a young man, Saint Ignatius sought to emulate chivalrous knights. However, at a battle in Pamplona in 1521, a cannonball fractured his right leg and changed the course of his life. During his long period of recovery, he was enthralled by books on the life of Christ and the saints, while still being drawn to a romantic life of fame. Through this experience, he came to recognize consolations, those interior movements that draw us closer to God, and desolations, those that distance us from God.
Saint Ignatius discerned God’s call to religious life, which led him to abandon his sword before the altar of Our Lady of Montserrat. He settled for a time in the town of Manresa, where he created his method of prayer known as the Spiritual Exercises.
While my vocation was not borne from a “cannonball moment” like Ignatius, I did have a profound experience during a retreat based on Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises through a meditation when one is invited to reflect on: What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I do for Christ?
For Ignatius, the answer to this last question was clear: in 1540, he founded and served as the first Superior General of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, with six companions who had been fellow students at the University of Paris. By the time of his death in 1556, the new religious order had 1,000 members spread across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, serving as missionaries and educators, all for the greater glory of God - Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
Saint Ignatius, pray for us!
