Saturday, May 4, 2013

Spirituality: The radical commitment of the young Ignatius


Ignatius began the honest and thorough examination of his life that would lead to a radical commitment to Jesus. As part of his spiritual recovery, he pledged to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His family strongly opposed his journey, but Ignatius would not budge:

His brother took him from one room to another and with many protestations begged him not to throw himself away and to consider what hopes had been placed in him and what he could become and he advanced other similar arguments, all with the purpose of dissuading him from his good intention. But he answered in such a way that, without departing from the truth, for he was now very scrupulous about that, he evaded his brother.

(Olin and O'Callaghan, Autobiography, p. 26)

5 comments:

  1. We will be in Loyola next week... :-) Ignatius was quite an extraordinary person... Thank you, Ignatius!

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    1. If you haven't been there before, you will be impressed. A little port and some of their fine cheeses and your spirits will soar. You can tell that this part of the world helps one be in dialogue with God.

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    2. Claire, have a wonderful time. One day...

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  2. Ignatius amazes me with his absolute determination. It couldn't have been easy. I am greatly indebted to him - he has left us an amazing gift of Ignatian Spirituality.

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    1. No determination is easy when they are other forces begging you to choose differently. He gave us a great model.

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