St. Ignatius of Loyola Week

On Friday of this week we celebrate the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola. I thought that I would for each day comment on his life, his spirituality, and what we can learn from this great saint. I am by no means an authority on Ignatian Spirituality, there are many great resources both in writing and on the web. I am strictly speaking from my own experiences and how they have fit nicely into what I have learned so far. From the Jesuits of New Orleans Province, here are some excerpts from their brief biography:
Inigo de Loyola was born in 1491 in Azpeitia in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa in northern Spain. He was the youngest of thirteen children. At the age of sixteen years he was sent to serve as a page to Juan Velazquez, the treasurer of the kingdom of Castile. As a member of the Velazquez household, he was frequently at court and developed a taste for all it presented, especially the ladies. He was much addicted to gambling, very contentious, and not above engaging in swordplay on occasion. In fact in a dispute between the Loyolas and another family, Ignatius and his brother plus some relatives ambushed at night some clerics who were members of the other family. Ignatius had to flee the town. When finally brought to justice he claimed clerical immunity using the defense that he had received the tonsure as a boy, and was therefore exempt from civil prosecution. The defense was specious because Ignatius had for years gone about in the dress of a fighting man, wearing a coat of mail and breastplate, and carrying a sword and other sorts of arms - certainly not the garb normally worn by a cleric. The case dragged on for weeks, but the Loyolas were apparently powerful. Probably through the influence of higher-ups, the case against Ignatius was dropped.

Eventually he found himself at the age of 30 in May of 1521 as an officer defending the fortress of the town of Pamplona against the French, who claimed the territory as their own against Spain. The Spaniards were terribly outnumbered and the commander of the Spanish forces wanted to surrender, but Ignatius convinced him to fight on for the honor of Spain, if not for victory. During the battle a cannon ball struck Ignatius, wounding one leg and breaking the other. Because they admired his courage, the French soldiers carried him back to recuperate at his home, the castle of Loyola, rather than to prison.

His leg was set but did not heal, so it was necessary to break it again and reset it, all without anesthesia. Ignatius grew worse and was finally told by the doctors that he should prepare for death.

On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June) he took an unexpected turn for the better. The leg healed, but when it did the bone protruded below the knee and one leg was shorter than the other. This was unacceptable to Ignatius, who considered it a fate worse than death not to be able to wear the long, tight-fitting boots and hose of the courtier. Therefore he ordered the doctors to saw off the offending knob of bone and lengthen the leg by systematic stretching. Again, all of this was done without anesthesia. Unfortunately, this was not a successful procedure. All his life he walked with a limp because one leg was shorter than the other.

During the long weeks of his recuperation, he was extremely bored and asked for some romance novels to pass the time. Luckily there were none in the castle of Loyola, but there was a copy of the life of Christ and a book on the saints. Desperate, Ignatius began to read them. The more he read, the more he considered the exploits of the saints worth imitating. However, at the same time he continued to have daydreams of fame and glory, along with fantasies of winning the love of a certain noble lady of the court, the identity of whom we never have discovered but who seems to have been of royal blood. He noticed, however, that after reading and thinking of the saints and Christ he was at peace and satisfied. Yet when he finished his long daydreams of his noble lady, he would feel restless and unsatisfied. Not only was this experience the beginning of his conversion, it was also the beginning of spiritual discernment, or discernment of spirits, which is associated with Ignatius and described in his Spiritual Exercises.

The Exercises recognize that not only the intellect but also the emotions and feelings can help us to come to a knowledge of the action of the Spirit in our lives. Eventually, completely converted from his old desires and plans of romance and worldly conquests, and recovered from his wounds enough to travel, he left the castle in March of 1522.

I was, from a child, always fascinated with the human mind. What made people different? What made one man a coward and another brave. I had a wonderful Catholic upbringing but was never exposed to St. Ignatius teachings (I wish I had) I sought the truth in psychology. I was fascinated by Freud, Fromm, Adler, Maslow, Jung, Skinner, and Rodgers. A bevy of psychological theories explained to me theses differences among individuals. I pursued the field in college and post graduate school but after a while I began to believe that although there was much useful information and skills to be had there wasn't any one particular school that explained everything. When my son joined the Jesuits last year I began to step up my reading of St. Ignatius, his Spiritual Exercises, Examen Prayer, I read a marvelous book by Father Robert Spitzer (a Jesuit) titled "The Five Pillars of the Spiritual Life" and even did a two part presentation on it last November at Adult Education at our church. I have posted here about the Examen Prayer see Febuary 10, 2009. Here are some other thoughts...I have made a profound change in my life over the last several months in that I discovered by way of examing my spirtual life that I find much joy in thinking and speaking about my Catholic faith and about Jesus and the good news of the Gospel and not much joy in all the other things in the world today. Last July I began volunteering as an extraordinary minister of the Holy Eucharist at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital and the joy that the Holy Spirit has brought to me has been nothing short of miraculous. I am aware of these things where as previously I would not take notice of what Ignatius calls Consolations. My point is this: you too can discover where you are in your spiritual life and what you derive joy in. You can by doing some simple exercises take grasp of your spiritual life and make conscious movements towards God. You can find greater awareness in your prayers and especially in Scripture reading. St Ignatius believed that gratitude was the starting point in your spiritual life. I had always practiced this but never realized it. I truly give thanks to God for my life and for each and every day that He as given me as a gift. I consider it an honor to be one of His creations and now I use this gratitude to desire to be closer to Him. I will be making a retreat soon and will share what I have learned. I will being posting bits and pieces of this wonderful spirituality. If you haven't been exposed to it or have haven't experienced it in a whiole I hope this will be helpful. God Bless.