 Every year at the school where I teach, the students do a project on St. Ignatius and our school’s Jesuit identity. We focus on the way St. Ignatius taught people to help others, whether in our own classroom and at home, or on the street and in desperate need of assistance. We teach the students about what it means to live a Magis life, meaning “greater” in Latin, i.e., living for a higher purpose to serve. My favorite part and the purpose of this lesson for the small ones is the opportunity to open their eyes to the needs of others and ask them what they can do to help. Some common answers:
Although these answers are from 5 year olds who are just learning about God, they carry weight and insight, demonstrating that a Magis life can be lived even through our everyday actions. Now, enough about the cute Pre-Kindergarteners, here is some information on St. Ignatius and the Magis life that we “older kids” can focus on. A short biography of St. Ignatius: Ignacio de Loyola was born in Spain in 1491 at a time when noble families like his expected their sons to become soldiers and fight in battles for their country. Ignacio loved the bravery and recognition that came with being a soldier and often basked in the glory of victory. Little did he know that one day his life would drastically change. In 1521, a French cannonball shot Ignacio in the leg and left him bedridden. While he was recovering from his wounds, he read two books: one was on the life of Christ and the other was on lives of the saints. As he read, he noted the good works that these saints had accomplished and desired to do great things with his life, too. He vowed, then, that he would serve the rest of his life in service to God, doing Christ’s work on Earth. Soon after he recovered, his goal was to be educated, know more about the faith, and serve as a spiritual director. He eventually compiled the many prayers, insights, meditations, and thoughts on how to live in Christ as a person of faith. He called this compilation the Spiritual Exercises. Years later, with friends Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, Ignacio formed a new order called the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. Their message consisted of doing things Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (AMDG), in English, “For the greater glory of God,” a message that children and young people can understand easily. The Jesuits were educators and missionaries and opened many schools around the world. St. Ignatius’ message lives on through the words and works of the Jesuits. Additionally, Pope Francis is the first Jesuit priest to be named Pope. In my school each morning, we pray the Suscipe, a prayer that is said to have been written by St. Ignatius, which asks for God’s guidance for the day. It helps the students and teachers alike remember that each day is a new beginning, regardless of what happened the day before. I invite you to take a moment and pray this prayer. I would encourage you to even begin to say it once a week, or each morning on your way into work, or in a quiet space during lunch. As we remember St. Ignatius of Loyola on his Feast Day today, let us remember his way of living Magis, a life with a higher purpose that always strives to serve Christ better than before. The Suspice Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given it all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me. Amen.
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 While Christmas is still some time away, the circumstances surrounding the birth of our Lord give reason for us to pause and reflect throughout the year on the great mystery of the Incarnation—the entering of God the eternal Son into time and the human experience. At the Christmas vigil, the Gospel proclamation involves tracing the ancestral lineage of Jesus as “the son of David, the son of Abraham” and the prophetic culmination of divine promises. Those specifications, similar to the grand announcement of The Nativity of the Lord from the Roman Martyrology, draw upon Sacred Scripture to formally declare the birth of Christ and squarely place His entry into time. The USCCB notes: “It begins with creation and relates the birth of the Lord to the major events and personages of sacred and secular history. The particular events contained in the announcement help pastorally to situate the birth of Jesus in the context of salvation history.” Reflecting on the genealogy of Jesus helps us to remember that he is part of a human family and was raised with particular role models and inherited traditions. It also reminds us that many people helped prepare the way for the coming of the Savior, playing greater or lesser roles for the glory of the Father’s plan. Two people who are part of Jesus’ genealogy, but passed over in Scripture are the parents of the Blessed Mother, Sts. Joachim and Ann. Factually, nothing about the parents of Mary arises from credible historic sources apart from their existence — not even their names of Joachim and Ann are verified! Although they are passed over in Scripture, Mary’s parents are critical as they represent generations who actively participated in the obligations of family and faith life while anticipating the coming of the Messiah. These saints maintained the spiritual and familial environment that nourished and inspired the Blessed Mother to always trust in God and to famously declare, “May it be done to me according to your word.” We find evidence of Mary’s strength of character and trust in the Lord in Scripture, especially Luke chapter 1 verses 28-55 and John chapter 2: Mary is steadfast in making decisions, active in prayer, obedient to the laws of her faith, calm through moments of crisis, and devoted to her relatives. It is not hard to see how such models of parenthood would likely have inspired Mary’s own upbringing of Jesus. We can wonder how much of Mary’s unyielding belief through Jesus’ ministry, Passion, and Resurrection — especially after seeing her son publically brutalized and murdered — was instilled in her by the fortitude and strength she saw modeled by her own parents during her childhood. What can we learn from the parents of the Blessed Mother? We may not all be grandparents, but we can still influence our families through our receptiveness to the perspectives, experiences, and lessons of those preceding us. Truly these are treasures of wisdom not to be taken lightly or ignored. Pope Francis has sought to convey this important observation. During his first World Youth Day as Pope, observing that Brazilians were celebrating Grandparents Day on the feast of Sts. Joachim and Ann, he reflected: "How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith! … How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family … Children and the elderly build the future of peoples: children because they lead history forward, the elderly because they transmit the experience and wisdom of their lives." The family is often the first community of love, knowledge, and faith that we experience (CCC 2205). It is a great gift to preserve and strengthen that takes our time, talent, and commitment to keep strong. Yet, just as each of our family members are imperfect, so too is our own love despite our best intentions. At times we may lose patience amidst the demands of life. Or, more tragically, we may find ourselves amongst family members who do not know how to love, perhaps products of their own troubled upbringings. When we face difficulties within our families, or see hurt in other intergenerational families, let us remember that regardless of our human relations, we have been born into the spiritual family of the Church. How wonderful it is that despite our earthly circumstances each of us has been entrusted to call God our Father, Mary our Mother, Joachim and Ann our grandparents and Jesus our Brother and Savior. Sts. Joachim and Ann, pray for us! Questions for Reflection: Who are the people in my family who have taught me the beauty of the faith? Which members of my family need me to show them the love of Christ?
 “Everything is well when it is done as God wishes.” – St. Vincent Pallotti In October, there will be a Synod of Bishops devoted to the interconnection between faith and vocational discernment in the lives of young people. When a person in Catholic circles, especially a young person, says that she or he is “discerning a vocation,” usually this means consecrated life or priesthood. More often today, though, it also includes discernment of whether one is called to the vocation of marriage. Over the last two decades, I have had the privilege of accompanying numerous young adults who are discerning their vocation. As they have come to a decision about a life vocation, I have witnessed their marriages, consecrations, and ordinations. During this year alone, many months have been filled with the joy of such events which will continue into the foreseeable future. Such moments bring me great joy as they should for the Church. More so, though, we are called to discern the ways in which we can live our primary vocation, the call to holiness. This call, as the Second Vatican Council taught, is “universal” (Lumen Gentium, c. V) It is what God desires of all human beings, to live in a loving union with God and neighbor that leads to salvation. Pope Francis teaches us in Gaudete et Exsultate that “This holiness to which the Lord calls you will grow through small gestures” (GE, 16). Small gestures lead to larger action through discernment. Is such discernment easy? No. In fact, it is challenging and difficult and can be a cross. But, we are called to take up our cross and follow (Mk 8:34) since no one is called to be a professional discerner. We are called to make choices that are for Christ and witnessed through our love and care for our neighbor. Simply praying, thinking, or talking is not enough. We are challenged to move forward. “It involves striving untrammeled for all that is great, better and more beautiful, while at the same time being concerned for the little things, for each day’s responsibilities and commitments” (GE, 169). May the Charity of Christ urge us on! In God, the Infinite Love, Fr. Frank
 “It’s 11:11… make a wish!” Have you heard of that phrase before? I roll my eyes every time someone eagerly pauses in that moment, thinking that whatever they wish for will magically appear. Though superstitions like this detract from actual prayer, the idea of praying a daily devotion has a long history in the Church. Prayers like the Angelus, a Marian devotion that commemorates the Incarnation, have been around since at least the Middle Ages. Often prayed at noon, the devotional provides the faithful with an opportunity to re-focus and recommit their days to Christ.
Marian devotions in particular can help us grow closer to Christ because Christ himself dedicated Mary to us after his death. When Jesus said, “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your Mother,” he was providing Mary as an intercessor for us. After Jesus’ death, the Acts of the Apostles records her as being present when the disciples gathered at Jesus’ Ascension and then later in the Upper Room during the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Because of Mary’s continual intercession for the followers of her Son and because of her role serving with the Apostles on earth, she has historically been known as the Queen of Apostles. As tradition goes, it is Mary who bolstered the Apostles in moments of discouragement and fear after the death and Resurrection of Christ. Prayers to Our Blessed Mother never go unanswered. As a personal devotion to her, I offer up a Hail Mary for my vocation every time I see an 11 on the clock. I like to pray when I see the number in order to turn the superstitious ‘11:11 practice’ into something for the glory of God; you could pray when you first wake up, or at noon like those who pray the Angelus, or during your commute to work or school. Daily devotions are flexible! The important part is to make sure that you are checking in with our Heavenly Father every day. In particular, praying with Mary encourages us to adopt as our own her obedience and love for the Father. And of course, Mary is never outdone in generosity, and her intercession to Jesus is the most powerful of all. I encourage you to begin a daily devotion of your own. It can be for your vocation, for a personal trial, for someone else – for whatever is on your heart that day. My prayer for my vocation was inspired by a friend who made a daily offering of prayer for her future husband and is now married and has four beautiful babies. She told me her life wasn’t always pointed straight to God’s will, and how she grew up neglecting her Catholic faith. As she grew older, she knew that her soul was yearning for something to grasp, to hold onto, to fill the void in her heart. She decided to go to adoration, and was inspired through prayer to begin a daily devotion to Christ through Mary. That devotion she made fifteen years ago to Our Mother changed her heart and her life. I pray that you also will be inspired to take up a daily devotion to Our Mother, who so graciously hears our intercessions and carries them to her son. As I pray each day this devotion, I will pray for you, and this journey to Heaven that we are taking together. Question for Reflection: What do my daily devotions look like? What is an easy moment in the day that I can take some time to pray to Our Mother for guidance and intercession? Kathleen O’Reilly is a senior at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. |
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