Fr. Cuthbert Lattey, S.J., "The Giving Of St. Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises To Be The Most Important Work Of The Members Of His Order."

But the modern man will ask: "What is Christ to mean to me?" And what is His message for our time, for our cities, for our men and women? Does Christ really matter? Is there any workable theory as to how He is to matter? These and many other such questions we may sum up under a single heading, "The Christ of Experience," and attempt but a partial answer thereto, for otherwise "the whole world would not hold the books that should be written."

St. Ignatius of Loyola certainly thought that he had such a workable theory of the practical significance of Christ, and endeavored with all his might to press it upon his fellow-men, so much so, indeed, that it appears fairly safe to say that he considered the giving of his Spiritual Exercises to be the most important work of the members of his Order. These Exercises represent, as it were, his philosophy of the life and teaching of Christ, and that in the form which he thought best suited to influence men; they represent Christ, but Christ in action, and Christ in action means the Christ of experience. The chief truths of our religion are there, but organized by a master-mind for a tremendous offensive. 

The delicate psychology of the Exercises and their historical significance need not be dwelt upon here. The end of the nineteenth century, indeed, marked a new era in their history, in that it saw them extended to all ages and classes of Catholics, even to the opening of a number of special houses for the purpose. A survey of the movement may be found in Father Charles Plater's Retreats for the People, in the Westminster Library. It has even spread to those outside the Church, and in Paul Bull's Threefold Way we have an attempt to interpret the Exercises to Anglicans, while in the pamphlet Towards a New Way of Life: a Review and Re-dedication, published by the Student Christian Movement, we have a presentation that is meant to be palatable even to Nonconformists. Needless to say, in these two non-Catholic works there are some significant "adaptations" of the Exercises; all the same, much remains that is good and solid, and cannot but bear fruit in the well-disposed.

Link (here) to the book entitled, "Back to Christ" by Fr. Cuthbert Lattey, S.J.

William Crichton, S.J.. "Gulielmus Crichtonius, Societatis Jesu Presbyter"

William Crichton, a learned member of the Society of the Jesuits, who, after a life devoted to the propagation of his faith, died at Leyden, in the year 1596. Of the talents, travels, and misfortunes of this author, the following account is preserved by Dempster :

“ Gulielmus Crichtonius, Societatis Jesu presbyter eruditus et pius, quinquaginta annis religiosé in eadem sociemte transactis, perigrinando, docendo, scribendo, indefesso labore cives suos, hæresi abdieata, Catholicæ Bc. clesias unire annisus est; vir probissimae conversationis, etiam a sectariis, judicatusi Majesmtis regiæ acerrimus propugnator; quippe cum Anglus quidam ei detexisset Elisabetham Angliæ reginam velle se, quacunque ratione, e medio tollere, intercessitl et quantum fieri potuit ab incepto retmxit. Petrus Mathmus, lib. VI. Hist. Gallic. nan-an II. Eoque beneficio Regina dev-incta, cum ille, ex itinere Scotico mari interceptus, in Turrim Londinensem conjiceretur, e vestigia liberum dimisit; ultro confessa, non posse improbum ease, cui curæ esset Regig dignitas et nnimanun salus. silean t ergo perditæ haereticorum voces clamantium, a societate in principes simrios armari; cum hic Jesuita, hostium etiam confessione, longe ab eo fuerit consiiio." Ejus sunt, Excerpta ex SS. Patribus. In primam partem D. Thomas. Lib. I. Theologia Scholastica contra Sectafios. De legitimol Jacobi VI. scotiæ Regis, titulo ad Regni Anglicani successionem. Qua librm Levanli acriptai m pniculum mail, extra omnea Regi; Hhpaniw ditiorm nleguhu: Pro hispani vero in idem regni-m jure, scripta-t Roberta: Penoniur, Jmn‘tu Anglia:Casus Conscientia obiit Lugduni Galliarum, MncxvL Multis annis Collegium Lovanii Scotorum rexit .

Link (here) to Life of the Admirable Crichton.

Ambrose Hogan who teaches education and writes film reviews for British Jesuits ThinkingFaith.org gives a positive review of the morally repugnant film Behind the Candelabra 

Fr. Clarence Gallagher, S.J. "Possibly The Most Outstanding British Jesuit Of His Generation"

Fr. Clarence Gallagher, S.J. with Pope John Paul II

A PRIEST from Mossend who once hosted regular working lunches for Pope John Paul II has died aged 83 after a period of ill health. Fr Clarence Gallagher SJ was described by one Vatican observer as ‘possibly the most outstanding British Jesuit of his generation’ A former pupil of Holy Family Primary School and Our Lady’s High School, Motherwell, Fr Clarence had for some years lived at the Corpus Christi Jesuit retirement community in Boscombe, near Bournemouth. His funeral mass was celebrated there and a memorial service will be held at Holy Family Church in Mossend on Monday, June 3, at 7pm. Fr Gallagher’s sister, Mary, a retired doctor, still lives in Mossend. Fr Clarence studied for the priesthood in Rome, but rather than be ordained for the new Diocese of Motherwell in 1948 he joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) after completing a three-year course in philosophy. Later he took degrees in classics and education at Oxford before, aged 33, being ordained a Jesuit priest. He then studied the church’s Canon Law, excelling in the subject and teaching it in Rome. During a spell back in Scotland, he was parish priest at St Aloysius in Glasgow, headmaster at the Jesuits College and a judge in the Scottish National Marriage Tribunal.

In 1985 Fr Gallagher was recalled to Rome and appointed lecturer in Canon Law at the Pontifical Oriental Institute which involved working with the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches which were then in full communion with Rome.

In 1990 Pope John Paul II named him rector of the institute. The following year Fr Gallagher founded Centro Aletti, a centre for study and research aligned with the mission of the Society of Jesus at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. It was for scholars and artists with a Christian perspective from Central and Eastern Europe, giving them the chance to meet with their Western colleagues. Its aim, in Pope John Paul II’s words at the official opening, is to ‘create privileged opportunities for meetings and exchanges on the subject of Christianity in East Europe’. Working lunches involving the pope were a regular occurrence at this time. Fr Gallagher was principal adviser to the Vatican’s team of prelates during fruitful negotiations with the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church on the vexed question of inter-church marriages. 

After his five-year stint as rector of the POI, he moved to Oxford and began teaching Roman Catholic Canon Law at Heythrop College, part of the University of London. He then wrote an acclaimed book ‘Church Law and Church Order in Rome and Byzantium: A Comparative Study’.

In 1998 Fr Clarence declined Rome’s invitation to head a visitation of the Catholic Churches in India. However, he was in a delegation to Bulgaria ahead of Pope John Paul II’s successful visit to the former communist country.

Link (here) to Motherwell Times

Catholics Seem To Have Forgotten How Greatly The Protestants Feared The Jesuits

Hammer of Heretics

John Donne, as Protestant controversialist, singled out the Jesuits for special opposition in Ignatius His Conclave. Now that the religious controversies of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation are largely submerged in an ocean of indifference, even Catholics seem to have forgotten how greatly the Protestants feared the Jesuits.   The dread of Jesuit sophistication is well expressed, in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, when Errour vomits forth literature:

Therewith she spewed out of her filthy maw
A flood of poison horrible and black,
Full of great lumps of flesh and gobbets raw
Which stunk so vilely, that it forced him slack
His grasping hold, and from her turn him back:
Her vomit full of books and papers was,
With loathly frogs and toads, which eyes did lack.

When St. Robert Southwell arrived in England in 1586, intercepted communications identified him only as Robertus.  Elizabethan authorities took the newcomer for elder Jesuit Robert Parsons—and were terrified at the very thought of the Catholic havoc he might cause.  St. Peter Canisius was feared throughout the German-speaking world as the Catholic “Hammer of Heretics.”  And he did hammer them, too.

Link (here) to Crisis Magazine to read the full article.

It Was The Same Spirituality That Had Led Campion And Sherwin To Tyburn And Francis Xavier To The Ends Of The World

At the heart of St Ignatius Spiritual Exercises is the choice between the Two Standards or Banners, one belongs to Christ, the other to the Prince of this World. Those doing the exercise must make the choice. The Church itself and its leaders, as must all Christians must make the choice which ultimately is Christ or the Devil. Now what was it Francis has said about prayer: Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil!

In his meditation of the second week of the Spiritual Exercises Saint Ignatius of Loyola presents to us "On the Two Standards" telling us we are faced with making a choice: "The one of Christ, our Commander-in-chief and Lord; the other Lucifer, mortal enemy of our human nature." Loyola places in front of us the choice of how we are going to live our lives, either for Christ or against Christ, either for good, or for evil. Why sell our soul for money, power and fame when the Lord offers us a life that's attractive and beautiful through the virtues of spiritual --and possibly in actual poverty, contempt for worldly honor and humility against pride? Poverty, whether spiritual and/or actual, obedience and humility are virtues that lead to all other virtue and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.

 I am beginning to think of Pope Francis as being rather like an old fashioned Jesuit missioner. Those who knew those two Jesuits Fr Hugh Thwaites and Fr John Edwards, both of whom died in the last few months, who I can't help thinking of as the last of the English Jesuits, might understand from them something of Pope Francis' spirituality. At their heart was the choice that they had made to stand under the standard of Christ.

They had a "stripped down" attitude to life summed up in Fr Hugh's battered old car, or Fr John's simple hitting between the eyses preaching. Both were men who were hungry for souls, who could distill the faith into a few short words, both lived it uncomprisingly themselves, both desired it to be contagious, and both were men of profound devotion (and to be honest both were devout but ghastly liturgists, Jesuits, for the most part, don't understand liturgy).

But most importantly they expected those they came in contact with to make the choice for Christ, they would encourage, speak about the sweetness and the joy of the Cross. There was nothing flabby or efete about their spirituality, it was the same spirituality that had led Edmond Campion and Bl. Ralph Sherwin to Tyburn and Francis Xavier to the ends of the world. It also led them to be despised by many of their own brethren, and to be regarded as saints by the poor they gave their lives to serve.
Link (here) to read the full piece at Fr. Ray Blake's Blog

I Tried To Show Him How It Was Out Of Step

S.G. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. and Fr. Campbell-Johnston, S.J.

Deep divisions between the conservative Argentine province of the Jesuits, for long headed by Fr Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, and other Jesuit provinces in the west, are detailed in report in today’s Tablet , the British Catholic weekly, by Fr Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ, a former provincial of the British Jesuits. Fr Michael Campbell-Johnston spent many years as a priest in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. The church there was persecuted by a western-supported military dictatorship – responsible for the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980, six Jesuits, two US nuns and many other Christian leaders. He recounts how, during a visit to the order’s social institutes in Latin America in 1977, he met Fr Bergoglio. The Argentinian had been Jesuit provincial for Argentina for four years. “At the time,” Fr Campbell- Johnston says, “there were an estimated 6,000 political prisoners in Argentina and another 20,000 desaparecidos , people who had been ‘disappeared’.” In some countries, the Jesuit social institutes were forced to act underground and in secrecy, he writes, “ but . . . our institute in Buenos Aires was able to function freely because it never criticised or opposed the government. As a result, there were justice issues it could not address or even mention. 

This was the topic I remembered discussing at length with Fr Bergoglio. “He naturally defended the existing situation, though I tried to show him how it was out of step with our other social institutes on the continent. Our discussion was lengthy . . . [but] we never reached an agreement.”  

Back in Rome, Fr Campbell- Johnston says he received a copy of a letter to the pope signed by more than 400 Argentinian women who had “lost” children or other relatives and who begged the Vatican to intercede with the military dictatorship. “I took it into the [Vatican] secretariat of state but never received any acknowledgement,” Fr Campbell-Johnston reports.

Link (here) to The Tablet

It Does Not Feel Like A Victory For This Party Or That

Easter 2013

I observe from all over the world an extraordinary upsurge of optimism about the Church in its present (admittedly tricky) situation; several people, including one very senior religious sister, have said to me, by e-mail or telephone or in conversation, that they are feeling better about the Church than they have done for years. This is a very good indicator of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Anyone who tries to predict what shape Francis’ papacy is going to take is bound (like all those who so confidently predicted the outcome of the conclave) to end up looking stupid, so I am not going to do that.

The best thing about the present moment is that it does not feel like a victory for this party or that; instead it has the fresh and joyful unexpectedness that is the sign that the Holy Spirit has been at work. Let me conclude, therefore, by simply asking for the prayers of all readers, not just Catholic, nor just Christian, for the new adventure on which we are beginning. And even if you think that you may be atheist, I would still ask that you spare a thought for Francis I. We live in a world that is very closely linked, and the Bishop of Rome can influence that world very much for the better, if he will listen to the voice of God and to the voice of the poor. This is a very happy day for us all.

Link (here) to the full piece at Thinking Faith by Fr. Nicholas King, S.J.

Jesuit At St. Beuno's, ".....And For Our Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict The, Uh, 16th, Lord Help Us.”

In April 2005 a group of Jesuits were celebrating mass at St. Beuno’s, an Ignatian spirituality center in Wales, literally while crowds at the Vatican were waiting to see who would be the new pope, up on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Of course, near the end of the Liturgy of the Word, the celebrant priest at St. Beuno’s would have to pray for the pope. But on this day, the celebrant didn’t know which pope he was going to pray for. So he had an assistant wait outside the chapel, watching the Vatican coverage live on TV. The assistant was planning to alert the priest, during the mass, of the new pope’s name, as soon as he appeared on the balcony. So, indeed, at some point early in the liturgy, the assistant tiptoed into the chapel with a little folded note bearing the name of the new pope. 

The celebrant stopped and opened the note. Then his face went pale, and he closed it. When he finally got to the intercessory prayers, he grumbled, “…and for our Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict the, uh, [looking down at the note] 16th, Lord help us.”

Like the new pope, Francis I, many Jesuits are “conservative”, as some Americans understand the term, on social and gender issues like contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, and the ordination of women. But many Jesuits are liberal. Some are very liberal. One was sanctioned by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in  for saying mass with a Roman Catholic Womanpriest. 

Many Jesuits backed liberation theology, which led Pope John Paul II in 1982 to appoint a staunch conservative in charge of the order. All of this raises the question: what do Jesuits actually think about the new pope? Not what do they say — because publicly, few of them say anything but praise — but what is being whispered, at St. Beuno’s, behind monastery walls, in university corridors — anywhere the Jesuits have confidentiality? 

Well, why not ask one? Certainly, some Jesuit could give us a general idea. So, I called some media offices to try to get an interview with a Jesuit who would speak candidly about what his colleagues really think about Pope Francis. No takers. Why not? Well, a friend of mine had a theory: “if they do they lose their pension, housing, insurance… everything they vowed away at age 16 or so….” That may or may not be true. It could also be the case that no Jesuit is critical of the new pope.

Link (here) to Association of Catholic Priests

Fr John Edwards, S.J. On The Assumption Of Our Lady

The definition of the Assumption in 1950 caused some dismay. As I recall, Protestants were angry because it wasn’t in Scripture. The Archbishop of York, standing beneath his cathedral’s 600 year old Assumption roof-boss, deplored it as an innovation. The position of the Orthodox was more nuanced: they believed it, of course, but were furious that the Pope had defined it. Decades later, earnest Catholics were wont to lament it as the regrettable climax of a sad period of outdated and retrograde Mariology (they didn’t know JPII was coming soon). So what do we believe? 

 “The Immaculate Mother of God, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.” 

Why do we believe it? Briefly, because the Church tells us, and what the Church teaches from revelation. God teaches. (“O my God I believe in you and all your Church teaches, because you have said it and your word is true”.) What the Church teaches, notice; not the best guess of every theologian. If you have a New Testament handy, look up Mt 16:17-19 and Mt 28:18-20. But what about Scripture? Briefly, the Church thinks that Scripture, rightly understood, teaches that Mary was immaculately conceived, and that the Assumption would follow. That totally sinless body would not be allowed by her Son to be undeservedly disfigured by decay or any touch of Satan’s work. Notice in passing that the only reason we believe Scripture tells the truth is because the Church says so. It is the Church which is the “pillar and foundation upon which the truth rests” (1 Tim 3 15); it is the Church which wrote the New Testament, selected the contents, edited it and tells us how to handle it. Problems from science? We say a “body” (matter) is “in” (a place) “heaven”. Are we not involved in insoluble mysteries? Well, yes, we are. These are the same puzzles we have about the Resurrection – and still more about the Blessed Sacrament. But the puzzles are because we do not understand matter, not because we believe in fairy stories. Finally, what does the Assumption mean? It means joy, beauty, reward, bounty, the masterpiece of creation… 

For Jesus, it means that His human love is able to be given totally; for Our Lady, that she can humanly and totally respond to Him. (In heaven there is adoration for our Lord not just by spirits – angels and the saints – but by a real human being with a body). Mary has the reward so richly deserved by her total love. 

We’re glad for Jesus’s sake, for Mary’s, for the angels and saints who rejoice in their good. And we’re glad for our sake, too: what she has we will have one day – she is our Mother.

Link (here) to The Herald to read the full article by Fr. John Edwards, S.J.

“Perfect End To A Very Fine Jesuit Vocation”.

Fr. Andrew Cameron-Mowat, S.J. parish priest at Farm Street church in London, said: “Fr John Edwards, S.J. was greatly loved by an enormous number of people. His dynamic preaching and his mission work will live long in the memory of all who met him. He brought numerous people into the Church." “In my short time so far as parish priest it was a blessing to have his presence at daily Mass in the church, and to receive his frequent words of support and encouragement. He was a remarkable example of a faithful and compassionate priest and a generous companion of Jesus. We will all miss him very much, but rejoice that he is now in the arms of our Blessed Lord. May he rest in peace.” A priest for 49 years, and a member of the Jesuit Community at Mount St for 32 years, Fr Edwards was known to be an excellent confessor who was very successful in encouraging people to attend Confession. He was also a devoted advocate of the practice of receiving indulgences. Fr Anthony Symondson, S.J a fellow Jesuit priest and a friend of Fr Edwards, said his death was a “perfect end to a very fine Jesuit vocation”.

He said:  

“He had a very attractive personality in the sense that people warmed to him. Most of his life, since about 1972, was spent trudging around the country in mission, to large churches and small churches, well-known and obscure churches. His missions took a week and ended with an appeal, and he knew how successful he was by the by the amount of money raised.”  

He continued: “John was a holy man, a wonderful confessor. He regularly gave his Confession, he preached brilliantly, and he made the faith something worth believing in. He had a great effect on individual people, he was delightful company and most of all a Jesuit priest.” After Fr Edwards was diagnosed with lung cancer, Fr Symondson said that he had described it as “a gift from God”.

Link (here) to the full piece at The Herald

'We Have Seen His Star'

First Point

 

'We have seen His star' 

(St. Matt. ii.).

A miraculous star had appeared in the East to announce the birth of Jesus Christ. Many saw it, but three only resolved to follow it and find the new-born King. If our minds are filled with useless thoughts, if we will follow only our own way, we do not see the light God would give us, and thus we miss His grace.

Second Point. 

'We have seen His star.' 

How great was the mercy and love of God in calling these Wise Men, who were Gentiles, to behold the Messias! Gentiles were all those races and peoples on the earth who were not Jews; for the Jews were God's chosen people, and until the birth of our Lord the Jewish Church was the one true religion.

Reflect on God's goodness to you, who are in the bosom of the Catholic Church, the one true faith.

Third Point. 

'We have seen His star.'

The Wise Men, having seen the star, rose up and followed it, leaving all things they cared for behind them.

Are you willing to make sacrifices for God? In the first ages of the Church even children laid down their lives for the faith; and in all ages, as in our own, even children are often called on to 'confess Christ before men.'

How often are Catholic children sneered at or laughed at by Protestant companions! Then it is they must he brave, remembering that to them has been revealed the star of faith.

Link (here) to Ignatian Meditations for the Young

Diminishment: British Jesuits Shrink 80% In A Generation

Sacred Heart in Wimbledon

After almost 130 years, the Jesuits are to withdraw from running one of their landmark parishes as the order undertakes a review of all its apostolic work in Britain. 

The British Province of the Society of Jesus has announced that it will hand over Sacred Heart in Wimbledon, south west London, one of Britain's largest parishes with thousands attending Mass each week, to the Archdiocese of Southwark. In a letter to parishioners, Fr Dermot Preston S.J., the provincial, delivered the "very sad news" and said the decision had been taken because of the declining number of Jesuits. 

There are currently four serving the parish. Fr Preston pointed out in his letter that there were now fewer than 200 British Jesuits compared with almost 1,000 in the early 1960s. He added that the Jesuits "will need to hand over a number of our present commitments to other ministers" in the future and that Sacred Heart is our "strongest and most mature parish".

Link (here) to The Tablet

The Jesuits' Residence Ransacked

King Charles the First

The Jesuits’ prudence did not save them, for their residence and oratory were ransacked the next day. The riot was duly reported to the King. In a few days an order was issued, commanding that the house should be demolished where the archbishop and mayor had received such an affront. Many religious houses, chiefly of the Franciscan Order, which by their retired situation had hitherto been saved from destruction, were now plundered and their inmates driven out. For four years the rule of the Lords Justices continued. Once they were rebuked by the King for over-zeal ; but he soon repented of the short respite, and ordered the laws to be still more strictly enforced against recusants. Charles, in the meantime, had summoned a third Parliament. Instead of obtaining the supplies he needed, he was called on to accept the Petition of Right; by which it was declared that no forced loans should be demanded, no taxes imposed without the consent of Parliament. Other grievances, religious and political, were discussed, and a motion was made for their redress. This the Speaker refused to put from the chair. In a few days Parliament was once more dissolved ; and a proclamation was issued, stating that the King intended in future to govern without parliaments. A few months before, Buckingham fell by the hand of the assassin, Felton. Laud and Wentworth were chosen to take his place and to guide the royal councils. Thomas Wentworth, better known in history by his later title of Lord Strafford, was born in 1593. His ancestors had held the estate of Wentworth Woodhouse from the days of the Saxons, and in later times not a few had filled some of the highest olfices in the State. In his youth he was carefully taught all the accomplishments suited to his rank. At Oxford, besides the usual course of study, he read with attention the best authors ancient and modern; and later he studied the great principles of law and the details of the management of an army. At the age of twenty-one, by his father’s death, he entered on the possession of the family estates. In the early part of Charles’ reign he did not enjoy the royal favour. 

Link (here) to The Irish Monthly.

The Amazing Fr. Hugh Thwaites, S.J.

One of England’s best-loved priests will celebrate his 95th birthday on July 21. Known for his bright smile and infectious missionary spirit, Fr Hugh Thwaites is a symbol of what one priest’s unflagging commitment to evangelisation can achieve.

Fr Hugh knows what it is to convert to Catholicism. He converted from Anglicanism when he was a passenger aboard a troop ship bound for Singapore during World War II. He spent three punishing years as a Japanese prisoner of war, which gave him insight into human nature. “To see men in such extreme conditions is to see the very roots of their character,” he has said. In order to survive in the prison camp Fr Hugh sold his watch. After the war he was ordained a Jesuit.

The zeal of the convert has never left Fr Hugh and he first asks new people he meets: “Are you a Catholic?” If they reply “no” then he asks: “But you would like to be, wouldn’t you?” Fr Hugh is a champion of the Legion of Mary, an ardent supporter of the Extraordinary Form and renowned for his tenacity in spreading devotion to the rosary. In his startling booklet, Our Glorious Faith and How to Lose It, Fr Hugh links the abandonment of the rosary with losing the faith. He explains that Our Lady has asked us to say the rosary. “If we want in any way to be like Jesus,” he says, “we must do what His Mother asks. If we do not, can we expect things to go right? We cannot with impunity disobey the Mother of God.” Fr Hugh may be advanced in years and describes himself as “living on the edge of eternity”. But his many talks are available online and blogs are buzzing with lively discussions about how he brought new people into the Church.

Link (here) to read about ten amazing priests at The Catholic Herald

Fr. Bernard Basset, S.J. On The Council Of Nicea

The Nicean Creed in Greek

The year 325 is accepted without hesitation as that of the First Council of Nicaea. There is less agreement among our early authorities as to the month and day of the opening. In order to reconcile the indications furnished by Socrates and by the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, this date may, perhaps, be taken as 20 May, and that of the drawing up of the symbol as 19 June. It may be assumed without too great hardihood that the synod, having been convoked for 20 May, in the absence of the emperor held meetings of a less solemn character until 14 June, when after the emperor's arrival, the sessions properly so called began, the symbol being formulated on 19 June, after which various matters - the paschal controversy, etc. - were dealt with, and the sessions came to an end 25 August. The Council was opened by Constantine with the greatest solemnity. The emperor waited until all the bishops had taken their seats before making his entry. He was clad in gold and covered with precious stones in the fashion of an Oriental sovereign. A chair of gold had been made ready for him, and when he had taken his place the bishops seated themselves. After he had been addressed in a hurried allocution, the emperor made an address in Latin, expressing his will that religious peace should be re-established. He had opened the session as honorary president, and he had assisted at the subsequent sessions, but the direction of the theological discussions was abandoned, as was fitting, to the ecclesiastical leaders of the council. The actual president seems to have been Hosius of Cordova, assisted by the pope's legates, Victor and Vincentius. (here)

Listen (here part 1) and (here part 2) to a wonderful reflection on the history leading up to the First Council of Nicea by Fr. Bernard Basset, S.J.,

Jesuit On The Nuns

American Nuns

SISTERS ALL THE WORLD OVER face a time of crisis, a fact clearly observable in America. A change of religious dress may seem a trivial trial to those outside the cloister: it causes great pain to sisters who have served God faithfully for many years, In one congregation, suggested styles and samples of fabric have been circulating since 1963. This particular Order will vote on its new dress, others are commanded from on high. The question is asked in whispers whether curial officials really know much about sisters or the religious life? Again, so many American nuns today carry theological diplomas in their wallets; they know as much about Catechism as the parish priest Yet when a sister told her First Communion class to masticate the Host, the pastor rebuked her and sent the curate to contradict her "before the kids". Inside the convents, too, there are certain irritations. While some sisters are often away at summer schools and conventions, others at home are washing the dishes. They day has gone when any priest may be used as a retreat director; the day is fast approaching when sisters will give their own retreats themselves.

Link (here) to The Catholic Herald to read Fr. Bernard Basset, S.J. 

Fr Bernard Basset, SJ was one of the best known and loved English Jesuits of the 1950s to the 1960s. Academically very able he, like Plater and Martindale before him, found the intellectual apostolate not his real calling. From the 1950s, he saw that this was to help the ordinary laity to better understand and live their faith. This he did, through the lay apostolate, in the Sodality and Cell movements, through parish work and as author, organizer, journalist and expert on the things of God - surrounded by the laughter and love of his friends. A true son of Ignatius,

Fr Frederick Coppleston, S.J. On Nietzsche

“Nietzsche tends to make the choice between theism, especially Christian theism, and atheism a matter of taste or instinct…Belief is a sign of weakness, cowardice, decadence, a no-saying attitude to life. True, Nietzsche attempts a sketch of the origins of the idea of God. And he cheerfully commits the genetic fallacy, maintaining that when it has been shown how the idea of God could have originated, any disproof of God’s existence becomes superfluous. He also occasionally alludes to theoretical objections against belief in God. But, generally speaking, the illusory character of this belief is assumed. And the decisive motive for its rejection is that man (or Nietzsche himself) may take the place of God as legislator and creator of values. Considered as a purely theoretical attack, Nietzsche’s condemnation of theism in general and of Christianity in particular is worth very little.”

Link (here) to Ignitum Today

Fr Frederick Coppleston, S.J. (here) and (here)

Mass Of Celebration For The Re-opening Of St Peter’s Church

Stonyhurst College in Lancashire celebrated the re-opening of its church, St Peter’s, last month, after its year-long closure for extensive restoration and conservation work. A congregation of 900 pupils, parents, staff and alumni from Stonyhurst College attended a Mass of Celebration for the re-opening of St Peter’s church. The principal celebrant was Fr Dermot Preston S.J., Provincial of the Jesuits in Britain. The choir sang Vivaldi’s Gloria, accompanied by the Stonyhurst Orchestra, which also played the opening hymn, Vaughan Williams’s arrangement of “All creatures that on earth do dwell”. The head boy, head girl and headmaster read the readings and pupils of all ages read the bidding prayers. St Peter’s is a Grade I listed building constructed by the Jesuits for Stonyhurst and its parish in the early 1830s. One of the first Catholic churches to be built after Emancipation in 1829, it is an important example of church architecture in the Gothic Revival Perpendicular style. Masons have replaced large expanses of stone eroded by wind and rain. Stained-glass windows have been re-leaded and cleaned. Stencilling from the 1850s and 1950s, previously covered by whitewash, has been painstakingly re-painted, and the magnificent ceiling has been restored.
Link (here) to The Catholic Herald

John Gerard Hunted Jesuit

Tower of London

Truth is stranger than fiction. And nowhere in literature is it so apparent as in this classic work, the Autobiography of a Hunted Priest. This autobiography of a Jesuit priest in Elizabethan England is a most remarkable document and John Gerard, its author, a most remarkable priest in a time when to be a Catholic in England courted imprisonment and torture; to be a priest was treason by act of Parliament.

Smuggled into England after his ordination and dumped on a Norfolk beach at night, Fr. Gerard disguised himself as a country gentleman and traveled about the country saying Mass, preaching and ministering to the faithful in secret - always in constant danger. The houses in which he found shelter were frequently raided by "priest hunters"; priest-holes, hide-outs and hair-breadth escapes were part of his daily life. He was finally caught and imprisoned, and later removed to the infamous Tower of London where he was brutally tortured.

The stirring account of his escape, by means of a rope thrown across the moat, is a daring and magnificent climax to a true story which, for sheer narrative power and interest, far exceeds any fiction. Here is an accurate and compelling picture of England when Catholics were denied their freedom to worship and endured vicious persecution and often martyrdom.

Link (here) to Insight Scoop