Memorial of St. Ignatious of Loyola, Priest
St. Ignatius of Loyola, priest and founder (†1556). Of Basque nobility, he pursued a military career in his early adulthood. Gravely wounded in battle, he underwent a radical conversion during his convalescence. After a period of recollection and study, he gathered a group of men to undertake apostolic works and with them formed the Company of Jesus, known as the Jesuit Fathers, to defend the Faith as soldiers under the banner of Christ, Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, “For the greater glory of God”.
See also:
Mass Readings
First Reading – Ex 40:16-21, 34-38
Moses did exactly as the LORD had commanded him. On the first day of the first month of the second year the Dwelling was erected. It was Moses who erected the Dwelling. He placed its pedestals, set up its boards, put in its bars, and set up its columns. He spread the tent over the Dwelling and put the covering on top of the tent, as the LORD had commanded him. He took the commandments and put them in the ark; he placed poles alongside the ark and set the propitiatory upon it. He brought the ark into the Dwelling and hung the curtain veil, thus screening off the ark of the commandments, as the LORD had commanded him. Then the cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling. Moses could not enter the meeting tent, because the cloud settled down upon it and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling. Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the children of Israel would set out on their journey. But if the cloud did not lift, they would not go forward; only when it lifted did they go forward. In the daytime the cloud of the LORD was seen over the Dwelling; whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud
by the whole house of Israel in all the stages of their journey.
Responsorial Psalm – Ps 84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11 (R.2)
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God. R.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young –
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God! R.
O my strength! for you I watch;
for you, O God, are my stronghold,
As for my God, may his mercy go before me;
may he show me the fall of my foes. R.
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength. R.
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked. R.
Gospel – Mt 13:47-53
Jesus said to the disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” “Do you understand all these things?” They answered, “Yes.” And he replied, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
Featured Saints
St. Germanus of Auxerre, bishop (†448). Bishop of Auxerre, France. He was sent to England by the Pope to fight the Pelagian heresy.
Blessed John Colombini, religious (†1307). Wealthy merchant from Siena (Italy); he gave up his riches to embrace a life of extreme poverty. He founded the Congregation of Jesuati to minister to the sick.
Blessed James Buch Canals, martyr (†1936). Salesian religious, imprisoned and killed in Valencia during the Spanish Civil War.
St. Fabius, martyr (†303/304). Christian condemned to death in Caesarea (Mauritania), present day Algeria, for refusing to carry the flag of the governor in a pagan ceremony.
Blessed Franz Stryjas, martyr (†1944). Father of a family imprisoned and killed in Kalisz, Poland, after undergoing prolonged torture.
Blessed Zdenka Schelingová, virgin and martyr (†1955). Religious from the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross. She aided the escape of a priest in Trnava, Czechoslovakia, for which she was imprisoned; she died as a result of her sufferings there.
Photo gallery
Photo gallery
